Leaf digital backs

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glitch

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Admittedly I've had very little, if any, meaningful previous experiences with digital backs, but I was introduced to Leaf yesterday and it got me wondering about why I'd never heard of them before.

I'm aware of Phase One, Mamiya, Hassleblad and a few others, but up until now Leaf seems to have passed me by completely.

Are they quite highly regarded?
 
Are they quite highly regarded?
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They certainly are. In fairness there is little to chose between any of digiback clans but leaf, being about the last to get a decent image at high iso, may well now be the best.
I think mamiya are leaf rebranded, as blad are with imacon.
Oh and leaf are actualy kodak. :)
 
Oh really? That's very interesting. It certainly seemed like an impressive bit of kit and the photographs coming from it were nothing short of jaw-dropping.

You'll have to excuse my ignorance as I wasn't asking many questions about the camera yesterday, but how does it all work? I believe these digital backs are part of a semi-modular system with the lenses on the front and some sort of body in the middle?

What are the choices for getting something that would all work together? Do you mix-and-match as you see fit or are you constrained by certain aspects of the whole system?
 
Think medium format with a digital back replacing the film back.
 
I'd love to think MF but I know very, very little about them. All I know, and I now realise I've missed something out from my previous post, is that they're comprised of four modules; the back, the body, the lens and the viewfinder.

But I don't know how they all fit together and if you can mix-and-match various components from various manufacturers or even why you'd want to, assuming you could.
 
Ah, very useful. That explains quite a bit.

Anyone got experience with digital backs and MF cameras? Quite interested to see what's what before I find myself in charge of one.
 
There is alot to learn about if your starting from a zero knowledge point of view. If you're looking something that's been around a little while then the choice of camera/back combinations is huge.

The new backs from Leaf and Blad are pushing 50 megapixies now and that's where all the attention is in the market but some of the older kit is still just fabulous. I'd put my money on an 11MP Leaf back producing better IQ and tonal range than any DSLR on the market today. Probably cheaper now too. Because you're dealing with full 16bit capture you get a 22MB RAW file from an 11MP camera and 12 stops of exposure latitude. What you don't get is any kind of ISO range. Think 25 as the norm, 50 if you need that extra stop and 100 as a last resort. The more modern backs are better and offer you 400/800 usably but you'll never match a DSLR for range.

But when you're using a bigger, slower camera it's not really an issue that causes concern.

Your best bet is to decide what you want to shoot and what you want to spend and then start filtering down the choices. :)
 
Oh I'm not buying, I'll just be using one at some point in the near future and I'd like to know what makes it tick. I believe it's either a 22 or 28MP back, possibly a good couple of years old and paired with a Hasselblad 'front' and whatever lenses that might work with.

Unfortunately I was too busy asking questions about everything other than the camera but I did pick up a few things that I wanted to find out more about for myself.

The quality of the images coming straight off this back were staggering so your comment about the 11MP back certainly rings true. I'd never seen images of that quality before without a fair bit of post-processing having been done. I know we're most probably talking thousands and thousands of pounds worth of kit, but I'm still curious as to exactly how it all works out.
 
Right, I've found the back that I was handling a few weeks ago and this is the item in question.

Would anyone be so kind as to shock me with what a basic set-up would be in order to start shooting with a back like this? At the moment I shoot with a 90mm TS-E lens on a full-frame DSLR, so something akin to that would be a useful and interesting read.
 
Well, you'd need a Bladd 500CM for a start, actually the leaf back might fit a few more members of the 500 series.
This is a 500cm with a film back, waist level finder and 80mm lens, you'd unclip the film back from the back of the camera and clip on the digital leaf back in its place, thus shooting digital instead of film.
I can't quite figure out what exactly you want to know.


hasselblad_500cm.jpg



Oh, and 80mm on M/F is a standard lens, the angle of view is similar to a 50 on full frame, if you want a mild telephoto with a similar angle of view to 90mm on full frame, its gonna be a 150mm for M/F
 
joxby said:
I can't quite figure out what exactly you want to know.
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Pretty much what you've written. Now you've given me some specifics I can do a bit of research and reading into it all.

Ta muchly!
 
glitch said:
Pretty much what you've written. Now you've given me some specifics I can do a bit of research and reading into it all.

Ta muchly!
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No problemo....Captain Invisible....;)
 
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