Phase One P65+ medium format camera back
At the end of last week Hasselblad launched a new back for their H3DII medium format digital SLR with 50mp. The H3DII in combination with the new back is known as the H3DII-50. And now 5 days later, big Hasselblad competitor Phase One have launched a new medium format camera back with 60mp. But far more surprising than the 'Blad beating resolution is the 'Blad beating frame size. The new Phase One back uses a frame size of 53.9x40.4mm, compared to 48x36mm for the Hasselblad (and most other medium format digital systems). Both cameras are slated to ship during the 4th quater of this year.
A little back ground for those unfamiliar with medium format camera systems: Most medium format digital systems are based on 645 camera systems, that is systems that back in the days of film produced 6x4.5cm negatives on 120 film. The actual film frame size for these cameras is 56x41.5mm. Most medium format digital backs use sensors 48x36mm in size. There is therefore an approximate crop factor of 1.1x when you move a lens from 645 film to 48x36mm digital. This crop fact is a lot smaller than the typical 1.5x crop factor of 35mm based DSLRs, but it is still significant when you are using wide angle lenses.
When Hasselblad introduced the H3D system, they cause quite a few raised eyebrows by describing it as the world's first full-frame digital medium format system. The eye-browsed were raised on two counts: firstly, 48x36mm backs had been around for a long time and the H3D was very far from the first camera to use this sensor size; and secondly, because no-one else has ever considered 48x36mm to be full frame... nearly full frame true... but still smaller than the 56x41.5mm frame size of a 645 film camera.
Hasselblad later explained that they considered the H3D to be the worlds first 48x36mm camera system, because it was the first fully integrated camera system, in other words they considered their camera to be a single integrated camera, while every other medium format digital back was just an un-integrated add-on. And it was 'full-frame' because there was no point in comparing the H3D to the old 645 film cameras, it should only be compared to other digital backs, some of which do indeed use sensors smaller than 48x36mm... No-one else agreed of course... to every one else this was just the worst kind of marketing bunkum.
But now along comes Phase One with a medium format camera back (and an associated Phase One branded camera which was announced a few months ago) with a sensor that is bigger than 48x36mm. And Phase One are very deliberately describing this new back using exactly the same language that Hasselblad used... yes, the Phase One press announcement also describes the P65+ as the "World's First Full Frame 645 Medium Format Camera System". Of course the the Phase One back isn't quite full frame either, but it's so close it makes no difference, and it is 20% bigger in surface area than the hitherto standard 48x36mm digital sensor.
The question now is how much longer will 48x36mm be the de-facto standard sensor size for medium format digital? And even more interestingly, how much longer will Hasselblad go on describing 48x36mm as full-frame now that Phase One is describing (let's call it) 54x40mm as full-frame??
Phase One P65+ press release (PDF)
At the end of last week Hasselblad launched a new back for their H3DII medium format digital SLR with 50mp. The H3DII in combination with the new back is known as the H3DII-50. And now 5 days later, big Hasselblad competitor Phase One have launched a new medium format camera back with 60mp. But far more surprising than the 'Blad beating resolution is the 'Blad beating frame size. The new Phase One back uses a frame size of 53.9x40.4mm, compared to 48x36mm for the Hasselblad (and most other medium format digital systems). Both cameras are slated to ship during the 4th quater of this year.
A little back ground for those unfamiliar with medium format camera systems: Most medium format digital systems are based on 645 camera systems, that is systems that back in the days of film produced 6x4.5cm negatives on 120 film. The actual film frame size for these cameras is 56x41.5mm. Most medium format digital backs use sensors 48x36mm in size. There is therefore an approximate crop factor of 1.1x when you move a lens from 645 film to 48x36mm digital. This crop fact is a lot smaller than the typical 1.5x crop factor of 35mm based DSLRs, but it is still significant when you are using wide angle lenses.
When Hasselblad introduced the H3D system, they cause quite a few raised eyebrows by describing it as the world's first full-frame digital medium format system. The eye-browsed were raised on two counts: firstly, 48x36mm backs had been around for a long time and the H3D was very far from the first camera to use this sensor size; and secondly, because no-one else has ever considered 48x36mm to be full frame... nearly full frame true... but still smaller than the 56x41.5mm frame size of a 645 film camera.
Hasselblad later explained that they considered the H3D to be the worlds first 48x36mm camera system, because it was the first fully integrated camera system, in other words they considered their camera to be a single integrated camera, while every other medium format digital back was just an un-integrated add-on. And it was 'full-frame' because there was no point in comparing the H3D to the old 645 film cameras, it should only be compared to other digital backs, some of which do indeed use sensors smaller than 48x36mm... No-one else agreed of course... to every one else this was just the worst kind of marketing bunkum.
But now along comes Phase One with a medium format camera back (and an associated Phase One branded camera which was announced a few months ago) with a sensor that is bigger than 48x36mm. And Phase One are very deliberately describing this new back using exactly the same language that Hasselblad used... yes, the Phase One press announcement also describes the P65+ as the "World's First Full Frame 645 Medium Format Camera System". Of course the the Phase One back isn't quite full frame either, but it's so close it makes no difference, and it is 20% bigger in surface area than the hitherto standard 48x36mm digital sensor.
The question now is how much longer will 48x36mm be the de-facto standard sensor size for medium format digital? And even more interestingly, how much longer will Hasselblad go on describing 48x36mm as full-frame now that Phase One is describing (let's call it) 54x40mm as full-frame??
Phase One P65+ press release (PDF)
posted by Chris at 12:34 PM
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