In DecemberLeafstarted shipping theAptus II 12, its 80 Megapixel back. In late January Phase Oneannounced the brand new IQ series of backs, along with theIQ180 its flagship 80 Megapixel model. Phase One is the owner of Leaf, and both companies use the same Dalsa sourced sensor for the backs. Is there a difference between them? Indeed there is.

In late January I was most fortunate to have Leaf’s Product ManagerYair Shaharvisit me from the U.K. with a production Aptus II 12 for a few days of testing. By complete coincidence Phase One announced their new IQ series of backs the same week, andKevin Raber, Phase’s U.S. Vice President was able to visit with an IQ180.

Yair and Kevin overlapped visiting with me in San Miguel by a day and agreed to my shooting a video interview about their new products. I figured that a discussion about how the two company’s products would fare in  the marketplace would be of the greatest interest, especially since I’ll have reviews of both products on these pages over the next week or two.

Here is that interview, edited down to about 18 minutes.

January, 2011