Phase One IQ250 Live View, how it stacks up

[anthonyfesta]

Continuing our testing with the new IQ250 we wanted to share how well Live View is now working. It is a major advancement from what we have seen previously. To see what we have found follow the link to our blog:

CI Exclusive: Phase One IQ250 Live View

More tests coming!

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

Continuing our testing with the new IQ250 we wanted to share how well Live View is now working. It is a major advancement from what we have seen previously. To see what we have found follow the link to our blog:

CI Exclusive: Phase One IQ250 Live View

More tests coming!

If this goes on and the sensors get bigger and the color casts lesser (ouch) we're coming close to a really usable digital view camera which is actually fun to focus and operate.
I can hear it coming...

[jerome_m]

Decent, real-time full video, live-view is certainly a huge improvement of the cmos sensors over all other digital backs.

[eronald]

Decent, real-time full video, live-view is certainly a huge improvement of the cmos sensors over all other digital backs.

Very nice!

It will be interesting to see whether other manufacturers using this sensor have the same quality of LV.

Edmund

[Ken R]

Looks like a very nice implementation of live view. Basically as good as it gets.

[BarbaraArmstrong]

In the space of about the last two minutes, the page at C.I. that the above link goes to has changed.  The first one had an incorrect figure for the size of the pixels on the P30, P30+ sensor.  Maybe the page was taken down to make that fix. --Barbara

[BarbaraArmstrong]

Sorry for another post -- my mistake, but not about the size of the size of the pixels on the 250's predecessor.  This remark should have been made in Anthony's other, later, post.  I'll add it there. --Barbara

[torger]

A nice test would be to dim down the lights and see how live view works then, if it keeps the refresh rate and if noise level is low enough to still be able to see what's sharp and not. Apart from the low refresh rate of CCD live view, another drawback is that the light conditions where it works is quite narrow, so it would be great if the CMOS live view has provided the expected advantage also in this case.

The use case I'm thinking about is live view focusing in dimmer natural light, such as dusk/dawn in landscape photography, or natural light in indoor architecture.

[synn]

A nice test would be to dim down the lights and see how live view works then, if it keeps the refresh rate and if noise level is low enough to still be able to see what's sharp and not. Apart from the low refresh rate of CCD live view, another drawback is that the light conditions where it works is quite narrow, so it would be great if the CMOS live view has provided the expected advantage also in this case.

The use case I'm thinking about is live view focusing in dimmer natural light, such as dusk/dawn in landscape photography, or natural light in indoor architecture.

This is a very good point. I agree.

[Paul2660]

+2 I agree a great test. 

Nikon has a lot of trouble in low light as they don't filter out the noise as well as Canon does.  In my use of the D800 in low light even at F2.8 the amount of noise that shows up makes precise focus difficult. 

Paul

[anthonyfesta]

A nice test would be to dim down the lights and see how live view works then, if it keeps the refresh rate and if noise level is low enough to still be able to see what's sharp and not. Apart from the low refresh rate of CCD live view, another drawback is that the light conditions where it works is quite narrow, so it would be great if the CMOS live view has provided the expected advantage also in this case.

The use case I'm thinking about is live view focusing in dimmer natural light, such as dusk/dawn in landscape photography, or natural light in indoor architecture.

Definitely a great question! During our ISO and long exposure test, post coming shortly, we tested Live View on the back in our very low light location and were quite pleased with the results, it was actually how we focused the camera rather than Auto or Manually through the viewfinder. I can see how it stacks up versus our 5D MkIII a little later in low light and let you all know.