Guy Mancuso
Administrator, Instructor
What one thing i have noticed immediately with MF is the lack of DOF coming from crop sensors and the bokeh produced from it is quite outstanding. You no longer need 1.4 lenses although that would be fun but what i am finding and this brings back memories from shooting Hassy and film years ago is that nice falloff you get in MF. Something about it just is completely different than anything else in smaller formats . Yes you can great bokeh and falloff but what i think I am seeing more is the more gradual tone. Than again i could be having a flash back, who knows . But i know one thing even a cheap lens like the Mamiya 150 3.5 does amazingly well here. i shot this at 3.5 handheld at 1/80. Now as I play more with this system i am really getting it with regards to handling. Folks this is just a weird size DMR for me with a much bigger file and viewfinder. It honestly is no different and feel very confident I can shoot almost anything with it. I guess it has been so long since i shot medium format i forgot how easily it is to handle. Okay my lenses are pretty light and small but still it just fits me really nice. One thing to that credit is i rigged up a hand strap to it and i am a hand strap freak. Another strange thing is my ability to hand hold this well. i don't know what it is but I am pretty deadly to 1/30 of a second , ow the M8 i do better but i was expecting i really need to get on a tripod all the time. Not my favorite thing in the world but i can still nail stuff at slow speeds. My only biggest issue is review the ZD is a 4 to 5 second wait on review , slow let's face it but here is the thing if you forget about that and just shoot than you never notice it and it is pretty darn fast.
Now the ergonomics are a little odd for me and I will get the Mamiya AFD III when it comes out since it looks like they smoothed the front side down a little. I have short fingers so the reach is sometime tough but anyway I am just rambling here on m feelings but i am really digging this . The files are awesome and may not always need that punch but it's there for me. Some of the things I am seeing and i have been in digital since the beginning is the Macro detail and Micro detail plus the DR in these images i have not seen before in smaller formats. Don't get me wrong i loved the DMR and the M8 and there pretty close but this is another step up and frankly just :cussing: thrilled at what I am seeing so far. i also notice some vignetting that seems pretty natural and maybe because i am wide open here but even stopped down i am seeing more 3d looking. maybe I'm nuts but there is something different here i really like. Just my Friday afternoon observations.
Oh and here is Drake my bokeh test dog. LOL
Now the ergonomics are a little odd for me and I will get the Mamiya AFD III when it comes out since it looks like they smoothed the front side down a little. I have short fingers so the reach is sometime tough but anyway I am just rambling here on m feelings but i am really digging this . The files are awesome and may not always need that punch but it's there for me. Some of the things I am seeing and i have been in digital since the beginning is the Macro detail and Micro detail plus the DR in these images i have not seen before in smaller formats. Don't get me wrong i loved the DMR and the M8 and there pretty close but this is another step up and frankly just :cussing: thrilled at what I am seeing so far. i also notice some vignetting that seems pretty natural and maybe because i am wide open here but even stopped down i am seeing more 3d looking. maybe I'm nuts but there is something different here i really like. Just my Friday afternoon observations.
Oh and here is Drake my bokeh test dog. LOL