GrahamWelland
Subscriber & Workshop Member
Ok, definitely one for us Phase One fan boys but here's SilverFleet Capital's video about Phase One:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5N-Eaj6VqWM
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5N-Eaj6VqWM
Last edited:
Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!
It's quite common for Private Equity firms to provide 'growth capital' to owner managers/founders to enable them to expand and grow the business faster and further than they might be able to do on their own. Perhaps taking full control of Mamiya. It also enables owners to take some money out of the business whilst continuing to be involved and to benefit from the further growth made possible by new capital. It often happens that owner/managers 'roll' their gains and re-invest some or all of the proceeds in the business. That said I've no idea about what happened with Silverfleet and the Phase shareholders/owners.Loved the spin trying to explain why the business had been sold - would have been far simpler to simply say 'we were running out of cash'
Their public finances show increasing revenue and increasing and healthy profit for many years in a row now (back to around the financial crises of 2008). For companies with strong and growing revenue, strong and growing profit there are many solutions for short term cashflow other than outside investment. Phase One was not forced into this deal; it went in very willingly.No doubt, but in P1's case they were literally running out of cash - i.e. house rich but cash poor - as their (public) financial records show(ed).
I now have about 3k clicks on the XF, there are the occasional freezes and with the new firmware I also got a capture error once which needed a restart. However, a reboot fixes all of the above. Hasn't gone haywire... yet. Right now I'm rather confident I am able to bring only the XF to a shoot without a backup, but I still bring a Nikon just in case. Murphy's law and all that.Thanks for that link Graham. I have a love/hate relationship with Phase One. I love the image quality I get when...
1)...my camera back doesn't freeze
2)...what I want in focus actually is in focus
3)...the system is ready to capture another image
4)...the image is properly exposed from my TTL connected Profoto B1
Maybe it's just me, but I would think that with all those resources going into R&D, to claim to be the best photography company in the world, and to charge as more than anybody else in the world for your products, your products should work better and be more reliable than a $200 point and shoot. But that's just me. However, I'm seriously considering picking up a Canon 5DS R to carry with me because I never know if my Phase system is actually going to perform that day. And if it does, I'm not confident that it will keep performing throughout the shoot without some gremlin popping up that I've never seen before. More than once I've had to ditch the Phase body (when I shot the 645DF, I now shoot the XF) because it stopped functioning and complete the shoot with my Canon 5D MKIII (which never fails even though it's been used and abused for years).
The the behind the scenes stuff is very interesting. But as I watched it actually got me a little angry because with it reveal these problem with their system should NOT exist. You're extremely high priced and low volume. That should be a recipe for outstanding quality control and reliability. I have no issue with the quality control. Products are well built and solid. However, reliability? What exactly are they doing R&D? They release TTL flash capability in the XF for Profoto and it sucks! Capture to capture reveals varying exposure levels in a controlled studio where everything is locked down. Camera on camera stand photographing a mannequin (which obviously doesn't move). Camera is triggered from a tethered PC. Yet, the power levels from the Profoto go up, down, back to where it started, etc. Did ANYBODY test this thing before they released it? Done. Rant off.
Sorry, back to your regularly scheduled forum participation activities.
I frequently do shoots where I fire 1000 shots over a 7-8 hour period of time, and fortunately haven't had a single lock-up with the XF and IQ3 100. That said, my 645DF+ and IQ280 seized up frequently.After having used the XF now on both a 260 and IQ100, even at the latest firmware there are quite often issues that occur that disrupt the photography. To name a few:
1. lock up when zooming to 100%, requires a power off/on cycle
2. lock up when attempting to move around a file viewed at 100%, (I have pretty much given up on moving around a image at 100%, just double tap in and out on areas I want to check)
3. Strange issues during tethering, where a file is stuck on the camera and will not transfer over to the PC (have checked both cable and tried different PC's) still get this issue
4. Inconsistent ES shutter behavior on XF. Sometimes after changing shutter speed the XF fires the Focal other times it doesn't
5. Problem where at power off the mirror doesn't appear to go all the way down as you see a greyed looking view in the viewfinder
6. Still have intermittent lock up issues, which require a power off/on cycle
other issues that occur, but don't cause as much of a problem
10 to 12 sec's each time you turn on the camera before you can actually shoot (IMO should have been fixed by now has always been an issue)
As a card gets over 50% full, images take considerably longer to go from blur to view able on the LCD of back. They stay in a strange semi blurred state
With a card over 50% full attempting to go back to the very first file can take a long time due the problem mentioned above
The files are great, image wise but the combination to me is still not a smooth process as I feel it should be by now in the development cycle.
Paul C
I would expect that you would be fine shooting in cold, relatively damp weather with an XF. however, if you were to shoot in windy, rainy conditions, I think there is a high probability that either the camera body, the back or the lenses would fail. Just my experience.I have been using the XF since August 2015, first with the IQ3-80 and then in February with the IQ3-100. I have about 4,000 exposures with the latter combo.
I haven't had any lock-up issues on the XF since last January when a firmware upgrade fixed the problem for me. So far the XF/100 combo has functioned very well, but like others who have commented, I'm a nature/landscape guy, fairly low volume, and rarely use flash. I do need to double-tap the autofocus in poor light or low contrast situations. And yes, positive though I am about the gear, the start-up time is too long.
As I'm now on my way to shoot polar bears in Churchill, Manitoba, the XF will get a good work out in very cold and damp weather. I will have my Sony as back-up (I never go somewhere expensive without back-up) but I'm reasonably confident it won't be needed. If I'm right, look for big white fluffy pix on this forum. If I'm wrong, look to the Sony forum!
Well if I remember correctly, there were a couple of instances on the Maine workshop where you almost lost your back of a cliff and into the Atlantic.I HATED my 645 DF/DF+ and P+/IQ backs because there was a fundamental issue with back/body communication. I've wanted to throw the body, although not back, over the cliff when they locked up. On a tech cam the backs have been perfect (for me)..
I believe that I can attest to the fact that I have fast twitch muscles when it comes to my ability to catch a plummeting MFDBWell if I remember correctly, there were a couple of instances on the Maine workshop where you almost lost your back of a cliff and into the Atlantic.
That and the fact that your capture cord for your Alpa had some magical powersI believe that I can attest to the fact that I have fast twitch muscles when it comes to my ability to catch a plummeting MFDB