Can it be summarised as follows for someone interested in technical cameras?
1. There are Rodenstock lenses with X-shutter, but they only work with Phase One backs.
2. Phase one backs have nice features such as frame averaging, but have poor batteries, LCD displays and rarely receive software updates.
3. The Phase One XT camera has too little shift possibilities (+/-12mm). Tilt only possible with special expensive X-Shutter lenses.
4. If you don't use a Phase One Back, you are left with Rodenstock lenses without a built-in shutter, as the Copal shutter will never be produced again. However, the alternative electronic shutter causes distortions with moving objects due to the slow readout speed.
5. Even when using a BSI sensor such as a Phase One IQ4150 or a Hasselblad CFV-100c, a second shot must always be taken after the actual shot in order to remove the color cast in post processing.
6. The vaunted global shutter with very fast readout speed is not in sight. Previous solutions lead to a reduction in DR.
To summarise, I would say: Why do we want to torment ourselves with such disadvantages? Should we just wait and see?
George, I would only add a few things.
2. Phase one backs have nice features such as frame averaging, but have poor batteries, LCD displays and rarely receive software updates.
I wouldn't call the LCD display of the IQ4 poor, I find it usable, but it does not match the newer state of the art displays of say, the Hasselblad CFV 100c. And I would not agree that Phase One rarely provides software updates, if you look at the number of updates they have offered for the IQ4 or the XF camera, it is at least as much as almost any other camera manufacturer, or digital back manufacturer (Hasselblad, for instance) has offered. Most offer 2-3 updates over the life of a camera, and Phase One has certainly done that (and more). There is a perception that
it has been a while, due to the amount of time the IQ4 and XF camera have been on the market, longer than most competitive camera systems.
3. The Phase One XT camera has too little shift possibilities (+/-12mm). Tilt only possible with special expensive X-Shutter lenses.
The tilt on the Phase One X Shutter lenses is 3º or 5º each way (+/- 6º or +/- 10º). No tech camera system offers more than +/- 10º other than Cambo or Alpa, and then only if you stack tilt spacers. Also, in addition to the XT lenses, Cambo lenses in X Shutter can also be used on the XT (with a connecting cable) and the Cambo lenses add a swing option to their tilt within the same capture, at the same axis, the only tech camera manufacturer to offer this.
To summarise, I would say: Why do we want to torment ourselves with such disadvantages? Should we just wait and see?
My answer to why would be that I don't see these disadvantages as torment. To do so I would have to focus on them instead of focusing on the very positive aspects of a Digital Back + X/Y tech camera system and think of all the wonderful photographs I could capture with that system instead of waiting and hoping for something that solves some of the challenges. I realize this perspective is a bit subjective, but I don't like the idea of waiting on better technology instead of using available equipment at this level to take great photographs. If a solution to some of the shortcomings was around the corner, perhaps, but that is not the case here.
Steve Hendrix/CI
but the system works. And will produce rather spectacular results. It’s just cumbersome and not user friendly.
