Phase One & Mamiya Together
March 25, 2009 | News
TOKYO, Japan, March 26, 2009 — Phase One A/S and Mamiya Digital Imaging, Ltd. are proud to announce that Phase One is making a significant financial investment in Mamiya Digital Imaging, thus becoming a major shareholder in the company behind the Mamiya brand of medium format cameras and lenses. Terms of the agreement are not being disclosed.
The objective of Phase One’s investment is to accelerate the development of advanced, world-class medium format camera systems by leveraging engineering expertise and efficiencies in product development, marketing and
sales.
“We are committed to providing open, upgradable medium format camera systems, so that pro photographers can enjoy the maximum flexibility and versatility at an attractive cost of ownership,” said Henrik O. Håkonsson
President, Phase One. “Furthering our relationship with Mamiya Digital Imaging that we initiated in 2006, we continue to design a broad range of new cameras, digital backs and lenses that will offer the world’s leading photographers greater choice and satisfaction.”
To ensure clarity of brand positioning and minimize product overlap, in close cooperation with Mamiya top management, Phase One will take on strategic leadership for the companies’ R & D, marketing and distribution management.
Like the companies’ flagship 645 camera system announced one year ago, future digital backs based on Phase One digital expertise will be marketed under both the Phase One and Mamiya brands.
“Together, Phase One and Mamiya Digital Imaging own all competencies required for developing superior, innovative medium format camera systems. Our combined expertise comprises digitalization, camera fine mechanics, optics design and production and broad ranges of software and firmware capabilities,” said Toshio Midorikawa, President of Mamiya Digital Imaging. “This investment by Phase One enables us to better optimize our complementary capabilities to the benefit of our customers.
“And as a result of our close collaboration,” Mr. Midorikawa said, “new products are just around the corner. We plan to introduce both new leaf shutter lenses and even more super lightweight focal plane shutter lenses in 2009. We aim to offer the world’s widest range of medium format lenses for Mamiya and Phase
One camera platforms.”
About Mamiya Digital Imaging
Mamiya Digital Imaging is the digital successor to the reputable Mamiya brand, an innovative company fresh with enthusiasm and dedicated to continuing a legacy of excellence. Mamiya has consistently been a fore-runner in medium format camera design, and Mamiya lenses, manufactured following a tradition of precision and quality, are celebrated world-wide. For the Professional Photographer, it is the ultimate brand in photographic equipment.
Mamiya Digital Imaging is headquartered in Tokyo with two factories in Japan, and has distributors in more than 100 countries.
For more information about products, visit the Mamiya homepage on www.mamiya.co.jp
About Phase One
Phase One is a leading provider of digital image capture and work flow
management technology. Phase One 645 Camera Systems and P+ digital backs
open new possibilities, putting the focus back on the moment of capture. Phase
One Capture One software helps streamline the capture and post-production
process. Supporting DSLR, medium- and large-format photographic equipment,
Phase One products are renowned for their superior quality, flexibility and speed
— enabling pro photographers to realize their most subtle and most complex
visions without compromise.
Phase One is an employee-owned company based in Copenhagen with offices in
New York, London, Tokyo, Cologne and Shanghai.
For more information about the products, visit the Phase One web site on
www.phaseone.com.
Phase One and Capture One are registered trademarks of Phase One A/S.
Mamiya is a registered trademark of Mamiya Digital Imaging Co., Ltd.
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PR Contacts:
Phase One
Kathy Madison
Arcand & Madison PR
kathy@am-pr.com
+1 781-259-1764 direct
+1 781-640-1850 mobile
www.am-pr.com
Mamiya Digital Imaging
(Ms) Natasha PENNY
Mamiya Digital Imaging Co., Ltd
ph: +81-3-5688-8045
fax: +81-3-5688-8047
n_penny@mamiya.co.jp
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The Best Part of iPhone 3.0
March 18, 2009 | Doug
Apple just anounced their new iPhone OS 3.0 software will be available this summer as a free update to all iPhone users.
One small but awseome feature has gotten barely a whisper.
MacRumors.com reports: “Find my iPhone/iPod Touch” option available under MobileMe, which presumably allows you to locate your iPhone from Me.com
Let’s speculate on three uses:
I lose my phone all the time. Sometimes I left it at home. Sometimes I left it at the office. Sometimes I left it at the neighborhood bar. So the moment this feature is available I would enable it. The next time I lose my phone I could just log on to me.com and ask it to access my phone’s GPS and tell me on a map exactly where it is.
Parents could force the feature on and track where their kids are without the need for any 3rd party software. All Apple would have to do is lock that option to the rest of the Parental Controls. Sorry kids!
A “Play Music Until Located” which turns the volume on the phone to max and plays a version of “O Where O Where Could My Baby Be” until someone pics it up. They will see a dialogue that says “This iPhone has been lost. Are you the owner?” If the user taps yes then the user will be prompted for the 4 digit pincode for security. If the user taps no then the dialogue will switch to display the programmed contact information of the user with the option to call the “call when lost” phone number but no other options. Apple already does something vaguely similar with enterprise users, but I for one do not need my unit remotely “wiped” so much as returned to me! Going one step further it would be neat if I as the owner could set up a “reward if found” option. When the phone is found the finder is informed of the “reward if found of X dollars in iTunes credit” and is asked to enter their iTunes account email address and then is allowed to call the “call when lost” phone number to arrange return of the phone. If the phone is returned the owner can enter their pin to unlock the phone at which point the “lost if found” credit is automatically transfered to the finder. The process is transparent and everyone wins.
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Medium Format TTL?
March 18, 2009 | Atlanta, Tips & Tech
I recently tested the Metz 54 MZ-4i flash with a SCA 3952 adapter to see if it was possible to shoot full TTL on the Phase 645 / Mamiya body. I was a bit apprehensive if it would work, but it worked great! I shot with the flash head straight at the subject and bounced off of the white ceiling and both exposures were dead on. I was not able to test it on all of our MF bodies because that would require specific SCA adapter for each brand. Here is a quick list of the specific SCA adapter for the most common MF bodies: Phase One 645/ Mamiya = SCA 3952 / H1,H2&H3=SCA 3902 / 500ELX, 503CX, 553ELX=SCA 390 / Contax=SCA 3802
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Capture One 4.6.3 Released
March 11, 2009 | Tech Features, Tips & Tech
Capture One 4.6.3, a minor update to 4.6.2 has been released. You can download it here.
What’s Changed?
- Improved quality of P 65+ Sensor+ images
- Improved consistency when reading Caption and
Copyright IPTC tags
- Live Preview for 8 Core Mac Pro’s improved
- Improved support for Canon 5DMKIIs Raw fw1.07 images
Update on Capture one 4.6.2
Capture One 4.6.2 has been out for about two weeks now. No major problems have been reported either by our customers or by Phase One. Phase One keeps an archive of previous Capture One versions.
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Capture Integration Brings the P65+ to Carmel
March 11, 2009 | Guest Writers
Excellence is not cheap. And neither is medium format digital photography. But for those that seek the ultimate in image quality, Phase One offers many different medium format digital back solutions. The latest iteration from Phase is the recently released P65+ featuring the world’s first full-frame 645 digital sensor and an incredible 60.5 megapixels. What sets this digital back apart from previous generations is the proprietary Phase technology behind the Dalsa sensor. Phase One calls it Sensor+ technology. By default, the P65+ captures images at its full 60.5 megapixel resolution. Sensor+ technology, however, gives the photographer the option to shoot at 15 megapixels, and with pixel binning, use higher iso speeds with lower noise by utilizing larger 12 micron pixels during image capture. In essence, the P65+ is like having two medium format digital backs in one. For the ultimate in image quality, the P65+ is currently the pinnacle of excellence. Did I mention that excellence is not cheap?
Deciding to Buy the P65+ or How One Loyal American Stimulated the US Economy
Lake Moraine, Banff Canada. 4-shot panorama. Mamiya 645AFD, Mamiya 35mm, Phase P30; 100 iso, f/22 at 1/3 sec
Continue reading Capture Integration Brings the P65+ to Carmel…
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But Can it Survive an Elephant?
We get a lot of comments on our very serious series of durability videos which show Phase One digital backs being frozen, cooked, dropped, and otherwise abused without missing a beat.
The below video is NOT from that series. It is a spoof intended only for humor. It is NOT from Phase One. It is a joke.
The very real series of videos that the below video spoofs can be found here.
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Phase One L Bracket Available
March 11, 2009 | Tech Features, Tips & Tech
Phase One has announced an L Bracket for the Phase One 645 (a.k.a. Mamiya AFD III) body. This bracket is available exclusively from Phase One dealers (ourselves included). Please contact us at 877.217.9870 to place your order.
Features
- an Arca Swiss type tripod mounting option for both portrait and landscape orientation
- Horizontal and Vertical Mount
- Arca Swiss Type Quick Release compatible
- Screw in option for other tripod heads
- Leather Hand Strap (lightly coated with mink oil)
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CI + Get DPI in San Francisco / Carmel
I recently traveled to San Francisco to meet several Capture Integration clients and show them some of the new hot products like the P65+ and Cambo RS. Ken Doo of Ken Doo Photography and Don Libby of Iron Creek Photography helped coordinate several locations starting in San Francisco and shooting our way down the coast to Big Sur. We also had the distinct pleasure to meet with Jack Flesher, of Get DPI, and have an impromptu class and also pigs in a blanket. Paul Indman, Scott Hoerner and Chris Dauer also joined us at different locations on the trek.
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Mar 24, 2009 | Atlanta & Miami – Seminar Series
March 6, 2009 | upcoming seminars
Atlanta: Tuesday March 24 @ 6:30pm
Our Atlanta location is at the intersection of Peters St SW and Spring St SW. Look for the gated entrance to the parking lot. Call us at 404-522-7662 for the entry codes and/or to have someone meet you in the parking lot.
View Larger Map
Miami: Wednesday March 25 @ 6:30pm
Our Miami Beach location is at the corner of 4th and Euclid above our partner The Color House in South Beach. We are through the double doors on 4th street in suite 201.
View Larger Map
RSVP For Either Location
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Mar 11, 2009 | Charlotte – User Meeting
March 6, 2009 | upcoming seminars
User Meeting
Dave Gallagher and Steve Hendrix invite you to come enjoy an evening with your fellow photographers and see the Phase One P65+ 60 megapixel digital back and learn more about Capture One 4.6.3 Pro.
Date and Time
Wednesday March 11, 2009
Starting at 6:30pm
Address, Map, and Directions
Michael Harrison
1124 S. Mint St, Suite A
Charlotte, NC 28203-4000
View Map on Google
RSVP
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iPhone Apps
March 6, 2009 | Doug, Tech Features, Tips & Tech
ProCamera
This nifty capture program displays a tiltmeter in real time as you tak your picture to ensure your horizon is strait. You can also set it to delay capture of an image until the accelometer detects the phone is nearly motionless, leading to sharper hand-held pictures.
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aPhoto GPS Marker
This program does more than just insert GPS coordinates. It can super impose a full suite of labels ontop of photos including latitude/longitude/altitude, copyright, distance to a known point, and caption. We can think of a hundred uses for this, but here is just one: if you’re a nature photographer you can do an initial walk-through of a park with your phone in hand and take quick snapshots of areas you’d like to return to.
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Photo Calc
We love this application’s Sunrise and Sunset calculator which automatically detects your current location and tells you what time the sun will rise and set. The depth of field calculator, reference material, and other features are interesting but not as compelling, and the developer said he is eager to add more features.
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CameraBag
This program is all about filters. You can style your photos on your phone to Polaroid, Holga, Lolo, Mono, Infrared, and Fisheye look. We’re particularly found of the Holga look (called “Helga” in the program, presumably for copyright reasons).
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Color Munki (Instructional Video)
March 6, 2009 | Tips & Tech
If you’ve purchased a Color Munki from Capture Integration (or if you’re just interested in what the Color Munki does) then you should check out this excellent training video just posted on the colormunki website.
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New Mac Pros
March 6, 2009 | Tech Features, Tips & Tech
Following the lead of the MacBookPro introduced a few months ago the new Mac Pros, Mac Minis, and iMacs include FW800 ports but not a single FW400 port. In the case of a Mac Pro you can add a PCI card for direct use of your existing FW400 cables. In the case of the Mac Mini or iMac (or an alternative to the PCI card) you will need our FW400 to FW800 cable which we’ve tested with our Phase One digital backs.
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Easy Gray Profiles & The Color Editor
March 2, 2009 | Tech Features, Tips & Tech
Capture One Pro has a lot of advanced features which are rarely exploited by the average user. That’s one of the reasons we’ve introduced our online training series. Below is one of the topics we cover in depth in our Master’s Level class.
The Often Overlooked Color Editor
The Color Editor is one of the most powerful tools in Capture One. It can be used to modify skin tones, knock down the saturation of distracting elements, ensure the proper production of a patented product color, or simulate the black and white response of different black and white films. Yes many users have never used Color Editor. One of many uses of the Color Editor discussed in our online training is the creation of a Custom Easy-Gray Profile.
So what is an Easy-Gray Profile?
Slight color casts can be a major problem in some types of photography. One example is interior photography where either the shades of paint are not exactly the same shade of white, or are lit by different types of lights. Since you can only white balance to one white at a time it can be impossible to adjust to these different shades of white. Phase One anticipated this problem and produced easy-gray profiles for it’s modern P-series line of digital backs. The easy-gray profile makes the back less sensitive to lightly saturated colors without affecting fully saturated colors. However, Phase One did not create an easy-gray profile for dSLRS. In addition there may be instances where you want an easy-gray profile that leaves certain shades of lightly saturated colors alone (e.g. lightly saturated reds which are contained in skin-tones).Below you can download one such Easy-Gray Profile created by our Head of Tech Services, Doug Peterson. Once downloaded close Capture One and place the file in [User Folder > Application Support > Capture One > Presets > Selective Color Control] and load it using the down arrow in the upper right corner of the Color Editor. This profile may or may not suit your exact needs so more importantly you can create your own easy gray profile by selecting the inside of the color wheel (which represents the less saturated colors) and reducing the saturation, or by starting with our profile, modifying it, and saving it as your own.
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