Mamiya ZD starting to ship in Europe

[paulhu54]

"The long awaited (is it soup yet?) Mamiya ZD appears to be ready to

start shipping in Europe, following its introduction in Japan last

December. It was shown by several dealers at the recent Focus show

in the UK, and Calumet in the Netherlands now lists it.

 

MAC, the US distributor for Mamiya, is completely mum on the subject

(could it be because they are also the distributor for Leaf digital

backs in the US?) For this reason it may be that photographers in

the US won't be seeing the ZD at all, or there might be a delay till

the politics are sorted out."

 

The above information is quoted from The Luminous Landscape at

http://luminous-landscape.com/

 

FYI, Creo and Mamiya formed Leaf America Corporation.

[paul.droluk]

I had a chance to play with one here in Hong Kong at an introduction for the camera. I didn't

take any files with me, so can't comment on the image quality. What I can say is that the

camera uses a LOT of plastic. I doubt the door for memory cards will stay on very long (It's

also not dust proof). And the autofocus was very poor... reasonably quick but it did a lot of

hunting and way too often it could not find focus at all. Oddly this is the case only in

landscape orientation. Turn the camera on it's side, and it autofocussed quite well! General

ergonomics were good and the camera was fairly light (plastic). I personally was

disappointed, and with the results I'm getting from my D2X, I can't see myself buying one.

[asharma]

Do we know the pricing information on ZD and ZD backs? Thanks.

[paulhu54]

Calumet in the Netherlands has the ZD DSLR listed for Euro 9,995.00.

[rdkirk]

>>MAC, the US distributor for Mamiya, is completely mum on the subject (could it be because they are also the distributor for Leaf digital backs in the US?) For this reason it may be that photographers in the US won't be seeing the ZD at all, or there might be a delay till the politics are sorted out."

 

<<

 

I suspect they got that worked out before the deals were made. The ZD camera and back aren't really competitors to the leaf backs--there is a significant price differential, and the Leaf backs are universal (the ZD back is only for Mamiya medium format cameras).

[gary_ferguson1]

Robert White in the UK is listing the ZD at �7k. This compares with second hand P20 backs in the UK at �5-8k, and Phase One refurbished and guaranteed P25 backs at �9-10k.

[vital1]

i found this on the net:Mamiya, along with competitors such as Pentax and Hasselblad, is working to bring the digital revolution to the higher-end, medium-format camera industry. On Friday, the company plans to announce a $9,999 technology bundle for a 22-megapixel camera.

 

 

Mamiya's ZD Back and 645AFD II camera

 

(Credit: Mamiya)The bundle includes Mamiya's 645AFD II camera, the 22-megapixel ZD Back and the 80mm f/2.8 AF lens, which is equivalent to a 50mm lens in terms of field of view of a more ordinary 35mm camera.

 

Medium-format cameras often use separate interchangeable "backs" that in the old days housed film but now house an image sensor. The new Mamiya ZD Back alone costs $6,999, and purchased that way or with the camera bundle it includes a copy of Adobe's Photoshop Lightroom software for raw image processing. It can shoot 1.5 frames per second, uses a 14-bit sensor that generates 12-bit images, and supports Compact Flash and SD cards.

 

Shelling out $10,000 for a camera may sound like a lot, but that's a notch cheaper than digital Hasselblad models that cost north of $30,000. These babies are geared for serious pros.

 

The ZD Back uses a CCD (charge-coupled device) image sensor measuring 48mm by 36mm. That's twice the size of an ordinary 35mm film frame, but considerably smaller than the 60mm-by-45mm film size 645AFD II can also accept.