Phase One Announces IQ2 Series Digital Camera Backs Pushes Image Quality Beyond Megapixels by Dan Carr

March 4, 2013

COPENHAGEN, March 4, 2013 — Phase One, the world’s leader in open-platform, medium format camera systems and solutions, today announced the Phase One IQ2 series: three new full-frame 645 format digital camera backs with high-speed wireless connectivity and 13 f-stops of dynamic range, plus new options to meet specific photographic goals. Building on the IQ digital back platform, the first choice of many of the world’s leading photographers, the technical advances in the Phase One IQ280, IQ260 and IQ260 Achromatic go beyond delivering ultra-high megapixel resolution to introduce greater mobility and workflow flexibility for professional photographers.

“Instead of trying to make our wireless connection a replacement for a wired file transfer, as others have done, our solution focuses on helping get the right image capture — whether that means perfecting composition or focus, or simply easing the challenges of capturing a hard-to-reach image from a remote location,” said Jan H. Christiansen, marketing director, Phase One.

All IQ2 camera backs feature full-frame 645 format sensors designed collaboratively by Phase One and Teledyne Dalsa to deliver the world’s best image quality. In addition, Phase One IQ2 camera backs deliver a full 13 f-stops of dynamic range, which combined with meticulous calibration and careful hardware and software optimization ensures that the image quality is matched by no other camera.

— The 80 megapixel IQ280 puts Wi-Fi in a new perspective, enabling remote image capture and viewing of huge 80 megapixel images on an iPad running Phase One’s Capture Pilot App. It represents the pinnacle of image quality. With an ISO as low as 35, no other camera or digital back can get better silk-like images.

— The 60 megapixel IQ260 offers unparalleled capture versatility, with exposure ranges from 1/10000s to one hour with virtually noise-free images. The 60 megapixel sensor at the heart of the IQ260 is a unique 645 format full-frame device found only in this digital back. It offers the widest exposure range opportunities on the market coupled with phenomenal image quality. And both the IQ280 and IQ260 capture raw images at 16-bit color depth per channel, enabling reproduction of scenes with ultra-smooth transitions.

— The Phase One IQ260 Achromatic is a dedicated image capture device designed to deliver the highest-quality pure black and white images. It fully shares the IQ2 series’ “unplugged” assets. At the core of this system is a 60-megapixel sensor with no color filter array mounted, which means that no interpolation is necessary. Each and every pixel of the sensor is focused purely on capturing the finest details of an image. This digital back comes with no mounted IR cut-off filter, and the IQ260 Achromatic is capable of capturing image in three light spectrums: infrared, visible and ultraviolet — permitting photographers to experiment with a wide range of their choice of filters to create unique images for artistic and scientific purposes.

Capture Made Easy
All IQ2 backs include built-in accelerometers, whose input helps align images perfectly at the moment of capture. An intuitive virtual horizon offers a precise visual indication of an image’s roll and pitch; that data is automatically stored with the images and can be automatically corrected in Capture One software after import.

Rugged Build
IQ2 digital backs combine functional design with rugged build quality. Built of 100 percent aircraft grade aluminum, all electronic connectors and ports are protected with automatic retracting hatches or rubber covers to ensure that they work continuously even in the toughest shooting environments.

Capture One 7 Software
Capture One 7 is built on the world's best raw processing engine and is included with all IQ2 backs, providing highly responsive precision tools to capture, organize, view, edit, share and print images for an efficient workflow and superior image quality results.

Availability and Pricing
The Phase One IQ2 series camera backs are expected to be available in June 2013; they may be ordered now through Phase One professional photography partners worldwide: http://www.phaseone.com/partners. For a complete list of all the new Phase One IQ digital back features, including supported camera bodies, please see http://www.phaseone.com/iq2.

Prices start at 29990 EUR / 39990 USD. Attractive upgrade offers are available for all existing Phase One photographers. For a demo of these new products, please sign up here: www.phaseone.com/demo.

About Phase One
Phase One is the world’s leader in open-platform, high-end camera systems and solutions. Phase One cameras, digital backs and lenses are designed to deliver superior quality image capture and investment value. Phase One’s Capture One and Media Pro software help streamline capture and post-production processes for both medium format and DSLR cameras. Phase One products are known for their quality, flexibility and speed enabling pro photographers shooting in a wide range of formats to achieve their creative visions without compromise.

Phase One is an employee-owned company based in Copenhagen with offices in New York, London, Tokyo, Cologne, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, and Tel Aviv.

Phase One and Capture One are registered trademarks of Phase One A/S. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.