kodak dcs pro back users?

[marcwilson]

Hi,

I am looking to get a mf digital back for my contax and shift system in about six months and will be looking at aptus 17/22 etc.
In the meantime I have the chance to pick up a contax fit kodak dcs pro back for a pretty good price.
Forgetting about the crop factor, shooting speed, etc, purely in terms of image quality how do / have users found the images from this back in comparison to say a 1ds at images printed around A4 and also up to 24x20 inches.
All shots at 100iso and mostly buildings, landscapes, etc.

Thanks,

Marc

[rueyloon]

Hi,

I am looking to get a mf digital back for my contax and shift system in about six months and will be looking at aptus 17/22 etc.
In the meantime I have the chance to pick up a contax fit kodak dcs pro back for a pretty good price.
Forgetting about the crop factor, shooting speed, etc, purely in terms of image quality how do / have users found the images from this back in comparison to say a 1ds at images printed around A4 and also up to 24x20 inches.
All shots at 100iso and mostly buildings, landscapes, etc.

Thanks,

Marc
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hello
hi, I had the 1ds and I'm using 5d now and I also own the pro back on the Mamiya.
You can't use the proback off the camera, as there is no way to trigger it. You'll need either the pro back plus or another digital back if you want to use it on your view camera.

If compared to the 1ds and the 5d, the pro back can only work at iso 100, anything else is an embarrassment. The CCD was created during the age of the 1ds, hence the noise characteristics look like the 1ds; noisy in the shadow area. Resolution wise, it is only very slightly or not even any better than the 1ds/5d. But colorwise it is very good, I like the color rendition much better than the canon. The color off the kodak is quite saturated, but it edits much better and looks good by just reducing the saturation abit. The kodak RAW files edit well under adobe RAW, the 1ds/5d looks best edited under DPP.

That said, I've seen great looking files from the 1ds/5d as well, so it depends on how you work the files post shooting.

cheers
rgs
rueyloon
www.rueyloon.com

[rueyloon]

I would like to ask this question myself

is there anyway to trigger the pro back off the camera ?

cheers

[larryg]

I started with the Kodak DCS Proback  shooting primarily landscape.  I have enarged to 24x30 of the attached image with beautiful results. The detail is very good.

This image was shot with Contax/Proback  and enlarged to 24x30

[rljones]

I've have the DCS ProBack and believe the images are more detailed with better tonality than the 1Ds2 that I had. I'd also agree about the ISO, 100 is best. There is a fair amount of noise at greater ISO, particularly in the blue channel. (This could be reduced using LAB and b-channel smoothing.) I've made prints from the ProBack up to 24 x 24 inches on an Epson 7800 that are extremely detailed.

You can buy these backs for around 3-4k. However, also as stated, you cannot use the DCS ProBack off the dedicated body for which it was designed. Only the model with the moveable LCD can be triggered on a view camera (this is the "Plus" model). And this requires a special cable release. (See http://www.kapturegroup.com/proback/plus.html for such cables and adapters.) There seems to be no way around this matter.

As for usage, I do find more lock-ups on the Mamiya 645AFDii with the ProBack vs the Leaf 65. The Kodak frequently locks up, requiring a power on and off; the Leaf, rarely (only when I turned it on and had no CF card inserted).

If you get a ProBack, make sure the IR or AA filter is in good condition since the replacement cost is $1200 from Kodak. The IR blocking filter is probably preferable as the moire from these backs is not so much, and the image is sharper with the IR as compared to the AA filter.

This removeable filter feature does offer the possibility of IR photography. I've tried it and it actually works well, with proper autofocusing without the filter on a Mamiya 645AFDii. The main problem is trying to fit an IR band pass filter in place of the stock IR blocking filter to avoid placing one over the lens.

Regards,

Robert

[marcwilson]

Thanks for input.
Deal has not gone through..not a plus model and not as good a price as I had hoped for..will wait a bit longer and go refurbished aptus 17 or other.

Cheers,
Marc

[Morgan_Moore]

I am looking to get a mf digital back for my contax and shift system in about six months and will be looking at aptus 17/22 etc.

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Without wanting to pry into personal circumstances - I question your economics - why not just get what you want now?

The interest cost of a six month loan may be cheaper than the losses incurred on devaluation of  the second hand  gear

Having what you want may have significant immesurable value of allowing you to concentrate on the job rather than fretting about the correct back to buy

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In opposition to this argument have you checked out the trade in value of Probacks as many dealers give you a significant price for a trade in any old digiback £2-£3K - I am sure this keeps thier value up - buying a proback at the higher price could be worth it

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As an ex owner I would agree with most of the technical points above - very nice images (below one second at 100iso) and very annoying crop

SMM