phase one.

I have decided to give up the fast-shooting ergonomics of 35mm and head to the slower and bulkier medium format world where image quality is paramount; speed, weight, and convenience are secondary.

My years with Canon were good, and I have a lot of great photos taken with them, but it was time to move on. The Canon lenses just aren’t up to snuff to deliver the detail needed for their new 21mp bodies, never mind the future 1DsV rumored to hit 30-40mp. Canon also has a mess with their quality control. Having to buy three and four copies of one lens to find one that is sharp and does what it should is unacceptable. The only thing I’ll miss about my Canon is the do anything versatility and durability.

In any case, I am so far very pleased with my move to the Mamiya/Phase One system. The body is a Mamiya AFDIII, with the Phase One P30+ digital back. The P30+ captures 31.6 megapixels, with 12-stops of dynamic range and true 16-bit color depth. Compared to Canon’s 8-9 stops of dynamic range, and only 14-bit color depth, the difference is significant. A MFDB (medium format digital back) also lacks an anti-aliasing (AA) filter over the sensor which increases sharpness, and the lens quality is much improved over the vast majority of 35mm format lenses.

So what does this this actually mean? It means that I have taken the technical quality of my photography to a whole new level. My images will be sharper, bigger, have better color, and have greater dynamic range. Perhaps just as important, working with a MFDB forces you to slow down, think about your composition, set things up on a tripod, double check that exposure and focus. So not only will the technical image quality aspects improve, so will the photographs themselves.

Just for fun, you should check out the “extreme” videos Phase One has posted on their site. They stick one of the backs into an oven and dry ice, and proceed to shoot with it. In another video, they park a full-size Jeep on the backs. Pretty amazing.