About ten days ago a project came up that required extremely high resolution very large prints. We rented a Phase One body ( this is what used to be known as the Mamiya 645D), an 80mm f/2.8D lens and a 39mp Phase One P45+ back. We also brought along two well tuned Canon 5D Mark II systems. All the cameras were used with heavy weight tripods, heads and cable releases.
To be polite about about it, in terms of sheer image quality, once set up properly, the Phase One P45+ simply skunked the Canons - -and it would have done the same to Nikon D3X files as well. The difference was shocking.
The Phase One 45+ produced iamges which captured a level of detail 8x10 film examined with a a high quality 4X or 6X loupe would be very hard pressed to match. I've shot a pretty fair amount of 4x5 and 8x10 film and I am basing this comment on that experience
Bu there are some caveats. Most of them will be familiar to anyone who ever used a view camera extensively.
The biggest one is that as Joseph Holmes noted in his articles that I believe I provided links for earlier, the camera and the back have to be very carefully calibrated to each other. Where the camera's AF system, viewfinder and lens marking thought infinity was was incorrect for this specific camera body and back combination. To find focus you have to work tethered (At least until you find your focus point and tape the lens very solidly so that it doesn't slip).
Of course if you have a good dealer you should work with them to discover if this is a problem with the set up you are buying and if so, to resolve this problem if you are purchasing or leasing your camera.
The camera has a lot of vibration from the mirror coming up so even at relatively short shutter speeds like 1/250 and 1/400th it is prudent to use a standard cable release to first lock the mirror up and use the electronic cable release a couple of seconds later to make the exposure. This is probably not necessary in most studio shooting situations.
And as with any camera system, not all lenses are equal. The rental agency specifically singled out the 80mm f/2.8D lens as being extremely good.
Medium format digital cameras are simply not as versatile as 35mm SLR based DSLRs. They do not handle as fast, and they do not have the lens range. The body we used burned through AA batteries. However the back, which has it's own battery, didn't.
These are the advantages I see of certain 35mm based DSLRs over a medium format system:
Even compared to a Canon EOS-1Ds MArk III and Nikon D3X these systems are not cheap.
There is alot to be said for integratign the digital imaging sections of the camera with the rest of the camera body, especially if it (like the nikon D3X, D3, D700 and D300, and Cannon EOS-1D Mark 3, 5D Mark 2, 1Ds Mark 3 bodies) has an autofocus fine tune adjust feature.
With a medium format back the sensitivity (ISO) range is not as large - -in fact you really want to keep it in the ISO 50-200 range, preferably at IS0 100.
Your workable exposure range doesn't extend much past 2 seconds before the noise to signal ratio becomes an image quality factor.
Finally not all photos need this high of quality, in fact I suspect that even for high end commercial, architectural, product, and magazine photographers very few projects actually require it.
To be polite about about it, in terms of sheer image quality, once set up properly, the Phase One P45+ simply skunked the Canons - -and it would have done the same to Nikon D3X files as well. The difference was shocking.
The Phase One 45+ produced iamges which captured a level of detail 8x10 film examined with a a high quality 4X or 6X loupe would be very hard pressed to match. I've shot a pretty fair amount of 4x5 and 8x10 film and I am basing this comment on that experience
Bu there are some caveats. Most of them will be familiar to anyone who ever used a view camera extensively.
The biggest one is that as Joseph Holmes noted in his articles that I believe I provided links for earlier, the camera and the back have to be very carefully calibrated to each other. Where the camera's AF system, viewfinder and lens marking thought infinity was was incorrect for this specific camera body and back combination. To find focus you have to work tethered (At least until you find your focus point and tape the lens very solidly so that it doesn't slip).
Of course if you have a good dealer you should work with them to discover if this is a problem with the set up you are buying and if so, to resolve this problem if you are purchasing or leasing your camera.
The camera has a lot of vibration from the mirror coming up so even at relatively short shutter speeds like 1/250 and 1/400th it is prudent to use a standard cable release to first lock the mirror up and use the electronic cable release a couple of seconds later to make the exposure. This is probably not necessary in most studio shooting situations.
And as with any camera system, not all lenses are equal. The rental agency specifically singled out the 80mm f/2.8D lens as being extremely good.
Medium format digital cameras are simply not as versatile as 35mm SLR based DSLRs. They do not handle as fast, and they do not have the lens range. The body we used burned through AA batteries. However the back, which has it's own battery, didn't.
These are the advantages I see of certain 35mm based DSLRs over a medium format system:
Even compared to a Canon EOS-1Ds MArk III and Nikon D3X these systems are not cheap.
There is alot to be said for integratign the digital imaging sections of the camera with the rest of the camera body, especially if it (like the nikon D3X, D3, D700 and D300, and Cannon EOS-1D Mark 3, 5D Mark 2, 1Ds Mark 3 bodies) has an autofocus fine tune adjust feature.
With a medium format back the sensitivity (ISO) range is not as large - -in fact you really want to keep it in the ISO 50-200 range, preferably at IS0 100.
Your workable exposure range doesn't extend much past 2 seconds before the noise to signal ratio becomes an image quality factor.
Finally not all photos need this high of quality, in fact I suspect that even for high end commercial, architectural, product, and magazine photographers very few projects actually require it.
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