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Greek Caretaker Government Sworn In
May 17, 2012 - Athens, Greece - Kostas Karamanlis, former conservative leader of New Democracy, stands among his collegues and takes the oath of office. Party leaders and members of the Greek Government take the oath of office inside the Greek Parliament to form a temporary coalition government until the June 17th when re-elections for a new government party will take place. (Credit Image: © Evi Zoupanos/ZUMAPRESS.com)
The Crossing Point
zReportage.com Story of the Week #421: The Crossing Point - Launched May 15, 2012 - Full multimedia experience: audio, stills, text and or video: Go to http://www.zReportage.com to see more - Greece over the past few years has become a source country concerning the entrance of a large number of illegal immigrants, mostly from Asian and African states, who enter mainly through the Greek-Turkish borders. It takes only a few minutes to cross the Evros river, now the main entry point for illegal immigrants from Asia coming to Europe, but it can be a frightening journey. In 2009 local police registered 8,800 migrants here, and in 2011, 55,000. In January this year 2,800 are known to have crossed and in February the Greeks started building a fence to stop the flow of people. By some estimates Greece has half a million illegal migrants. The ongoing euro crisis is making it harder for them to find work. (Credit Image: © Delmi Alvarez/zReportage.com/ZUMA)
Vice President Addresses Building Trades
Pete Marovich/ZUMA Contract Photographers
Always looking to make something more interesting than it is, I noticed that the large video projection screens were being projected from behind. So I was able to get up behind them, show the crowd and also the Vice President. Something that is usually hard to get in the same frame when the speaker is on stage. The fact that the image of the Vice President is huge is just a bonus. Always looking to make something more interesting than it is, I noticed that the large video projection screens were being projected from behind. So I was able to get up behind them, show the crowd and also the Vice President. Something that is usually hard to get in the same frame when the speaker is on stage. The fact that the image of the Vice President is huge is just a bonus.
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Phase One P65+ Digital Back
Stan Sholik
With the introduction of each new digital back from Phase One, we are constantly reminded that technology will progress in spite of our wishes that it would stabilize long enough for us to catch up to it. Sometimes this progress occurs in ways that answer our needs as professional photographers, and sometimes it brings us features we didn’t realize we wanted until we have them. This is truly the case with the Phase One P65+ back.

I admit to having been skeptical about the need for a back that incorporates a 60.5 megapixel sensor when I read the press release about the P65+. Yes, it is a boon to wide-angle shooters to have a sensor that covers the full 645 format without cropping. But, other than landscape and art photographers producing really large prints that clients will view from arm’s length, who really needs a back capable of producing a 350MB, 16-bit file, that can produce a 22 x 30 inch print at 300 dpi?
Once I received the back, it didn’t take me long to realize there is a lot more going on with it other than enormous file sizes and enhanced wide angle capabilities. Built into the P65+ are capabilities that any professional photographer with deep enough pockets to afford the technology will find useful, some of which will likely never be available from any other digital back manufacturer. Chief among these are Sensor+ technology, a higher speed capture rate and greatly improved image quality.

Dalsa, who along with Kodak, produces sensors used in medium format backs, developed Sensor+ technology under the guidance of Phase One, which now holds the proprietary rights to its use. With Sensor+, the 60.5 megapixel array of six micron pixels in the full resolution P65+ back are grouped together in a technology called “binning” that results in an effective 15 megapixel array of 12 micron pixels. The full area of the sensor is still used; there is no cropping involved.
The 15 megapixel Sensor+ array has four times the ISO rating of the 60 megapixel array. This 4X increase in ISO speeds results in effective ISO ratings of 200 to 3200 with the Sensor+ activated. The 15 megapixel file will produce a 15 x 11.2 inch image at 300dpi, large enough for most print applications.

There are other advantages to Sensor+. Capture speed increases from just under one capture per second to nearly 1.5 captures per second. While this might seem slow in comparison with digital SLRs, the P65+ will keep capturing images at this rate until your CF card or hard drive is full. Since you don’t need to worry about filling a buffer and waiting for it to clear, the P65+ is capable of capturing about 86 captures per minute versus about 60 captures per minute with a Canon 1Ds Mark III. With Sensor+, the P65+ converts from ultra-high resolution when you need it in the studio or on location, to a fashion, beauty, portrait or wedding back, capable even of hand-held available light captures if you need them and all at the push of a button. With all of us taking on any assignment we can get in this economy, this versatility is welcome, even if we didn’t realize we needed it.

Lest you think that the higher ISOs of Sensor+ come at the cost of image quality, from my testing, I can assure you they do not. While CCD sensors, like the one in the P65+, have lagged behind the CMOS sensors in reducing noise at higher ISOs, images from the P65+ at full resolution look to my eye to have half the noise at comparable ISOs than previous Phase One backs. That is, the P65+ at 60.5-megapixel resolution has about the same noise at ISO 800 that the P45+ has at ISO 400 for example. With Sensor+ then, its maximum ISO of 3200 has about the same noise as that of the P45+ at ISO 400. In practical terms, there is visible noise in the shadows, but most of it is luminance noise that is easily controlled in post processing, making 3200 a quite usable ISO.

The only downside I found to Sensor+ is the inability to use the P65+, with or without Sensor+ activated, for exposures longer than one minute. There is more information about the technology behind Sensor+ and its other advantages, such as moiré reduction on the Phase One website, www.phaseone.com.

While Sensor+ technology adds to the versatility and value of the P65+, I’m guessing that most photographers will be using it for its full frame/full resolution capabilities. For this, it is at its best shooting tethered to a computer running Phase One Capture One Pro or DB software, version 4.8 or better.

Phase One is on an aggressive upgrade path with its version 4 software. While some of this is brought on by the release of new digital SLR models, much of it has to do with increasing the speed and functionality with the P+ series of digital back, particularly the P65+ and the newest addition to the line, the P40+ with Sensor+ technology.

With version 4.8, you have full control of the P65+ back, being able to set white balance, ISO and switch Sensor+ on and off. You can also control camera functions, including aperture in full stops and shutter speed from the Capture One software. One function that Phase One has yet to integrate into the software is Live Preview for the P65+ back. I have been told it is in the works, and the P65+ documentation includes instructions for performing Live Previews with several cameras including the Mamiya 645AFD III.

In or out of the studio, making full resolution or Sensor+ captures, the images are gorgeous. At full resolution in particular, the level of detail is approaching that of scanned 4x5 film, without the grain (for better or worse depending on your tastes) and without the need to navigate through the scan to clean it up (for better, without question). It has not reached the quality of a scanning back, but it is unlikely that even a 4x5 single shot back when it arrives will be able to do that. At this point in time, the Phase One P65+ digital back represents not only the height of current digital sensor technology, but also the most versatile back currently on the market.
MSRP of the P65+ back for the Phase One/Mamiya 645AFD III camera is $39,990 with the Classic Warranty.
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