IQ180 Shipping Features List

[Jack]

It's heeeeeeeeeeeeeere!!!

I totally missed the Fibonacci Spiral composition mode in the gridlines menu... And yes, it is WAYYYYY cool!!!

5 sidepanel menus, scrollable with one-touch to fill LCD: focus mask, exposure/highlight warning, histo, artificial horizon with pitch and roll and Exif panel -- and you can customize each one to your needs and of course adjust the oder they appear in.

LCD is very bright.

More in my official review in the next day or so.

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Just got off the phone with Jack and it smokes the prototype in every category when we tested it. Faster , brighter and features we did not even know about. I get to play tomorrow night with one, Can't wait.

A big congrats bud and you know i am seriously jealous.

 

[Christopher]

Don't want to say it but LV with ND sounds like crap and I have to say it: told you so!

Not even phase can make more out off crappy ccds when it comes to live view.

 

[Jack]

If live-view is a "must-have-all-the-time" tool for you then I'd agree that a CCD cam is not a good choice -- for you. Me personally, I care little about it for MF, especially with the outstanding 100% review and possibly even more useful in the field, extremely accurate (and fully adjustable) focus mask on the IQ back. More on that later

 

[cng]

More on that later

Yes please! I'm really curious about focusing and sensor casts with IQ180 + tech camera + short lens. Hmmm, IQ160 or 180? Decisions, decisions ...

 

[PeterA]

Looking forward to your review Jack.

 

[dchew]

Yes, Gareth tempered my enthusiasm for live-view months ago. I am still hoping the 100% review and focus mask are an improvement over what can can be done on GG in regards to focus accuracy.

Dave

 

[Jack]

I am still hoping the 100% review and focus mask are an improvement over what can can be done on GG in regards to focus accuracy.

Dave

I assure you that they are, and at least for me by a large margin!

 

[Jack]

Looking forward to your review Jack.

Will do my best Pete!

But first I need to grab a good selection of images. To whet your appetites, I played around this afternoon mainly hand-held exploring higher ISO's and Sensor+ --- all the news is good if not great! 20MP S+ ISO 1600 is *very* clean --- so clean I will not hesitate to use this as a walking around camera. Color is excellent so far. Stay tuned.

 

[Terry]

Congrats Jack.

As to the ND filters, I wasn't planning to focus in live view. I only really thought about it for framing.

 

[Bill Caulfeild-Browne]

I assure you that they are, and at least for me by a large margin!

I second that. The focus mask is very sensitive and I was able to "zero in" on exact focus by checking with two or three shots until I got where I wanted to be sharp. It effectively removes the combined errors that auto (or manual) focus introduces with mirror placement, GG placement or back alignment.

In other words, manufacturing tolerances are voided.

Bill

ps I was impatient before I got mine, but after the session with Claus Molgaard, I'm drooling with anticipation!

 

[Tim Ernst]

Terry - I was hoping to use live view for polarizer rotation placement. I'm hoping that with a tech camera lens stopped down as you say this would work without having to use a vari-ND - that would be really counter-productive to have to use that, although most of my light is pretty dim anyway (kind of like the photographer).

I have been wonderfully surprised that with my little Alpa and a cube-style head I don't really need any sort of framing guide and get the framing I want with only minor tweaks right off the bat by just looking over the top of the camera - the composition mode on the new back might be a plus if it is quick to turn on and off.

I find the focus mask in C1 worthless and am not counting on being able to use it on the back, but that would be a nice plus if it actually worked. Although I normally shoot at f16 and opening up and then stopping back down again would slow things down - I've been zone focussing all my life and it is quite smooth, fast, and acceptable now with the Alpa anyway.

If there was only a way to input the lens length data for tech camera use like you can with a Leaf Back.

 

[Jack]

A word on focus mask: You need to set it up properly for YOUR NEEDS to give you the readout you want. IOW, its range/tolerance is adjustable as is the mask's color, and the adjustments matter (a lot) in how one interprets a "focus zone" from it.

For example on the back -- and I'm still really new to it so these will likely change for me with more use: a setting of 20 renders a very generous range and definition of focus; OTOH, 50 renders a very thin range of focus. For me, somewhere in the 32 to 36 range seems to give a really good idea of what will look in acceptably sharp focus in a print.

More on using it in my review...

 

[narikin]

The 'super high quality ISO35' sounds more like they found that the sensor's true base ISO was 35, not 50, so decided to make that a 'feature', rather than get called out by some analysis on DXO or wherever.

Hah - told you so! - a quote from MR's review on LuLa:

"According the Claus Molgarrd these new Dalsa sensors were found to have a lower native ISO than spec. Some of them could even be rated at ISO 25, but that would be pushing the envelope on ensuring that all delivered sensors met this rigid criteria. So Phase played it safe and now rates them at ISO 35 – which rating all production backs meet"