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Jewelry Photography - Used P65+ or Nikon?

Egor

Member
Hi Vichiline,
I will contact you later today. Are you in Hamilton? st. Catherine's? I know the area well.
Anyway, I did go with he Phase DF body and am getting a handle on t,he Leaf back, with DT's help. Not anything close to the production ease of the Canons, but the quality of file is out of this world. :)
 

Egor

Member
Antonio, Thanks! That looks promising, I will try it. I also like their USB - Cat6 Ethernet solution for longer than 16ft
 

dougpeterson

Workshop Member
I want a system that can expand ideally, and one that should give me optimum quality for my macro, and jewelry fashion photography needs.
That's the most important aspect to me for someone running a long-term analysis for equipment discussions.

A dSLR of any ilk is a relatively fixed thing. That is to say if you buy a 65+ and a DF now and want to expand the system in the future you have an entire world into which to expand. View cameras, tech cameras, Phase/Mamiya lenses, Hasselblad 200 and 500 series lenses, upgrading your back (but keeping the rest of your equipment and workflow untouched).

The 120mm TS for the Phase platform is something to consider. I recently shot a collection of Audemars Piguet watches using that lens with extension tubes and was extremely impressed by the image quality. The movements, while limited compared to a full view camera, were more than enough for what I needed. Previously I had only considered this lens suitable for "breadbox" photography (tabletop still life and product photography for items the size of a breadbox) but with the extension rings and the quality of the underlying optics it really is a great macro / jewelry lens as well.

I mention this lens because you'll already be hitting a learning curve transitioning to medium format - where diffraction starts, what magnification is required for a larger sensor, the lack of excellent live view, how much tighter technique has to be to render out 60mp worth of pixel-sharp detail etc. Adding a view camera into the mix right off the bat would be a bit much in my opinion, though a really great next step after you're feeling comfortable with medium format in SLR form.
 

dougpeterson

Workshop Member
Antonio, Thanks! That looks promising, I will try it. I also like their USB - Cat6 Ethernet solution for longer than 16ft
I would avoid like the plague any non-standard methods of transmitting tethered data. Or, in the very least I would make sure you have a quick way of switching to a standard method. A short manufacturer provided cable or a very high quality cable from a good third party (e.g. Unibrain) is the only thing I'd rely on in a professional setting.

If you need to transmit long distances I'd suggest alternative thinking like using a laptop or Mac Mini as the tethering device close to the camera, and then using a method to connect to that computer:
- screen sharing from another computer via wireless or ethernet
- having the computer run a script to copy the images from the local drive to the drive of another computer via wireless or ethernet (for various technical reasons I don't suggest tethering to a remote folder directly)
- Capture Pilot in conjunction with Capture One

But keep the camera-to-computer connection very conservative. While I've seen things like the USB-CAT-USB and FW-Hub-FW-Hub-FW-Hub solutions work they always leave me feeling less than 100% confident.
 
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