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Rank: Administration
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I am going to use this thread to augment the 645 Blog. I am trying to keep the blog nicely divided into sections or discrete topics with a nice start and end point. I'll use this thread for all the stuff that doesn't fit cleanly into the 645 Blog. For those of you not familiar with the 645 Blog, it can be found here.
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Rank: Administration
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Location: Dallas, Texas
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Today has been spent taking some pictures of lenses soon to be sold - to help pay for the ZD! The Mamiya 12mm Extension Tube arrived today, so this has been my first chance to take some more serious product pix. With the 12mm tube the 80mm lens can't get close enough to fill the frame. The following pictures were taken with the Mamiya 80mm F2.8 AF using the 12mm Extension Tube (NA401). The images were processed in RAW Developer (which I'm liking) and then buffed up in Photoshop. I thought these turned out well. Not as nice as the Phase One P25 files would have been, but the ZD does well enough -
Comparing the ZD files to those from the Phase One P25, the Phase One P25 files had noticeably cleaner shadows. The ZD has color noise. The ZD has a very different tone curve than the P25, so with the ZD I'm not boosting the shadows as much. With the P25 I tended to underexpose to save the highlights and then boost the shadows in post processing. The P25 files were so clean that I could get away with that. The ZD holds highlights better, so its file tend to be brighter and need less shadow boosting. So while the ZD files are noisier, it's not been much of an issue yet.
The Phase One P25 images do appear sharper. That could be a function C1, or built-in high pass filter function in the Phase's firmware - or the back could just plain be sharper. Or, the Mamiya back just could be softer. The 100% crops from the ZD are sharper than the Canon 1Ds Mark III, but not as sharp as the P25. If quality is the only thing that matters and ergonomics don't factor into the purchase decision, then I think an Aptus-22 and Phase One P25 would be a better choice. If handling, size and portability factor into the decision, then the ZD has the 645AFD + Digital Back approach beat by a wide margin. Though, I'd certainly give the Hasselblad H3DII-22 a good look since those have been selling around $9500 USD on Ebay (one from Calumet just sold for that price).
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Rank: New Member
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I registered today, but I am not new to your forum.
Have been reading every word about the ZD and I still can not decide if I should buy the pretty old ZD or not.
Originally I come from a Pentax 6x7, so you can imagine why the ZD appeals to me.
Geo
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Rank: Administration
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The ZD is a great camera and very cost efficient way to get into a medium format. There are some big advantages -
Integrated battery
Essentially 100% viewfinder, no crop lines or masks
Compact for medium format
Good sensor
Good battery life (I got ~400 clicks per charge)
Downsides are -
Tiny LCD screen for reviewing images - and slow
ISO 50 camera, ISO 100 is okay, but you'll want to use ISO 50 whenever possible
14-bit processing; 12 bit files --- not quite the same quality as the P25, it's about 90% as good as the P25 was
For the casual shooter, I think the ZD is great. For a pro shooter, it's probably not the best option. I really liked the ZD and it was not an easy decision to sell it. That money led to the Leica M9, so it was a very hard decision... What I liked most about the ZD was the big 48x36mm sensor for a cheap price. 200mm is awesome on a 645 negative. The Mamiya 200mm F2.8 APO was a great lens -
I'm not sure even a 200/1.8 on a Canon could do that much background blurring. And, that particular lens had a great 3D feel to it -
As for highlights, the ZD holds highlights like superglue! It's a bit noisy if you boost the shadows, but the highlight retention is excellent -
The sensor is a Dalsa sensor, and Dalsa sensors have a color palette. If you've been following backs like Phase One's P40+, then these tones might look somewhat similar -
Using RAW Developer and the hot pixel suppression (to the max), I was able to get very clean 4 second shots -
And the camera really shines for black & white work -
It's a very capable camera given good light. Don't expect a usable ISO 200 or 400, and you'll be okay. The LCD is there, but about the only thing it's good for is checking histograms. Those are really my only complaints with the camera. The year had one, it was rock solid and NEVER had a single glitch, crash or bug. In that same time period the 1Ds3 died (ERR99 issue) and the Leica M8 went back to Leica three times (they eventually gave me a new one). Meanwhile, the ZD just keep trucking along. Oh, and no purple blobs either. I wish Mamiya would release a ZD II, I would be seriously interested. Now Pentax is hyping their 645D, so maybe that'll be "my" new ZD. We'll see. I think it'll only be available in Japan though.
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