Fantastic...another thread that lasted less than two posts before turning into a GX680 promo...(great camera BTW, if not the most suitable for digital capture...)
I find it fascinating that for the last billion years of digital capture there has been the same discussion from all the digital makers that their competitors lenses aren't as sharp are sharper than their own, or if that doesn't work, then a 80 mpx back will show the defects a 22mp back won't, or a 18mp dslr will never hold up to a digital back, or . . . well you get the idea.
But getting back to topic . . . all the guy wants is a new lens he can focus and he doesn't have to put gaffer tape on it to make it work. That's a pretty simple request and once again to stay back on topic, nobody really gives him a satisfactory answer.
I find all of this rather fascinating as some of the most beautiful photography I've ever seen really isn't that edge to edge sharp. In fact most beautiful photographs I've seen in any genre are usually kind of soft and do not look like reality . . . they are an interpretation of life.
Not that there is not bias on all fronts and all that bias isn't just from factory reps pushing their brand , it comes from users, chart readers, pixel pushers that are just positive the perfectly sharp camera hasn't really been invented yet, though in my experience nothing adds sharpness like getting the image in focus.
Maybe a flat field edge to edge sharp lens is important to some product guys (and I say some) or if you work in the basement of the Nation Portrait Gallery copying art work, but in the world of making a pretty picture, sharpness can be extremely over rated.
Speaking of NPG this is from their website
but by the standards of today's digital explorers, they would tear it apart saying "I think their is 5% noise in the shadows and it's really not a true 80mpx file".
Anyway, I like the guy here that uses a fuji 680 cause it's different, he's experimenting and let's face it, in the artistic photography world you can do a lot more with a bendable camera than you can a Mamiya 645 and no offense to mamiya 645 owners, but I fail to understand how anyone really falls in love with the 645 Mamiya and what a strange state photography is in where only 2 1/2 new medium format cameras are even still produced. The Mamiya with a fixed prism, the H series blad and the Rollei/HY6 that nobody seems to want to make a real push for.
Maybe it's just me but when I bought my contax(s) I did so because I heard they had stopped production. For me that was perfect, because I could mount a billion different lenses on them, they cost less than a ticket to a concert and in all the years I've used them the only sharpness issues I've seen (actually I find them too sharp) is when focus is missed.
Still I've shot pretty pictures with them, never worried about warranties because their cheap to buy and they've worked for a long time.
I believe if there were more inventive cameras and were as well built like the fuji 680 that really fitted medium format sensors, (or any sensor for that matter) you'd see much more interest than than the warmed over film cameras that are being sold as the digital solution.
IMO
BC
