Hey Guys!
So, today was my first commercial use of the Phase One XF with my Leaf Credo 60 and I wanted to offer some comments and interesting finds for anyone that may be interested.
I am a professional photographer and I shoot models primarily. I shoot about 2,000 images a week. I use the Phase One medium format system and a Canon 1Dx with a plethora of Profoto lighting. Previously I used a Mamiya 645DF and then a Phase One 645DF+ and now a Phase One XF. With the recent Leaf compatibility announcement, it has been a long wait to get this combination in hand.
I have always been left wanting with the DF and DF+ bodies. The arguably archaic interface and the focus were a bit lackluster and I never liked the grip and I absolutely hated the vertical grip. I have big hands and the vertical grip seems like it was designed for giants. So, hearing about the XF ground up design was very exciting. I held one back when it was announced and it felt "right". The grip design alone was enough to get me hooked. The build quality (looks and feels like it was hewn from a solid block of aluminum) is impeccable and the "iPhone-like" interface is very 21st century. So, prior to getting into the system, all indications were that it would be a winner. So I waited. And waited. And waited....for compatibility with my Leaf Credo 60.
Upon receiving the announcement of compatibility with my Leaf Credo, I was anxious to see how it would fare in my normal situations of use. Today was that day.
Before I get into the use, I want to mention two products that I found recently that may be of interest to other users.
Handstrap:
I typically do not use any straps on my cameras. Moving fast, it impedes my workflow. However, with the value of the XF + Back + Lens and the tethering/tripping danger, I felt a handstrap would offer some good insurance. Straps are very personal items and what one person likes, another person dislikes. Well, i found a handstrap that is truly a beautifully designed and implemented product. I thought I would share it with you guys. The strap is made by a small company called SpiderPro. I have their Spider Holster (awesome product) and when they produced their handstrap, I had to take a look and give it a shot. It is quite literally a work of art and beautifully made. I had to modify the plastic top insert very slightly with some snips, but other than that, it works wonderfully. Its ergonomics are fantastic and it looks great too (imho). I included some photos below.
Pelican Case Foam Insert:
I use Pelican cases for all my gear. I have about 20 of them. My medium format case has used the pick-n-pluck foam from Pelican. Anyone that has used this foam knows that it degrades with time. It is a polyurethane foam I believe. I have some cases that use polyethylene foam and it is a higher end foam that has a much higher stiffness and strength. Well, I did some searching the other night for a custom foam insert for my medium format case and I found this website
www.mycasebuilder.com I clicked through and they have this amazing online design suite wherein you can design your own insert with real-time 3d modeling!. Super cool. You can make general geometric shapes, or you can use their library of product shapes or you can use a photo of an item and then trace around it and provide overall measurements from which it scales the trace and makes a template. Wicked cool! I made a template of my XF with 110mmLF attached and my Really Right Stuff L bracket attached as well. I used their premade lens template and battery template and battery charger template. You can rearrange, rotate, add, subtract, change depth, etc. Incredibly versatile.
So, after I was done, I saved my design, and clicked order. Voila! I will have it in hand by the end of the month. I attached a screen capture of the 3D model.
Use of the XF:
In a word...wonderful! It was so refreshing to pull the XF from the case, turn on the power, remove the lens cap and start shooting with my strobes. Talk about easy and reliable. I started outside and synced my strobes at 1/1000s for those shots. I was always used to syncing that fast (and faster up to 1/1600s), so nothing new here. However, the speed and accuracy of focus was markedly better. It seemed quite a bit more responsive and accurate than the DF+. I have it set up as back-button focus and it locked focus quickly and accurately. I was shooting at f2.8 as usual and I would focus on eyes and recompose. It was not my 1Dx, but I have to say, it was pretty damn fast and accurate and I did not feel held back at all. Incidentally, I have the focus assist light set to "on", thereby improving my chances of getting eyes in focus. I was shooting as fast as the system allowed and got into a rhythm that worked for me and the model. I then moved inside and synced at 1/500s (just because I could) and everything worked great. There was once instance wherein the camera locked up. I had to turn it off and back on and everything was well after that.
One thing I noticed is that you can only set ISO from the Credo. It cannot be set from the top screen on the XF. At least it seemed that way until I read further in the manual on the subject.
So, overall, very happy!
Oh, one final comment. As I was designing my foam insert, I pulled all my medium format gear out and my XF was sitting next to my RZ67. I have to say, the XF system is about 80-90% of the size of the RZ system. But here is the real surprise....I think the XF system may actually be heavier than the RZ system! I didn't weigh them, but I have to tell you it seems pretty damn close! As I said earlier, the XF feels like it was made from a solid block of aluminum.
