Being the wedding season (Spring in Sydney is fantastic!), we are flat out and I have crunched through a number of wedding now with both Kodak and P20. I actually had plans to only use the Kodak 645M for something a bit different to my DSLRs, but the prints were amazing compared to our 5Ds and S3s. They didn't look any different on the computer, but the printed images had so much more punch over the DSLRs, that I went out the next week and bought another AFD and back. This time a P20 as I love the square format and wanted a back that was supported.
It's clear to see that the P20 has a lingering heritage from the studio world. As in i'm sure using controlled studio lighting and without significant time limits returns the most stunning images every time. And I gather the patience of landscape photography allows one to do likewise. But moving quickly from dark churches (hi ISO) with mostly uncontrollable mixed lighting to bright/ park-lands or beach shots and then to large architectural images with winding staircases..... and then into a reception venue all within hours does show some areas that I'd love to see improved in the next Phase One backs.
AWB - The AWB is very very poor. Actually it is probably the worst AWB of any camera I use. No big deal when your taking a handful of images in the same place, but when the location is changing every 20mins, it adds up. It did take about 3hours to PP 1500 images. With the P20 AWB fixes, this time has increased. Strangely enough the kodak isn't as bad. I've got nine weddings in the next 4 weeks, taking thousands of images all requiring significant WB adjustments. Not including the next three years with the P20. Oh well thank God for grey cards!
High ISO - I use the entire ISO range on the P20. ISO 400-800 is rough, but at the print size that I print at, I can live with it. I understand the + series has improved this, but I spend half my time in dark churches and receptions. On one hand ISO800 is clearer then my old ISO800 film shots. But I think the comparison to film is not the benchmark anymore. Canon high ISO is now the benchmark. As more and more DSLR shooters get their hands on MFDB's they are going to be expecting cleaner high ISO images.
Somethings I love is the clean ISO50-100 images. Wow they are great. C1 is so easy to use and so is the back. I end up processing about 100 images at the reception to show in a slideshow. I can't wait for V4.
