A canon 22mp will not improve image quality, on the contrary one would see the limits of the current lens line up even more. There are some good lenses by Canon but if you need a good wa you go alternative or use a crop camera today for better iq.
There will be more dof problems and more often lenses sent in to calibrate. Lets see what happens
Has anybody heard anymore about the Pentax 22mp 645? I'm very interested into seeing how this one will play out with a price earmarked to be below $8K.
If there are any retired CEO's, venture capitalists, or multi-millionaires floating around these forums, a coalition to buy the Contax 645 license and get that going is the answer.
Great shot Duncan, but as Guy said, only one MF camera company is too risky for most people to jump in with. ( Yeah, I know about the Alpas, Silvestris, Gottschalks, etc, but it needs to be a reflex camera) And it seems equally risky to adapt MF backs to legacy cameras as well. Zeiss no longer services the 645 and has farmed it out to some other company, so if you are a pro, that makes for some shakey confidence.
Whoops- forgot about the Pentax. Well, there needs to be more than two players anyway. I don't know if that is a dedicated camera/ back combo, or if it's like the Hasselblads?
There will be fewer, not more choices in the future as the professional market is simply too small to support more than a couple MF companies. Last time I read market specs, the professional camera market accounted for less than $720 million. This includes DSLR bodies. I agree that the H1D is no great shake but at present is the lesser of multiple evils as they appear to be financially secure at the moment while other companies like Pentax, Contax etc., are marginal at best.
The majority of pro digital backs can work on just about any camera system with appropriate adapter so exposure is reduced a bit but not completely.
Guy Mancuso wrote:
If I went the body route , I would pick Hassy in a second there still in business and will continue , Contax is in limbo and i just would not go with that mount, although as we know there glass is great but i ahve usewd Fuji glass before and i am sure the Hassy H system lenses are very good. i just feel more comfortable of not limiting myself to a company that i may have to search the world for a part or something
The H1 can use CF lenses with an adaptor which should make it more versitile and give a better lens selection, I havent tried it yet but if I keep the H2 I will go that route
Rollei/Francke&Heidecke is still around, although who knows for how long. Apparently their system is really good, it just has no mindshare in North America for some reason. Does anyone here have experience with the 6008 system?
gdstaples wrote:
I agree that the H1D is no great shake but at present is the lesser of multiple evils as they appear to be financially secure at the moment while other companies like Pentax, Contax etc., are marginal at best.
Duncan
I've never heard anything about Pentax being in financial troubles.
Pentax has joined forces with Samsung, which is a pretty good sign that they needed a cash infusion, especially as they have a allowed Samsung to pretty much copy their entire (Pre-K100D/K110D) SLR line... That has to eat into their marketshare, as the two lines are compatible.
Carsten...I have the 6008i system and for film I think it is superb. I guess the digital revolution has just spoiled me and I find it inconvenient to use film anymore. Even using film I am just not good anymore at evaluating negatives or chromes with a 4X or 6X loupe, so for my eyes now they need to be scanned and that is another digital learning curve.
I even investigated a digital back but about the only one out there is the P20 at 16 megapixles. Rollei has a special now at around 12.5K dollars you get a camera, lens, and the back. You can't use that back on the older cameras and as I understand it the back is matched to the specific camera.
I'm just having a problem spending more money on the Rollei system because I don't know how long it will be around. There is not talk, no buzz, and few dealers but for a film camera I think it's great.
Okay, I wasn't aware of that. Are you saying that the only back available for the 6008 is the P20? What a shame; a really nice system, very technically advanced in many ways, yet just not there.
None of the newer backs from Phase or Leaf are available for the 6008. Imacron has a back that works on the 6008 but it has tethered magazine for image storage that is about the size of a battery pack on a Metz flash unit. I'm not sure about anyone else, but the handwriting on the wall appears to be the newer units from Phase or Leaf are unavailable for this camera.
idofotos wrote:
The H1 can use CF lenses with an adaptor which should make it more versitile and give a better lens selection, I havent tried it yet but if I keep the H2 I will go that route
The Contax 645 can also use CF lenses with an adapter, so it is just as versitile (and all of the glass for it would be Zeiss).
gdstaples wrote:
There will be fewer, not more choices in the future as the professional market is simply too small to support more than a couple MF companies. Last time I read market specs, the professional camera market accounted for less than $720 million. This includes DSLR bodies.
But I would suggest that the professional market has always been that size and there has always been room for more than just a few players. I would think that the market size is probably increasing due to the higher relative price of digital equipment. Further, as digital technology stabilizes and becomes more broadly accessible to manufacturers, I believe we will see there will be as many players in the professional market as there was before.
All Imacon backs can be used on the 6008 series cameras (not just the AF); I have heard (but I cannot find any affirmation on the leaf site) that the Aptus backs can be used on these as well. (their site just talks about the Rollei X-act).
And then there are the Sinar and Eyelike backs.
I love my 6008 and am certainly planning to buy a back for this camera! In Europe support and second hand availability is generally better than in the States for this camera system.
Lotus - I think you are going to see a lot fewer companies due to mergers and acquisitions not more or the same. The R&D costs are vastly higher in today's digital world than in the film days of past. Most companies cannot afford to develop their own sensors so the market will most likely whittle down to maybe 3 or 4 players. You are already seeing this on the consumer side as far as DSLR systems go.
Is there any difference on how backs mount on the AF vs. MF version of the Contax 645? Also, are there differences in lens quality of Contax AF vs. MF lenses? The reason I ask is that on the Hasselblad side there are differences in electronic contacts from H1 to H2 and also the HC lenses are much sharper with better color than the older C/CF T* lenses.
gdstaples wrote:
Is there any difference on how backs mount on the AF vs. MF version of the Contax 645? Also, are there differences in lens quality of Contax AF vs. MF lenses? The reason I ask is that on the Hasselblad side there are differences in electronic contacts from H1 to H2 and also the HC lenses are much sharper with better color than the older C/CF T* lenses.
There is no MF version of the Contax 645 . They are all AF. Of the 645's lenses, however, the 120/f4.0 Apo Makro Planar is manual focus only.
Regarding the number of companies in the professional market, if the number of players decline in the short term, there will be opportunities for them or new entrants later on. One of the important points about technology stabilizing and becoming more available is that digital-related R&D costs will decline (as will objective IQ differences due to sensor/digital side of the equipment, there will most like continue to be subjective differences) so it will be easier to get in and stay in the market.
One thing to notice is that if Live Focus comes to MF sensors, a camera will just be a box with a lens mount in front - no more mirror, no more AF system, no more metering system, and maybe even no more shutter. Anyone including Alpa could make such a box, and conceivably it could be made for Contax lenses with AF enabled. Also -haha- the old hassy bodies would make perfect systems if the mirror could be locked up or removed.
