Anybody got a Mamiya-mount Phase back they no longer need?

[Stephen_Caissie]

I'm getting tired of the digital back I have; it's buggy, unreliable and incapable of a lot of things that my DSLR-toting friends take for granted. I'm ready to put myself into debt, if need be, for a Phase back. Does anyone here know of a used P25+, P30+ or P45+ for sale? I've trolled Craigslist and eBay, but the pickings there are pretty slim.

[Alastair]

I'm inclined to think that your old buggy digital back isn't that far from a new digital back. Of the backs you list the only one I would personally buy is the P30+. If you're looking for used, call Dave Gallagher at Capture Integration in Atlanta, or you can talk to Steve Hendrix. I know them both, and they usually have used backs in stock.

But why a (newer or or new-to-you older) digital back? (said the guy who has one and uses it and loves it, but the limitations drive him crazy) Seriously. What are you currently shooting with? What are you missing from the back you have that the newer backs can do? My CF-39 (Hasselblad, circa 2007) is amazing in studio light but anything above 200 iso (and that's on a good day) looks like hell. And it shoots at 1 frame per second, and it only has one AF point. And the files are so big as to be alarming, and it cost me $18,000 after I traded in my previous $12,000 back. (Yes, that's $30K, and I try not to think too much about it)

A D3X is a whole lot less money, even if you don't get quite the same pixel size. Heck, that new Pentax is less money...

I'm interested in your thoughts because I'm wondering what I'm going to do, upgrade-wise.

[Stephen_Caissie]

Hi, Alastair.

I'm actually using a ZD back, which I bought third-hand, and which was originally used as an in-store demo. If I'm right, you should be cringing right about now.

In terms of sensor size and pixel density, it's roughly the equivalent of a P25+, and has about the same useable ISO range: 50 to 400. I've noticed that I can actually get pretty good shots even at 400 ISO so long as I give it enough light (keep the signal-to-noise ratio high by shooting to the right of the histogram and it works). But where it fails, it fails big time. Let me count the ways:

There's a mysterious green vignette that often shows up on the wide edges of my images. I see it mostly in scenes that are supposed to be neutral, but it also shows up in sky images a lot. If I'm shooting in studio it becomes a lot less obvious due, I suspect, to the amount of light I'm giving it. Sometimes it's imperceptible, other times it's glaringly obvious. I've tried just about everything to fix or compensate for it, including sending the back to Japan to have the Mamiya techs look at it. Nothing has so far worked.

I can't do exposures longer than 1-2 seconds (even though the camera has a bulb setting and the back can theoretically accept that much input) without weird, random pixel blooms. The longer the exposure, the worse it gets. I have a friend who uses a P25+ and has shown me clean 30-second exposures that he's taken at night.

Given that it's a 12-bit DAC, it's giving me roughly 7 stops of dynamic range. Even the meagre P25+ has a 12-stop range.

This particular back will occasionally stop working at odd intervals. Sometimes it's a matter of the batteries being low, so I keep lots of spares on hand. Other times it just seems to have gremlins. Some days I can shoot for hours with no issues at all, other times it quits on me after half an hour and there's nothing I can do to restore it.

The display is tiny and impossible to use for focus checking. Flipping from one photo stored on a card to another takes about 4 seconds. Zooming in and moving about while zoomed in takes about 2 seconds between each button press.

The buffer is slow and fills up after ten shots. If I take ten shots in a row (at a leisurely rate of 1 every 1.4 seconds) I'll have to stop after ten to let it finish writing to the card, which takes up to a minute. The speed of the card doesn't seem to matter.

Transfer from the camera to the computer while tethered take about 10 seconds for each photo. The cable it uses is a 4-pin connector, which means it's Firewire 400, and slow as molasses. I got the chance to try out an IQ180 back and was stunned by how fast those photos went from the camera to the computer. Also, because the capture interface is in a proprietary format, the only software I can use for tethered shooting is the buggy, old and no-longer-supported Mamiya Digital Photostudio. If I wanted to upgrade to the latest version of the Mac OS, it wouldn't even run any more.

I'd happily trade up to a P65+ if I could afford it, but even used that's a little out of my price range. As for why I don't just ditch it all and get a Nikon or Canon, I've gotten used to the quality of the image produced by my lenses, and I'd really hate to have to give that up. I shoot mostly in studio anyway; I don't do sports, kids, pets or weddings, and I don't shoot video, or have any need to capture ten frames a second. Even if I'm on location, I'll bring my lights or shoot mid-day to make sure I have the exposure I want.

I'd consider moving sideways to the Pentax 645 system, but I'd be afraid of jumping from one dead-end system to another, and having to reinvest in all of the lenses again would make it completely unfeasible. Mamiya and Hasselblad are the two most common cameras out there, so that means there are lots of options for used gear. And since Phase bought Mamiya, and has essentially rebranded the Mamiya 645 as the Phase 645 but kept all of the under-the-hood specs the same, that means that if I stick to this path, I'll still be able to use my beloved 80mm f/4 macro manual lens, even with an upgraded body and back. This way, I can upgrade just one component at a time – back first, then maybe the body, then gradually new lenses – and everything will still work through each iteration.

[Alastair]

Ah, a ZD back. Right, fair enough. My studio partner has one of those... If you do just shoot in a studio then I would still think a p30+ or a P45+. I know they're probably too expensive, but the P25+ is seriously old technology - not much newer than that ZD. But you will be much happier with them than the ZD.

But the next question that needs to be asked is: What else could you do with that money? I, personally, feel it's important to ask this question even if you need the equipment. Because there is always a cost/benefit analysis that goes on and for me it's just too easy to say, 'I'll get the new gear because I need a new camera' rather than say, 'I'll hire some models, hair and makeup and get a location and then spend that money shooting a whole bunch of new work for my website'

...because we both know what will get you (me) more work. But it's tough to do. But I'm not suggesting you keep the ZD back for much longer than you can. It is a somewhat tortuous piece of equipment. Great images, but only under ideal conditions.

[Peter Wm. Richardson]

Amen to that Alastair!
Peter
Peter Wm. Richardson
Photojournalist
peterw@journalist.com

[Stephen_Caissie]

I'm going to try to do both, as best I can. I've got a fashion shoot coming up shortly, and while it's not going to pay a lot, I'm hoping I can parlay it into another self-promo, the way I did with the summer bride shots.