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Medium Format Digital backs and micro lenses
- Thread starter felix5616
- Start date
Guy Mancuso
Administrator, Instructor
Hassy H 31
Phase P30+ both Kodak sensors
New Backs just released with micro lenses
Hassy H40
Leica S2
They are designed to gather light for a gain in higher ISO's
Disadvantage is they can not be used on a tech camera with any tilting or shifting since you may get color shift.
That's the basic's . I found somewhat a veiling effect with the P30+ not serious it just felt like a slight haze which than I would use clarity to bump it up. Not sure that is any technical manual or even a real fact it just looked that way to me. Or maybe better said i do not see it in my P40+ files which does not have micro lenses. Obviously this is debatable but when processing I could see it.
Phase P30+ both Kodak sensors
New Backs just released with micro lenses
Hassy H40
Leica S2
They are designed to gather light for a gain in higher ISO's
Disadvantage is they can not be used on a tech camera with any tilting or shifting since you may get color shift.
That's the basic's . I found somewhat a veiling effect with the P30+ not serious it just felt like a slight haze which than I would use clarity to bump it up. Not sure that is any technical manual or even a real fact it just looked that way to me. Or maybe better said i do not see it in my P40+ files which does not have micro lenses. Obviously this is debatable but when processing I could see it.
also the P21+ and the Sinar eSprit 65LV have microlenses.
Supposedly digibacks with microlenses are also less prone to produce moire (in comparision to backs with the same pixel size).
The issue on tech cameras is actually not only color cast but heavy vignetting.
For instance the P21+ can be used on a tech camera as long as you don't use very wide lenses (e.g. the 47XL works phenomenal with the P21+... but movements are limited because the edges go black up from a certain amount of movements).
Supposedly digibacks with microlenses are also less prone to produce moire (in comparision to backs with the same pixel size).
The issue on tech cameras is actually not only color cast but heavy vignetting.
For instance the P21+ can be used on a tech camera as long as you don't use very wide lenses (e.g. the 47XL works phenomenal with the P21+... but movements are limited because the edges go black up from a certain amount of movements).
My experience is they produce a very similar effect to light AA filters, which would also explain the slight veiling Guy referred to. A bump to clarity during raw conversion seemed to clear it up nicely.
The backs with micro lenses often offer faster capture rates and higher ISO performance ... making them a bit more suited for some applications like shooting people, environmental fashion, events, and the like.
I cannot speak to all micro-lens backs but the H3D/31, H3D-II/31 and Leica S2 I have used did not exhibit any "veiling" that I could detect ... which is a new one on me. I've never heard this one at all from any user of these mentioned cameras. I will know about the H4D/40 soon enough ... but haven't noticed it in any of the RAW samples I've reviewed so far. I've not noticed anything of this type at all from the Leica M9 either, which I believe also uses microlenses.
The Hasselblad cameras with micro-lenses can be used with the HTS- 1.5 with no color shift or vignetting results.
The Micro lens backs are often crop frame sensors, which can be a disadvantage to some and not to others. Also, in the case of the Hassy micro-lens backs, the base ISO is 100 rather than 50 ... since the H cameras are Leaf Shutter systems one can run out of shutter speed in bright conditions with wide apertures where ISO 50 may have helped a bit more.
-Marc
I cannot speak to all micro-lens backs but the H3D/31, H3D-II/31 and Leica S2 I have used did not exhibit any "veiling" that I could detect ... which is a new one on me. I've never heard this one at all from any user of these mentioned cameras. I will know about the H4D/40 soon enough ... but haven't noticed it in any of the RAW samples I've reviewed so far. I've not noticed anything of this type at all from the Leica M9 either, which I believe also uses microlenses.
The Hasselblad cameras with micro-lenses can be used with the HTS- 1.5 with no color shift or vignetting results.
The Micro lens backs are often crop frame sensors, which can be a disadvantage to some and not to others. Also, in the case of the Hassy micro-lens backs, the base ISO is 100 rather than 50 ... since the H cameras are Leaf Shutter systems one can run out of shutter speed in bright conditions with wide apertures where ISO 50 may have helped a bit more.
-Marc
Guy Mancuso
Administrator, Instructor
Kind of if you went negative clarity. It's there
