I've been considering the new H4D/40 body, but note that it, as well as the 31 mpix back have a smaller sensor than the H4D/50 and even the discontinued CF39, or even my V system CFV16. The former being 33x44mm and the latter being 37x49mm (37x37 on the CFV16). Other than the obvious slight difference in lens factor, what kind of quality differences might there be? There's a major increase in price between the H4D/40 and H4D/50, which indicates to me that the smaller sensor might be inferior to its larger cousin.
For a slightly less dollar amount, I can instead purchase the CFV50 back for my current V body. It contains the larger sensor, but it would restrict me to yet more years of mechanical shooting. At my senior age, I'd love to advance to some of the modern electronics of the H system that I've never experienced in 40 years of using a V body. Any opinion would be appreciated.
Hi Inferior is a relative term. In fact the H4D-40 has an improved iso performance due to the new improved sensor and the presence of micro lenses (that have also drawbacks).
They are multiple reasons for the difference in price. Some of them are marketing reasons (The big sensors are premium products). Some others are due to volume reasons (this is a higly popular sensor, including the Pentax 645). Other reasons had to be with the impact of sensor size on price (microelectronics) including but not limited to:
- A bigger sensor imply less sensors per wafer (this is proportional to the area)
- Less efficient number of chips per wafer (more unused space in general)
- diminished yields: if far more difficult to produce a chip as it grows in number of elements.
- Some times you need more bandwidth from the support electronics. I believe this don't apply in this case
There are many more. In general the H4D40 is a good balance. Before the Pentax and the IQ series It was like a no brainer for the price. Nowadays if different. In the other hand if you want to get an advantage above others (using DSLR) in terms of mega pixels, you need to take into account that new machines are coming from Canon and Nikon.
Other points: The smaller sensors will stress far less the glass, the sensor on the H4D60 is even bigger, the short end (lens mm) will be hurt on a cropped sensor, but the high will improve.
Finally the micro lenses have issues with some levels of T/S but I, normally, don't shoot architecture so I am not qualified to make an informed comment on that.
Other people on the forum will do.
Hope it helps,
James
