MamiyaLeaf and PhaseOne

[cyron123]

Hello Guys,
sorry for my silly question, but photo business is changing fast:

What is the relation between Leaf and PhaseOne. I live in germany and there is only MamiyaLeaf and Phase1 separated. But Phase bought Mamiya 100% last year. What is Leaf now? And what is whit the mamiya brand name? I can not buy Leaf backs at my Phase one partner in germany. Why? Are there not one company?

Will there be a XF Body for Leaf Credo?
Thank you.
Best regards
cyron

[Paul2660]

Phase One, Mamiya, and Leaf are all one company now.  Phase One at the announcement of the XF stated that support for the credo backs was coming sometime in the future, in June of 2106, that make 1 year. 

You ask a good question on the Mamiya Name, as B&H still lists most of the current Phase One/Schneider LS lenses under the Mamiya name.  B&H does not sell "Phase One backs or branded products" but they also list the Mamiya Credo digital backs, so not sure where this will go in the future as all Phase One dealers can sell Phase One or Credo backs.  But it does seem that a lot of the same lenses are still sold under the Mamiya brand.

All of the Phase One LS glass that is purchased with a "new" back get a 5 year warranty, currently this does not hold for back upgrades, which seems a bit strange to me.  All of the Mamiya LS Schneider glass on B&H show 1 year warranty.

The LS lenses, although Phase makes a point of stating German design from Schneider, are still made in Japan, as is the XF. 

Lots of cross over, it's safe to assume Phase One parent company can currently draw on a lot of different resources to produce products, which is good.

Hopefully for the Credo users, the XF support will come soon.

Paul C

[Steve Hendrix]

Essentially Leaf and Mamiya are under Phase One ownership. So one could consider them all one company. Schneider, of course, is an independent company, but there is a long term strategic agreement in place. I recall writing a piece on the situation over 5 years ago, 3-4 months before the Phase One IQ 1st Gen products were announced, which began a path to some changes in the previous status quo. I looked it up and it's interesting reading in hindsight to see how things have panned out.

https://captureintegration.com/an-impressive-stable-of-technology/

What still creates some confusion is that while Phase One/Leaf/Mamiya could all be considered now one company, there do remain individual distributorship arrangements in certain parts of the world. Ironically, in the USA, long time distributor Mamiya America Corporation MAC Group continues, and yet no longer distributes Mamiya (or Leaf). All goes through Phase One USA. But it can be different in other parts of the world, there can be longer standing distribution agreements, or even a local bias toward one brand or another that necessitates keeping the brand distribution separate.

I do expect XF compatibility with Credo .... at some point in the future ...


Steve Hendrix
CI

[sbernthal]

If I remember correctly, XF/Credo should be coming around April.

Is there a cable release for XF yet?

[Graham Welland]

I was told that the Cable release really is coming ... eventually.

I shot with a prototype loaned to me by Phase One last week and it worked fine. Not sure of the why the delay but the only difference was the end connector - the prototype was the current release spliced to a different end connector. If you could source the end connector there's no reason why anyone couldn't build the same. Not sure if the final release will have more functionality (such as intevalometer?) and hence the cause for delay?

[Paul2660]

If Phase One would just allow the photographer to have the camera controls visible on the back's LCD when using Liveview, that would be a great help at least for me.  The remote when and if Phase One releases it, would only need the interval portion no timer as the XF has a pretty good timer built in not perfect but better than any other camera I have used.  I have found the camera controls on the LCD to be a great asset.   However based on the fact that the older Mamiya release works, with a different set of pinouts it's pretty disappointing that at least that device was not ready at announce or at least by December of 2015.  The old style release has been around for years.  No problems with having a more advanced version also, but just get the basic one out. 

So far I have not had any vibration issues with firing with the camera controls from the LCD.  However with the XF, with a CMOS or CCD back in Liveview, and the XF in LS priority, you will only fire the leaf shutter, which is another very nice feature.  Again not being able to do this with the back in Liveview means, the need for a remote or adding the camera controls during Live view or both.

Paul C

[cyron123]

Hello,
I have a info from a phase one representative that they have a two way solution.

1) an adapter for the old cable release
2) a total new cable release

Both options should be available in the next month.

[lance_schad]

So far I have not had any vibration issues with firing with the camera controls from the LCD.  However with the XF, with a CMOS or CCD back in Liveview, and the XF in LS priority, you will only fire the leaf shutter, which is another very nice feature.  Again not being able to do this with the back in Liveview means, the need for a remote or adding the camera controls during Live view or both.

Paul C

Paul
With the Phase One CMOS backs you can currently fire remotely via Capture Pilot App while in live view. I know not useful for CCD backs.
Lance

[Paul2660]

Hi Lance,

I agree, great solution for CMOS.  Maybe the new Phase One remote will be out sooner than later as that would also resolve a few shooting situations. 

It's just so nice to have the camera controls on the LCD of the back, I would think that Phase could add this as a firmware later, to the CCD and CMOS backs.

Paul C