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top shutter
speed is some-
where in the
neighborhood
of 1/160th
of a second
to 1/250th of a
second. There
are some
technolo-
gies that
help us
to bypass
this
limit, but often
times, the
flash units lose
power.
In this photo, you can see what hap-
pens when the flash sync speed is
exceeded – we get a cutoff portion
of the image. With a much higher
sync speed in digital medium format
cameras (many as high as 1/1600th
of a second or 1/2000th, versus
the standard SLR range of 1/200th)
you are unlikely to encounter this
effect. With many digital medium
format cameras, these technologies
are unnecessary, as the cameras do
not suffer from the same type of sync
limitations that SLR’s do. The leaf type
shutter is more apt to sync, even at
high shutter speeds. If using flash and
maintaining shallow depth of field is
a key part of a pho-
tographer’s look,
the removal of
this limitation
is abso-
lutely
game
chang-
ing.
They are Not
Perfect
Although digital medium
format cameras seem to
represent a growing market
among professional photogra-
phers, they are by no means all-pur-
pose cameras. Besides the fact that
many are cost prohibitive, there are a
number of factors that make them a
non-universal choice.
First of all, the high ISO competition
is no contest. These cameras are
meant to be shot with ample light at
low ISO settings. If you are the type
of photographer shooting in low light
scenarios and are needing to shift in
ISO frequently, digital medium format
is not the choice for you.
These digital image files also require
processing much like RAW images
from your current SLR. However,
proprietary software is often used in
order to maximize the power of the
image files. Not all images process-
ing software is made equal. Software
provided by manufacturers is often
more capable of pulling the most out
of the images a camera produces.
Phase One produces Capture
One software that is the choice
of many Phase One shooters for
handling their images.
Consider also the mas-
sive image sizes. For
those of shooting
a 5D Mark II,
a camera
with a
na-
tive
21.1
meg-
apixel
resolution,
you should shoot-
ing in sRAW 1 mode
that reduces the image to around 10
megapixels. You rarely need more
resolution than that, and the file
sizes of a 21-megapixel camera are
sometimes more than I have space
for. Before selling the farm to finance
a 50 megapixels or more digital
medium format, the question you
have to ask yourself is: do I need this
resolution? Although certainly not a
disadvantage to these cameras, the
massive amounts of resolution will be
practical for only small portion of all
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SEXY X2
MAGAZINE - JULY 2012