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One-On-One workshop in Algonquin Park and the Muskoka region of north-central Ontario with a client from Ireland. George was shooting with a Sinar medium format digital system while I was shooting with my Hasselblad H2 and Phase One P45+ back. When I had a few free moments I was also testing the brand new Canon G10 and Nikon P6000 pocket digicams for an upcoming comparative review. I had become very impressed with the Canon G10 after just a few days of earlier light-duty testing. Each evening that week I would sit with my 15" Macbook Pro reviewing the day's files. At one point I found myself looking at raw files on-screen and not being sure if I was looking at Hasselblad P45+ files or Canon G10 files. After some 50 years in this industry I know what I'm looking at, be it a screen blow-up or a print, and I certainly don't confuse how something looks on a 15" laptop screen (though properly profiled and calibrated) with how it will turn out on a critically produced exhibition-quality print. But nevertheless, I was curious about what I was seeing. In The Field The next afternoon I hiked into the forest with my tripod, Hasselblad H2 and P45+ with the Hasselblad 55-110mm lens attached, and photographed a lovely deep forest fall scene. As I stood there wondering where to go next I put my hands in my vest pocket (it was a chilly fall morning), and there was the Canon G10. I wonder how the it would compare with the H2/P45+ combo in a critically controlled side-by-side comparison. But - nothing ventured, etc, and so without a tripod mount for the G10 I simply held it firmly braced on top of the Hassy and did an exposure, framing the shot as closely as I could to what I'd done on the Hasselblad. That evening I looked at the files on my laptop screen, along with several other people, and we were amazed to see that the differences between the 39 Megapixel medium format system and the 15 Megapixel pocket digicam didn't seem that dramatic - certainly not as big as one might have expected. In fact, with the files in Lightroom I usually couldn't tell which was which without pixel-peeping. Not having a printer on-hand, I decided to put any further evaluation on hold until I could do a critical processing of both images with my desktop system and 30" Cinemadisplay, and then make comparison prints at my studio. Shooting conditions: The H2 was on a large Enduro tripod with RRS head. Mirror lock-up was used, along with 3 second self timer and cable release. Shots taken were critically focused by eye as well as with autofocus. White balance was achieved through the use of a gray card, and prime focus was on the large knot in the foreground tree. The G10 was hand-held, carefully braced atop the Hassy on the tripod. I had no mounting plate for it, so couldn't use the tripod directly. Also, the G10 has Image stabilization, so I guess that evens things out a bit. Autofocus was used, as was autoexposure in Aperture priority mode. Overall if there was any technical bias in the test it was in favour of the medium format system. Both shots were taken at or close to each camera's optimum apertures to avoid quality loss due to diffraction. At The Studio Each file was processed from raw to the best of my ability. Neither file was processed in either Canon's or Phase One's software, but rather in either Lightroom 21 for the P45+ file or a beta version of another raw processor, which I prefer to Canon's software. I suppose it would have been more appropriate to use each maker's software, but I used what I prefer to work with, and in any event, the differences would likely have been a quibble. I tried to match colour as best I could, but I didn't really sweat it too much. Different sensors reproduce colours differently, and without producing custom profiles there's not much to be done about it - and the difference wouldn't have materially affected the results in any event. I simply tried to make each print look as good as I could.
Figure 3 Doing any comparison such as this is fraught with potential pitfalls because of the inherent differences in the file size and resolutions of the two cameras. The screen grab immediately above, taken from my 30" Cinemadisplay, is intended to show you how these files compare in Photoshop when imported at the same screen resolution. In other words, what you're seeing is 15MP vs 39MP translated into image size rather than resolution. On The Viewing Stand Over a two day period I invited photographers and local industry professionals to come to my print studio and look at a series of 13X19" prints from an Epson 3800 printer made on Ilford Gold Fiber Silk paper which were then hung side by side on my floor-standing print viewing box. This collection of seven people included experienced photographers, people from the commercial print industry, and other trade professionals. Between them there was at least 200 years of photographic industry shooting and printing experience. In most cases I did not tell them what they were looking at, simply saying that I had been shooting with two cameras, and that they should divide the prints (about a dozen) into two piles - Camera A and Camera B They were asked to judge resolution, accutance, colour reproduction, highlight detail, dMax, and any other factors that they wished to consider. The Results In every case no one could reliably tell the difference between 13X19" prints shot with the $40,000 Hasselblad and Phase One 39 Megapixel back, and the new $500 Canon G10. In the end no one got more than 60% right, and overall the split was about 50 / 50, with no clear differentiator. In fact it was the H2 system's narrower depth of field that occasionally was the only clear give-away. Some viewers eventually figured out that the prints with the narrower depth of field were from medium format, while other photographers chose the G10 images because with its wider depth of field it created an overall impression of greater sharpness. Needless to say there was much shaking of heads and muttering. Could a $500 digicam equal a $40,000 medium format digital system in image quality, at least in prints up to 13X19" (Super A3)?
The top end of the industry has achieved very high image quality for some time. The improvements that we've seen over the past several years from medium format backs have slowed, though each new generation has given us not just more megapixels but also wide dynamic range, better high ISO performance, and other advantages. But, the high end has now gotten so good, that the incremental improvements achieved with each new generation are smaller each year. On the other hand low-end cameras have had a long way to go. In the past they have been noisy, the lenses on digicams have not been the best, and resolution as well as other aspects of image quality have often left a lot to be desired. Each new generation of cameras though gets better than the last, and with the Canon G10 that company appears to have taken a significant step forward from its predecessor the G9, and for that matter in my experience to any other comparable camera on the market. The sensor and lens used in the G10 offer a marked improvement over anything comparable that's come before, and it shows. To Be Clear Let me be clear though, this comparison is not by any means definitive. It was done for my own edification because I was having a hard time believing what I was seeing. Now that I have had my observations confirmed by several industry pros, I am more confident in what I'm seeing, and that those funny cigarettes that I smoked back in the '60's haven't totally befuddled my judgment. Please note that what I'm describing here is really not new when it comes to comparing high-end 35mm DSLRs to medium format systems. We've all done such comparisons for years, and know that the advantages of large sensors and MF systems are best seen in large prints and in critical applications. The only thing that's different now is that instead of comparing an MF system with a DSLR I'm comparing it to a digicam, though a 15 megapixel one to be sure. Be aware as well that these comparisons fall down when prints over about 13X19" are made. Once the outpu...
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