Photography, like any other craft, is a constant pursuit of perfection. I reached a point in my career where I WANT more from my photography, I WANT to keep growing and developing my style, I WANT best for my clients, and I WANT more clients who won't settle for anything but best.

There are no compromises for me when it comes to quality. With that in mind I added a digital medium format (DMF) camera system to my gear list.


Winter is that time of year when we are busy shooting in our studio and in-doors, and booking and preparing for summer. It's a great time to test out new toys.


I wanted to write something about this system, sort of introduction to DMF for my past, current and future clients, who could benefit from this information.  This isn't a review or comparison of medium format vs 35mm,  so if you are a professional photographer and in the market for medium format, I apologize, as you won't find this post helpful.





Phase One P30+ digital back features:
31.6 megapixel sensor which allows for much bigger prints.
Having that much resolution is great, but that's not exactly where all the quality comes from. The sensor is 1.7 times larger than regular 35mm DSLR which allows for extremely high level of details, true 16 BIT per channel color depth, and incredible tonal range.

So what does it mean for portrait and wedding clients?

Skin tones are much more realistic, tonal and color transitions are much smoother and more gradual giving the images less digital and more "film like" look.
I'm happy to see our clients ordering 24"x36" and 30"x40" canvases, and the Phase One P+ system will deliver the unrivalled quality they deserve.

I remember my first wedding album, which was 10x10, and I would show it as my sample to all my couples. A bit later I printed my winning album as 12x12 sample...   Now the 10x10 is collecting dust in my drawer.   As soon as I first opened the 12x12, I wondered how amazing 15x15 would look like. That would be an incredible presentation of a wedding and perfect for those who want to make a statement with their wedding, and have something that nobody else has to remember that day by.


What does it mean for commercial clients?

Print quality is especially important for these guys. I'm talking about banners, light banks, billboards etc.
The P30+ delivers an extremely high level of details in materials used for example: furniture in interior images, or apparel in fashion photography, skin texture and skin tones in skin care photography, etc.  In all cases technical abilities of the camera will be crucial for the final result.

I want to quote well-known australian wedding photographer Jerry Ghionis in his interview with Peter Eastway:

"For the clients I want to work for, quality is a major USP (unique selling proposition) and showing off the quality of the Phase One P40+ will be a huge positive. Increasingly I'm finding that my clients have more experience in photography and really understand what quality is about. Some are camera enthusiasts and it's surprising how many read photography magazines or photographers' blogs. They know what medium format is about and will appreciate the differences."


When I edited my first image from the P30+, it seemed like all my previous work was shot with a point-n-shoot. 
Only photographic prints are able to show the P30+ images in full glory. It is hard to justify the quality of images on the web, with compression and all, but here are few samples anyway. All images are shot in studio and have been retouched. Left part of the images shows what the files look like at 100%.