Need Advice on Purchasing SL

[geetee1972]

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Medium format digital sensors are tiny compared to MF film neg sizes. Of course other factors come into play, but size is apples and oranges.

 

Jeff

I was going to make the same point. The gap between a true MF digital output and 35mm FF output is still pretty big, although perhaps not as big as the same gap with emulsion.

 

Hasselblad released a series of videos with Karl Taylor on just this subject where he compares various results between a Canon FF and a 100mp fill size MF Hasselblad under otherwise identical conditions. Link is here to The Phoblographer:

 

https://www.thephoblographer.com/2018/07/11/hasselblad-comparison-videos-35mm-medium-format/

 

Of course we're comparing a camera that costs about $6K with one that costs north of ten times that so you would hope the difference if palpable.

[FlashGordonPhotography]

It’s interesting how often this question comes up - medium format photographer considering a switch to the SL.

 

In days gone by, there was a gulf between medium format (Bronikas & Hasselblads) and 35mm format (F3, F1, OM & M3). The quality of output of medium format compared to 35mm was vast. Now we see a narrowing of that gap - Leica lenses and the whole system has improved dramatically, reducing the quality difference (with medium format becoming a little moribund in the process). To my mind, the 35mm options have moved on in quality, but it remains an exceptional pro-consumer system.

 

The medium format offerings, meanwhile, are not.

 

So, in consideriing the switch to the SL, I think you need to bear in mind that the SL is a consumer camera - a very good one, but not of the same ilk as medium format. I love my SL, and it really is close to medium format quality; but it isn’t.

 

Leica market the SL as a professional system. Whatever that means. Fuji markets the GFX as a prosumer system. What ever that means.  Both terms are kind of stupid, IMHO.

 

I can still see a difference between the best current 35mm sensor and the 4 year old GFX/645Z/X1D sensor. The big 100MP sensor is in a different place again. The gap isn't as big as it used to be, as you said but it's still there. When the next miniMF sensor becomes widely available that gulf will grow for a while. Then it will slowly shrink. Then....

 

Gordon

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