Medium Format Camera News

Leica introduced an upgraded S-Series medium format camera at photokina this morning: the new Leica S (Type 007) model, which features a Leica CMOS sensor and the Leica Maestro II image processor.

A venerable brand in medium format photography has announced a long-awaited new system: the new 50-megapixel, CMOS sensor-based Leaf Credo 50. The Leaf Credo 50 was unveiled by Mamiya Leaf this morning, 14 years after the CMOS-based 6MP Leaf C-MOST digital back was announced at photokina 2000.

If you want to make an immediate improvement in your photography, move up to medium format. Not just because of the larger format, which will instantly provide better resolution and quality, whether you use digital or film; more importantly, the larger viewing screen will assist you in defining your subject and refining your composition. I have seen near instant improvement occur...

If you've wanted to make the leap from 35mm full-frame digital photography to medium-format, the start-up costs just got a whole lot cheaper.

When people asked legendary editor Herbert Keppler why he sometimes wrote about cameras costing more than the average photographer could afford, he told me it was because of the Maserati factor. “Most people,” he said, “can’t afford a Maserati but like reading about them.” And I get that. My personal dream car is a 1961 Maserati 3500 GT, which sells for north of $450,000. Fortunately, medium format cameras, while expensive, cost less than that.

You'd think that with 12- and 16-megapixel digital SLRs so readily available that demand for digital backs and medium format digital bodies would be languishing. But 2007 looks like another good year for the big guns with both Rollei and Hasselblad showing very impressive new products, Pentax still showing a prototype digital body, and Phase One still doing very well...

Phew, what a busy month it’s been for new photo gear! While the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas has not, traditionally, been a major event to debut high-end photography equipment, CES 2016 was definitely an exception with dozens of interesting imaging releases. (And hopefully this is a trend that continues at future CES events, which, in recent years have been rather ho-hum for photography gear.)