The "poor people" will be rolling in laughter when they see what the Leaf screen looks like in daylight and they ask how much you paid for the camera.
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Dear All,
Actually, per attached the poor people very much enjoyed the Leaf screen. That photo is from a tribal village at Araku in mountains about two hours drive from Visakhapatnam, India. I walked there with an Indian from Visakhapatnam who helped to translate with me speaking to people. The tribal people were very accepting to me photographing them and found great joy in seeing their image on the large screen right after I had taken a photo. Actually, many of them got excited of seeing themselves that way. It felt to point of touching my heart, not due to expensive gear but in seeing their smiles and excitement. Children in particular giggled in great excitement to see their photo. These people cannot afford to take photos themselves, nor afford pay to have someone to give them such precious memories. I took numerous photos there and also got the address to their village so I can send them prints now after (however normal print size so that I not come across at extravagant or make them request photos from each foreigner who visit their village). I am sure they will feel happiness when receive them.
Speaking to a local newpaper reporter after the visit to their village, I was told that about 6% of the tribal population die each year due to Malaria and unclean water. It puts life in a very scary perspective. Photos speak... even though poor people display wonderful characteristic faces and smiles, life is not always simple and fair. Nor is it simple to help. Donations make people dependent on donations or begging as a job. Same time... another side of the coin is perhaps that if we bring them to wealth then their tribal culture may be lost or mere on display in museums... also perhaps the kind and respecting values they showed me may turn to the gread and cheating I was met by in other parts of my travels in India (Delhi, Varanasi, Agra etc.).
Above said; now a gigantic step to our gear...
I took many more photos than the one I post. The Leaf Aptus 65 is exceeding my expectations. One thing that repeatedly struck me was that the images looked good on its screen, but when opening in CS3 they looked consistent more impressive. Also that even at default settings in CS3 the colors and other image parameters already appeared very pleasing. There seem to be not so many adjustments required until get pleasing colors and image parameters as I was used to from ZD and D200. I did not quite anticipate this. The A65 is also excellent at up to around 30 second night exposures during which it produces clean noise free files at ISO 50. As an amateur and traveler I find also ISO 800 very useful. It is of course not noise free, but clear exceeds the performance of ISO 800 of Nikon D200, not to mention ZDs high ISO. Perhaps it is on pair or better than ISO 165 on ZD, much also due to the more pixels. Due to 28.6MP the noise is very fine grained noise. It can be partly cleaned in PP making images slight softer. Such images when much smaller than 28.6MP are fully useful to me, while of course not of same quality as ISO50. ISO 50 is super clean.
Much thanks again to all posters above for good help on info and viewpoints on Phase One and Leaf. The feeling after three weeks travel with the A65 is that it feels like a rather excellent tool for my photography. The feeling of India? At times strong. Some scenes and experiences can be difficult to comprehend. It certainly puts life in perspective...
Thanks for above posts.
Regards
Anders
