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Author Topic: Mamiya ZD back mini review  (Read 31600 times)

Snook

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Mamiya ZD back mini review
« Reply #20 on: October 25, 2007, 11:01:15 am »

I agree with mark alittle in that the shot with the guy looks like it is blurry or something?
The lines and even his face looks like it is slightly Blurry or mushed like mark said.
Was there some ambient light entering and you were shooting at a slow shutter speed?
Just an observation...
Thanks alot for the Post and please post more..
Snook
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bcroslin

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Mamiya ZD back mini review
« Reply #21 on: October 25, 2007, 11:05:55 am »

I played around with tethering this morning and I'm happy to report it was a piece of cake to set the ZD back up and shoot through the Mamiya software. I shot to a Macbook with 3 gigs of RAM running OS 10.4.4.

Shooting can be slow but I was only shooting to the HD and not to the card as well. Not sure if that makes a difference in speed.

There is a lag of a second or two after firing the first frame and then I was able to fire a frame every 1.5-2 sec's with an occasional lag. It takes about 10 sec's for the preview to pop up in the Mamiya software which is light years behind my experience with the Valeo 22 and LC11.

When shooting to a hot folder in Lightroom it takes triple that amount of time making that setup useless for now. My hope is that the rumored Lightroom ZD back tethered shooting support materializes soon.

I'm hoping to try this during an actual shoot soon.
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Bob Croslin, Photographer
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bcroslin

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« Reply #22 on: October 25, 2007, 11:08:15 am »

Quote
I agree with mark alittle in that the shot with the guy looks like it is blurry or something?

It was crap light at a slower speed plus there's some jpg artifacting going on. I'll find a better example later today. Plus looking at that baby-poop green wall is killing me!

 
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Bob Croslin, Photographer
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Snook

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« Reply #23 on: October 25, 2007, 11:21:50 am »

Bob I really appreciate your posts and in no means trying to be offensive..  
Please keep us informed...
Nice work and thanks a lot.
Snook
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david o

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« Reply #24 on: October 25, 2007, 07:43:10 pm »

10sec from what I can see it looks not bad.
Promising at least...
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Anders_HK

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« Reply #25 on: October 25, 2007, 09:52:35 pm »

Quote
It was crap light at a slower speed plus there's some jpg artifacting going on. I'll find a better example later today. Plus looking at that baby-poop green wall is killing me!

 
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Bob,

I use SilkyPix as well. You may wish to check your NR setting on that portrait. Per my eye the look is as if NR is tuned high.

Regards
Anders

Quote
If anyone knows of a revealing blob test, it would be nice to know.
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Jon,

In an older thread I posted a test I did with my ZD camera. I shot from tripod of subject posted on wall with diffused backlighting. The subject was near black neoprene in one half of frame and near white in other. I shot this at different ISOs. The near black neoprene is similar to darkest shadow and it may help to detect a problem if there is one.

Regards
Anders
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bcroslin

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« Reply #26 on: October 25, 2007, 10:47:22 pm »

Quote
Per my eye the look is as if NR is tuned high.

NR was set at the Lightroom default of 25. It's just a mushy frame is all. I'm going to shoot something specifically for this thread tomorrow so we can pick it apart.
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Bob Croslin, Photographer
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Anders_HK

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« Reply #27 on: October 26, 2007, 02:25:14 am »

Quote
NR was set at the Lightroom default of 25. It's just a mushy frame is all. I'm going to shoot something specifically for this thread tomorrow so we can pick it apart.
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Bob,

In no way trying pick apart your image, just trying help.  

I may be wrong, but I seem to recall that the default vary somewhat depending on how SilkyPix interprets the image. Possibly playing with the different NR settings may help to better that particular image.

Personally, I have used SilkyPix for about 20 months. A few months ago I re-read the manual again. That was an eye opener. I aim to read it again soon, simply there is such wealth of info in there. I can much recommend to anyone to re-read the manual in detail. It is a very good program and definently feels superior to Lightroom to me. Noise is one example where there is alot of different settings.

Looking forward to see more samples from you.    

Regards
Anders
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bcroslin

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« Reply #28 on: October 26, 2007, 10:13:13 am »

Quote
In no way trying pick apart your image, just trying help. 

I totally know that and no worries. I want to shoot and post something that can be gone over with a fine tooth comb at full or close to full rez.
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Bob Croslin, Photographer
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bcroslin

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« Reply #29 on: November 02, 2007, 11:21:08 pm »

It's been a really busy week but here's something I shot quickly with the ZD back on my 645AFD with the 80mm. Warmth is from a bright yellow slide my daughter is standing next too. This is far from a perfect image but I think it's a good example of what the files from the new generation ZD back looks like at ISO 100.

Processed in Photoshop with all sharpening and noise reduction turned off. First image is full frame but sized down. Second frame is a full rez crop.

I've used the ZD on several shoots now and I'm very happy with it. The buffer is a little problematic but overall the back rocks.
« Last Edit: November 02, 2007, 11:33:59 pm by bcroslin »
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John_Black

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« Reply #30 on: November 02, 2007, 11:50:27 pm »

Can the back write the RAW file to CF and JPEG to the SD?  I know it can write both, I'm just curious if Mamiya was clever enough to control which format goes to which card.  I'm thinking Epson P3000/5000 would be a nice companion to check JPEGs if the ZD can write JPEGs to the SD.
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mcfoto

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« Reply #31 on: November 03, 2007, 12:34:53 am »

Quote
It's been a really busy week but here's something I shot quickly with the ZD back on my 645AFD with the 80mm. Warmth is from a bright yellow slide my daughter is standing next too. This is far from a perfect image but I think it's a good example of what the files from the new generation ZD back looks like at ISO 100.

Processed in Photoshop with all sharpening and noise reduction turned off. First image is full frame but sized down. Second frame is a full rez crop.

I've used the ZD on several shoots now and I'm very happy with it. The buffer is a little problematic but overall the back rocks.
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Hi
Very film like, are you using LR?
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Denis Montalbetti
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« Reply #32 on: November 03, 2007, 01:04:48 am »

Bob,

I think you're bringing hope to all ZD watchers. How does it handle contrasty situations?
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Darnell
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Anders_HK

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« Reply #33 on: November 03, 2007, 02:04:36 am »

Hello Bob,

As has been stated in past the ZD camera & back is at its best 50-125 ISO. I am very interested to know if you see any improvements to to higher ISOs and long exposures compared to that?

Anything else that has improved?

Much thanks  

Regards
Anders
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bcroslin

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« Reply #34 on: November 03, 2007, 02:27:04 pm »

Quote
I am very interested to know if you see any improvements to to higher ISOs and long exposures compared to that?

I posted a sliver of an image shot at ISO 100 for 10 sec's earlier in this thread and there's minimal noise. I'll try and shoot a test that can be picked apart when I get time but I can tell you from my experience that long exposures up to 8-10 sec's seem very usable.

ISO 200 still shows some noise but doesn't look bad on lights.
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espressogeek

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« Reply #35 on: November 05, 2007, 02:05:45 pm »

Looks good enough to me. I think Mamiya will work out most of the warts that should not occur. If so a back at this price range looks darn good to me.

Has BH had any in stock lately? If no they seem to move them quite well as I have not seen one there in a while.
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bcroslin

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« Reply #36 on: November 05, 2007, 10:44:45 pm »

The important thing is to make sure you're buying a ZD back recently shipped from Japan. My first back had the serial # GC3244 and the new one is GI30XX. My guess is that the later the second letter in the serial number is the better you'll be.

Like I said - all of the issues I had with the first back - lockups, noise, worms, etc. - are fixed. If the buffer was twice as large and the LCD an inch larger the back would be perfect. I'm pretty confident at this point that the image quality of my back can hang with the Aptus and Valeo 22.
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david o

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« Reply #37 on: November 05, 2007, 10:51:45 pm »

Quote
The important thing is to make sure you're buying a ZD back recently shipped from Japan. My first back had the serial # GC3244 and the new one is GI30XX. My guess is that the later the second letter in the serial number is the better you'll be.

Like I said - all of the issues I had with the first back - lockups, noise, worms, etc. - are fixed. If the buffer was twice as large and the LCD an inch larger the back would be perfect. I'm pretty confident at this point that the image quality of my back can hang with the Aptus and Valeo 22.
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will you have soon on your website images done with it? or should you ask more to post here  
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bcroslin

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« Reply #38 on: November 05, 2007, 11:50:44 pm »

If I could have found an Aptus 22 for less than 16k when I was looking 3 months ago I may have purchased one. Had I found one at $10k it would have been a no brainer. There just happens to be a demo with warranty Aptus 22 in a 645 mount on ebay for $10k from Midwest Photo Exchange right this minute. The best price I saw from PPR recently on a refurb Aptus 22 was $13.5k.

I would expect that price to fall further when the 1Ds MKIII ships.

In the meantime I'm just happy with my ZD back because I learned a long time ago it gets me nowhere to second guess gear purchases.

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Bob Croslin, Photographer
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bcroslin

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« Reply #39 on: November 08, 2007, 10:21:38 am »

Here's a few more frames from a shoot with the new ZD back on lights Wednesday.

The first 2 frames are ISO 200 run through Lightroom with all sharpening and noise reduction turned off. The crop frame is at 100%.

More images to follow.
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