Travel Photography - Any Medium Format Digital Users?

Has anyone rented or purchased a medium format digital camera?

If so, can you share your experience - how was the picture quality, ease of use, lens choices, etc.

I never realized that medium format had gone digital; that things like this (http://www.fairchildimaging.com/products/fpa/ccd/area/ccd_595.htm) were commercially available in cameras.

Amazing. Any glass that justifies such a sensor must cost a fortune.

I've actually designed (drawn the integrated circuit) specialized image sensors (camera ICs), but nothing this big.

Has anyone rented or purchased a medium format digital camera?

If so, can you share your experience - how was the picture quality, ease of use, lens choices, etc.

At one point PhaseOne was considering making a digital back for the Bronica 645.

As I have two 645 bodies, a couple of AE prisms, motors, and a half-dozen lenses I was very interested in such a potential, but when Tamron killed Bronica that ended that.

I used [briefly] a friend’s Mamyia with PhaseOne's first back for that camera as well as the Hasselblad H2.

The original PhaseOne back was not very impressive IMHO but the H2 seemed like it had a lot of potential.

I understand that PhaseOne's latest 40MP back is pretty amazing - of course I haven't yet used one.

I still have two 4x5 stashed away with no film and no digital back.

Here is one photographer I personally know who is using medium format digital.

http://www.rexnaden.com/web_dest_gifs/Images%20of%20Nature%20About.html

I wish!!!

I own a Rolleiflex 6008pro and I think they make backs for that, too. But that stuff costs as much as a car. I'd need to be very rich to even consider that or be a pro photog with a real need for it.

The only thing I can imagine this is needed is art photography that gets blown up pretty big (say 6x8ft) but where people still go up to the photo and look closely. Somebody like Andreas Gursky, Elger Esser, Candida Hofer or Armin Linke might be using that instead of large format cameras.

If you don't know these names, you owe it to yourself to check them out. Gursky is the highest priced contemporary art photog with works fetching around 1mil $ in auction.

Till

I occasionally rent a Phase One back to attach to my Mamiya 6X7 camera. I think that before too long I'll be renting an all in one solution vs. a back to attach to a camera. When I use one of these cameras, it's a different way of working (as opposed to a 35mm style camera). There aren't many zooms available, and the lenses are pretty expensive. Some medium format cameras are smaller and hand holdable, but most of them are beasts. They're meant for studio work on a tripod.

Unless you've got $20,000 to burn, renting is really the way to go for occasional use. The technology changes so rapidly that your camera's value is a quarter of what you paid the day the a new model arrives. When I need one of these things for a job, I rent it and bill the client.

Something to consider... I've heard that if you're looking to sell your photos as stock, most big time stock houses want 16 bit color, and ask that you submit the raw file as proof. Some of the smaller medium format cameras only produce 14 bit color.

A friend who shoots architecture and interiors has the latest and greatest Hasselblad. She uses a lens which works with a specific application to control distortion. All together, her setup was close to $50,000. I think her lease payment is around $1000/month.

Tried a Hasselblad H series with digital back at one of the equipment shows couple years ago, wow, what a set-up, just imaging 22 megapixels!! If I was to buy everything I need, then the price would come to more than two very decent cars!

Unless your work justifies that kind of expenditure, then both Nikon and Canon may offer an alternative, both now have full frame DSLR of over 20 magapixels, and both have excellent quality and range of lenses (admittedly, not as 'high' quality as Hasselblad, but neither is the price) to suit (almost) all requirements.