Advantage Of Digital Medium Format For Portrait Photography

By Joe Brady

I recently compared Mamiya DL-28 system against a 21 megapixel DSLR.
I wanted to see for myself how each camera performed under identical
lighting conditions with all camera parameters matched (ISO, comparative lens focal length, shutter speed and f-stop). While I expected the DL-28 to surpass the quality of the DSLR, with the megapixel difference relatively small (28 vs. 21) I wasn’t sure exactly how obvious the difference would be.

Well, it turns out that the differences were clear. While the DSLR
produced a very good file, the medium format DL-28 provided not only
more detail, but a clarity and depth with no edge artifacts at all that
the DSLR simply couldn’t match. Shooting at the same distance and
enlarging both files to 100%, I overlaid the eye detail from the DSLR
over the Mamiya DL-28 sample. The size difference of the two eyes is a
result of the DL-28 producing a larger file. I’m not sure how well you
can see the results through your browser, but notice how clear the
eyelashes are, the detail of the skin texture, the definition of the
fine strands of hair and how clear the color definition is rendered in
the eye. The beautiful and subtle shades in our models hazel-green eyes
are captured faithfully by the DL-28 yet are slightly muddied by the 21
megapixel DSLR.

Advantages of Medium Format Digital For Portrait Photography

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