Digital medium format cameras

ancient_mariner said:
They're just up the road (well, 40min, but round here that's close). Wonder what I'd get for a used A7 outfit...... :oops: :$

Scrub that, 10 YO design, that's too old in digital regardless of format.
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I was looking into it - you can change the "backs" on these things and add in more ability - but the newer 100mp backs are stupidly dear. Like 25k dear. Doesn't stop me drooling and having a wonderful time planning how I would use it
 
SFTPhotography said:
I was looking into it - you can change the "backs" on these things and add in more ability - but the newer 100mp backs are stupidly dear. Like 25k dear. Doesn't stop me drooling and having a wonderful time planning how I would use it
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I just went looking for info. :rolleyes:

Read a user-review by Brodie Butler. 12.5 stops dynamic range, usable ISO 50-200, 400 at a push, 800 binnable. The 80MP back have firewire & USB3 output, otherwise it's USB2 for transfer.

It's a potentially great outfit at a bargain price, but it's been designed for a specific purpose and I don't think it would work *for me*. I'd much rather a used 'Blad or a 645 and a couple of lenses.
 
ancient_mariner said:
I just went looking for info. :rolleyes:

Read a user-review by Brodie Butler. 12.5 stops dynamic range, usable ISO 50-200, 400 at a push, 800 binnable. The 80MP back have firewire & USB3 output, otherwise it's USB2 for transfer.

It's a potentially great outfit at a bargain price, but it's been designed for a specific purpose and I don't think it would work *for me*. I'd much rather a used 'Blad or a 645 and a couple of lenses.
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You can get a new pentax 645z for 4.5k with a 55 prime. Its a dead system though.

The new Fuji looks a great offering though. But money no object phase one, schnieder optics f*** yeah. Its monents like this i resent my relative poverty
 
Relative poverty, yes. I probably have >3K worth of kit these days, but wouldn't want to swap.
 
Mr Perceptive said:
There is also the compression effect of using a longer focal length to get a wide view on a larger sensor.

I have the same view captured on my X100F (APSC) with WCL - 19mm (28mm FF equiv FOV) and my Fuji GSW690III-65mm (28mm FF equiv FOV) - there are noticeable differences in the way distant objects - in my case buildings are presented- I’m away from my office now, but I’ll see if I can post it later
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Ehh?? I think what you are seeing is the blur being more obvious/Stonger due to the larger entrance pupil of the longer lenses (at same f stop). Compression as I understand it is the change in perspective as you move closer or further away from your scene thus changing the relationship between camera/foreground and camera/background distances.
 
I am trying to work out what stuff I can PX at MBP - found a 28-45 on eBay for a more manageable sum - and I think eBay is the place where a lot of this gear resides. Just getting it all sorted without fear of lockdown closing places off, stuff going missng in post before Xmas etc. Posted some Nikon gear for sale. I have to get this done as this would cover all my wide angle needs.
 
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SFTPhotography said:
I am trying to work out what stuff I can PX at MBP - found a 28-45 on eBay for a more manageable sum - and I think eBay is the place where a lot of this gear resides. Just getting it all sorted without fear of lockdown closing places off, stuff going missng in post before Xmas etc. Posted some Nikon gear for sale. I have to get this done as this would cover all my wide angle needs.
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Try Ffordes.... https://www.ffordes.com/p/SH-18-009572/pentax-645/28-45mm-f45-da-ed-aw-sr
They'll also PX if required.
 
Twentyfive years ago, I was a user of Canon SLRs -- a couple of EOS 5s, together with a wide selection of Canon glass, mainly L. My focus was the landscape. Good as my gear was, I hankered for better, and spent more than a year obsessively researching alternative medium format systems. Eventually, I settled on the Mamiya 7 6x7 system, and bought one, together with 3 lenses. It became my mainstay for more than 15 years, before I switched to a Canon DSLR.

The Mamiya 7 was apparently limiting in many ways. Only prime lenses available, and a very limited number of them. No wide-aperture lenses. Close-focusing was not an option with any of them. The camera used range-finder focusing -- not easy in low light. Lots of additional little niggles. But. But. The image quality! Those lenses were stellar. Every time I put a newly-developed batch of Velvia 120 film onto the light-box, I was captivated by the sheer detail captured by those brilliant lenses. Worth all the faff. I took most of my best images with that system--the limitations actually improved my photography, it appears.

Today, I have two digital systems -- a venerable 5DII I bought a decade ago, which in truth I've barely used. And a newly-acquired X-T2 bought from a pal who upgraded to a Hassy digital. Both are good, with the edge going to the Fuji (X-Trans sensor). The images I take with them are of good quality--but they don't blow me away. So I find myself increasingly tempted by digital medium format, and my thought has turned to a Fuji 50R, which looks so much like my old trusty Mamiya 7. The camera body is likely to get cheaper in 2021, though the optics are still going to remain expensive. But a 50R and a couple of primes "could" be achievable in early 2021, if I sell off some stuff first. Is it worth it, though...I genuinely can't decide...

Now with Tier-4 lockdown imminent here in Scotland again, the opportunity to go out and do landscape work in the next few weeks is minimal. So I have time to think about this. Anyone who has followed a similar path, and is ahead of me, care to share their experience, and whether it was a good move for them?
 
SFTPhotography said:
I've got about £15000 spare sat there doing just absolutely nothing bar getting 0.25% interest. I now have considerably less of it :D
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How lucky you are! My Swiss account will charge 0,75% negative interest rate above 100K Swiss francs !
 
justpix said:
How lucky you are! My Swiss account will charge 0,75% negative interest rate above 100K Swiss francs !
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It is below inflation though so the money is depreciating...I really had too much "cash". I find for capital assets stocks/shares or even cryto best for long term investments. The bulk of this was for a new PC but with some re-jigging of my actual requirements £11k buys a camera, 2 lenses and a decent PC/screen to do it all on
 
New machine built.

To my horror capture one pro won't support 645z files in PEF or DNG format as it competes directly with the phase one IQ250 back. Fair enough. C1 pro is a multi threaded application and supports GPU acceleration so was looking to update my old Mac Pro 4 core Xeon tower.

Could go back to LR but never really got on with it or it's cataloging system. Nor is it a multi threaded application which takes full advantage of multi core, higher power GPU systems

So I will be using either on1 RAW or DXO photolab 4 to process these massive files. The plus with these is they mirror the folder structure of your machine rather than ingest your raws into a catalogue like apple Aperture, apple photos, LR or C1 pro.

I like to organise my files myself by folder name done like 2020_01_subject. Side car files simply live alongside each RAW/DNG with all the edits with them so migrating machines is a doddle.

So spec wise I've gone a bit wild...

Case: Fractal Design Define 7 XL, Black, Full Tower w/ Dark Tempered Glass, 3x 140mm Fans, USB 3.1 Type-C, SSI-EEB to Mini-ITX
Board - Supermicro H11DSI AMD EPYC Server Motherboard, SoC, S SP3 x2, DDR4, SATA3, M.2, Dual Intel GbE, Mgmt LAN, USB 3.0, E-ATX
CPU - 2 x AMD EPYC™ 7282, S SP3, 7nm, Infinity / Zen 2, 16 Core, 32 Thread, 2.8GHz, 3.2GHz Turbo, 64MB, 120W, CPU, OEM - these out perform a xeon of same price quite considerably.
CPU cooling - 2 x Noctua NH-U9 TR4-SP3 Compact Single Tower CPU Cooler, 6 Heatpipes, 2x92mm PWM Fans, for AMD Ryzen Threadripper/Epyc ONLY
GPU - PNY Quadro RTX 4000 - can always upgrade later anyway
RAM - 16 x 8GB Hynix HMA81GR7CJR8N-WM DDR4 Server RAM, PC4-23400 (2933), ECC Registered, CAS 21, 1.2V, 288-Pin - 128 really is enough
Boot drive - 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus, M.2 (2280) PCIe 3.0 (x4), NVMe SSD, MLC V-NAND, 3500MB/s Read, 3300MB/s Write, 600k/550k IOPS
Main storage drive - 2TB Samsung 860 PRO, 2.5" SSD, SATA III 6Gb/s, MJX, MLC 3D V-NAND, 2GB Cache, Read 560MB/s, Write 530MB/s, 100k/90k

Externals will do the rest for storage and amazon give unlimited cloud storage as a part of prime....
 
SFTPhotography said:
To my horror capture one pro won't support 645z files in PEF or DNG format......
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The 645Z will output 16 bit TIFF's if that's acceptable to Capture One

(fwiw, I use DXO for the Z's TIFF files,,,,,they also have a reasonable number of the lenses profiled)
 
Canon Bob said:
The 645Z will output 16 bit TIFF's if that's acceptable to Capture One

(fwiw, I use DXO for the Z's TIFF files,,,,,they also have a reasonable number of the lenses profiled)
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I'd rather output the PEF or DNG rather than off camera TIFFs - even with 128gb cards that's not a lot of frames for a landscape session. Looking at DXO or on1 it will suit my needs perfectly.
 
SFTPhotography said:
New machine built.

To my horror capture one pro won't support 645z files in PEF or DNG format as it competes directly with the phase one IQ250 back. Fair enough. C1 pro is a multi threaded application and supports GPU acceleration so was looking to update my old Mac Pro 4 core Xeon tower.

Could go back to LR but never really got on with it or it's cataloging system. Nor is it a multi threaded application which takes full advantage of multi core, higher power GPU systems

So I will be using either on1 RAW or DXO photolab 4 to process these massive files. The plus with these is they mirror the folder structure of your machine rather than ingest your raws into a catalogue like apple Aperture, apple photos, LR or C1 pro.

I like to organise my files myself by folder name done like 2020_01_subject. Side car files simply live alongside each RAW/DNG with all the edits with them so migrating machines is a doddle.

So spec wise I've gone a bit wild...

Case: Fractal Design Define 7 XL, Black, Full Tower w/ Dark Tempered Glass, 3x 140mm Fans, USB 3.1 Type-C, SSI-EEB to Mini-ITX
Board - Supermicro H11DSI AMD EPYC Server Motherboard, SoC, S SP3 x2, DDR4, SATA3, M.2, Dual Intel GbE, Mgmt LAN, USB 3.0, E-ATX
CPU - 2 x AMD EPYC™ 7282, S SP3, 7nm, Infinity / Zen 2, 16 Core, 32 Thread, 2.8GHz, 3.2GHz Turbo, 64MB, 120W, CPU, OEM - these out perform a xeon of same price quite considerably.
CPU cooling - 2 x Noctua NH-U9 TR4-SP3 Compact Single Tower CPU Cooler, 6 Heatpipes, 2x92mm PWM Fans, for AMD Ryzen Threadripper/Epyc ONLY
GPU - PNY Quadro RTX 4000 - can always upgrade later anyway
RAM - 16 x 8GB Hynix HMA81GR7CJR8N-WM DDR4 Server RAM, PC4-23400 (2933), ECC Registered, CAS 21, 1.2V, 288-Pin - 128 really is enough
Boot drive - 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus, M.2 (2280) PCIe 3.0 (x4), NVMe SSD, MLC V-NAND, 3500MB/s Read, 3300MB/s Write, 600k/550k IOPS
Main storage drive - 2TB Samsung 860 PRO, 2.5" SSD, SATA III 6Gb/s, MJX, MLC 3D V-NAND, 2GB Cache, Read 560MB/s, Write 530MB/s, 100k/90k

Externals will do the rest for storage and amazon give unlimited cloud storage as a part of prime....
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Bloody hell Steve, you don't do things by halves do you!? :LOL:

I thought a recent upgrade from 16GB to 32GB to keep up with the Adobe bloatware was extravagant!
 
Son_of_Thor said:
Bloody hell Steve, you don't do things by halves do you!? :LOL:

I thought a recent upgrade from 16GB to 32GB to keep up with the Adobe bloatware was extravagant!
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Adobe can take use of RAM but multi core machines are wasted on it - which is why I won't use it going forward.

And no, I never take half measures at anything. It is the best or nothing. Same with my photography and care I take when shooting, I give it my all :D
 
SFTPhotography said:
I'd rather output the PEF or DNG rather than off camera TIFFs - even with 128gb cards that's not a lot of frames for a landscape session........
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S'truth Steve......128gb will hold around 430 TIFF's. I've only taken around 3000 shots on my Z in 4-1/2 years!
 
Canon Bob said:
S'truth Steve......128gb will hold around 430 TIFF's. I've only taken around 3000 shots on my Z in 4-1/2 years!
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I reckon I won't trouble the 100k shutter life but I intend to use it as my main landscape camera. The field of view offered by the 28-45 lens will cover a lot of my shots and no more soft sides. Reckon it'll be taking 3k shots/yr and the bulk of that when I'm in the Pyrenees and away from home over 3weeks/time

On1 RAW looks good as does photo labs dxo
 
SFTPhotography said:
I reckon I won't trouble the 100k shutter life but I intend to use it as my main landscape camera. The field of view offered by the 28-45 lens will cover a lot of my shots and no more soft sides. Reckon it'll be taking 3k shots/yr and the bulk of that when I'm in the Pyrenees and away from home over 3weeks/time
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A bit of a coincidence as I bought the 28-45 for a trip to the Pyrenees but Fedex lost it and I didn't get hold of it until I was back home.
 
Canon Bob said:
A bit of a coincidence as I bought the 28-45 for a trip to the Pyrenees but Fedex lost it and I didn't get hold of it until I was back home.
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That's a shame, the field of view offered by that lens is perfect for quite a few shots. Reckon the 45-85 will complete my set of glass and I'll keep the D810 and 70-200 as it's such a good combination.

ancient_mariner said:
That should be up for world domination, never mind processing a few RAW files. ;)
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It won't hang around that's for sure but modern programs will lay their hand on every core/thread possible so to have 32 cores and 64 threads will ace anuthing
 
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Almost everything as I was moving from an old H3D-II to GFX 50R / 100. The only this I miss from the Hasselblad is the leaf shutter for faster flash synch.
 
newbie1 said:
Almost everything as I was moving from an old H3D-II to GFX 50R / 100. The only this I miss from the Hasselblad is the leaf shutter for faster flash synch.
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When I had a fleeting drunken look at the GFX models, I noticed the flash sync was fairly low in comparison to the FX models. I assume HSS works on these?
 
rick448 said:
When I had a fleeting drunken look at the GFX models, I noticed the flash sync was fairly low in comparison to the FX models. I assume HSS works on these?
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Yes I think it’s 1/125th for normal and yes HSS works so lack of leaf shutter in reality has not been a big issue. GFX 100 is simply amazing definitely my favorite for portraits and landscape with enormous print size potential.
 
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