I
Iron Flatline
Guest
Well, I finally got my grubby little hands on a dMF camera. And you know what? It's a little daunting at first.
I am renting the Leaf AFi 5 with the "small" Leaf Aptus 22 back. Link to the Leaf site. It has a 36x48mm sensor, so twice the size of a Full-Frame 35mm equivalent SLR sensor. It can output 16-bit TIFF files that are 99 Megs a pop. Ouch. There are number of other formats and compression, making the shot-to-print process that much easier and more exact in terms of colors.
The whole thing is obviously a pro camera, and comes with features that I haven't even seen on Canon's 1Ds Mk III - which I rented last week. For one thing, the LCD is also a touch screen, and allows for some really smart features. You can set the White Balance and color temperature by touching an area on the image, and using that as your neutral grey - which then sets it for the rest of the shoot. There's good file systems, there's the ability to do some basic editing in-camera, and a host of other features. I was shooting at ISO 25, for instance.
Yes, a camera is ultimately just a camera... and to be candid, that becomes apparent the first time you look through the viewfinder. Any secret thoughts and hopes that might have been harbored about "the gear" somehow making you a better photographer are dashed instantly. What you see is exactly what you're pointing the camera at. Your neighbor does not suddenly look like George Clooney, and the hill does not turn into a Yosemite vista. The only difference is that you know a good shot will be richly detailed and can be printed at a size previously impossible.
But WHAT a viewfinder it is! I was using the waste-level viewfinder, which means you look down into the camera... and then see everything mirror-reversed. This takes some getting used to. Composition becomes a different matter though, because you become slightly divorced from the actual scene, and can concentrate on the individual elements. The image is square, but the sensor is rectangular, so it takes some approximation. There are lines that help.
I had it on a tri-pod. My goal is sharpness in low light, so that is part of my mission. I guess it is possible to shoot hand-held, but this is a big camera. It's bigger than the biggest SLRs. And frankly, holding a piece of equipment that costs $25,000 in the smallest version (up to $50,000 if you get the new big-MP ones) is very disconcerting. In London is a restaurant near all the ad agencies where photographers often go. I though it was an affectation to see people's H2 Hasselblads next to them at table, but I'm learning that a piece of equipment (which in Europe costs 50% more!) could walk off in a purse is cause enough to keep it real near by.
The camera has auto-focus, but I found it annoying. First of all, it hunts like a DEA beagle. And secondly, when you're shooting an urban landscape like I was, focus isn't exactly hard. The giant viewfinder (you could lose your car keys in it!) makes focusing by sight fairly easy... and shooting at f/11 and beyond offers a huge margin of error.
Ok, more on Thursday. I have it for three more days, but got whomped by a lot of meetings tomorrow... but the next day I cancelled a business trip and kept my schedule empty, so I will hit the countryside with this big camera.
Although one question I will need to answer is whether the work I'm doing can't be achieved with a Canon 1Ds as well... the answer is sitting in a 16-bit RAW file on a CF card right now...
I am renting the Leaf AFi 5 with the "small" Leaf Aptus 22 back. Link to the Leaf site. It has a 36x48mm sensor, so twice the size of a Full-Frame 35mm equivalent SLR sensor. It can output 16-bit TIFF files that are 99 Megs a pop. Ouch. There are number of other formats and compression, making the shot-to-print process that much easier and more exact in terms of colors.
The whole thing is obviously a pro camera, and comes with features that I haven't even seen on Canon's 1Ds Mk III - which I rented last week. For one thing, the LCD is also a touch screen, and allows for some really smart features. You can set the White Balance and color temperature by touching an area on the image, and using that as your neutral grey - which then sets it for the rest of the shoot. There's good file systems, there's the ability to do some basic editing in-camera, and a host of other features. I was shooting at ISO 25, for instance.
Yes, a camera is ultimately just a camera... and to be candid, that becomes apparent the first time you look through the viewfinder. Any secret thoughts and hopes that might have been harbored about "the gear" somehow making you a better photographer are dashed instantly. What you see is exactly what you're pointing the camera at. Your neighbor does not suddenly look like George Clooney, and the hill does not turn into a Yosemite vista. The only difference is that you know a good shot will be richly detailed and can be printed at a size previously impossible.
But WHAT a viewfinder it is! I was using the waste-level viewfinder, which means you look down into the camera... and then see everything mirror-reversed. This takes some getting used to. Composition becomes a different matter though, because you become slightly divorced from the actual scene, and can concentrate on the individual elements. The image is square, but the sensor is rectangular, so it takes some approximation. There are lines that help.
I had it on a tri-pod. My goal is sharpness in low light, so that is part of my mission. I guess it is possible to shoot hand-held, but this is a big camera. It's bigger than the biggest SLRs. And frankly, holding a piece of equipment that costs $25,000 in the smallest version (up to $50,000 if you get the new big-MP ones) is very disconcerting. In London is a restaurant near all the ad agencies where photographers often go. I though it was an affectation to see people's H2 Hasselblads next to them at table, but I'm learning that a piece of equipment (which in Europe costs 50% more!) could walk off in a purse is cause enough to keep it real near by.
The camera has auto-focus, but I found it annoying. First of all, it hunts like a DEA beagle. And secondly, when you're shooting an urban landscape like I was, focus isn't exactly hard. The giant viewfinder (you could lose your car keys in it!) makes focusing by sight fairly easy... and shooting at f/11 and beyond offers a huge margin of error.
Ok, more on Thursday. I have it for three more days, but got whomped by a lot of meetings tomorrow... but the next day I cancelled a business trip and kept my schedule empty, so I will hit the countryside with this big camera.
Although one question I will need to answer is whether the work I'm doing can't be achieved with a Canon 1Ds as well... the answer is sitting in a 16-bit RAW file on a CF card right now...
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