When will medium format digital go mainstream?

[StandingBear1983]

The title says it all, when will we see consumer medium format cameras?, like there was with old film...today its not reachable for 90% of the population being 30000$ or so for a medium format digital camera...is there any chance that we will see this in the next 10 years or so, for example a 3000$ or even 5000$ digital medium format camera?

 

[.SimO.]

I doubt it will ever go mainstream. The costs are high due to the large sensors and the demand is very low. That's about as much as my knowledge takes me though unfortunately.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

If I recall from the 80's-90's, medium format film was never "mainstream", the 35mm market was?

 

[StandingBear1983]

Well, if you look at the past, we had crop sensors at the beginning of 2000's, even in pro grade dslr's, and just now the 'cheap' FF camera's are starting to get cheaper and cheaper for consumers...so never say never...if somebody from either one of the big DSLR manufacturers will jump in the medium format sensor's then the party will start...there was a rumor that Sony wanted or are planning to do it, but i don't really know for sure...I wish the will do it on there next series of cameras, like the Nikon D900 or a new medium format catagory would be very cool

 

[Light Guru]

when will we see consumer medium format cameras?

I dont think we ever will. Its only been the last few months that we are seeing full frame cameras reach the "consumer" level with the introduction of the introduction of the Canon 6D and the Nikon D600. These are the cheapest full frame DSLR cameras out there and even they are out of reach of most of your average consumers.


That and in addition to the increasing megapixels that are being thrown into todays DSLR camera, I just dont see medium format digital cameras ever making it to the "consumer" market.

What advantages would your average consumer gain from a medium format camera?

 

[StandingBear1983]

If I recall from the 80's-90's, medium format film was never "mainstream", the 35mm market was?

Well...all is relative of course...maybe 35mm film wasn't in every home at the time...but what i meant is that one could actually afford it without selling the house (what you got to do today to get a digital medium format camera lol)

 

[KmH]

Probably not any time soon.

One of the most expensive individual parts in a digital camera is the image sensor. Manufacturing costs are not coming down because MP count is going up, which adds cost to the front end of the manufacturing process.

Digital Camera Sensor Sizes: How it Influences Your Photography

COST OF PRODUCING DIGITAL SENSORS

The cost of a digital sensor rises dramatically as its area increases. This means that a sensor with twice the area will cost more than twice as much, so you are effectively paying more per unit "sensor real estate" as you move to larger sizes.

Silicon Wafer
(divided into small sensors)

Silicon Wafer
(divided into large sensors)

One can understand this by looking at how manufacturers make their digital sensors. Each sensor is cut from a larger sheet of silicon material called a wafer, which may contain thousands of individual chips. Each wafer is extremely expensive (thousands of dollars), therefore fewer chips per wafer result in a much higher cost per chip. Furthermore, the chance of an irreparable defect (too many hot pixels or otherwise) ending up in a given sensor increases with sensor area, therefore the percentage of usable sensors goes down with increasing sensor area (yield per wafer). Assuming these factors (chips per wafer and yield) are most important, costs increase proportional to the square of sensor area (a sensor 2X as big costs 4X as much). Real-world manufacturing has a more complicated size versus cost relationship, but this gives you an idea of skyrocketing costs.

This is not to say though that certain sized sensors will always be prohibitively expensive; their price may eventually drop, but the relative cost of a larger sensor is likely to remain significantly more expensive (per unit area) when compared to some smaller size.

 

[StandingBear1983]

OK, let me refrase my question, when will the majority of pepole could actually afford medium format digital?...forget about consumers lol

 

[StandingBear1983]

KMH, so in your opinion...there is no chance that medium sensor cost will EVER go down in price to manufacture them?!

 

[Light Guru]

OK, let me refrase my question, when will the majority of pepole could actually afford medium format digital?...forget about consumers lol

Again the majority of people cannot afford a full frame DSLR right now.

The majority of people dont need a medium format digital camera.

 

[StandingBear1983]

That's such a BUMMER man!...but hey, you never know right...we might see it in 10 years...or there will be cameras connected to our eyes in Wifi with 18-1000mm focal 1.8 lenses

 

[CCericola]

Right now you can get digital backs for about $7000-$8000. For professionals that still use their MF equipment it is a lot cheaper than buying a new body and lenses if you already have a complete MF set up. I don't think they will be mainstream as most people would not like the weight of a MF set up. I only really see MF now being used in studio while the FF DSLRs are taken out in the field. In 2001 I was still shooting weddings on 120 and 220 film. It would be nice to use the hassey again. Maybe I will look into the Phase One backs.

 

[The_Traveler]

Why would everyone want a medium format camera?
When the pixel size gets too high, it becomes difficult to get clear clean hand held shots.

 

[amolitor]

They're what, about $10K now? Versus about $3K for a comparable film based system. We haven't actually seen any substantial pricing drops in any other camera systems.. ever. What seems to happen is that some new technology gets introduced, at some silly pricing, which only a few people bother with. Then, when the technology is sorted out, models are introduced at price points. These stay pretty stable from this point onwards. Lower price points are handled by introducing new "cheaper" models.

So the only way we're likely to see medium format digital prices drop is if:

a) the technology is still in an "early adopter" stage, where it hasn't yet taken its drop to stable pricing (and I think this is simply false, I think we've seen our price drop).
b) a market emerges for "consumer" or "prosumer" level medium format gear.

I don't think b) is likely to happen, since you can just buy the latest umpty-megapixel DSLR for about that $3K price point the hypothetical prosumer medium format rig would sell for, and why would you want to horse around some monsterous Mamiya thing when you can just have a D800?

We might see a little compression in pricing, but not much.

Keep in mind that a digital medium format camera is pretty much the $3000 medium format film camera, minus the film back (a couple hundred bucks) plus the digital back (plus.. rather more than a couple hundred bucks).

 

[StandingBear1983]

What about in the future they will be able to put medium format sensors in smaller cameras, like the lieca m9 now, or sony rx1 (its 35mm but anyway), those are much smaller then a DSLR even...maybe we shall see medium format in smaller bodies? - then it might be mainstream!