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OH MY GOD!!! MEDIUM FORMAT!!!

A Radiologist (spelling?) gets to fake becoming a fashion photograher, and has 28 days to do so. I was slightly upset when he didn't know anything about photography.

I then became very upset, when, guessing, bah Canon 5D off you go, no sir, Medium Format Cameras!!! I was jumping up and down like a mad man, "HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE SHUTTER SPEED IS, AND THATS BLOODY SELF EXPLANITORY!!!" Then he was like whats this light meter thing, meters light perhaps!

It was medium format galore to be fair, everyone one using them, like super expensive kit, and lighting.

Anyway it was indeed fun to watch, but god, why not let the people who are dying to use kit no where near this standard get a shot! The world is slightly unjust I say.

I won't spoil the fact if he got away with "faking it" or not incase you want to watch it for your self. Er, not sure where you will see it again (it was on one of the sky digital channels, around 520-600 but nearer the 600 end, you know the nation geo, discoveries, those types of channels (good channels though I used to be good at english and math until I stopped watching the discovery channel everyday!)

Did anyone else watch it, if so what were your views?

I still can't get over the fact he got a bloody medium format camera

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Hi Daniel, frustrating as it is, that's the point of the show - to put someone in a situation where they are a complete novice!

Which camera did they use? Was it a Hasselblad and was it tethered to a computer? And will your next upgrade be to more than 20 mpixels then?!

I think I was lucky I dont have those channels here.
Otherwise I think I might have gotten a heart attack seeing how you expressed yourself..
I can almost imagine you jumping up and down and yelling at the TV ! perhaps with your family looking and asking what the Heck is going on ?

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Nikon D7000 and a bunch of Nikkors

Link, please?

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I know its the point of the show, but its so sad when there are people who would REALLLY REALLLY love to get their hands on that stuff for 28 minutes never mind 28 days!

It was a Hasselblad, shooting in film I think...(Although I understand nothing about medium format) it also spat out some polaroids...not sure if they do that normally...

I was in the other room watching it (2 sky + boxes) with the door shut, so I was free to go nuts lol!

Luis, not got a link, and I'm supposed to help out with housework today >_< but i'll try and find some time to have a look for it on some of those t sites.

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Canon 17-40 F/4L USM + Canon 24-70 F/2.8L USM + Canon 28mm F/1.8 USM + Canon 70-200 F/2.8L USM IS + Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM
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One of the beauties of the way most medium format cameras are designed is their ability to have interchangable 'backs'. This is where the film is loaded, so rather than taking one roll out when it's finished and loading another, you could have multiple backs, all loaded with film and ready to go - very handy for fashion photographers who don't want a break in the shoot.

It also means you could have high ISO in one back, black and white in another etc - giving you flexibility to change 'settings' mid shoot without having to finish a film first. I know we take this for granted with digital, but this was pretty powerful stuff for film.

And it also lets you fit a polaroid back to produce instant snaps to check exposures etc.

Ahh! I understand now!

Thats why the photographer guy was like, you checked the light meter? So why did you print out to poleroids? - To check the exposure - Ok so why did you go to film without checking them! (lol!)

I get it now - the film is massive btw! The "film" is like a small 35mm print, but the judges were inspecting it with some type of special magnifying glass.


Oh for those in the know, like myself, will have noticed that BBC Four are doing a 6 part series on photography and its history entitled - "The Genius of Photography - Starts this Tuesday in the UK (sure its tuesday, its on my sky+ anyway) so for those who don't get BBC Four, I'd check your favourite video sharing sites. I thought some of the BBC channels were avaliable world wide, or atleast online on their site.

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Yep, those magnifiying glasses are called loupes and let you examine the image closely. The actual frame size of medium format cameras vary, but generally start at 6x4.5cm and go up to 6x7cm. Anything bigger is generally known as large format, which believe it or not can go up to 10x8in!

But it also illustrates how medium format digital currently use much smaller frames. They're still bigger than 'full-frame' 36x24mm sensors, but there's no 6x6cm CCDs yet! Well not outside of NASA anyway!

Oh, just to add, does that mean when using a medium format, you can switch between digital and film backs? (omg that is actually the bees knees!)

EDIT

Ah thats what they are called, just like in Aperture on OS X!

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Canon EOS 5DmkII + BG-E6 + Canon EOS 40D + BG-E2N + Canon EOS 33
Canon 17-40 F/4L USM + Canon 24-70 F/2.8L USM + Canon 28mm F/1.8 USM + Canon 70-200 F/2.8L USM IS + Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM
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Spot on Daniel, yes you can. In fact there are third parties producing digital backs for, say, hasselblad bodies. So you could use the same body and lenses with film or digital - neat huh?

BUT it's a bit like cropped frame DSLRs - since the digital sensor is smaller than the big frame of film, all their lenses effectively have their field of view reduced!

Note there are some digital medium format cameras which don't have removeable backs...

Ah I thought things were to good to be true, although even if the sensor is smaller than the film, heh, its bigger than 35mm!

I take it a larger sensor means lower noise levels (e.g. 25mp on medium format digtal back in comparison to 21mp Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III) in comparison to the 35mm full frame equivilents since there is a larger space for the light to expose each pixel (basically the pixels are bigger on the MF back than the 35mm FF sensors)

I suppose if the field of view is reduced this can prove a little bit of a problem with fashion as then you would have to use wide angle lenses (although I wouldn't have though a massive problem considering the quality of the body and also the quality of the lenses which I bet ain't cheap either!) where some distortion or light fall off could occur.

Ah, so only some do it, but those who need it will pay the money though!

So there isn't any DSLR's that can do any fancy film + digital sensor trickery I take it? (Sorry for drawing this conversation out, but I need to know before I go to bed!)

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Canon EOS 5DmkII + BG-E6 + Canon EOS 40D + BG-E2N + Canon EOS 33
Canon 17-40 F/4L USM + Canon 24-70 F/2.8L USM + Canon 28mm F/1.8 USM + Canon 70-200 F/2.8L USM IS + Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM
Canon Speedlite 580EX II + Canon Speedlite 540EZ + 2 x Nikon SB-80DX
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Perhaps the new rumored modular ultra-high-end Nikon with exchangeable sensors also lets you apply a filmback to the body
---Don't believe rumors---

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
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oh shucks, no Canon one then

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Canon EOS 5DmkII + BG-E6 + Canon EOS 40D + BG-E2N + Canon EOS 33
Canon 17-40 F/4L USM + Canon 24-70 F/2.8L USM + Canon 28mm F/1.8 USM + Canon 70-200 F/2.8L USM IS + Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM
Canon Speedlite 580EX II + Canon Speedlite 540EZ + 2 x Nikon SB-80DX
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I don't think we'll be seeing a DSLR with film options! But then I've been wrong before!

Daniel, yep, the bigger sensor surface area means lower noise and higher dynamic range even with loads of Megapixels!

And remember the bigger the sensor area at the focal plane, the wider the field of view you'll get from the same focal length lens. So while 50mm is normal on 35mm / full frame, and becomes a short tele on a cropped DSLR, it's actually a semi-wide angle on medium format!

When I used to shoot with a Mamiya 7II with a huge 6x7cm negative, my widest lens was a 42mm, which was roughly equivalent in field of view to something like 20mm on a 35mm / full frame body.

BUT because it was a 42mm and not a 20mm, there were big differences in perspective and depth of field. There was very little of the distortion you'd normally expect with, say, a 20mm lens, but it had a much smaller depth of field too, so getting shots with loads in focus could be a challenge.

The perspective thing is nice though. Previous to owning medium format, I'd always look at magazine covers or pro shots and wonder why their photos looked so different to mine even though they'd capture the same field of view. The answer was perspective and they were invariably using medium format. It's not necessarily better, but it is different.

I'd really like to get my hands on a digital medium format for a test, but as you'd imagine, the manufacturers are less happy to lend out kit which could cost tens of thousands! One day though...!

Gordon

You'd wonder why Canon and Nikon doesn't just got - heh heres everything we currently make, test it please! Surely they would pay you / give you kit for free, to test if they were so confident in its performance!

AS for the MF camera companies, whats a few grand to them! I say we petition for MF companies to send Gordon some free kit! Not much bad to say about them anyway!

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Canon EOS 5DmkII + BG-E6 + Canon EOS 40D + BG-E2N + Canon EOS 33
Canon 17-40 F/4L USM + Canon 24-70 F/2.8L USM + Canon 28mm F/1.8 USM + Canon 70-200 F/2.8L USM IS + Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM
Canon Speedlite 580EX II + Canon Speedlite 540EZ + 2 x Nikon SB-80DX
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