I have been asked in another thread (Mamiya 645AFD and new Mamiya 75-150 lens compatibility) if I could give my fist hand impressions of the new Phase One 645 which I just tested for the weekend.
But as I didn't have the AFD II (nor a Hasselblad H2...) for comparison, don't expect too much. I also lack much experience with those two cameras.
I was able to use the Phase One 645 with the 28mm AF, 45mm AF, 80mm AF (old), 120mm Macro "D", 75-150mm AF "D" and 200mm AF.
As stated before (and on the Phas One and Mamiya homepages), there are the following improvements:
AF: reactive, relatively fast and very accurate, no hunting.
Speed and sensitivity certainly isn't up to that of my Nikon D3, which might have to do with the generally lower speed of the lenses, plus they don't have the AF motors built into the lens of course.
The possibility to choose from three different AF-sensors is not really of great value as they are placed extremely close to each other in the centre of the frame.
Shutter: Seems of improved durability, as the value added version gives you a warranty of either three years or for 300'000 shots!
The camera is ready for future lenses with leaf shutters, which might totally solve the still sometimes present problem of shutter vibrations, which can cause blurred images.
I did on several occasions have slightly blurred images although I have used the MLU on every shot from the tripod, and shutter release was then done with a cable release.
I find the MLU feature of extreme importance, at least with my P45+ and the high pixel density. Even the smallest errors in picture taking do decrease pixel quality (sharpness).
You can easily choose MLU on the main dial around the shutter release.
Shutter speeds go from 1/4000 to 30sec and bulb, sync is 1/125.
The longest exposures I happened to do this weekend was 2min (on bulb), no problems there with the P45+ of course. With my ALPA SWA I actually have been doing up to 45min exposures, without problems besides the fact that you really do need spare batteries.
Power: The back has seperate power from the body, which runs on 6 AA type batteries. You can officially use recharcheables and set a custom function for the type you're using. Not sure if that just improves the information precision for the remaining capacity or anything else. I did about 400 shots on one set of recharcheables, and they weren't emptied! No scientific test, I know.
Viewfinder seemed clear with good contrast, the screen still has some grain which is actually fine for the manual 120mm Macro lens: pops into focus nicely!
Viewfinder info is as usual, below the image and well readable.
The whole handling of the camera ist straightforward, I simply never had to read any manual besides the settings for the custom functions, which I did out of curiosity.
I was able to concentrate on my images from the first frame on, this is defenitely a photographers camera!
I was actually told by the rep that the camera is identical to the Mamiya AFD III and that the electronics have been redesigned and improved (whatever that means) by Phase One together with Mamiya. I had two lockups which were solved by quickly removing the battery pack. The rep had warned me about this and promised a firmware update: I certainly hope this won't take as long as the update to capture One 4!
On the other hand for a brand new camera it made a very stable impression, it's very solid and fits your hand nicely. The rubber they use on the grip is very "sticky".
I don't know if Phase One offers Capture One 4.1 with the camera as I already have it with my P45+ back. It works fast and the whole workflow fits my working style quite well.
The new corrections for CA do work really well: The 28mm was sort of a disappointment until I turned the correction feature on, which changed the files into very usable ones.... C1 4.1 currently has profiles for the Mamiya AF lenses 28mm, 35mm and 45mm. Updates for more lenses are promised as well.
When I returned the camera today, because of my very good first impressions, I ordered one right away!
I am now however also waiting for the new 45-90mm, which promises to be an excellent allround zoom. I fully expect it to be up to the very high optical standards of the 75-150mm, which for me was the big positive surprise on the lens side.
From the point of the optics, I'm a bit spoiled with my ALPA SWA, as I use the phenomenal Rodenstock HR 35mm, 60mm and 100mm as well as a Schneider Digitar 180mm. So although the Mamiya lenses probably aren't quite in the same optical league, they offer tremendous quality for the money.
For those who are interested, I have attached the comparison of the 28mm without and with CA removed by C1 4.1 again, resized for web only of course.
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