Snapper's decisions: Whatever happened to real photography?

Get your own back

One of the great boons of medium format is the interchangeable viewfinder. The pentaprism viewfinder that allows viewing along the lens axis can be replaced with a waist level finder that allows viewing from above. I much prefer waist level finders as they save weight and allow better composition. They seem to make the edges of the frame more tangible so the viewfinder is more like looking at a picture.

The bare essentials: lens, body and back as seen on the first Hasselblad used in space (modified 500c V System) during the Mercury-Atlas 9 mission is up for auction on 13th November 2014

Medium format system cameras also have interchangeable backs, so you can switch between monochrome, colour and Polaroid film in seconds. In due course, you would switch to a digital sensor and leave it there.

The small chip DSLR made a fair attempt at replacing the 35mm SLR, but the manufacturers of these things were so busy competing with each other that they failed to see the real threat, which was the iPhone. Even though silicon processes had advanced beyond the point where 24 x 36 sensors were viable, small sensors were retained because manufacturers had got themselves into a price war.

Every conceivable feature was added except resolution, making them an easier target for IT devices. At first the iPhone cameras were a source of amusement, but it was inevitable they would get better, such that there’s now little point in owning a compact point-and-shoot camera as well these days. Needless to say, cameras on other mobile phone platforms have excelled too.

DSLRs were sold on the premise that buyers would get better pictures. Unfortunately it’s not so. To get better pictures requires some knowledge of photography, which you don’t get by buying a DSLR, any more than buying a sports bag makes you an athlete.

Give an artist a recent phone camera and you will get better photographs than Mr. Average gets with a DSLR. I hate to think how many disappointed owners have DSLRs in cupboards. Sales of DSLRs and compact cameras alike are plummeting like a streamlined piano. They show the same curve as the demise of the vinyl disc and VHS tape, suggesting that it’s not a blip but a permanent change.

Medium format camera makers are already collapsing, so we are down to Mamiya and Hasselblad, both of which have been bought. Mamiya’s latest camera has a heavy fixed pentaprism viewfinder and the heavy motor wind is non-removable. These are colossal marketing drop-offs for a system camera and a big step backwards from the 645 Pro.

Mamiya 645DF+ with Leaf Credo back – note the fixed viewfinder

Moreover, the interchangeable back fitting was deliberately made incompatible with earlier models, so you can’t put the digital back on an earlier camera and continue to use your old medium format kit. That’s the same planned obsolescence that turned Detroit into a ghost town when consumers decided they didn’t want a new car every year.

Medium format pixel counts continue to rise to pointless numbers, with the unsurprising result that noise becomes a problem. Don’t worry, you can get noise reduction software that reduces the noise, and the resolution, again. Hasselblad actually sell a digital back that will fit on their old cameras, but the sensor size is about half the area of the original film frame and the images will be heavily cropped, so it’s not a real solution.