I mentioned in my last posting how I like to take best advantage of the image depth, sharpness and clarity of landscapes by using the mirror lock feature on the new Mamiya AFDIII Camera Body. This feature is now so easy to use that I use it whenever my camera is on a tripod. Remembering that the mirror assembly on a medium format camera body is substantially larger than on a DLSR, by eliminating any chance of movement, I’m insured that I’ll get the sharpest image possible. If I’m handholding the camera and I have a little wiggle room available, I will even use this feature if I feel the necessary shutter speed is getting a bit slower than I’d like.

Here’s how easy this is to do. Take a look at the image showing the top of the camera and look at the choices around the shutter release button. 

By simply rotating the shutter selection dial around to “M.UP”, you’ve activated this feature. If you have the camera set for Single Autofocus and the lens set on AF, the camera will focus before locking the mirror. You may also focus and meter by pressing half way down on the shutter release. Should the camera body be set for continuous focus, (“C” on the front of the camera body below the lens) it could be possible to not have focus locked, so make sure you are on either single or manual focus. If either the camera body or the lens is set for manual focus, then you will have to focus by yourself before activating the shutter.

To see once again what the combination of a medium format camera and a Leaf Digital Back bring you, let’s take a look at the same scene captured with this combination compared to a 12 megapixel DSLR. Both cameras used f2.8 lenses and identical ISO and exposure settings.

This is a view of Sentinel Rock reflected in the Merced River in Yosemite National Park. While both images hold up well at 8x12”, the clarity of the details starts to fade even at 11x17” – and yes, before you ask, the bird was added to the Mamiya/Leaf image. Where the real beauty of medium format digital shows up is when we zoom in closer to 100%.

Owing to the resolution differences, the DLSR image covering an even greater area is smaller, but notice the details that remain clear. The fine features in the rock, the depth of color and detail in the shadow area and even the clarity of the needles on the pine trees remain on the digital back shot while they fade to blurred details on the DSLR. To take advantage of this clarity, you don’t need to make enormous prints, but should you want 24×36 or larger images, this combination will deliver them in striking detail.

Even while handholding the camera for this image, using the mirror lock feature provides another advantage to keep your images as sharp as they can be.

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Posted by Joe Brady on October 30th, 2008 :: Filed under Mamiya
Tags :: dslr, joe brady, landscape photography, mamiya digital, mirror up, sharpness comparison

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Visitors to any trade show know it can be tiring on the feet and boggling to the mind. So much to see, so little time. There are a hardy group of reporters, however, who make it their business to get to as many critical booths as possible.  Such is Miami-based Carlos Echenique, author of Echenique.com, a fellow who focuses on technology. He was nice enough to stop by our booth and joined the throngs of photographers getting to know the exciting new Mamiya DL28. Show coverage here.

You can also view his photography on Flickr (chock full of photos from Photo Plus Expo and much more).

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Posted by admin on October 28th, 2008 :: Filed under Mamiya
Tags :: blogger, carlos echenique, mamiya DL28, photo plus expo

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I have spent a lot of time over the last three weeks sorting through the images I recently captured and have learned more about both the camera-digital back combination and techniques for bringing out the best of the images during post-processing. The first thing I noticed about the panoromas I had stitched was how sharp they were, even before any post-processing sharpening. I have yet to see a landscape image that didn’t benefit from some sharpening, but having such clean files to work with meant that a minimum of sharpening created incredible results.

With my tripod level and a safe margin of overlap for each segment, I was able to capture panoramic images that stitched flawlessly using Photoshop CS3’s automated Photomerge. This is found in CS3 under File-Automate-Photomerge. Since my tripod was level and I most frequently used the 80mm Sekor AF f/2.8 D lens, I chose “reposition” and lost very little of the combined captures when cropping. The 80mm lens being the equivalent to a 50mm on an SLR body, there is no perspective change which results in the most natural image possible. The image titled “Lake Powell Marina Morning” was captured at f5.6 at 1/250th of a second at an ISO of 100. Even though this is plenty of shutter speed, I like to be extra cautious and used the mirror lock function of the AFDIII for each panel. This function on the camera is very easy to use – simply choose the Mirror Up function on the shutter release dial and press the shutter once to lock the mirror, then once more to make the exposure. This minimizes any movement caused by the motion of the mirror and allows perfect alignment when stitching panoramic images and sharp captures when using lower shutter speeds.

After stitching the frames in Photoshop (there were three in this image) I made some tonal adjustment using my new favorite plug-in – Nik Software’s Viveza. One of the issues when shooting landscapes, particularly panoramics, is that the color temperature can vary widely over the breadth of the scene. Viveza is the most organic, intuitive and easy to use way to correct for this. There is a free, fully functional demo download at www.niksoftware.com. I’m well versed in performing selective corrections in Photoshop, but this software saved me lots of time and produced outstanding results.

The last step I take for most every landscape is some amount of sharpening. My favorite settings for landscapes I took with my DSLR was to use the Smart Sharpen filter with the amount between 75 and 180 and the radius set to 0.8 pixels to remove Gaussian Blur. With the Mamiya AFDIII coupled with the 80mm lens and Aptus 65 Back I only use an amount between 25 and 50 because the images are already so sharp. Take a look at the detail section taken out of the image to see the clarity. Also note that this image is 20x48” at 240 dpi – the text on the prow of the “Canyon Explorer” is only ½ across at this print size – pretty amazing clarity that simply can’t be matched on a DSLR.

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Posted by Joe Brady on October 16th, 2008 :: Filed under Mamiya
Tags :: 80mm Sekor AF f/2.8, Adobe Photoshop CS3, lae powell marina, Mamiya 645AFD III, nik, panoramic, sharpening, stitching photos

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