I thought I'd share a few initial thoughts on Mamiya's ZD digital back on a AFD 645 body. This is the first digital back I've owned, but I have used the P25 digital back from Phase One on the Fuji 680 system (with adapter).
I bought the ZD back in Bangkok about a week ago for about $8000, and used it for a hotel shoot in Phuket as a replacement to 6x4.5 film and as a suppliment to the d200 gear I've been using more and more (as film gets hard to source here in Asia).
Having used digital Nikons since they started producing them, the first thing you'll immediately notice when using the ZD back is that this is obviously a first-generation piece of equipment. The many menu, button and user-interface improvements refined over time in the current crop of Nikons doesn't exist in the ZD - menus and options are very basic, multiple-button operations are needed to do basic functions like showing image information, and review/viewing screens are slow to appear.
As others have said, and I agree, the screen is useless at 1.8 inches. I only used it to check the histogram as the review looks fuzzy all the time, and image zoom only makes you wonder if anything in the shot is sharp at all. I know the lenses and focus well from film-based days, so ended up treating the back much like film by ignoring the image review (but having the bonus of a histogram!).
In favor of the back's layout, the image information itself - ISO, Image Quality and remaining shots is very easy to see and easy to change.
Switching the camera on, there is a lag while the system boots. Once on, the power-saver mode will shut the back down after a few seconds of inactivity. This was very frustrating as the timing seemed to shut down precisely after I'd called new instructions to models or moved a piece of furniture and needed to shoot again. The camera itself then needs to be switched off, turned back on and the back needs to reboot. I eventually found the power-saver in the menu and switched it off which sped up battery use but saved countless missed shots.
Shooting golf courses, hotel interiors and exteriors and food/still-lifes the back worked wonderfully - and felt much like film. The back seems balanced perfectly to the system and I forgot at times I wasn't shooting film. The user still gets the 'ka-chunk' of the camera - all the lenses of the AFD system work, including a 645 50mm manual shift lens and I could shoot about 250-300 images before needing to find a plug to charge. I get about 110 images per 4 Gig card. Shooting models (and I'm assuming the same would apply to wildlife) there is only a 1-shot-per-second maximum and the buffer fills quickly. I repeatedly found myself waiting (as well as did the clients/models) for the 10-shot buffer to write, so it makes sense to buy the fastest cards on the market to help the process along.
TWO major concerns however -
The first: there were occassional, unexplained write/shoot errors (which the Mamiya rep in BKK said was due to a needed firmware upgrade in my AFD). These happened without warning and were 'cured' by shutting down the camera and turning it on again - and a few times by popping open the (somewhat overly easy-to-open) battery door in the bottom of the back which resets it.
The second: I found very quickly that using a polarizer (on three of my lenses) severely degrades/ruins image quality. It's something I'd rarely seen before on a CCD (in fact, I regularly use PL filters without a problem on my D200 system). I'd love to hear some explainations/work-arounds by those with experience on this. This is a major drawback for me as much of my work involves water/glass/grass/etc... that requires some sort of PL filtration.
I found image quality, color and sharpness wonderful - and it's why I bought this affordable back in the first place. It's wonderful to shoot on a Medium Format system directly to digital avoiding both the grain, wait and expense of scanning. I have an affinity to the frame ratio of this system that the much wider 35mm systems, and the image quality and "look" of MF system can't be beaten. I shoot almost entirely at ISO 100 as that was the film I've always used - very little noise and a bigger dynamic range than the D200, for sure. Where I would have to use a split ND filter to keep skies with the D200, I quickly discovered the ZD back kept image highlights very well - surprisingly well, in fact. I found ISO 400 quite noisy - but no noiser than the D200. While highlights are captured very well, I found from this initial shoot, that there is very little (almost none) to underexposure. Slightly underexposed images start to blockup badly in a non-uniform way (so maybe certain channels are more/less sensitive than others??). Most of my underexposed images were almost un-useable, where as there is some 'forgiveness' with a little underexposure with the D200. I tended to expose towards the burn for most situations, which resulted in very usable files.
Final impressions are that Bridge, Lightroom and the Mamiya software all deliver drastically different previews and processing of the MEF (Raw) files. This is more disconcerting to clients looking at roughs than to me, but the difference is so profound it's impossible to judge if the White Balance settings of the back are totally off or just being interpreted strangely. Daylight WB seemed to be passable using all softward but at this point, I'm leaning towards the look (and ease) of Lightroom's previews (strangely I thought Bridge and Lightroom would look the same, but not). The Mamiya software seems to have been created by someone who has never used image-processing software, especially the now-sleek Bridge and Lightroom, and the layout, controls and image controls of the Mamiya software reminded me of programs I'd used from the 1980s.
All in all, I'm very pleased to have bought the ZD back and will post some image samples soon. The system definitely needs faster buffers, a bigger screen with decent playback quality and speeds, and better user-menus - but for the price and the quality of 22megapixels (now comparible with buying high-end digital SLRs) along with the freedom of using the 645 AFD again heavily, the investment was totally worth it.
Looking forward to your feedback -
Sincerely,
Brent Madison
www.madisonimages.com[attachment=2987:attachment]
