Blinded By The Light

So far I haven’t made any posts about the technical side of photography, topics like equipment for example. This is actually quite amazing given that I am such a tech/equipment dork. It had to happen eventually so here I am with my first equipment post. And in true tech dork fashion, its a complaint.

I’ve been shooting with the Phase One P25/P25+ for about a year now. Before that I was shooting with a Canon 1DS MkII, which I still have and use for certain shoots. I’ve been mostly happy with the Phase One back, with one major exception: backlit scenes. When shooting into the sun or an artificial light, image detail is lost on a “strip” of the image near the light source. Here is an example:

Here is Phase’s response to the issue:

“the light is hitting the ccd at such a strength that is goes way above and beyond the dynamic range capabilities of the sensor. The anolog electrical signal produced in the pixel is more than it can handle and it gets passed to the next photosite in progression, hence the straight line. A similar thing happens in silver hallide crystals of film with the exception that they pass energy in all directions.”

Not very helpful to someone who likes to shoot with heavy backlight.

The problem I have with the response is, I never experienced this with my Canon 1DSmkII. So, I’ve sent off an email to Leaf to see if their digital backs would exhibit the same problem. I fully expect an email touting how great the Leaf back is and that it will not have the problem. If that is the case I’ll blindly buy the Leaf back and live happily ever after… yeah, right. In reality, if I do get a response saying the Leaf back won’t exhibit the problem I’ll have a Leaf tech come to my studio and prove it does in fact work well in backlit scenes. I’ll keep you posted on the results.

If anyone reading uses a Phase, Leaf, or another MFDB and sees or doesn’t see this problem, let me know.

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7 Responses to “Blinded By The Light”

1. B says:

   January 21, 2008 at 8:23 am

   Hi,
   I suggest scheduling a demo with the Phase One Dealer from whom you purchased the Digital Back and check out the P30/+ or P45/+. These backs have smaller pixel wells which handle the overload of analog light it a better fashion. Run a comparison test and let us know!
2. Jeff Singer says:

   January 21, 2008 at 8:38 am

   I think the P45+ would have the same issue since it has the same sensor as the P25+. The P30+ is a different sensor, so it may not have the issue. However, I was never interested in the P30+ because of the crop factor. I want a sensor that is as close to full frame as possible.

   Jeff
3. Mark Sherratt says:

   January 24, 2008 at 9:45 am

   Hi Jeff,
   i recently bought a second hand p30, so i thought i would test it out to see if it had the issue, and after a few shots out of my bedroom window got exactly the same problem (pic is here if you want to see it http://www.marksherratt.com/clients/test/CF018226.jpg). But my eos 5d seemed to handle the light no problem. Not great for something so expensive! Anyway would be interested if you get to test out a leaf.

   Mark.

   P.S. congrats on getting nominated for the APE photo consultation demo!
4. John Kraus says:

   February 1, 2008 at 8:30 am

   No such problem seen with my P30+. Both with sun in frame, as well as sun peeking out from behind trees, etc, no vertical lines such as yours.
5. derek shapton says:

   February 5, 2008 at 8:28 am

   hi jeff

   I’ve been working with a p45+ for a while now and have had none of the problems you describe. Nice clean backlit scenes, with any visible artifacts attributable to the lenses rather than the back. Some examples can be seen at:

   http://www.derekshapton.com/recent.html

   the first 5 shots were with the p45+ — the first 2 are significantly backlit.

   Derek
6. Jeff Singer says:

   February 5, 2008 at 9:36 am

   Derek,

   Only the first shot would have possibly caused the problem… but even then it may not have happened. The light source needs to be in the shot for it to happen.

   Thanks,
   Jeff
7. Thomas Reitz says:

   January 6, 2009 at 9:20 pm

   “This is a great post. Thank you for putting this post out there for all of us.

   Thanks!”

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