Rainer Viertlböck
pro member
although i am hunting also the maximum of image quality, and in the field of architecure photography there are more problems to find than the sensors and its size. i mean distortion-free lenses are very important here and wideangles dont exist in 35mm retrofocus design, so at least its difficult to shoot hiend quality images with 35mm ( also its not impossible!!)...... but:
it gives me to think about that in times of film the difference of the filmsize was so big,- i mean from 35mm to 6x7cm film you had app.3 times the size of the film, and to 4x5" you even have had about 12times the size of the film, which resulted in a quality difference which was really very big. you simply couldnt compare a 35mm shot with a lf shot so far better was lf in these days.
and there was no price difference between the systems. a good nikon/canon or leica 35mm set was not cheaper than a mamiya or hasselblad mf setup or than a linhof or sinar lf setup. you bought your system after your needs not after your bank account. if you havent had much money you simply bought older stuff or second hand,- but the same here. 35mm was not cheaper than larger film sizes, it was just made for differnet needs.
and now? the price difference between a 5d canon and a 22mp back together with e.g. a h2d is really impressive. the quality difference also? in some cases its visible, but is it impressive as it was in the film days? in others they come very very close. the new 33 and 39mp backs seem to raise up the distance between the systems again. they reach again the difference ( in the mp count ) which was before between 35mm and mf.
but 1. where is the real large format gone and its quality advantages ? ( scanbacks are to static for most purposes ).
2. lets wait what will bring canon in september, they will probably also go over 20mp.
3. this touch canon and the new mf backs in the same amount:
many lenses are at their resolution limit, or they just exceed it at its best apertures and if shot from tripoid. so the resolution difference in practice will be often very low.... this was also different in the film days cause here not just sharpness increased with larger formats, also grain decreased proportional.
whats the result of this? the number of sold mf gear decreased dramatically and lf is nearly dead for the manufactors ( still there is a big second hand market ). and resulting from this the prices of mf gear will not drop cause they have to amortisize the developement of the new gear with lower numbers of units.......... so let us hope that this price differnece will not even be bigger in the future, resulting to the situation that just very few and very (moneywise) successfull photographers will be able to folllow this hiend tools. anyway we have this situation even now,- but i hope it will not become more drastic as it is........
it gives me to think about that in times of film the difference of the filmsize was so big,- i mean from 35mm to 6x7cm film you had app.3 times the size of the film, and to 4x5" you even have had about 12times the size of the film, which resulted in a quality difference which was really very big. you simply couldnt compare a 35mm shot with a lf shot so far better was lf in these days.
and there was no price difference between the systems. a good nikon/canon or leica 35mm set was not cheaper than a mamiya or hasselblad mf setup or than a linhof or sinar lf setup. you bought your system after your needs not after your bank account. if you havent had much money you simply bought older stuff or second hand,- but the same here. 35mm was not cheaper than larger film sizes, it was just made for differnet needs.
and now? the price difference between a 5d canon and a 22mp back together with e.g. a h2d is really impressive. the quality difference also? in some cases its visible, but is it impressive as it was in the film days? in others they come very very close. the new 33 and 39mp backs seem to raise up the distance between the systems again. they reach again the difference ( in the mp count ) which was before between 35mm and mf.
but 1. where is the real large format gone and its quality advantages ? ( scanbacks are to static for most purposes ).
2. lets wait what will bring canon in september, they will probably also go over 20mp.
3. this touch canon and the new mf backs in the same amount:
many lenses are at their resolution limit, or they just exceed it at its best apertures and if shot from tripoid. so the resolution difference in practice will be often very low.... this was also different in the film days cause here not just sharpness increased with larger formats, also grain decreased proportional.
whats the result of this? the number of sold mf gear decreased dramatically and lf is nearly dead for the manufactors ( still there is a big second hand market ). and resulting from this the prices of mf gear will not drop cause they have to amortisize the developement of the new gear with lower numbers of units.......... so let us hope that this price differnece will not even be bigger in the future, resulting to the situation that just very few and very (moneywise) successfull photographers will be able to folllow this hiend tools. anyway we have this situation even now,- but i hope it will not become more drastic as it is........