PhaseOne back on "traditional 4x5 view camera?"

[Don Boyd]

On the site below they say that a PhaseOne digital back with Mamiya 645AFD Mount can be used on a traditional 4x5 view camera.

http://www.captureintegration.com/so...haseonemamiya/

Has anyone used this and if so what was your experience (image quality, movements, dynamic range, etc.) Apparently, there will soon be a new Phase One-Mamiya 645 camera platform for the Phase One digital back.

[john collins]

Richard Sexton wrote a piece on using a Phase One back with an Ebony Camera. It's posted on the Luminous Landscape site.

[Larry Menzin]

I use a Phase One back on an Arca Swiss 4x5 camera with a sliding back adapter. Using a digital back requires much more precision on the camera side due to the critical nature of focus on a digital system. Camera rigidity is very important. Image quality is great; movements will be less than with film due to the behavior of digital sensors off-axis.

Larry

On the site below they say that a PhaseOne digital back with Mamiya 645AFD Mount can be used on a traditional 4x5 view camera.

http://www.captureintegration.com/so...haseonemamiya/

Has anyone used this and if so what was your experience (image quality, movements, dynamic range, etc.) Apparently, there will soon be a new Phase One-Mamiya 645 camera platform for the Phase One digital back.

[Darryl Baird]

You can pretty much attach any of the MF digital backs to a view camera...Leaf, Phase One, Imacon (or whatever is the current name). It requires a Graflock back and a suitable adapter attachment for the back. Most of these are sliding back attachments, but a straight attachment will work too, although a little slower to frame with as you are dependent on either a live video preview or trail and error. These back designs are "dumb" ... no connection to the camera body, but driven by tethering to a computer. Lots of folks use these to shoot a larger image through multiple frame stitching.... not for that action shot, but there aren't many of those in LF anyway.

I added this for a studio class, and it works well, but as pointed out focus is critical. The actual capture size is very small compared to 4x5... from just larger than 35mm to 36mm x 48mm (and getting a little larger every year).

[Don Boyd]

Thanks John, Larry and Darryl. John Sexton's article pretty much answered my questions.

[Ed Richards]

I watched John Sexton use this combo, and looked through the back to see how focusing works. You cannot see much at all, so movements are pretty much guess work, and the amount of movement is so small that it is hard to control. You would do better with one of the precision backs like on a Sinar P2 or, better, a geared 6x7 camera. Definitely made me rethink my interest in an MF digital back on a 4x5. I think John is using his DSLRs more and more, at least for his personal work. See Terra Incognita, which I think is mostly DSLR, including a lot of stitched images:

http://www.richardsextonstudio.com/ti.html

[Kirk Gittings]

Ed are we talking Richard or John Sexton?

[Ted Harris]

If we are talking about Ebony cameras I assume it is Richard Sexton who writes some stuff on their website.

I can't recall the name but I also know of a commercial shooter who uses the Phase One H2) back on a Toyo AX. I believe he did some minor modifications to both the camera back and the H20 or rather I think SK Grimes did them for him. We had a lengthy talk about it about a year ago and the combo worked very well for the one specific application he had in mind.

[drew.saunders]

A little Googling gets Richard's article:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/re...al-ebony.shtml

[DF Connors]

Hi, Dan:

This is a bit off topic but might be helpful. I use an Arca Swiss 6x9 with Orbix and a Leaf Aptus 22 back attached via a Hassy H1 adapter plate made by Arca. System works very well because Orbix helps with critical focusing. I use the standard gg that came with the Arca, remove it when ready to shoot, and then attach the Aptus back. The back works from batteries so no computer is necessary.

I use a Schneider digitar 35mm XL and Rodenstock 55mm APO-Sironar digital - I can get 50" wide prints with ease from my Epson 9600.

Critical aspects for me are F-stop - f8 to f11 being my target to hold back diffusion, though I have had good images at f16..., and critical focus: proper tilt angles would be extremely difficult without the geared Orbix front standard.

hope this is helpful...

Don Connors

www.dfconnors.com