I think it is appropriate that I bring back my first experience with my DB since the base for my choice was the information I received in this forum
I went for a Phase One P45 for my Mamiya RZ Pro ll. Apart from technical reason one big factor was the very god response I received from the agent for Phase One here in Sweden.
After maybe three weeks from order, the DB was delivered. And after maybe three minutes the back was up an running on my RZ. Extremely simple and logical layout of buttons and selections!
To connect to my MacBookPro and using Capture One Pro to capture my photos required maybe 2 more minutes! It should maybe be noted that I use Capture One Pro as my main RAW-converter for studio shots and that i shot my Canon 1Ds2 tethered almost all the time in the studio. This experience is also a large reason for the P45.
It is pure pleasure to operate the P45 and the RZ with the WLF. I also have the metered prism finder but prefer the WLF. I have a number of Contax primes for my Canon so I am used to manual focus, but this is how it should be don! But make sure that the focus is properly adjusted to make the most use of the P45 possibilities with large apperatures. I had front focus initially witch gave me focus problem but the Phase One agent promptly fixed that problem for me.
What i quickly found out was that I had to use mirror lock up at much shorter times than I was used to because of the high resolution of the P45. Today I always use it from 1/125 and slower for landscape. In the studio I normally use shorter time so there is no problem.
I had for some time been a bit irritated on the normal manfrotto tripod and head I been using in studio and for landscape. So I bought a Manfrotto 058B tripod and a 501HDV head. Just balance the camera and lens on the head, adjust the friction, and you just have one stick to move about to position the camera in the right position. Works like a dream! I have actually used this combination during a trip to south France for landscape photographing. Of 8 day in the field I used the Mamiya and tripod/head combination during 2 days. OK it IS a heavy combination, but if you dont have to walk for more than a kilometer or so it is “doable”.
I am still surprised of how good the RZ camera system is an how cheap the lenses is compared to the quality of the glass. I actually considering to sell of my collection of Contax prime lenses, I see no more use of them for me. When the light is to low or the action to fast I still have my 1Ds2 with auto focus lenses, just as before.
But the negative thing is the file size. Out of C1 pro drops a file about 240 MB in 16 bit Adobe RGB. 8 layers later in PS the size is 800 MB and it takes 3 minutes to save the file. So a new, big and fat Mac is on the list!
So all in all I am a happy camper with no regrets, maybe except for the fact that the new P65 was announced after i bought my P45. If the other way around I would had got a lower price for my P45. But that is how it is in our constantly changing world of electronics, you are always to early or to late
Ray
