80 MP medium format backs

I've been reading with great interest the field report of the new super high resolution Phase One medium format back done by Michael over at Luminous Landscape. This monster gives 80MP real resolution and Michael thinks it is equivalent to drum-scanned 8x10" film. This would be extraordinary if true. Looking at the 1:1 crop and counting pixels, the resolution appears to be similar to or slightly better than what I get stitching (see here, here or here) multiple images from my crop DSLR using my very cheapest kit lens. Of course getting that kind of quality in a single shot is far more convenient than my el cheapo solution as you can compose the shot far better. When I compose, I usually make a guide shot with an equivalent wider angle lens to the final stitched image's viewing angle. This works to a degree but is not perfect. I cannot exactly compose this way. My stitching solution also has trouble with very long lenses as the rotation between frames becomes very small so it works best for wide angles. All in all the new medium format backs are very interesting products. Of course I can't really afford such a machine (44k$ for just this new back, no body and lenses included!) which is probably why I don't get these cameras sent to me by Phase One or any of the other makers for testing. I'd be happy to put one through its paces though! Michael mentions stitching multiple shots from this camera. That concept just blows my mind.

Mamiya releases new medium format digital camera

And it is relatively affordable: See here. A 22 MP one for about 10k$ and a 28 MP one for 15k$. These are very nice prices compared to the competition in this format. The cameras are compatible with all Mamiya AF lenses of which there are many floating around on ebay, craigslist and of course keh.com. It appears that, like the Leica M9, these cameras output a file format that makes them work directly with Lightroom and other such programs without any updates needed. That is great news and more camera manufacturers should listen to their costumers that generally do not want to be locked into the camera manufacturer's generally crappy software (are you listening Nikon and Canon?). DNG is a great choice for such a file format.

Another waterfall picture

I would love one of those new 39 MP Hasselblad digital backs. In the mean time in the real world, here is a stitch of the waterfall I showed last time in square format. The image is 27 MP.

who says stitching doesn't work for moving objects?

You can click for a larger version, or go to its flickr page. Prints of this can go man high while retaining sharpness. There is a Black and white version here.

Resolution of stitched panoramas

I got inspired by an interesting post on Luminous Landscape about medium format digital and the new numbers on them posted by DxOmark. Because DxOmark does not account for actual resolution, the medium format backs appear to do worse than many current DSLRs. Of course, that is not a correct comparison as the whole point of these backs is resolution - the one thing the test does not measure. The article goes overboard with a flawed comparison to audiophiles but hey. These medium format backs are a superb solution for landscape photographers that want to shoot digital. They are just very expensive. For what they offer probably good, but very far out of my reach. A good alternative would be a large or medium format film system, but that is not my preferred style mostly due to the difficulty or cost in getting acceptable scans. My solution to this dilemma has been stitching. I either shoot handheld or use a little jig that rotates my camera around the nodal entrance point. A better solution would be a tilt-shift lens, but those are quite costly. I was curious how my method would compare to the medium format backs. The highest resolution these offer is 39 Megapixels. Here is a recent example I made using my D300 and a 24 mm lens (the kit lense zoomed to this value!)



This image is rendered at about 41.4 Megapixels, which is about half of the 105 Megapixels that it would be when rendered at the full resolution from hugin. The field-of-view is equivalent to 10 mm on a crop sensor. Here is a 1:1 blowup from the area marked with the red rectangle.



As you can see superb detail, even at only half of the maximum resolution. Even though I would love a medium format digital system, for now, until I win the lottery, this stitching method gives me outstanding quality. The medium format would be free of the problem that you need a subject that doesn't move (fast running water is not an issue BTW as you can see here or here).