Phase One P65 Plus Sneak Peak

[Guy Mancuso]

Well it's in our hot grubby hands. Lance Schad from Capture Integration (and you may want to copy this down now just in case: 305 394-3196, e-mail lance-at-captureintegration.com) was kind enough to arrange with Steve Hendrix from Phase One the P65+ for us to test. What Lance did not know when he hit San Francisco to meet us that we kidnapped him and brought him to the Seirra's to test the P65 against the P25 and P45 + backs. Let's get some of the details out of the way first. Let's remember this is a pre-production back and the firmware is obviously not optimized yet for full production shipping. So think of this as a sneak peak of what is too come. At this time there are some recommended parameters such as not to use the back above ISO 100 and not to go longer than 1 minute on exposures. Some quick details the raw files are 60 mgs each and a fully processed 16 bit Tiff is roughly 360 mg file. Holy smokes batman that is one big file and my laptop is feeling the pain. LOL

We only have a few samples from today because of the weather and time permitting so tomorrow we are planning a full day of testing and also with the use of the Cambo RS 1000 and a full compliment of lenses from Schnieder and for our Phase body and a variety of Mamiya lenses.

Here is a shot I shot off the deck of Jacks cabin hand held. Shot at ISO 100 at 1/350 second at F 9.5 with my 80mm lens, processed with basic P65+ settings in C1, NO additional sharpening or processing or adjustments. Basically, what you are seeing is straight out of the camera :bugeyes:. Fair warning this is something else and credit cards will melt now. Personal attitude I AM NOT SUPPOSED TO LIKE THIS. Folks the detail is just scary and I am on a laptop no less. Full frame first than some 100 percent crops, 900 x900 pixels

 

[Guy Mancuso]

PS 2nd to last image was the very far right edge of the P65 frame. Okay starting to take orders on custom made ski masks.:ROTFL::ROTFL::ROTFL:

 

[lance_schad]

Here are couple of shots of me documenting Guy and Jack testing out the new back from my iPhone.
We were just getting started.
I think Jack was hogging the camera in this shot.
More to follow.
L

 

[Dale Allyn]

I see that Jack sets the camera and tripod up high so that no one else can see to shoot.

These are great, guys. Keep them coming.

 

[karrphoto]

I see that Jack sets the camera and tripod up high so that no one else can see to shoot.

These are great, guys. Keep them coming.

Haha. My kinda guy. I'm 6'9", so when setting up a tripod, not many other people can use it....

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Okay I can't resist posting this. Just horrible light out and shot handheld in a parking lot at ISO 100 at 1/230 of a second at F6.8 with my 80mm D lens. Now you should not be getting this kind of detail and even the color is good. BTW this does shoot 1 frame per second and you do feel the speed increase from the P25+ at 1.5 ever second

 

[Jack]

Here's the shot I was taking in Lance's cell phone shot above -- and old Chevy Grille in the weeds, full frame then 100% crop. Note that the P65+ file at native size will print to 25x19 inches at 360PPI (!!!):

 

[Jack]

Haha. My kinda guy. I'm 6'9", so when setting up a tripod, not many other people can use it....

Geeze, you and Don Libby are really big! I'd be the point guard at my measly 6'-6", 250 :ROTFL:

 

[Guy Mancuso]

What am I the freaking ball or what:ROTFL::ROTFL::ROTFL:

 

[LJL]

What am I the freaking ball or what:ROTFL::ROTFL::ROTFL:

Well, if you are the ball, at least you could revel at being in the game :ROTFL:

Another somewhat short guard at 6'4".....

LJ

 

[treynor]

Good lord, that is awfully nice. The detail, and lack of CA, are staggering.

 

[PeterA]

VERY convincing resolution here chaps.:thumbup:
Lance - the refund came through - made 35% on the currency play :ROTFL:

Good to see you guys having fun.

 

[Bob]

Looks around N37° 51.07' W 120° 11.53'
Start the search there.
-bob

 

[jeffreytotaro]

Nice to see someone else using the Arca Cube. I love that thing! Nice ear Lance!

 

[Jack]

Bob, you are close. The camera was at: 37/51/0.12 by 120/12/19.04

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Bob start saving. Love ya man but this one is going to hurt.

 

[Guy Mancuso]

FYI 16gb card 208 images on the P65, the P25 I would get 606 images in the IIQ L. Jack on his P45+ can get 359 images per 16gb card. Looks like the 32gb cards will be in order for the P65. Also C1 4.5.1 and 4.5.2 do have the P65 + profiles already in the software

 

[Bob]

Looks like I have to find a way to stuff 64GB into my mac.
-bob

 

[LJL]

Guy, Jack, and Lance,
Aside from the "you lucky dogs" comments on this, I have to say that the few images shown do show some rather impressive things for this back and right out of the camera. Since you guys are really out there to test the back and not lenses so much, it would be nice to see how things look with both that 28mm and the 150mm that Guy raves about. The interest on my part is seeing how well the DR looks with both. The opening shot taken with the 80mm does cover a lot of ground, and the crops show some very nice detail for sure. Any chance to get some shots in the shade where it would be possible to see how things resolve at the lower end of tones? It seems to be holding the mid and bright tones beautifully, with a crispness that starts to look a bit like some multi-shot things. So far, this one looks like a winner. Sometimes it is not just about the great resolution, but also about handling the tonal subtleties with all that resolution. (I make this comment as I keep seeing images from higher resolving DSLRs that seem to be losing some DR, with the darker tones looking less defined. The mid to bright tones almost always look fine, but the shadows tend to lose some of that impact. What you have posted here suggests the shadows may be holding more detail, which is great, but hard to tell from the selected crops.)

Shooting in bright, high contrast light can make for some dramatic looking shots, but shooting in more flat light or shade would be interesting to see how good the tonal separations are. Just curious. Have some fun with this, and keep making the rest of us scratch our heads to figure out how to do some creative financing ;-)

LJ

 

[dfarkas]

I'm not sure what I'm seeing, but I see something. While there is plenty of pixels here for sure, the first shot has some blurring of fine details like the leaves. I also see luminance speckling in the first shot, in Lance's hair and forehead (mostly light specs), and in the texture of the truck grill (mostly dark specs). Not sure if this is due to its pre-production status or just bad JPG compression for web, but I saw it on my laptop screen this morning, then even clearer on my Eizo at work.

I wonder on the first shot if the 80mm lens just isn't suited for infinity performance, as the close-up detail of Lance is much better.

Something interesting came to mind when pondering what I'm looking at, as the files don't have the same sparkle and per-pixel crispness as Guy's P25+ (or even the ZD). Is it possible that the Mamiya MF lenses aren't really able to resolve what the sensor is? MF format lenses typically haven't had to resolve as much detail (lp/mm) as smaller format lenses because the surface area is so much larger and the net result was a greater amount of overall information in the scene and less enlargement required for a print. Now that the P65+ has pixels the same size as 35mm DSLRs, perhaps the lenses aren't really up to the task. Or maybe you just have to be very critical in selecting the right lenses to work with this back.

Maybe I'm the only one who sees this, maybe not.

I'll be very curios to see side-by-side, same lens, same settings shots from P25+, P45+, and the new P65+.

Thanks,

David