ON WITH THE SHOW!

With a bit more experimentation I now know the P25’s problem is NOT lens cast, it is sensor cast. Whether the sensor cast is from the sensor itself, or caused by the IR filter - that is unknown. In December the P25 was tested on two different Mamiya 645 AFD & AFD II bodies and produced the same cast with two different 80mm F2.8 AF lenses. About a week ago the Mamiya 200mm F2.8 APO arrived and the cast is identical whether shot with the 80mm F2.8 AF or the 200mm F2.8 APO. I will continue to update the blog as more information comes available.

WHAT’S NEW

I have been using Phase One’s latest release of C1 (Version 401) since its release about a month ago. With the Canon dSLRs I used DPP for years. Like most people I tried other converters as they came available, but I always came back to DPP. DPP produced the best color and cleanest files, so it became my benchmark. I can say with complete confidence that the P25 blows away the Canon 1Ds Mark II in terms of color, sharpness, contrast, etc.

I am still getting used to the C1 workflow and the Phase One way of doing things, but when comparing a raw file from the Canon 1Ds Mark II processed in DPP and converted to a 16 bit TIFF against a raw file from the Phase One P25 processed in C1v4 and converted to a 16 bit TIFF - the difference is huge. I love the Canon 1Ds Mark II for its ergonomics, auto focus, ease of use, etc., but when it comes to image quality the Phase One P25 wins - very easily.

There are three things in particular I like about the new C1v4 - level adjustments, highlight recovery and shadow detail. In Canon’s DPP software the histogram is a linear amplification of the file - move the right side of histogram and the file brightens the same as adjusting the image’s exposure value.  Alright, not exactly like that, but pretty darn close. C1v4 uses some sort of progressive calculation relative to mid point... Phase One has some marketing blurb about in there C1v4 video. Long story short, you can raise the levels without clipping the channels or making the image look blown out.

Highlight recovery and shadow detail are nothing new for most raw editors - but it is new to C1 and it is nice to have these tools in C1 rather than performing the edits downstream in Photoshop CS3. The colors produced by C1v4 are very rich and vibrant. I feel like the images have more pop to them than those processed in C1 Pro 3.7.7. It is probably due to the more intelligent levels editing. C1 Version 4 is not perfect and I am not trying to convince anyone that it is digital nirvana. My point is simple - I’m not missing Canon’s DPP software and that is a big step for me.

NEW TOYS

A host of new gizmos have arrived over the past couple weeks - a Mamiya 12mm tube, 36mm tube, 2X extender and the Mamiya 200mm F2.8 N APO. The tubes are for the Mamiya 80mm F2.8 AF lens. That brings us to the 200mm F2.8 APO which has been been a really nice surprise. Feeling a bit bored one day, I clicked the buy and hoped for the best. Normally I do not have much use for 200mm on a full-frame 35mm dSLR, but on a 645 medium format camera 200mm fits my style. The Mamiya 200mm F2.8 APO is very sharp wide open and color & contrast are excellent. The files really pop compared to the Canon 200mm L F2.8 II. With ISO 50 getting decent shutter speeds is tricky at times, but the lens itself is very good. There are some images from the APO added to the P25 gallery; they speak for themselves.

There is not any particular reason why I like the Mamiya 200mm F2.8 APO. After several hundred more images I may be able to come up with specific reasons, but for now it just reminds me of the Canon EF 200mm L F1.8. The depth of field is very thin, so the shots have wonderful background blurs - almost to point to complete abstraction. It is very sharp wide open, so it is just a fun lens to shoot with for now.  The three images on this page were shot with the Mamiya 200mm F2.8 APO.

I also have a Hasselblad 110mm F2 Planar FE (5th Generation) on its way too. The Hasselblad was purchased to replace the Contax C/Y 100mm F2 Planar which was my favorite lens on the Canon 1Ds and 1Ds Mark II. I should have an update on the Hasselblad 110mm FE some time in February.