Tomorrow, Hasselblad will announce their MMF. It's going to be fancy and expensive for sure and hopefully good and even groundbreaking. Given the history of cooperation between HB and Fujifilm with the H series, xpan and Fuji manufacturing HB lenses, there is a good chance Fuji is involved somehow. But let's leave exactly how and how much to when we know more and dream away a bit of what a Fujifilm MMF could offer!
Here is my wishlist in short (details follows):
Here is my wishlist in short (details follows):
- 33x44
- Price
- X system look, feel and handling
- EVF
- Small size and low weight
- Good lenses
- DR and low light performance
- Protect the sensor
- Filming
33x44
There is only one sensor that makes sense for a Fuji MMF today. The sony 50Mp, roughly twice the size of a regular small frame (FF DSLR) picture frame. Anything larger would be too expensive and make the camera bigger. It's uses more or less the same tech as the x-trans II sensor, only it's about four times bigger. I will simply not wish for anything better, because i wouldn't want to pay the price for it. If Sony has improved it by making a second generation that gives the same or better performance at a lower price, i am all for it, of course.
Price
It has to be lower than the Hasselblad MMF, but it will most certainly be more expensive than a A7R2. Lets wish for closer to the Sony than the HB.
Look, feel and handling
Fuji has done very well with the x system in this regard. Lets hope they don't spend any money on doing it in a new way. An x-pro2 like body back and top with a better iso-dial would do great. They may go for x-t2 like, but losing the street and action photography advantage of seeing things moving into the frame that you get with the HVF would really be a petty on a small MMF.
The front will have to be different with bigger mount and i hope they will add a bigger grip to cope with more of the weight in the front.
They may even start with a fixed lens version or a step zoom like their 645z and go for interchangeable mount later. I think we will get a hint about that with the HB release tomorrow.
Bringing in the film simulations are crucial, lots of photographers are so happy with the jpegs that they only use the raws in special cases and Fuji will need them to tag along to MMF to get the volume up.
EVF
They could make an optical viewfinder only camera like the ga645 ones, but i really hope we will have a hybrid viewfinder. It has to be competitive, but not market leading in size and refresh rate.
Small size and low weight
This is arguably the very key to the product, thus i will elaborate quite a bit more on this subject.
How small can a MF be?
Well, have a look at the Voigtländer Bessa RF. It fits in a large pocket and it has 6x9cm picture frame.
That's about four times larger than 33x44!!!
How can that be?
Well, it's all about extendable flange. If you put a lens (or even a very small hole) 65mm away from the film or sensor, it will have the focal length of 65mm, hence the name. The amount of glass you need is minimal and you focus closer than infinity by moving the lens further away. However, if one want to keep the same flange and use a longer lens, you either need more and heavier glass or you have to put a longer barrel on the lens between the camera mount and the lens package. Let’s compare a regular 85mm DSLR lens with a 210mm large format lens (about the same angle of view on 4x5” as the 85 on the 24x36mm). The large format lens is very small and covers an image circle that is several magnitudes bigger than the DSLR lens. The drawback is that it has to be placed 8-9” away from the film.
When you make a fixed flange camera, like a DSLR or Fuji X or the Sony A7 you can make use of this when making a lens that has the same focal length of the flange of the camera. Just like Sony did with the 20/2.8 that more or less gave it it’s reputation of being a small and lightweight system. The price with such a short flange is that there has to be a tube on every lens making longer lenses big and bulky. If you, once again like Sony, add IBIS to the equation, making the sensors effectively bigger by moving it around, your long tube problem piles up on a wide problem and lens size goes from small to big to huge.
So how to solve it? Fuji already did on the ga645 cameras. On them a retractable tube can be telescoped into the camera when not in use. Bellows works just as well and are cheaper but comes with durability issues.
On the Fujifilm MMF i wish for a retractable tube with a lens mount in the front. This would provide all the following.
When you make a fixed flange camera, like a DSLR or Fuji X or the Sony A7 you can make use of this when making a lens that has the same focal length of the flange of the camera. Just like Sony did with the 20/2.8 that more or less gave it it’s reputation of being a small and lightweight system. The price with such a short flange is that there has to be a tube on every lens making longer lenses big and bulky. If you, once again like Sony, add IBIS to the equation, making the sensors effectively bigger by moving it around, your long tube problem piles up on a wide problem and lens size goes from small to big to huge.
So how to solve it? Fuji already did on the ga645 cameras. On them a retractable tube can be telescoped into the camera when not in use. Bellows works just as well and are cheaper but comes with durability issues.
On the Fujifilm MMF i wish for a retractable tube with a lens mount in the front. This would provide all the following.
- Small and light lenses regardless of focal length. Fast lenses will ofcourse be bigger than slow, but that's just as it is.
- Design choices on auto focus. The lenses can have internal motors for fast focusing or money and weight can be saved by using the slow but accurate focusing method of moving the tube.
- The camera would be very flat with the tube retracted.
- Almost any lens that covers 33x44 could be mounted and used with slow but accurate AF.
In the end i wish for the camera plus a few lenses to fit in the same bag that holds an Canikon DSLR or a Sony A7 with equivalent lenses. If the camera with a small lens could fit in one of the large pockets of my jacket i would pay $500 more.
Good lenses
Fuji knows how to make good small frame lenses, good medium format lenses and good large format lenses. If they make the effort, they will make good 33x44 lenses. I just wish they will focus on that rather than dirt cheap or lots of lens options early on. If they build the camera smart, there will be enough options by adapting lenses while they expand the system slowly.
DR and low light performance
We know what we get with this Sony sensor, it performs well and Fuji will tweak it a little further. Two stops better than aps-c is the mark to reach for, but 1.5 is good enough.
Protect the sensor
Please Fuji! There should be a shutter-like thingy that covers the sensor when the lens release button is pressed and opens when next lens clicks into place. Why don’t we have this already?
Filming
Any minute on spending R&D time and resources on filming features are wasted on me. But if it pays itself by reaching a larger audience i'm all for as long as they don’t dedicate any buttons or knobs for filming and that fiming settings don’t get in the way of finding useful menu entries and alike.
