CRISIS OF FAITH

Before jumping into this, lets take a moment to catch up on the last two seasons of “Flip That Camera” -

1. •Dec 13, 2007:  Purchased the Phase One P25 and Mamiya 645AFD II
   

2. •Mar 06, 2008:   Purchased the Canon 1Ds Mark III
   

3. •Mar 28, 2008:  Published “Rebalancing the Fund”; sold the P25 set-up.
   

4. •Nov 07, 2008:  Purchased the Mamiya ZD dSLR
   

5. •Dec 28, 2008:  Sold the Canon 1Ds Mark III
   

6. •May 13, 2009:  Purchased a Canon 1Ds Mark III              
   

When presented in this context there is no defense, no logic, no plan. But between those dates many things happened and there were reasons behind buy / sell decisions. There has been a considerably amount of selling lately, but so far the ZD is still here. The ZD has burned me on two occasions, so the decision to keep it or to sell it has not been easy.

THE ZD’S WEAKNESSES

The first eye opening experience was with the Metz flashes (54 MZ-3 and 70 MZ-5). In the past if I needed a flash for indoor pictures, the Canon 1Ds2 was set at ISO 400 or the Canon 1Ds3 was set at ISO 800. ISO at those speeds was good enough, and the flash did not have to work too hard (typically a Canon 430EX in bounce orientation with a Sto-fen Omnibouce).

The Mamiya ZD can shoot ISO 50 to ISO 400, but anything past ISO 50 is diminishing returns. With ISO 50 flash photography is difficult. Flash output is at or near full power and the results look harsh. Also, shutter speeds tend be on the low side, so camera shake is a risk. The realization that the Mamiya ZD could not be used indoors with a flash was the first warning shot. The next eye opening experience was in Mexico using the Mamiya ZD with the Metz 54 MZ-3 as a fill flash. Without getting into the gory details, lets just say it sucked. 

The last gotchya was the Mamiya ZD’s 1.8” LCD a couple months ago while shooting family portraits with strobes. I took some test shots and relied on the ZD’s histogram to judge exposure. Exposure was indeed fine. What was not fine was my light placement, but I did not realize this because the previews on the LCD were too small. Later, at the computer screen I realized the error. In the end the prints turned out fine, but I knew things had not gone well. If the Canon 1Ds Mark III had been on hand, the shoot would have gone better because the 1Ds3’s LCD is large enough to judge light quality.

Normally, with the ZD I shoot landscapes in natural light and product shots in a very controlled setting with soft-boxes and modeling lights. Under those conditions what I see in the viewfinder is a good indication of the captured image and shoots go smoothly. Shooting portraits was the first time I had gone outside of that comfort zone with the ZD, and I will not use the ZD for studio portraits again. In that setting I need a large LCD on the dSLR when setting up lights and taking the first test shots.

THE ZD’S SAVING GRACE - “PHAT LIGHT”

This past weekend I loaned the 1Ds3 to a friend so he could see how his Canon lenses performed on the 1Ds3. We started taking test images around 2:00 in the afternoon under the hot Texas sun. The sun was overhead and extremely bright. Normally I would not bother taking pictures in those conditions, but since Gary wanted to test the 1Ds Mark III, I amused myself with Mamiya ZD for awhile. When it comes to walking around and popping off shots in good light (and good light is the key), the ZD is very enjoyable to use. The rear LCD is borderline useless, so I call it “Forrest Gump shooting” - meaning, you have no idea what you got until you get home. From time to time I check the histogram, and that is about it.

All the pictures on this page were from the ZD on that day. These are not works of art, just some walk-around snap shots for the fun of it. Considering the harsh light, I am very pleased with the file quality from the Mamiya ZD. With a good healthy exposure, the Mamiya ZD is capable of producing very high quality files. Recently while editing pictures from Mexico, I processed a number of files as black and whites (also on this page). The ZD’s black and white quality has turned out to be a hidden (happy) surprise. I thought Leica M8 did a nice job with black and white, but now I think the ZD does even better.

TO RE-BALANCE OR NOT?

On one hand it is very easy to justify selling the Mamiya ZD. It is an older camera that looks out of date when compared to its contemporaries. On the other hand it is capable of producing excellent image quality. And in very bright conditions it holds highlights much better than the Canon 1Ds Mark III. This summer’s vacation was supposed to be a stay-cation, but plans change and we are going to Alaska. Alaska’s weather is very unpredictable, which means light can be hit or miss. The ZD is not the right camera for those conditions, so I bought I used Canon 1Ds Mark III. If we were staying home for the summer, I would be perfectly content shoot the Leica ZD and Leica M8. With the 1Ds Mark III purchase, I have opened Pandora’s box once again. This time I want to keep everything, but there are financial limits for a hobby, so something has to go.