Is Medium Format Proper for You?

Medium format retains pulling you again when prints begin getting massive and your information want to carry collectively below choosy edits, and that’s the precise lane the place the Hasselblad X2D 100C begins to look much less like a luxurious and extra like a device with a degree. If you’ve gotten ever checked out a completed print and felt the colour and shadow transitions have been simply barely brittle, this video is aimed straight at that frustration.

Coming to you from Dominik Wojtarowicz, this reflective video walks via how medium format earned a everlasting spot in Wojtarowicz’s equipment, then misplaced it, then received it again. The story begins within the early digital period with the Nikon D100 and a movie backup plan that didn’t ship the benefit you may assume as soon as the scans hit the pc. You get a transparent clarification of why “more pixels” in a scan can nonetheless appear to be much less actual element, particularly when the topic has easy tones and movie grain turns into a part of the issue. He additionally talks about when grain helps, when it fakes texture, and when it turns right into a veil that you simply can not unsee. If you continue to romanticize movie as automated “quality,” you will have his tackle the place that look comes from and the place it falls aside.

Wojtarowicz then ties the obsession with delicate rendering to a particular second: seeing Adams’s prints in particular person and realizing the look was tied to larger seize codecs, not magic. That naturally leads into his first severe digital medium format step with the Pentax 645D, together with the launch-era D-FA 645 55mm f/2.8 AL (IF) SDM AW and why stopping down mattered to get the most effective from it. From there, he contrasts that slower, sturdier medium format method with the smaller, tempting Sony a7R period, the place comfort and fashionable lenses have been actual benefits however the uncooked information might struggle again in publish. He doesn’t make it summary: he calls out banding threat, vibration sensitivity, and the form of mid-trip failure that forces you to rethink what “reliable” truly means if you find yourself removed from house. If you shoot journey or landscapes, the stress between portability and file integrity will really feel uncomfortably acquainted.

Where the video will get particularly helpful is within the printing angle, as a result of Wojtarowicz is just not judging cameras by social media crops. He describes going again via older archives whereas getting ready exhibition-sized prints and noticing a sample: medium format information typically stayed smoother whenever you pushed tones round, whereas some full body information might “snap” into new colours throughout delicate strikes, particularly round greens and magentas. He additionally explains why doing your personal printing can cover the price of that trial and error, whereas sending information to a lab can flip small colour issues into costly back-and-forth. You will even hear how the Pentax 645Z modified the usability equation with reside view and a extra fashionable sensor, and why that also didn’t finish the talk as soon as high-resolution full body matured with our bodies just like the Sony a7R III and later the Sony a7R V. He brings Fufjilm GFX100, GFX100S, and the newer GFX100 II into the combo, however he’s cautious about what truly adjustments everyday, together with velocity, measurement, and whether or not the digicam enhances a quick full body system as an alternative of changing it. Check out the video above for the total rundown from Wojtarowicz.