Leaf Aptus 75

[Christian 2000]

This is an account of my experiences during half a year as a user of a Leaf Aptus 75 from October 2006 to March 2007.

My Leaf Aptus 75 was delivered on 21st September 2006. This product is one of the best-quality camera backs on the market. In the following six months, my back had to be exchanged two times because of centerfold issues. Additionally, there were five other complaint cases, four of which were total failures, presumably due to firmware problems. Two total failures happened right in front of my customers while people-shooting.

The first problem occurred after only two weeks: dust had collected on the inner side of the IR filter. Over a period of six months, the back was out of my studio for 26 days being shipped or serviced. Only part of the shipping expenses were paid by Calumet and up to this day (3rd June 2007), no damages have been paid by either Leaf or Calumet (the German distributor).

The  representative of Leaf Europa  made three appointments at my studio – apparently in order to arrange for a damages payment – and invariably failed to materialize. Obviously, I had reserved the time for these appointments in my schedule, but the company staff proved no more reliable than their product.

I have now used my third back, the first one without a centerfold problem, for three months without major problems. However, this seems to be over now as the sensor has just detected another case of dust on the inner side of the IR filter. The next complaint case is opened.

I’d consider the Aptus 75 a good choice for anyone prepared to exchange their back several times due to centerfold issues and to deal with any number of other minor disturbances. When the back is actually working and not being serviced, the image quality is good. However, when I decided to buy the device, I certainly did not expect all this trouble.

You can read here [http://www.guenther-fotodesign.de/Back/kurz_de.pdf]  this text in German and have a look at a detailed account of the problems in German and in English on this website.

Christian Günther

www.guenther-fotodesign.de

[E_Edwards]

Sorry to hear about your problems, Christian.

By contrast, I have two Aptus A65 which I bought roughly at the same time as you and I shoot hundreds and hundreds of pictures and I haven't had any problems (touch wood).

Actually, I had a minor centrefold issue, this seems to have been resolved.

I'm surprised that dust can get in-between the glass and the sensor, I thought they were sealed units.

Wishing you better luck in the future  

Edward

[nicolaasdb]

sorry to hear.... have an A65....and besides the hard resets about every other CF card....no problems (besides the centerfold issue..which is only detectable shooting at high iso and in underexposed conditions, which I don't do)...

the dust issue is very strange...I have even shot at the beach and in the dessert...no dust problems whatsoever.

I viewed your website and think that for product photography the Phase back would have been better....it is sharper and renders artificial colors better..while Leaf is more for people shoots (skin tone and real film look)

I am sorry to hear about the bad Leaf respondse...the reason I took Leaf over Phase was that the regional leaf sales manager (Bill Gemberling) was the best...he provided me with a back while mine was in backorder and I know he will do the same when I back would fail during a shoot. Leaf and Phase are both so close in quality that support is almost more important.

[bjornaagedk]

I use an Aptus75 with a Cambo Ultima 23 for studio photography. Have had the back for 8-10 months now - without any problems like centerfold issue, dust - whatsoever.
It delivers very sharp and realistic images....

I though have had problems with the Leaf Capture software (10.x). Problems getting thumbs to show up etc.

I just installed Capture 11 last week and did about 800 product shots in the weekend.
This software is the most stable Capture software I have used ever, it is just as stable as PhaseOne Capture One, I think.
Only problem I had was the software a few times suddenly became very slow (2-3 times during 3 days shooting), but a restart of the Capture software solved this everytime.

The Aptus back itself has been working without any trouble in very different jobs and made 1000's exposures.

B

[snickgrr]

Zero problems with mine and V11 has not flinched once.  Initially upon receiving the 75 I was having problems with staying connected while tethered.  I was using the same Firewire cables with a repeater with the older smaller Leaf but my salesman suggested I switch to a single 33' cable from Granite Digital and to go from a nine pin to six pin.  This fixed the connection problem.
http://www.granitedigital.com/

[Christian 2000]

Hallo,

the Centerfold problem appears at 50 or 100 ISO, too, with Wide-Angle (Schneider 2,8/28) and at View- Camera- "Scheinpflug"-Schwenk and Macro-Shoots.  

I work only in Tethered-Modus with MacBook. The big preview is perfect, the Picture-Control is much better. The problems have been the Firmware. That problem goes away with the version 8.4.6.

Thank for the information. Thank you for the Granit-link.

Christian

[AndreNapier]

I am now at 37K + shots on my A75 with Rz67 without ANY problems at all. Frankly I could not be happier with the back. I have shot with all brands of digital backs in the past 7 years and finnally found my home with Aptus. Sorry to hear about your problems. I wish you better luck with your new choice.

www.AndreNapier.com

[NBP]

I've had an A65 for 5 months and I've not had a single problem with the back. It produces beautiful results for what I do and I'm extremely happy with it.

Sorry to hear of your problems - I think it was someone on here said something along the lines that once the backs have been initialised without problems then they tend go on without problems for a long time.
I guess with such delicate technology, there's bound to be some duds - Sounds like you've been unlucky & I hope you find a satisfactory solution soon.