39 Megapixels!

I have been shooting with the Phase One P45+ digital back for the last few days. This is a 39 megapixel monster on the back of my Mamiya 645AFDII and mostly used with the 105-210AF Mamiya lens. It does seem strange to be walking around with an almost $40,000 camera! Anyway for you photography tech folks, I thought I would give you my immediate impressions...


Now it does help if you get yourself a good looking model to work on these technical tests. Lucky for me my buddy Cara was up to the task. But on to the Phase One back...

First it is as simple to use as you could possibly want. Very simple menu system, easy to read screen and operated by four buttons on the back surrounded the LCD. It does not get any easier. Operationally it worked without pause or problem although battery life seemed a little limited but not as to create an issue. Shooting at 1.5 seconds per frame is slower than your smaller format Canon or Nikon but shooting with studio strobes will slow you down anyway. And much faster than that and perhaps you need to slow down anyway and get it right. Viewing photos on the LCD indoors and they are bright and sharp. Turning the camera moves them from vertical to horizontal which is a big plus. The LCD is a little small but it does work well enough except outdoors where most back of the camera LCD's become useless anyway.

But what this back does do is put out an enormous high quality photo. And that is especially true if you use the Capture One software. In Capture One, the RAW photos just jump right off the screen. Adjustments are fast and intuitive and this despite being 233 megabyte tiffs. Right out of the camera you have an 18x24 inch file at 300ppi! At 39 megapixels you are getting images with mind boggling sharpness and detail. A model with less than perfect makeup and complexion will cause you to be spending some amount of time working on skin in PhotoShop. Color is beautiful with even the slightest of color shades being well rendered. Highlights and shadows are completely superior to the smaller formats. Much more what I would expect to see in larger format film.

So what to do with 39 megapixels? Well my needs are perhaps more advanced than many. I do get asked to produce "covers" and full page or double page images for magazines. And in a world of mediocre I am lucky to have some clients that still demand the highest quality. That is where the Phase One P45+ comes in. And better is what I prefer to do. At least I try.

Thanks and keep coming back if you "Wanna See More...?"