Phase One IQ3 100MP Trichromatic - Review 2022

Phase One is no stranger to high-resolution imaging. Along with Hasselblad, it's 1 of the only manufacturers delivering 100MP medium format camera systems. But its IQ3 100MP Trichromatic ($49,990 with XF torso and lens) goes beyond extreme resolution and a physically larger paradigm sensor. It uses a stronger color filter for truer colors, crisper details, and a base ISO 35 sensitivity to make long exposure photography in daylight possible without dealing with neutral density filters. It costs a little fleck more than the standard IQ3 100MP system ($46,990), but it sets itself further apart from loftier-resolution 35mm cameras, and earns Editors' Choice marks in the professional medium format category.

Design

Phase One camera systems are modular. You can buy the IQ3 100MP Trichromatic digital back on its own for $44,490 for Mamiya/Stage One bodies or for Hasselblad H cameras. I reviewed it with the Stage Ane XF, a body based on the Mamiya lens mount, a configuration that's bundled together with a lens of your choice for $49,990. The $5,000 premium for trunk and lens isn't equally harsh when you remember that many Phase 1 lenses sell for more than that on their own.

The back is a metal cube, with a touch screen on the rear and iv soft fundamental buttons, the image sensor at front, and a memory card slot on the side. Information technology has its own bombardment, so information technology can work with purely mechanical cameras. In that location is a single retentivity carte du jour slot, with back up for CompactFlash (CF), as well equally FireWire-800 and USB three.0 ports for tethered control using Phase One'southward Capture 1 software suite. Wi-Fi tethering, via a $14.99 iPad app, is besides an option with the IQ3 back.

Your feel with operating the Trichromatic will differ if you use the back with another photographic camera, but information technology is tightly integrated with the XF, which remains the virtually technically advanced medium format body of its type. Unique features include automated focus adjustments for macro stacking, a seismograph that ensures there's no milk shake when making exposures from a tripod, and a touch-sensitive control brandish—none of which are included in the flagship model from Phase One'south closest competitor, the Hasselblad H6D.

The organisation isn't small. The XF is 5.3 by 6.0 past 6.iii inches (HWD) and 3.1 pounds on its ain. Attaching the dorsum adds a chip of depth and some other ane.v pounds. When yous add a lens, even a light one like the i.i-pound 80mm LS f/ii.8, yous're looking at close to six pounds of camera in your hand. While I'd never say that you tin can't handhold the XF system, its pattern lends itself well to apply with a tripod.

But it's not a camera body that lends itself to fast-moving subjects. Autofocus can accept about a quarter-2nd to lock on, and the continuous shooting rate is only a meager two.1fps. Action photography is handled better by lighter systems with smaller image sensors and quick, more advanced autofocus systems. Medium format lends itself quite well to landscape and macro applications, as well as portraiture. The XF torso uses the key area of the frame for autofocus, merely does support a recompose mode that adjusts the focus indicate when shooting portraits—frame your model dead middle to set focus and move the camera to compose your shot. The XF adjusts the plane of focus as needed to ensure your subject remains crisply focused. (The Hasselblad H6D-50c does this likewise.)

The XF doesn't have as many on-body controls as some total-frame SLRs, but it gives you everything you lot demand to adjust exposure. There are 3 dedicated control wheels—adjusting aperture, ISO, and shutter speed—too equally programmable rear and forepart buttons, the erstwhile of which is useful if you desire to separate autofocus part from the two-stage shutter release. Buttons and dials are supplemented past touch-based menus, both on the XF'south peak brandish and on the IQ3'southward 3.2-inch touch LCD.

Despite a tough, metal build, the XF is not an all-weather camera. You'll want to protect it if you're shooting in snowy, rainy, or otherwise choppy weather condition. There are medium format options with more robust weather condition protection, including the Fujifilm GFX 50S and the Pentax 645Z, but both use sensors that are physically smaller and "but" 50MP in resolution. Nosotros've all the same to see a full-format 645 paradigm sensor at the lower end of the medium format toll spectrum.

The XF ships with an eye-level viewfinder, which brings a big, bright optical viewfinder to your center. The viewfinder also includes a hot shoe—information technology can handle an on-camera wink or a wireless trigger for off-camera lighting—and a PC sync socket. But if you use Profoto lighting yous won't need to add a trigger or connect via a cablevision, as the XF body has a wireless controller for Profoto strobes congenital in. This is especially handy if yous opt to swap out the eye-level finder for a folding waist-level viewfinder, which is an option.

A Stage One system comes with more than just the trunk, photographic camera, and lens. For your coin you likewise get a rolling Pelican hard example, sized for bear-on, two sets of batteries, information transfer cables, a memory bill of fare and USB carte reader, calibration and cleaning kits, and a Capture One software license. The system is covered by a five-year warranty, which includes admission to equipment loans if your photographic camera needs to be serviced.

Trichromatic Sensor

Phase One makes a number of medium format backs, ranging from the 50MP IQ1 ($xvi,990) all the way through the 100MP, blackness-and-white IQ3 Achromatic ($49,990). We reviewed the IQ3 100MP in 2022—it's still available and selling for $41,990 as a dorsum simply, or $46,990 in a kit. And, for those on a stricter upkeep, you can also get the standard version of the sensor in an IQ1 chassis starting at $30,990 for the back simply. Just be aware the IQ1 drops a number of features, including alive view capture, Wi-Fi, and the tight integration and power sharing with the XF trunk. And to further complicate your choices, the exact same sensor tin be bought from Hasselblad in the class of the H6D-100c ($32,995).

But while the H6D-100c, IQ1, and IQ3 100MP sensors match the Trichromatic in resolution and sensor size, they aren't the same. The Trichromatic is a custom blueprint in collaboration with the sensor manufacturer, Sony, and it's sectional to Phase One. Similar other Phase One models, the back only shoots in a 16-scrap Raw format—you lot won't go JPGs out of this camera.

Encounter How We Test Digital Cameras

It shares the roots of its design with the IQ3 100MP sensor, but a different color filter array. It's still a Bayer system, but the filter is a bit stronger than you find on about cameras. This ways that calorie-free-gathering is cutting a bit—the Trichromatic has a base ISO 35 sensitivity while the vanilla IQ3 100MP is ISO 50 at its lowest. This isn't a terrible thing in the world of medium format photography—mural photographers will specially enjoy the added two-thirds cease command at the low cease of the range as it makes longer daylight exposures possible, without having to add neutral density over the lens. I was able to capture the scene below with a 0.3-second exposure at f/22 in order to get the smooth waterfall look without having a filter on hand.

Because the filter is stronger, false color is less of an outcome—the wavelengths that the sensor picks up at each red, greenish, or blue photosite are more than limited. Red pixels don't choice up a lot of non-ruby-red information, and while there'southward still interpolation required to make full in color that a particular photosite doesn't capture, the information the camera is working with is cleaner.

This results in mages with color that is truer to life, without having to brand tweaks to channels in Capture I, and with stronger overall detail. Of course, if you want a more artistic, surreal take on the world, y'all tin can however edit to your heart's content. You're just starting from a ameliorate identify than you lot would with a standard image sensor. The color filter also cuts incoming ultraviolet light more aggressively, and does a solid job reducing majestic color fringing, an consequence often seen in high contrast areas of photos.

Is information technology a revolutionary difference? Not at all. But it'south palpable when viewing scenes shot with the Trichromatic versus the IQ3 100MP. I certainly wouldn't propose photographers who currently ain an IQ3 100MP to upgrade (unless Phase 1 gives you an incredible deal on a trade-in), but if you've been mulling an upgrade from an older arrangement, the Trichromatic is enticing.

The advantages are non unilateral. Phase One claims that in that location's no disadvantage in chroma noise with the Trichromatic, but it does show more than luminance noise, which is akin to movie grain. Imatest shows that the Trichromatic has slightly higher noise levels at identical ISO settings when compared with the IQ3 100MP. At lower sensitivity the difference is not cracking—both show about 1.7 per centum at ISO 200 and two.4 percent at ISO 400, for example. But as yous move toward the higher cease of the range, the divergence increases. At ISO 6400 the Trichromatic shows half-dozen.three percent, versus v.four percent for the IQ3 100MP, and at the top ISO 12800 setting the Trichromatic hits 8.five percentage, a big jump when compared with the standard 100MP's 6.9 pct.

If yous're non pushing the ISO high it's non much to worry nigh. There's plenty of resolution, so you shouldn't be frightened by a higher Imatest result, and Capture One does have racket reduction tools—our lab tests are done with the default amount of color noise reduction applied, just without any luminance noise reduction. To my eye, image quality is superb through ISO 400. There's some slight roughness at ISO 800 and 1600, but it's not distracting. It'southward not until you lot push to ISO 3200 and across that graininess has a real bear upon on images. That said, if you frequently push your gear to its ISO limits, the IQ3 100MP is probably a better fit. Only for photographers working at the lower end of sensitivity the range, the Trichromatic delivers better results.

Conclusions

Stage Ane caters to the highest stop of the photographic market, and while the Trichromatic is not its virtually expensive dorsum (the black-and-white Achromatic costs a bit more), it is the most premium color option available. It sacrifices some loftier ISO capability for advantages in color fidelity and fine detail, but the trade makes sense for a system that lends itself to use for studio and landscape work.

While the company does offering some systems under $xx,000, it hasn't yet attempted to compete in the depression cease of the medium format market as brands like Fujifilm, Hasselblad, and Pentax accept. If you're interested in shooting with a sensor larger than 35mm film, only don't take a Stage One budget, our favorite low-price model is the 50MP Fujifilm GFX 50S. Information technology doesn't pack as much resolution, and its sensor is virtually 2-thirds the size of the Trichromatic.

If you lot're budget is aplenty, but non quite $fifty,000 ample, and you want a full-format 645 sensor with 100MP resolution, recall virtually the IQ1 100MP. It's available with the XF torso and 80mm lens for $35,990. But if y'all desire the highest of all the high-end gear, in that location isn't a substitute for the Phase One Trichromatic. It delivers the nearly pixels and the finest prototype quality we've seen in a medium format system, and earns our Editors' Choice.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/phase-one-iq3-100mp-trichromatic/21171/phase-one-iq3-100mp-trichromatic

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