Audii-Dudii
Active member
The majority of my photography is now done at night, using ambient light and longish exposures (typically 13-30 seconds at f5.6 and ISO 100), and I convert the majority of my images to B&W.
I am presently photographing with several m4/3 bodies and a pair of Olympus 4/3 f2 zooms, as well as a couple of other lenses, and frankly, the results I’m achieving with them are quite a bit better than I had expected.
Nothing is perfect, though, and my issue is that prior to switching to digital, I was using an 8x10 and I miss the resolution I routinely achieved as well as the ability to make large prints (12x16 is about as large as I can print from my m4/3 files and still be happy).
So I’ve started investigating alternatives. A friend has a previous generation 33MP Leaf Aptus back (not sure of the model number) and while it does a great job in daylight with short exposures, with dim light and longer exposures (i.e., anything over 1-2 seconds), its images are unacceptably noisy, so I suspect it will be absolutely horrible in this regard for out-and-out night photography. Other than his Leaf, though, I have very little experience with the last few generations of digital backs, so I am curious as to the state of the art that is available on the used market these days.
Assuming I have a budget of no more than $10k, are there any digital backs that can be bought used in this price range that will perform well for my purposes? My gut feel is that I’m probably better off going with one of the big 35mm DSLRs instead, especially as I like to compose with Live View, but I don’t like the 3:2 format at all and I would then be throwing away pixels when cropping back to the 4:3 format. And although I don’t use my view cameras much, it would be a plus if the back can be readily (and inexpensively … Yes, I know) adapted for use on a Toyo 23G or 45G.
Thanks for any input or advice you can offer me!
I am presently photographing with several m4/3 bodies and a pair of Olympus 4/3 f2 zooms, as well as a couple of other lenses, and frankly, the results I’m achieving with them are quite a bit better than I had expected.
Nothing is perfect, though, and my issue is that prior to switching to digital, I was using an 8x10 and I miss the resolution I routinely achieved as well as the ability to make large prints (12x16 is about as large as I can print from my m4/3 files and still be happy).
So I’ve started investigating alternatives. A friend has a previous generation 33MP Leaf Aptus back (not sure of the model number) and while it does a great job in daylight with short exposures, with dim light and longer exposures (i.e., anything over 1-2 seconds), its images are unacceptably noisy, so I suspect it will be absolutely horrible in this regard for out-and-out night photography. Other than his Leaf, though, I have very little experience with the last few generations of digital backs, so I am curious as to the state of the art that is available on the used market these days.
Assuming I have a budget of no more than $10k, are there any digital backs that can be bought used in this price range that will perform well for my purposes? My gut feel is that I’m probably better off going with one of the big 35mm DSLRs instead, especially as I like to compose with Live View, but I don’t like the 3:2 format at all and I would then be throwing away pixels when cropping back to the 4:3 format. And although I don’t use my view cameras much, it would be a plus if the back can be readily (and inexpensively … Yes, I know) adapted for use on a Toyo 23G or 45G.
Thanks for any input or advice you can offer me!