Brianandcamera created that illustration to show the resolution difference between the new Phase One 101 Megapixel Sony sensor and the rest of the digital world. Brian writes:
I had a bit of trouble wrapping my head around it. I currently shoot on a 24MP body and the difference between their old camera and the new (80 -> 100) was basically my camera. I wanted a frame of reference, so I dug up some filesize information and created the guide below. I grabbed one of the 100MP tiffs and compared the dimensions:
There is also a massive original non resized version posted by PetaPixel on Flickr.
81 Responses
Sorry Brian, but that doesn’t mean anything to me.
I do appreciate that it is always going to be difficult making comparisons but, to be honest, there isn’t much reason to do so until you come across very definite limits and have the money to buy something more capable.
It’s a bit like considering different trucks that can carry different maximum loads. Most people will have no idea of the difference between 8 tons of sand and 12 tons of sand, for example, and even if you showed them piles of the stuff it still would register in any meaningful way.
That would stay the same if they only ever had to shift 5 tons at a time and the only occasion it would finally make a difference is if the need arose to exceed their previous limit. Even then, if they coudn’t afford the new truck, it still would be irrelevant!
I guess anyone thinking about a higher end camera with experience probably understands the resolution numbers. I think about the crop-ability of the PhaseOne 11,608 x 8,708. That’s amazing. I can crop and still have plenty of room to print a high quality 30 x 20 photograph. I need roughly 9000 x 6000 to print a 300 DPI 30 x 20 image. I can’t do that with my current A7. I can do it with my A7 if I shift to 150 DPI. Even if I upgrade to the A7RII, I’ll still fall short at 300 DPI. But I could crop with the PhaseOne and still do 300 DPI. Granted, most people aren’t printing ultra high quality 30 x 20 photographs. Then again, most people aren’t considering a PhaseOne XF 100MP. Heh.
>Then again, most people aren’t considering a PhaseOne XF 100MP
because it’s expensive.
a6000 shoots 24 mp at 11 fps, that is, 264 mp/sec, and nobody is afraid of that xD
Sony A7RII, Nikon D5, Canon 1dx. They are all expensive too. “Most” people don’t buy those cameras either :). Just keepin it real.
The Hasselblad sensor is the same as that of the Pentax 645z, with the Hassie more expensive but the Pentax more user-friendly. Has anyone figured out the cost per mp? At what point is it more about bragging rights than about use-ability?
Resolution alone doesn’t tell the whole story. The size of the sensor must also be accounted for because the larger the sensor the lower the optical magnification required to render a given sized print, which translates to a lower MTF demand on the lens and thus greater achieved resolution for most lenses on each respective system (esp across the entire frame).
Yes, but stitching several 36×24 wins over one MF shot
Only if you don’t know any better
I would like to know more about any better
For the same amount of MP, yes. But when looking at, say, 200Mp compared to 16MP, lens lp/mm should increase, too. Still, MTF is product of sensor MTF times lens MTF, so we always benefit a bit by increasing the MP number even for mediocre lenses.
Where is the super Nikon D5?
For the price of the PhaseOne Camera, I’ll buy 9 A7RII. Then I create a holdingsystem and processing software with the the rest of the money to get a 23922 x 15948 file. I think there will be still some money left then…
Sure, get back to us when you do.
I just want to say: Why comparing them? The XF100MP was made for resolution. If you need that, you will buy it. If you think it’s nice to have, you would never buy one. It’s like comparing fps of a Canon 1D C with a 5DSr.
It’s interesting visually to see the difference.
http://s3.froknowsphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Dragonfly_Telescope-496×670.jpg
hahahaha, now we’re getting into real optics. Now that’s small potatoes when it comes to telescopes.
https://d1w5usc88actyi.cloudfront.net/styles/full/s3/media/2016/01/phase-one-iq3-100mp-resolution-comparison.jpg?_ga=1.26944061.1007490915.1451864855
From
https://fstoppers.com/gear/phase-one-brings-100-megapixel-resolution-xf-df-and-hasselblad-cmos-based-iq3-107024
The best camera ever for Instagram….. with print pretty much dead why bother.
I’m quite sure, that printing images will outlive instagram. 🙂
You think? I’m not so sure but 100mp is spectacular for a very select audience. There is a continually shrinking client base that will pay for this camera.
PhaseOne knows that. Why complaining about?
There is a market for a great camera system with maximized MP.
I’m happy with my A7RII and I would still buy an a7RII when the xf100mp would be the same price. BUT as a company, that makes big ads, I would buy one or two for 48’000 $.
There definitely is a market but I can do a three frame stitch to get the same resolution. I know its not the same quality but 99% of the clients wouldn’t. Fashion shooters, will buy this in droves because they do print and large prints.
It depends what you’re needs are. Like you say commercial clients wouldn’t really notice. Plus quite often the needs of a client are for something that can print up to a double page magazine spread. However I still use my 7 or 8 year old H3D 39 on my view camera for work that really matters. For example i have a project involving 360 degree panoramics. The result is up to 43000 (from about 30000 pixels depending on the lens and final image) pixels x 7200. I did my first 360 wit the sony and the Canon 24mm TS lens just before Christmas. – Highly regarded lens and it just doesn’t match the quality of the back on the view cameras. It’s hard to explain but you get such a sense of the stone. timber, leaves whatever that you could just feel you are there when looking at the image. It’s not just the resolution. The hand made Schneiders and Rodenstock lenses one uses with a view camera are just ridiculously sharp. They require minimal sharpening in RAW. Some need none! Sharpening is required at the printing stage obviously. I have printed these 360’s up to 6.5m mounted on acrylic and you are just lost in the scene. I do love the Sony. A complete game changer. Also don’t forget the Phase One back now has a Sony Sensor so Sony have been a game changer for medium format too. I will wait to see what Hassie will bring out. Supposed to bring their version with the Sony sensor out at some stage too. (they don’t need the dark frame which is a what makes the difference for me. Plus they’re bloody cheaper)
I’ll bet the 360 pano’s are amazing. I would love to be able to justify the 100mp Phase back but it wouldn’t pay. We should be seeing a 60MP +A7/A9 series camera soon.
Any intelligent marketing director can view the file exif and IPTC data. No big secret.
What’s your point? When I say don’t really notice, I mean don’t notice the difference in quality. Just by knowing what the exif data is does not improve someones ability to see the difference! Also at magazine size you are not testing the difference between both cameras anyway. That comes in play much more in larger sizes
It can be *better* quality. Lens distortion and vignetting drop out in the maths; you can use the overlap to supersample thereby reducing the noise yet further (and I *much* prefer the idea of noise-reduction that arises from collecting more photons rather than increasing the contribution of some algorithm on a slider).
The downside is that you need a subject that doesn’t move in 3x the base exposure time.
Blending workflows are wonderful.
someone please create a chart of these bodies prices lol……
# – 3 50kg bags of rice, more or less enough to feed a person for 1 year (according to UN World Food Programme), $12 at current price
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##################### – A7rII
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########## – XF 100MP
no no no please, if you feed starving people, then – voila! – after 20 years you have 3x more starving people!
Same as cats.
Why not use a multi-mount with two A7RII cameras? Simultaneous shots, overlap in FOV a bit and stitch later. There has got to be a way to rig that up right?
You would have to realigne the cameras every time you change lenses and every time you change focus … Using a single camera and on a tripod with a pano head is time consuming, but would still be way faster and simpler to use. There is no substitute for a really big gun …
If your objects are not at infinity, you’ll have parallax problem and auto-stitching won’t work properly.
Gigapan
If there is a camera for million dollars cars, there will be a market for 100Mp cameras.
Largest file I’ve stitched is 8 24MP files in PS. It’s pretty cool when you can zoom in 400 percent and see yet another high rez pic within a pic. BUT, for me at least- it ceases to be photography at that point. For a pro application I get it but i have no use for it. Plus, my computer and I weren’t on speaking terms for a few weeks after that soooo…..
I consistently shoot a99 in APS-C 10mp. About a thousand studio shots per week for paid portrait and advertising work. No problem printing 12×18 for very satisfied customer base. Editing is smooth and snappy fast fast fast.
Have fun pixel peeping everyone! I’ve got a date with the golf course.
But how little do you care about the quality of your photography and your clients to give them half the resolution possible with your gear? Advertising work,, I’m thinking more like a santa booth maybe. Golf course,..you mean shopping mall putting course? 😉
Why criticize? If the workflow works for him and his client, good for him.
It seems strange to take a such a shortcut when there is really not much extra effort or cost to provide full resolution images (especially in camera).
If you sat one of his client down and explained how resolution worked, do you think they would be happy with the scenario described above? Just because they don’t know it could be better is not a reason to short change them. yeah I’m criticizing.
If his clients only use the photos for online self promotion or 8×10 actor head shots than 10mp is more than enough resolution. 10mp is greater than the resolution of phones, tablets, televisions and the vast majority of monitors.
From a shooting standpoint, shooting in aps-c mode gives him much better AF coverage since the a99 was built with a recycled aps-c AF module.
This will be great for porn.
Food porn.
The comments here can be summarised thus:
“I can’t afford it therefore you don’t need it”
Add various bitter/angry/self righteous fluff, and you don’t need to read any further.
Thanks, saved me the trouble.
Oh I want it, but no, like the 99.99% on this forum – it’s beyond my wallet. And I can tell you what else I can’t afford… processing power to handle files of this size, at the moment. Working A7Rii files and now 4K footage is already taxing my aging 27″ mac so I’m using the new MB Pro for anything even remotely complex. Pricing out the inevitable mac upgrade is easily well over $5K, it never stops 😉
you could see if your imac is thermal throttling, some apple designs are um “optimistic” on cooling, so you might be able to get some sustained speed with a cooling mod
Come on, don’t be so nit-picking. Add $5k to a $48k bill and you will hardly notice a difference.
I would like my negatives scanned with this sensor.
What I’d really love to see is a genuine (uncropped) Large Format sensor. Something nice in terms of portability vs quality like 4×5, which could replace film in a standard 4×5 field or technical camera and still have full standard movements shifts, tilts, etc.
This with a nice large display and ‘virtual loupe’ which you could touch the screen to move around (a little like you used to do in Aperture) to check go using while adjusting tilt, etc., would be the ultimate landscape/architecture setup.
Doubt it’ll ever happen, but with a full frame MF camera now here, who knows…?
I won’t buy one, but I would love to rent one at some point!
Did a bunch of fine art stuff a while back with a scan back. Phase 1 would be a lot faster.
Wonder how the IQ will hold up. 100MP MF seems to create smaller photosites than 24MP FF, and is approaching 24MP APS-C density at this point…
The photosites are much bigger than 36 or 42MP on FF. o_O
Does the lens resolve 100MP?
Probably. The sensor is much bigger than FF, and so are the lenses, so it shouldn’t be much of a challenge for a high quality lens.
The pixel pitch is not too different from the a7R or D810
Was going to get one, but I was told it only has 1 card slot so can’t be used for pro work.
Lol
And it doesn’t have IBIS and it doesn’t shoot at 15 FPS, and it only has a single center AF point. Clearly inferior to Sony Point and Shoot cameras of 2008. But it does have the size and weight of a PRO camera!!! 😉 🙂 😀
Agreed, the body clearly looks like a pro camera. Which is probably a strong enough feature to outweigh all the flaws.
Plus there are no f2.8 zooms nor long tele lenses! This camera is just a toy!
Plus it is not FF. 645 is the half-frame version of the original FF MF (6×9). Same as APS-C, which is the half-frame version of the original 35mm FF (24×36). So, this makes it a copped sensor toy, like all this amateur APC-C crap. Clearly a toy camera, which can’t be used for serious pro work.
My 10 MP Nikon d90 was a little bit embarrassed…
…when you called it 10MP. 😉
My 6MP Canon 10D as well. Maybe they can found a support group together.
It should be, any decent D90 has 12 MP.
Circumcision… religious issues 🙂
We need more sophisticated skin smoothing algorithms, because all the pimples will be so big and detailed, that the current algorithms will not recognize them as pimples.
Retouchers actually prefer more details because a lot of dodge and burn happens at pixel level and it’s much easier when there is strong contrast at pixel level.
I was joking. Skin smoothing is the biggest BS on earth.
Your calculations are flawed: with 98$/hour, and 5 hours/day max work, you can never make 17K in a month.
Another error: If you do this for 7 months now, you’ll never have enough money to buy a McLaren F1.
Besides, your spelling, grammar and punctuation sucks badly.
Please, get off the internet and go drive your imaginary McLaren.
This is a chart that I built and used for my students and others to help understand the relationship of resolution, camera sensor size and the medias that they are reproduced in. I guess I need to update it for the new phase one, but it gives a better understanding of what that resolution means.
https://flic.kr/p/kF38Aq