100-megapixel Phase One/Sony camera

by philg

Here’s something to add to your Amazon wishlist: the Phase One XF camera. The sensor is big enough to use as a toddler’s breakfast plate. The pixels come out of the magical Sony factory that has been stomping all over Canon for the last five years in the dynamic range department. The lenses come from the world’s best lens company: Schneider Kreuznach (and, 30 years after the Minolta Maxxum, the company seems to have discovered the existence of autofocus).

I’m a little at a loss to figure out what one would do with this camera. Unless the goal is full-body teledermatology why does one need 100 megapixels of resolution in a single exposure of a human? If the subject is landscape, in theory one could get the same results using six exposures by a Nikon D810, Sony a7R II, or whatever and then stitching. Perhaps aerial photography will be the killer application? It is tough to park a helicopter in mid-air long enough and steadily enough to get images suitable for stitching. On the other hand, most of the customers for our aerial photography business are real estate developers. They need something that can be shown to a planning board, not something that can hang on a museum wall.

What do readers think? Has camera quality finally outstripped the aesthetic appeal of most parts of the world? Will Phase One XF owners come back from a project agreeing with François Boucher that the real world is “too green and badly lit”?

And what else is interesting to readers in the 2016 photo world? DxOMark finally released its review of the iPhone 6s Plus. The camera measures very slightly better than the 6 Plus camera and slightly worse than cameras with bigger sensors that are in some Android phones, e.g., the Sony Z5 and the latest Samsungs. I’m still waiting for a thick phone with a dramatically larger sensor and correspondingly bigger lens.

Leica continues to impress consumers with its brand name and logo while underperforming laughably in objective tests (DxOMark on the Leica Q).

Has anyone tried the DxO One camera? I love the company but hate the idea of having to walk out the door wondering about the battery charge state in two different required devices.

What do we think Canon will do in 2016? Now that Sony has bought up the only competitor capable of making high-dynamic range sensors (story on Toshiba sensor division acquisition), does Canon invest in a better semiconductor process? Throw in the towel and buy from Sony the way that Nikon does? Step up its advertising so that consumers will buy Canon cameras with inferior dynamic range and not care?

11 thoughts on “100-megapixel Phase One/Sony camera”

  1. > They need something that can be shown to a planning board, not something that can hang on a museum wall.

    Shouldn’t this be:

    > They need something that can be shown to a planning board, not something that can *be hung* on a museum wall.

    Verb agreement

  2. How extensively is dynamic range incorporated into camera marketing strategies as it is? Browsing B&H pages for current Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras, I don’t get the impression that either brand is superior to the other. Browsing Flickr groups with photo samples from current Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras, I see what looks to me like perfectly good pictures taken on both brands.

    My guess is that the people most interested in researching and making purchase decisions based on dynamic range might be pro/semi-pro photographers who already have a collection of camera equipment. People starting off from scratch, able to pick whichever camera system they want? I can easily imagine Canon vs. Nikon being a coin toss.

    That said, I have an assortment of Canon lenses myself, and would much enjoy seeing improved sensors this year…

  3. When you want to impress that new idiot/inexperienced art director client with the size of your camera’s resolution and to justify your high day rate or licensing fees, this is the camera system to get.

    Back when I worked in the photo industry this strategy was common among more than a few high end photographers in the Boston area. Clients were easily impressed by specs because it obviously meant the photographer would be able to capture better photos.

    Some dealers or manufacturers offered leases of these systems as well at the time so you got to claim that expense longer than a depreciating asset that you bought outright.

  4. This is just what we all need to take selfies and pictures of our lunch for posting on Facebook and Instagram.

  6. Phase One XF 100MP — For those interested in seeing what 100 mp and a great lens can do: https://youtu.be/okudd7b9dis Jaw-dropping detail!
    Large prints for airport walls (30 ft or so)
    Drone reconnoiters
    Archival quality prints of original art work (no stitching, no table scanning)
    Accoutrements for your Ferrari at Monaco F1

  8. It’s great having all those pixels when it becomes necessary to crop the picture.

  9. There are quite a few guys who like to schlep around view cameras (you know, like the one that Ansel Adams used). Some of those guys like to use digital backs: this should be a must-have for them.

  10. Fashion photography. Advertising. Anything with moving subjects that needs the res to be blown up large. This is basically the res of an 8×10 chrome drum scanned at 1,100 ppi, which was common when I was last in a lab cira 2001, doubt that resolution needs have changed much.

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