GOOD LIGHT

About a week ago I took the Mamiya ZD to the Fort Worth Stockyards and rattled off 175 images. I was having an off day and the pictures stunk. No fault of the Mamiya ZD really, I was not having my best day and made poor composition choices, etc. Despite the pictures looking pretty bad, I felt I had a good idea of ZD’s capabilities in terms of dynamic range, color and noise. I had the Mamiya ZD all figured out.

Today the ZD had the obligatory Highland Park torture test - bright reflections, bright foliage to the east and dark shadows to the west. For most shots the camera is aimed either north or south, so one side of the frame is bright and the opposite side is very dark. Historically the 1Ds3 has struggled at this location and tended to blow highlights fairly often. Where the 1Ds3 has struggled, the ZD powered through and handled the dynamic range better than the 1Ds2, 1Ds3, M8, D300 and 40D. Last year the Phase One P25 did well here too, but needed some trial and error with negative EC adjustment to keep the highlights under control. I definitely like the colors from ZD better than the Phase Phase P25, but P25 did have cleaner shadows at ISO 50. All of today’s pictures were processed with RAW Developer (which I am loving) and then enhanced with saturation and levels edits in Photoshop.

I have taken a couple thousand pictures here, so I know the location and lighting condition fairly well. Today certainly was not a scientific test, but subjectively I was very impressed with Mamiya ZD’s performance. And I was nailing focus with the Mamiya 150mm F3.5 AF - so good times! Today was one of those days where everything just felt in sync. The location is very localized, so there is no need to go running all over the place. The sun was low in the sky and passed through alot of foliage, so the colors were very warm. It was just a good day to take pictures. And on days like this, even Canon G12 could take good pictures.

THE MAMIYA ZD VERSUS THE CANON 1DS MARK III

Assuming both cameras are shot at their base ISO, the Mamiya ZD produces a sharper image than the Canon 1Ds3. Noise in the shadows is comparable. The Mamiya ZD has that extra 2/3 of a stop of dynamic range in the highlights that I keep wishing for. Because the Mamiya ZD holds the highlights so well, it is pretty easy to shoot with the camera. But one downside is that the LCD image is so small that it is impossible to tell if something is clipped or blown out. The histogram helps, but the histogram is pretty small too.

The Mamiya ZD does render nice color, but overall the Canon 1Ds Mark III colors have more depth - like a glossy picture. The Mamiya ZD has potential since its image pipeline is 14-bits; however, the the raw files are down sampled to 12-bits. Had Mamiya kept the extra bits, my guess is that the files would be a bit better. Also, the Dalsa sensor has a base ISO of 25 in the Aptus 22 and Sinar backs, so for the Mamiya dSLR, Dalsa increased the power. I wish the Mamiya ZD had an ISO 25 option. Shooting ISO 25 is difficult because the shutter speeds are so low, but I would like to have the option.

What I like about the Mamiya ZD is that it lets me play with digital medium format for a very cheap price and the camera itself is very portable. The Mamiya ZD feels like a chubby Canon 5D. It is a fun to camera to use and if the light is good, the images are very nice. Photographers looking for the utmost in quality should consider the Phase One products. But for enthusiasts looking for a cheap digital medium format “high”, the Mamiya ZD is very capable. Spending the next $4000 or so to put together a Mamiya 645AFD III and Phase One P25 does indeed buy better quality, but not $4000’s worth.