Kodak hasn't announced a new chip correct?

Essentially the 31mp & 39mp chips are the same that were out last year?

The head of Hasselblad now, use to be the head of Phase One?

C1 is great no question, but the ISO ability sucks. As it does on all of of the MFDB.

So Hasselblad has gotten their $&*^ together and announced a new 31 to compete.

Hassy lets you use one battery for the entire system neatly placed in the grip.

Phase is charging people who have spent $XX,XXX amount of money to upgrade. Hassy is going to make it all free through Flexcolor and firmwear upgrades.

I am a Phase user and very happy with C1, but as I look at my upgrade path. The H3d looks very attractive. Flexcolor is very powerful yet difficult to learn. The batch processing, renaming color correcting, etc.. are all on par with C1. I have downloaded it for free and received a few files from the Hassy rep on a disc to have the full raw as shot.

I am quite impressed with Flexcolor and the way it works. Yeah, it won't process your Canon/Nikon or Leica files. But you get C1, ACR & RD to do it for you.

So my question is what is the difference between Phase and Hassy? other than C1 & Flexcolor.

Your post seems like a rhetorical question... but,
I guess you would only be able to tell the difference by taking the same photos with the same camera in different situations with 1 back then swapping it for the other straight after taking the first shot.
Then seeing how easy it is to process... how reliable the software is... what do the files look like (very subjective) etc. etc. etc...
Then maybe you could decide which one is better for you.
It would be nice to have 2 diff backs to play with for a while.

No. not a dumb question though... Not much difference from outward appearances.

It's an interesting question - with the experience they have and the number of cameras they sell, and the fanatical dedication to selling more they have, it's only a matter of time until the product starts to work really well. It's not like they're just a marketing company, they have Fuji downstream who want quality for the japanese market, and have engineering staff coming out of their ears. If I were Phase I'd be seriously frightened.

Edmund

Addressing your comment on the 31 and 39 mp chips that are the same as last year... it is my understanding that the next round of kodak chips (when they are announced is anyones guess) will be in the 60 to 90 mp range. At that point phase will theoretically be ahead... i guess the megapixel race is still afoot.

I wonder if the extra data will be worth the price as the P45 resolution is something to behold.

I will say this, it is a great time to be a photographer. The advances and ease of use that we enjoy is truly amazing!

Regards,

Why so restless? You own the best.

CaptureOne version 4 is right around the corner.

And WiFi too.

With that H3, you're stuck with that H1 body, and every professional knows that he needs that pop-up flash, so yes, you better stay with Hasselblad...

I don't know what an H-3 or Flexicolor will do as I've only shot a few frames with it.

But I have used Leaf and the Phase P-30 and I'm very impressed with the P-30 and C-1.

Last week shot 5,000 frames with the P-30 in bright, low, mixed, every type of light possible from iso 100 to 800 and everything I would ask of the back it did and the color and quality of the files is off the scale.

I am now in the middle of processing out 1000 jpegs a session in C-1 and it does them in 7 seconds a frame on an intel box so at this point I don't see the reason to ever think about another system.

C-1 is the gold standard and maybe Lightroom will help even the score and maybe the new Flexcolor will be better, but those are maybes and today C-1 is the very best for tethering and batch processing.

Even with that the P-30 is so well built, so robust and stronge that I don't know what anyone can offer that will be better.

I do find it interesting that Leaf, Sinar and Hasselblad are making their moves by setting up proprietary closed systems to sell their backs, but how about just making a complete product (digital back and software) as good as Phase?

To me this seems to be a business model of if you can't beat them, ban them.

Maybe I'm wrong with this statement, but it sure seems like wrong thought to me to lock out the number one back from two of the three remaining medium format cameras.

I'm sure time will tell, but I suggest today use what works today.

JR

Thank you all for your replies!

Yes, C1 is the gold standard and love the way it works. Although I am not happy with the 100 ASA.

To get into the new 400 asa I have to spend $5k. I am not too happy about that. As I am sure many P45, P30 and P25 buyers from early to mid 06 are not either.

Then they lock you out of the upgrade lower price after 2/1/07. Don't we have to wait and test the new ISO and see if it is worth it or it is just marketing. Maybe this is why they lock you out of Feb 1, because the ISO won't be there. I could care less about WiFi, but I could care less about other things that I now depend on. So that is subjective. The higher ISO should be free where the WiFi and other features should be charged for.

Phase annoys me with their lack of ability to change between systems. The CF 39 give me the ability to use it on an RZ with no cables, the 555ELD with no cables, the H1/2/3/4/5/6 with no cables. If anyone uses pocket wizards knows. With out those little cables they might as well be paper weights. I hate spending $200 per cable and need two of them incase one goes out. Then you lose the cables or they go missing and then you have a $25k + paperweight.

I am happy with a P25 as long as I could use 400ASA. If I have to go P45 so be it, but I do want 400 and prefer to be do it through software and firmware upgrades.

Now Hassy could be saying that it is free now and then decide to change down the line. But I don't see that happening.

I just want useable 400 and maybe 800.

Thoughts?

P-30

I thought you had the P45; not the P25. Sorry.

No, I had the P25 and ASA 400 is not good. When the Plus series comes out, we'll all gain one fstop of effective ASA. The P45 will have usable ASA 400, whereas right now it's 200. 400 is pretty rough, as it stands now.

Plus series also adds a larger buffer, for no bottlenecks.

I might agree with James; you might want a P30 instead of a P45. I almost bought the P30, but could not deal with losing any more viewfinder real estate. Everyone seems quite happy with the P30, and the P30 Plus will get even better.

Just one opinion. There are many.

Hey James & Mark,

Thanks again for getting back to me. it is a wonderful suprise to get feedback from two such established guys whose work I respect and admire.

I have both the P25 & P45 on an H1. I had the A75, enough said. Mark, I am with you on the real estate of the viewfinder. I can't go smaller either and battle with my 1DsMII, especially after I just did a job two days ago and pulled out the Pentax 67 for some B&W work.

The $5k to $7k to go to + series is a bit depressing to say the least.

I have been made very interesting offers from Hassy for the CF39 and H3D.

I am going to try and test a CF39 with a test for a FREEDITORIAL . Will give the the impression of a gig without all the pressure.

Ric,

Don't think that any of these companies will be firesaleinng their backs or cameras for too long as the medium format business is based around the upgrade pattern.

I know the Hasselblad file I shot was nice and Flexicolor is not bad software, but still compared to the Phase was slower and less robust in all of it's functions.

I think Hasselblad has made some giant steps, but I know right now after tasting the Phase waters It would take more than a few thousand dollars in savings to give up on the stability of Phase.

JR

90mp?! My top of the line Apple Mac Pro is struggling with my 12.8mp 5D - what on earth will users of a 90mp back be using...

you make some slightly strange statements:


Phase upgrade to + is a lot more than just another step to 800asa, they state better results at EVERY asa by one stop. If this is true, it means you will get the old 50asa noise at 100asa in a + version, and an ultra low noise 50asa on the upgraded back. Of course it may only be partially true, but any reduction in processing noise is really worth something. Then there's the better screen, much faster shooting with Extreme IV cards, and... the rumored wifi - which means freedom for anyone who works tethered (about 80% of phase users, I imagine?)

for me its a no brainer that its worth it. I signed up 2 days after it was announced.

Isn't the P30 going to go from 1 frame every 1.3 seconds to 1 every 1.2 seconds? The screen is of no importance when working tethered, the wi fi is rumored and you know what that can mean, so in the end is it really anything significantly more than 800 asa?

Judging by all the noisy complaints (from Leaf trollers mostly) I'd say the screen is of importance.

so: if you work tethered you have wi-fi, (t.b.c.)
if you work untethered you have an industry leading screen

in both cases you have
lower noise/ higher dynamic range
faster writing
higher asa's.
better/bigger buffer
live preview


I know I think this is worth getting, but if you don't then ... don't.
easy!

-

Interesting how one can go from what has largly been considered the industry's worst screen to the industry's best screen. And all without even having seen it!

My advice is to stick with factual information that is objective, not subjective. And even then, most of the objective criteria of digital backs are rendered subjectively, even stated dynamic range. Let's see, why not say 13 f-stop range? Who would ever measure?

Ric - the only way to make an educated decision about a digital back is to have a qualified dealer or representative allow you to compare them in real world situations.

Steve Hendrix
PPR Digital

Hmmmm? I have a Mac Pro and have no trouble at all opening and processing huge 39 MP P45 sample files. It seems as fast with the P45 files as it does with my 10 and 12 MP DSLR files. And all of this is in CS2, which is still running in emulated mode. I do have 4 Gig of RAM, which I consider about minimal for serious photo processing.

I too have 4gb & the XT1900 card, yet Aperture and CS2 can't work smoothly (or anything near it) when both are open.

Would I be correct in presuming you use Capture One?

Hi Andy. Well, we have the same memory and graphics card. I also have the 3 GHz processor chips. I use Aperture and CS2 in my day to day work. I don't use Capture 1. The P45 files I've been evaluating were already in 8-bit TIFF format when I got them, and weigh in at about 118 MB in size. I shoot Nikon DSLRs and am evaluating the P30 and P45, but don't have either of them. All of my evaluations were done using CS2. Maybe if I did a RAW conversion using Capture One, or if I was messing around with 16-bit TIFF files, I'd see issues. But for what I've done (opening and manipulating the P45 TIFF files in CS2), I saw very snappy response, and I really didn't see any slowdown compared to playing around with my 12 MP D2X files.

Do you by any chance know the exact model of your hard drive?

It can be found in the System Profiler:

Blue Apple (top left) -> About This Mac -> More Info... -> Serial-ATA

Hi Andy. For my system boot drive, I use the standard 250 GB Seagate (I think) hard drive that shipped with the Mac Pro. For photo storage and manipulation, I've added two 500 GB Western Digital WDCaviar SE16 drives running at 7200 RPM as my primary and backup data disks. Here are the parameters for the 250 GB system boot drive:

Capacity: 232.89 GB
Model: ST3250824AS P
Revision: 3.BQH
Serial Number: 4ND4MZK8
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32

I have the exact same model, and it is LOUD. Clickety, click. Click, click, click!

What're your experiences?

Compared to the HD in my Dual 2.5 G5 (I never noted the HD model), this Pro's is very loud, and I am beginning to think it may be a faulty HD.

Hi Andy. My Mac Pro is right next to my desk and I never hear the hard drives. In fact, I barely hear anything at all from it. Occasionally, when I'm really doing some intense processing in Aperture, I might start hearing the graphics card fan (barely) as it gets a little faster, but that's pretty much the only noise I hear.

Hmm...sounds like mine's buggered!

Is anybody able to recommend a good replacement HD for the Mac Pro?