Archive for the ‘medium format’ tag
Field Review: Shooting at a Wedding With a Mamiya 7 II and Slow Film
I love film. The Yashica Electro GSN captured my heart a while back and so did the Leica M7. Thankfully, I was recently loaned a Mamiya 7 II medium format film rangefinder with an 80mm f4 lens. Coincidentally, Kodak also was kind enough to hand me rolls of Tri-X 400 and Ektar 100 recently. Even better: a friend of mine recently got hitched. So how does the Mamiya 7 II perform while shooting handheld in extremely dim situations and with slow film?
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Phase One Announces Achromatic + Black and White Specialty Medium Format Digital Back
Those of you that love shooting medium format or in black and white will probably really want to take a good look at the new Phase One Achromatic + 39MP medium format digital back. It’s really new and interesting technology and the first commercially available medium format digital back to do what it does. With a 49.1 x 36.8 CCD sensor with no RGB filters, the camera is meant only to shoot black and white images. With ISO sensitivities of 50-800, 12 stops of dynamic range, and a 2.2″ QVGA TFT LCD with 230,000 pixels it seems pretty solid (minus the screen). More about the technology can be read here and see it in action here. The back seems very targeted towards scientific professionals. It seems to be available for $41,990.
Hands On: Pentax 645D
The other night, I got to play with the Pentax 645D—the one medium format camera that I had personally been waiting to try out for a while. Pentax was fairly popular back in the film days for medium format. Their lenses are well known as well as their bodies. Now that Pentax has entered the digital medium format stage, they have created what I would call quite the competitor and perhaps what may be the best medium format experience I have ever had of all the systems I’ve tried.
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Hands On: Leica S2
A while ago at the Leica Roadshow in NYC, the S2 was presented to all who attended. The camera, Leica’s main entry into the professional medium format space, is one that surprised all during the seminar. Being a 37.5MP beast of a camera, when one actually holds it they notice that it is actually more elegant that it is a monster. However, it does have a couple of quirks; as do most medium format cameras.
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Pentax 645D is Official
After reporting about the Pentax 645D for a little while now, it is apparently official. Not only this but there is also a 55mm F2.8 lens that has been announced too. Tech specs and main features after the jump. DPReview has more and you can see more in the respective links. Keep reading as Pentax has made some very interesting choices in the creation of these products.
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What Do You Want To See in the Pentax 645D?
With rumors of the new sensor written about the other day and with the imminent release getting closer and closer, what would you want to see in the Pentax 645D. If it’s economical, would you want to get it as a second body or perhaps your first? If it doesn’t include tethering the way that their other bodies haven’t would you mind? Do you want better autofocusing than what other medium format companies offer? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and let’s get a great discussion going.
