Folks,
some new oil into the fire. And please understand that I am really new to MF digital photography, so my observations are those of a beginner. But I have some thoughts I wanted to share and see what you think especially those of you who are working daily with digital MF systems already.
Yesterday I had the chance to test a Phase One camera with P65+ back and 80, 28 and 150 D lenses. First impression - GREAT - especially if you walk around with this type of equipment you immediately become the star :angel: So far, this is the fun part everybody likes.
The representation who gave me the camera was very friendly, very supportive and very knowledgeable. Really enjoyed it and could think of working closely with them for support issues. The cam and the controls work nicely, actually the whole thing felt very much like my old Contax 645 back in the analog days. I also was impressed by the back and also by the lenses - in general. And of course the resolution, colors etc etc.
Now the less fun part. Once we had the whole session on the computer - of course in Capture One, which BTW I know pretty well from the past and started to like again - think I would need to work on a new workflow for digital MF photography anyway - we started to look into the pictures in more detail. 100% crop or even larger and then one could clearly see:
1) softer corners of the 28 (all relative, but clear to see)
2) CA in almost all pictures from all lenses (not too much but it is there).
3) Distortion of the 28 - could live with that one for landscapes of course, but also there.
Now of course one can correct all this by SW, it is just a few mouse clicks in C1 - but it actually has to be done for every picture.
How do you all handle this? Does digital MF photography mean that one has to spend this time after each session behind the computer in order to get best results? Will this be gone with Leica's S2 system, as they claim that they do everything correct already in optics and thus later need no SW corrections?
Not that I could not live with all that corrections, as changing from analog to digital MF workflow spares a lot of time anyway, but I would like to get your opinion if these corrections are necessary, will eventually go away with future SW or future systems, or if we are (I am) just hysteric as these types of picture failures were always there, but we start only now paying attention.
The answers are pretty important for me, as I have currently NO MF digital (or analog) solution, and I could wait buying one till the S System is on the market and solves maybe all these issues.
BTW - found an answer at least for me for my question WRT how many MP one needs for making 80" x 60" prints - definitely 37, or 39 MP are enough. I saw prints from 22MP backs and this convinced me I actually would not really need more than say 40MP, giving very high quality, which is definitely on par - or even better with what I could achieve with analog 6x6 and high end scanning.
So at least this is a first answer in the whole MF digital puzzle for me and YES, I could "survive" with a Leica S System - sorry for this arrogance here. And I would really do so, if you folks can convince me here, that Leica is going to make all of this digital MF photography easier because they need no (almost no) SW corrections. Their support is of course a different issue.
Waiting for your advise .....