So... I shot with a Phase back the other day

[george2787]

I had a "fashion style" commercial campaign that needed high res, we were shooting 2 options plus a series of 6 for magazine usage, which needed lower resolution.

I got to shoot the IQ 280 on a DF+ body and although is kind of recursive I'd like to share my experience.

Note: I had shot before with hasselblad 22, 39 mpix and was quite happy but never liked phocus and last year I did a quick test on a personal shoot with a friend's h4D40 and switched back to canon (5d2/3) because I'm used to Capture One workflow and color and hasselblad + Lightroom seemed clunky and flat.

First of all, i shoot tripod 99% of the time so no problem about weight. Ergonomics are OK and in 5 minutes you are up and running with menus and all, very nice and intuitive.

Settings and DOF: I was shooting 2 pictures, one in which I needed medium to shallow DOF and other with a little more, in canon that would have meant 50 1.4 @ 5.6 and 8, 100 ISO 1/200, so I went with the 80 2.8 @ 8 and 11 50 ISO 1/200.

So... to get similar results you need 4 times more light, sometimes this is overseen but in most of my shoot I'm OK with 4 500W D1 and 2 D1 1000 and normally don't get used at full power, in this shoot we had a mix of 2400W 7a and 8a and were close to high most of the time. I suppose that going to 100 ISO or 200 would be OK in terms of quality but having the wattage who cares!


Focus and general shooting workflow: I found focus to be pseudo quick and very accurate, with the known "issue" of being only central point, in this case it didn't bother because it was a very specific picture pre framed and pre focused so just had to confirm focus in the computer as we were shooting tethered.

Speaking of shooting tethered, great experience, better than canon even with four times the pixel, very impressed in transfer speed although we were shooting to a beefed up 15 macbook pro + external display that sometimes struggled to keep up, but overall experience was smooth with no crashes, problems or lockups.

So to wrap up the experience, very good, a little slower than used to with the canons but fine and the files are great (more on that later) but the other six pictures in which we had to shoot from 200 to 400 ISO, 2.8 to 4 and 50 to 80 to mix ambient light with small touches of flash (profoto B1s are a winner for that jobs by the way) were shot with my good old 5d3

Retouching and file management: Ok, here starts my love-hate relationship... files are absolutely great. Hands down the best files I've ever worked, the level of detail is ridiculous to the point of retouching a single hair crossing the ear on a full body shot or being able to count the eyelashes. Capture one does a really good job on pulling all this and working or exporting doesn't take much longer than 22mp files in my old trusty 2010 imac (i7, SSD, 24 GB RAM) but once you start working the file with all the color corrections, masks and multiple layers file size starts to grow... save times increase and I realized for the first time in 4 years that my imac wasn't enough for this file size, which is normal after all a 4 year old "amateur" machine is working a top of the line back file. After some grunting I could finish and the results are excellent.

So, to summarize: Files are great, detail is awesome and the workflow is slow but very well rounded. BUT working with this camera-back means that all the equipment has to be up to the challenge, you'll need big lights and a lot of computer power.

Will I consider buying one of these? Absolutely! just put one extra zero in every check and I'd get one! Jokes aside if it's needed and paid for enough I'd be more than happy to own one of these puppies, but for me is a work took and has to make financial sense.


I'm curious to test the IQ 250 that can be shot more like a DSLR and won't be so light and computer extreme to use.

I hope you enjoyed the reading and sorry about my english... not my first language and haven't written for a long time.

George.

[synn]

Very nice review. Thanks for that!

Pretty much close to my feelings about the phamiya ecosystem too. Do take a look at the 40MP kits. They are going for really good prices now. leaf a bit lower than phase, as usual.

[ErikKaffehr]

Thanks for sharing!

Best regards
Erik Kaffehr

[Doug Peterson]

I had a "fashion style" commercial campaign that needed high res, we were shooting 2 options plus a series of 6 for magazine usage, which needed lower resolution.

I got to shoot the IQ 280 on a DF+ body and although is kind of recursive I'd like to share my experience.

I'd normally suggest an IQ260 or IQ250 for fashion commercial campaigns. Generally speaking the faster shooting speed wins out over the increased resolution for this kind of work. But as you found the IQ280 can do quite nicely as well!

Speaking of shooting tethered, great experience, better than canon even with four times the pixel, very impressed in transfer speed although we were shooting to a beefed up 15 macbook pro + external display that sometimes struggled to keep up, but overall experience was smooth with no crashes, problems or lockups.

I'm often surprised how unaware many Canon shooters are of how stable and fast tethering with a Phase One system is. High-grade electronics, a design emphasis on tethering as a main core function rather than an add-on feature, excellent compression, and USB3 all do wonders for this. An IQ250 can't do a 5-frame burst in a second (does that help take better photos??) but it can shoot consistently fast for long sustained periods without hitting a buffer.

So to wrap up the experience, very good, a little slower than used to with the canons but fine and the files are great (more on that later) but the other six pictures in which we had to shoot from 200 to 400 ISO, 2.8 to 4 and 50 to 80 to mix ambient light with small touches of flash (profoto B1s are a winner for that jobs by the way) were shot with my good old 5d3

You might also have tried using the Sensor+ mode on the IQ280. This produces a 20mp raw file that is really stellar. Comparing absolute subject detail it easily outdoes a 22mp 5D3 by a good bit (very sharp lenses, no AA filter, downsampled from a large 80mp sensor). That way you can keep using the same camera, cables, batteries, lenses etc.

Or of course an IQ250 which can easily take on those ISOs at full 50mp resolution.

Retouching and file management: Ok, here starts my love-hate relationship... files are absolutely great. Hands down the best files I've ever worked, the level of detail is ridiculous to the point of retouching a single hair crossing the ear on a full body shot or being able to count the eyelashes. Capture one does a really good job on pulling all this and working or exporting doesn't take much longer than 22mp files in my old trusty 2010 imac (i7, SSD, 24 GB RAM) but once you start working the file with all the color corrections, masks and multiple layers file size starts to grow... save times increase and I realized for the first time in 4 years that my imac wasn't enough for this file size, which is normal after all a 4 year old "amateur" machine is working a top of the line back file. After some grunting I could finish and the results are excellent.

It's true bigger files do take a bit more umph of computing power. But as you noted, it's less than you might think. Also, if you were to do your next shoot with 40mp or 50mp or 60mp you might find the difference even smaller to the point of being hardly noticeable.

Will I consider buying one of these? Absolutely! just put one extra zero in every check and I'd get one! Jokes aside if it's needed and paid for enough I'd be more than happy to own one of these puppies, but for me is a work took and has to make financial sense.

I know a lot of people get very hooked on shooting/renting the absolute latest, but you can get an exceptionally good back for much much less than an IQ280!

A Credo 40 provides a stellar file, rock solid fast and consistent tethering, and wonderful color and lenses, and this summer it was on sale for $14k with back, body, and lens.

Or if the ISO performance is critical (rather than using your dSLR for when you need it) an P65+ (with sensor plus) or Credo 50 or Phase One IQ150 all offer much lower cost of entry.

We also have a significant percentage of our clients go with a 2-3 years lease. That can lower the monthly price to less than one day of rental.

[george2787]

Thanks for your answer Doug, it's a real pleasure to see people that know and believe in what they sell

The 260-250 option I thought about but the producer handled that and the rental house he is familiar with now stocks 280 for pixel and 250 for versatility, the 250 was reserved for that day so 280 it was... anyway the 280 is great and the pictures we needed were full flash so no problem with that at all.

I wasn't surprised about the stability, I was surprised about how smooth everything was, one is expecting to get a complicated hi tech piece of equipment and its really nice and well tough.

The sensor plus mode didn't come to mind but to be honest and although I was on a tripod I wasn't confident enough with the system to rely on a focus and recompose on shallow DOF in a job without testing... 5d + AF point in the eye gives me peace of mind to focus on other things

The 40-50 mp thing I now, sometimes when I'm a little short on resolution and it's a horizontal with the talent on the side of the frame I stitch to get 30-50 MP and those are almost workable. As I said I think the 150-250 and credo family are spot-on for the kind of job I'm into and when price goes down a bit if the economy is OK I'll get one.

P.S: I noticed the LS losses a lot of light with the 7a, not so much with 8a (flash duration) do you happen to know how bad is that with d1s?

Thanks!

George.