LEICA Barnack Berek Blog: LEICA-SINAR VIEW CAMERAS AND DIGITAL BACKS

Sunday, May 5, 2019

LEICA-SINAR VIEW CAMERAS AND DIGITAL BACKS

The pinnacle of professional photography is, and will remain, the view camera, for which the make of Sinar is one of the best known manufacturers. After becoming part of Leica Camera AG, they have been able to develop some exciting new things.

During recent years, photography with view cameras has had to struggle considerably with the digital photography juggernaut, even though Sinar view cameras continue to be in daily use, especially when it comes to professionalism and unhindered creativity.

View camera with their numerous adjustment possibilities are still without equal. Perspective and overall sharpness can be controlled and evaluated directly with the camera. Post production processes with computer systems, which often result in visible loss of quality, are unnecessary.

The principles of optical design remain unchanged with digital photography, but cameras and lenses needed to reach entirely new dimensions in terms of resolution and image quality. New and specifically designed camera systems are capable to take full advantage of the capabilities of today’s digital backs. However, this is only possible with modern view cameras and their adjustment capabilities which allow for proper adjustments of perspective, adjustments to obtain correct proportions and undistorted angles. In addition, only view cameras allow altering the plane of focus in an image via the application of the Scheimpflug principle.

Sinar professional camera systems are optimized for digital professional photography. The Sinar p3 professional camera sets the standards in professional studio photography, thanks to the self-locking gears and overall precision. All digital backs, regardless of manufacturer, can be adapted to the Sinar camera platforms.

But Sinar also provides professionals with their own one- and multi-shot digital backs. The Sinarback eXact is based on the Sinar Microscan technology and achieves image data up to 576 MB (RGB / 8-bit) in multi-shot quality. Thanks to a downscaling function, image sizes of twelve to 192 megapixels can be generated with this back.

Sinar multi-shot backs are used especially in still-life photography or in archival photography. They deliver four times the color resolutions compared to instant capture models. These differences in image quality are quite obvious and cannot be achieved with even the most powerful oneshot products. In four-shot shots, the CCD pixel matrix is shifted three times from one exposure to the next by exactly one pixel raster so that each pixel is captured by each base color (red, blue, and green twice). A further decisive argument for the multishot technology is the markedly reduced moiré effect, which is hardly visible due to the controlled color overlay. With this recording technique the image interpolation is completely eliminated.

Especially museums rely on Sinar CTM (CTM = Color to Match), a joint development of Sinar with RIT, the Rochester Institute of Technology. With this dual-pass filter system extreme color accuracy of multispectral multi-shot images are combined with the workflow of a digital camera system. The preferred fields of application here are the digitization of artifacts as well as reproduction and scientific photography with claim to extreme color fidelity.

The new Sinarback S 30|45 is specially designed for mobile use. A 3 "inch display provides a live image, which can also be shown on an iPad. On-Location, the image data is stored on CF or SD cards. Thanks to tethered shooting via USB 3.0, the data can also be transferred directly to the software Sinar CaptureFlow. A special feature is the fact that the back can be used not only for photos. Optionally a video function in Full HD up to 4K resolution is available.

More information can be found here…

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