No Buzz About Phase One 150MP Back?

[faberryman]

I have seen virtually no buzz about Phase One's new 150MP back.

https://petapixel.com/2017/04/04/sony-plans-release-150mp-medium-format-sensor-2018/

 

[Eric Rose]

I wonder if they will give me one for the exposure they will get from my raving about it on my blog? Heck I will even do an unboxing youtube!

 

[faberryman]

I think the new back is $15K, plus camera/lens. May require more than an unboxing video. Meanwhile, everyone has gone gaga over the Nikon Z7 with a measly 45MP in a much smaller sensor.

 

[canuhead]

I'd be more impressed if they made a Hasselblad V back housing a 6x6 sensor. That would be kind of a game changer imo

 

[Cholentpot]

Lamborghini announces new car and I won't notice.

Toyota does something cool and innovative I'll be sure to follow it.

 

[faberryman]

Lamborghini announces new car and I won't notice. Toyota does something cool and innovative I'll be sure to follow it.

It's good to keep up with technical advancements in your field of interest whether or not you can afford their initial incarnation; they have a way of trickling down. Phase One has to keep pushing the envelope; Fuji and Hasselblad are right behind them.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

I wonder if they will give me one for the exposure they will get from my raving about it on my blog? Heck I will even do an unboxing youtube!

Lol. That cracked me up.

 

[Cholentpot]

It's good to keep up with technical advancements in your field of interest whether or not you can afford their initial incarnation; they have a way of trickling down. Phase one has to keep pushing the envelope; Fuji and Hasselblad are right behind them.

Now that I saw it I'm reading about it. I'm just explaining where the hype went.

 

[nmp]

Lamborghini announces new car and I won't notice.

Toyota does something cool and innovative I'll be sure to follow it.

+1

 

[Cholentpot]

+1

I mean I own a Toyota. A new system to regulate the 4 cylinders that I do have will impact me for more and far quicker than a lambo's 18th cylinder that works better due to synthetic sperm whale oil.

 

[jim10219]

150 MP isn't really innovative. It's just more of the same. Now if they made it with optional UV and IR capabilities, or some other new feature, I'd be more excited. Or if they made a 4x5 back, I'd probably take out a loan. But my old 16MP Nikon seems to have enough resolution for 95% of my needs, and Photoshop's latest enlarging logarithms fulfill another 4.9% of my needs, so I find it difficult to justify the price when I'm sure 50 MP would be plenty for me.

 

[Bob Carnie]

It's good to keep up with technical advancements in your field of interest whether or not you can afford their initial incarnation; they have a way of trickling down. Phase One has to keep pushing the envelope; Fuji and Hasselblad are right behind them.

Plus One - Phase is a system I completely support as a large group of my clients who print frame and show are using these systems for some very obvious reasons, I sponsor their Toronto Standout Events and like Frank am very open to this new technology which also includes Capture One, which I am learning.
They have a used back program that can get people into their systems and from all my interations with Phase One they are a world class organization totally dedicated to photography and yes dedicated to make a good income from their efforts.

 

[Bob Carnie]

150 MP isn't really innovative. It's just more of the same. Now if they made it with optional UV and IR capabilities, or some other new feature, I'd be more excited. Or if they made a 4x5 back, I'd probably take out a loan. But my old 16MP Nikon seems to have enough resolution for 95% of my needs, and Photoshop's latest enlarging logarithms fulfill another 4.9% of my needs, so I find it difficult to justify the price when I'm sure 50 MP would be plenty for me.

You are probably right Jim 50mp backs are completely fantastic.

 

[tedr1]

I have no experience with these very large sensor systems only with "consumer" cameras. I stepped up from a 6MP point-and-shoot to a 22MP full-frame DSLR and was impressed with the gain in technical image quality in particular the lower noise from the bigger sensor pixels used in the DSLR.
In the case of the Sony sensor announcement it seems to be a case of squeezing more pixels onto the same sensor area. This causes pixel size to shrink and degrades the image quality. Perhaps the quality is good enough that it can tolerate this? However it seems to me it is the same game that has been played with all the sensor formats since day one, boast about the MP number, it is simple and easily grasped and easily compared. However pixel size is also very important because of the beneficial effect on noise when pixel size is increased.

 

[faberryman]

This causes pixel size to shrink and degrades the image quality.

Doesn't have too. We've seen FF pixel count increase over the years up to 45MP. You can argue about how much is enough, but I don't think anyone has found that image quality has deteriorated along the way. Certainly the 100MP Phase One back is stellar, and an improvement over the 50MP back. We'll have to see how the 150MP back fares in comparison. One thing is certain: analog stalwarts are going to increase the equivalent MP count for film. That alleged number has been rising for a decade. It's a ruse so digital will never catch up in their minds.

 

[Eric Rose]

(Grumpy)I don't give a rats behind about 150Mp sensors. I was more than happy with my D700 and am very happy with my 16Mp Panasonic G85. Less than 1% of professional photographers will either need or use these super hi rez backs. Certainly no one on Photrio.

All that matters to ME is whether I can make the image I want with what I have. If I can't then and only then will I go shopping. I don't even bother to look at the ads for all the shiny new stuff. Why bother, I'd rather spend my time making images.(Grumpy off)

 

[Ai Print]

Less than 1% of professional photographers will either need or use these super hi rez backs. Certainly no one on Photrio.

Easy there big guy...

In the past 6 or so years I have seen sales from murals up to 30 feet long that are printed at 300dpi increase substantially. These are used for trade shows, point of purchase displays, airport and hotel lobbies, etc. I think I have in the order of two dozen over 10 feet wide / tall at this client's ticket counters and retail operations alone.

While I have no immediate plans to upgrade to 100+MP backs, I certainly make a lot of good use in stitching together immense images from my 46MP DSLR and 50MP Hasselblad back.

 

[faberryman]

(Grumpy)I don't give a rats behind about 150Mp sensors. I was more than happy with my D700 and am very happy with my 16Mp Panasonic G85. Less than 1% of professional photographers will either need or use these super hi rez backs. Certainly no one on Photrio.

All that matters to ME is whether I can make the image I want with what I have. If I can't then and only then will I go shopping. I don't even bother to look at the ads for all the shiny new stuff. Why bother, I'd rather spend my time making images.(Grumpy off)

You doth protest too much, methinks. I suspect there is an upgrade in your future.

 

[Eric Rose]

You doth protest too much, methinks. I suspect there is an upgrade in your future.

I'm just waiting for the Panasonic GH5 to come down below 2K CAD. The only reason I am looking at it is I need the extra video features it has. The G85 will make a fantastic B Roll camera.

 

[Cholentpot]

Easy there big guy...

In the past 6 or so years I have seen sales from murals up to 30 feet long that are printed at 300dpi increase substantially. These are used for trade shows, point of purchase displays, airport and hotel lobbies, etc. I think I have in the order of two dozen over 10 feet wide / tall at this client's ticket counters and retail operations alone.

While I have no immediate plans to upgrade to 100+MP backs, I certainly make a lot of good use in stitching together immense images from my 46MP DSLR and 50MP Hasselblad back.

I had 10 foot x 10 foots of images I shot with a 6D. No-one is sticking their nose up to the prints, they looked great.

 

[Luckless]

Having worked for years with rather technical imagery and higher and higher resolution sensors, I have to say that I'm rather happy to see the limit being pushed yet again.

I find that the real value in higher resolution capture isn't that you can print bigger and bigger images with more and more detail, but rather that you can apply processes such as supersampling to the data before the final image is produced. The final resolution may not change, but when sourcing from a higher resolution capture you can product a finer, more detailed, and more accurate representation than you can from a lower resolution capture.

 

[Ai Print]

I had 10 foot x 10 foots of images I shot with a 6D. No-one is sticking their nose up to the prints, they looked great.

Yeah, well...that used to be the dynamic but it is changing fast, especially since people now know they can stick their nose up to my images and they will keep on pulling the viewer in. And what it is doing is changing the psychology of the still image for some people, they back away and then take it in again and feel differently about it because it did not say to them by way of grain or pixelation "You are too close, back away from the print" lol!

There is "Looked great" and then there is "Looked unlike anything I have seen before".

 

[Cholentpot]

Yeah, well...that used to be the dynamic but it is changing fast, especially since people now know they can stick their nose up to my images and they will keep on pulling the viewer in. And what it is doing is changing the psychology of the still image for some people, they back away and then take it in again and feel differently about it because it did not say to them by way of grain or pixelation "You are too close, back away from the print" lol!

There is "Looked great" and then there is "Looked unlike anything I have seen before".

It was hanging on the wall at a medical volunteer fundraising dinner. I don't think many people were pixel peeping. Kind of hard to do that when the print is hanging 8 feet in the air.

Anyhoo no-one cares about the resolution if it's a nice photo. I know it sounds cliche.

 

[Eric Rose]

I've been retired from professional photography for a few years but my friends who are still in the industry, some young, some old, say a D800 is all the resolution you need. Their clients are still making murals etc. and are very happy with images from that type of resolution. The old school AD's are long gone.

 

[ParkerSmithPhoto]

Back in 2007 I owned a Kodak DCS Pro Back (think that's what it was called), 16MP square sensor for the Mamiya 645 series camera. So it was essentially about a 4x4 crop inside the larger 645 frame. I made some sparkling 36" prints off of these files. I guess someone needs 150MP but I sure don't!