Super-wides in MF land

[Jack]

Image circle is the reason I decided to start with the 35.
-bob

Ditto!

 

[fotografz]

fotografz:
Are you sure the resolution increase would be noticable by significant margin? The long side of my 1DsII is 4992 pixels and the long side of Phase One P25+ is 5436 pixels, only 444 pixels more. That would make 388dpi for the P25 at 14" print and 356dpi for the 1DsII. If we look at what size we get if we print at 200dpi 1DsII gives you 25" print and the P25 would print 27". I know the gap is wider for the short side but to me it's still doubful if this is really significant, right? MF has a lot more to offer than sheer resolution but resolution is of course important to us landscape photographers. A lot of my prints go up to 40-50 inches but that's usually on canvas witch is easier on resolution.

Is there any direct comparison of the 28mm Hasselblad and 28mm Mamiya? If you have any liks to comparisons/reviews I'd be very thankful.

Best, Hrannar

Hrannar, I have had the Canon 1DsMKII, and now the 1DsMKIII. In no way does either compare to even my 16 meg MF back, let alone a 22 meg or 39 meg version.

The sensors are huge on these MF backs compared to a full frame 35mm DSLR. It's not just the amount of megapixels, it's the size of them. A 22 meg back has 9 micron pixels. The tonal gradations, detail and sense of depth is significantly improved over the Canon images.

If that weren't true, what commercial photographer would pay that kind of money for a digital back if a Canon 1DsMKII would be just as good?

 

[woodyspedden]

Charlie Cramer (http://www.charlescramer.com/ ) has been using his P45+ for quite a bit now, with no problems.

another one with the P45+.. Elizabeth Carmel ( http://www.elizabethcarmel.com/ )

I took a printing class from Charlie last year and he is a genius! He did the most rigorous analysis of MFDB in conjunction with Bill Atkinson and they both ended up with 645/P45 rigs as a result. Charlie's conclusion was that film trannies may still be a hair better than the p45 (not the plus) but the immediacy and simplicity of dealing with digital files compare to scanning trannies pushed him over the edge. I had the opportunity to compare prints he made from both media and for some I preferred the film but for most there were little differences. JMHO

Woody

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

Now that is one very cool shot!

:thumbs:

Not as cool as this one, an 18X12" of it hangs above my desk, I find it calming! Have to admit that all my pics from Iceland that made it were shot with the 70-200, just my way of shooting landscape I guess.

Seljalandsfoss

 

[Jack]

That one looks familiar Ben.

,

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

Why Jack? I got the idea from a picture shot by MR but his was radically different. I hope it's not too cliched a shot of that site, what I liked about Iceland was that there wasn't much that was cliched about it photographically.

 

[Hauxon]

Ben I love Seljalandsfoss it's great fun to walk behind it and shoot of course. The nearby Skógarfoss waterfall is also a popular stop and somewhat 'cliched'. I do not worry too much anymore if my images look like a postcard, most of the times it means I did pretty well. Familiar places put more demand on you to think about angles, light etc. It ca be incredibly hard to get unique looking images from these places but not impossible. Then like you said Iceland has plenty of great spots that are more than 100m from the highway and not much travelled by turists or locals.

Here's a shot I did for VW Sweden. Seljalandsfoss and VW Tiguan. Made with a 10 stop B&W ND filter. Not too happy with the colour from it, it's not neautral at all, at least the water looks smooth.

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

I didn't know that Hrannar, I saw the waterfall in a travel/photography report, knew what I wanted to do with it and that's what I did when I got there. Oh well, it still speaks for me and hey, at least it's not as cliched as every single photos of the American midwest! :ROTFL:

Here's another photo from near Krafla at dawn, never liked enough to do anything with it but I tried cropping it to 2:1 this morning and I think it works, needs more work this was more or less straight out of RAW with the sky burnt in.

 

[thsinar]

It works very nicely!

Thierry

... never liked enough to do anything with it but I tried cropping it to 2:1 this morning and I think it works.

 

[TimothyHyde]

Limited budget, low-light/long exposures, landscape, specialized use: sounds like you should experiment with a 903SWC and a film back to me. You can put the rig together for a lot less than $5,000 and they hold their value so you can resell it easily if it doesn't work out for you. If it does, you can add a cfv back down the road. (Make sure it's a "I" because apprently the new "II" won't work with the flex or swc.)