stevenfr
Active member
Last week Tim Wolcott and I had an opportunity to test the Phase One XF IQ4 150 megapixel camera system prototype. We were shooting with it in the Smoky Mountains for a couple of hours.
I wanted to provide to you a list of features and enhancements to the IQ4 150 back that I felt were interesting to my landscape photography.
1. Of course the extra resolution from 100 to 150 megapixels is a big improvement. For my work delivering fine art prints to a gallery is the end result. The extra resolution will be very beneficial to delivering extra detail to the larger prints, and the wall size murals.
2. I conducted a ISO sweep with the camera from 50 to 3200 ISO. Given that the camera is a prototype and the final firmware was not installed in the camera, I won’t get into to many specifics. When I looked at the images, I was very excited to see very little degradation in the file at the higher ISO’s. For my work a lot of my images are images of trees, moving leaves is a constant issue. The improvements in the higher ISO would allow me to spend less time waiting for leaves to stop moving. Longer exposures in a forest are common. Its a trade off between depth of field and shorter exposure times to get the leaves sharp. Now with the better ISO performance it will allow me to still maximize the depth of field with shorter exposures.
3. The faster write times with the XQD cards and the faster processors in the camera enable me to shoot images quicker. This is key when shooting stitched panoramic images. The shorter write times should result in getting stitched images as quick as possible, without the wait times between exposures. On a recent shoot, I spent over two hours waiting for the leaves to stop moving. I believe with a higher ISO and the quicker write times, I would of been able to get the images quicker, which would allow me to move onto my next location.
4. Dark Frame reduction. I was told by a Phase One representative that the dark frame will be reduced to a minimal amount of time. As an example in the past I would do a 4 second exposure with 6 image captures as a stitched panorama. In between exposures, I would have to wait the entire 4 second for the dark frame to finish. I am now told the dark frame will be almost instantaneous on the shorter exposures. Thus saving me 24 second over the entire time to capture the 6 images. Once I get my 150 back this will be something I will test.
5. Live View is now cleaner and much faster. Zooming into the images and moving around the image to check sharpness has no lag. There also an ability to pinch-to-zoom, and left and right gestures to access the camera settings. Its all very intuative. Also, the ability to see a focus mask is now available in the live view of the image before capture.
6. Live Histogram on the Raw file is really exciting. In the past you would have to shoot the image to evaluate your histogram. Now it will be possible to do it live using the exposure simulation, which allows one to see the histogram change as you change the exposure. As well, there is an ability to see a live clipping by channel. Its a graphical view by channel, very cool.
7. Dual card storage (XQD and SD) was also a nice feature. The Phase One representative also mentioned that the wireless writing of images was a possibility. I asked if there was an ability to wirelessly write to a hard drive. The Phase One representative thought it would be possible, but would need to confirm.
8. Capture One Inside the camera. There were a few presets that were available in the camera. I experimented with the B&W setting. When I looked at the images with the preset in Capture One the image was tagged with the B&W settings. I think this will be useful if you have a preset you like, and want to see it in the camera when you are shooting, and not have to wait for the images to be downloaded.
I do feel that the extra resolution is welcome, but to me the features mentioned above are the real story with the new back. I believe these features will make image capture easier, and quicker with increased accuracy.
I have attached three images I processed through Capture One.
Steven Friedman
Http://www.friedmanphoto.com
I wanted to provide to you a list of features and enhancements to the IQ4 150 back that I felt were interesting to my landscape photography.
1. Of course the extra resolution from 100 to 150 megapixels is a big improvement. For my work delivering fine art prints to a gallery is the end result. The extra resolution will be very beneficial to delivering extra detail to the larger prints, and the wall size murals.
2. I conducted a ISO sweep with the camera from 50 to 3200 ISO. Given that the camera is a prototype and the final firmware was not installed in the camera, I won’t get into to many specifics. When I looked at the images, I was very excited to see very little degradation in the file at the higher ISO’s. For my work a lot of my images are images of trees, moving leaves is a constant issue. The improvements in the higher ISO would allow me to spend less time waiting for leaves to stop moving. Longer exposures in a forest are common. Its a trade off between depth of field and shorter exposure times to get the leaves sharp. Now with the better ISO performance it will allow me to still maximize the depth of field with shorter exposures.
3. The faster write times with the XQD cards and the faster processors in the camera enable me to shoot images quicker. This is key when shooting stitched panoramic images. The shorter write times should result in getting stitched images as quick as possible, without the wait times between exposures. On a recent shoot, I spent over two hours waiting for the leaves to stop moving. I believe with a higher ISO and the quicker write times, I would of been able to get the images quicker, which would allow me to move onto my next location.
4. Dark Frame reduction. I was told by a Phase One representative that the dark frame will be reduced to a minimal amount of time. As an example in the past I would do a 4 second exposure with 6 image captures as a stitched panorama. In between exposures, I would have to wait the entire 4 second for the dark frame to finish. I am now told the dark frame will be almost instantaneous on the shorter exposures. Thus saving me 24 second over the entire time to capture the 6 images. Once I get my 150 back this will be something I will test.
5. Live View is now cleaner and much faster. Zooming into the images and moving around the image to check sharpness has no lag. There also an ability to pinch-to-zoom, and left and right gestures to access the camera settings. Its all very intuative. Also, the ability to see a focus mask is now available in the live view of the image before capture.
6. Live Histogram on the Raw file is really exciting. In the past you would have to shoot the image to evaluate your histogram. Now it will be possible to do it live using the exposure simulation, which allows one to see the histogram change as you change the exposure. As well, there is an ability to see a live clipping by channel. Its a graphical view by channel, very cool.
7. Dual card storage (XQD and SD) was also a nice feature. The Phase One representative also mentioned that the wireless writing of images was a possibility. I asked if there was an ability to wirelessly write to a hard drive. The Phase One representative thought it would be possible, but would need to confirm.
8. Capture One Inside the camera. There were a few presets that were available in the camera. I experimented with the B&W setting. When I looked at the images with the preset in Capture One the image was tagged with the B&W settings. I think this will be useful if you have a preset you like, and want to see it in the camera when you are shooting, and not have to wait for the images to be downloaded.
I do feel that the extra resolution is welcome, but to me the features mentioned above are the real story with the new back. I believe these features will make image capture easier, and quicker with increased accuracy.
I have attached three images I processed through Capture One.
Steven Friedman
Http://www.friedmanphoto.com
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