Many professional-quality film cameras use medium format or large format films. Because of the size of the imaging area, these can record higher resolution images than current top-of-the-range digital cameras. A medium format film image can record an equivalent of approximately 50 (This seems to be misleading, as I think they are speaking of 6.45 cm film instead of 6×7 or 6.8 or 6.9 cm film) megapixels, while large format films can record around 200 megapixels (4 × 5 inch) which equates to around 800 megapixels on the largest common film format, 8 × 10 inches, without accounting for lens sharpness. Medium format digital provides from 39 to 80 megapixels.
Thus film and digital work each provide a wide range of performance in this regard, overlapping but with film tending to higher resolution. Resolution of both film and digital are subject to the quality of lens fitted to the camera. The medium which will be used for display, and the viewing distance, should be taken into account. For instance, if a photograph will only be viewed on an old analogue television that can resolve approximately 0.3 megapixel or modern HDTV set of 1080p with 2 megapixels, the resolution provided by high-end camera phones may suffice, and inexpensive compact cameras usually will. Similar or more expensive hardware may also fill the screens of computer displays, though those few that show tens of megapixels will be out of reach of low-end film photography and all but specialized scientific or industrial digital cameras.
Digital medium format
Digital photography came to the medium format world with the development of digital camera backs, which can be fitted to many system cameras. Digital backs are a type of camera back that have electronic sensors in them, effectively converting a camera into a digital camera. These backs are used predominantly by professional photographers. As with film, due to the increased size of the imaging chip (up to twice that of a 35 mm film frame, and thus as much as 40 times the size of the chip in a typical pocket point-and-shoot camera) they deliver more pixels than consumer-grade cameras, and have lower noise. Features like fan cooling also improve the image quality of studio models.
This market began in 1992 when Leaf Systems Inc. released their first digital camera back (4 Megapixels), named the “DCB” (often described as ‘a brick’). Initially mounted on Sinar Studio cameras, the camera backs were later moved to medium format units. By the late 1990s, a number of companies produced digital camera backs of various types.
In the 2000s, the number of vendors of both high-end medium format camera systems and digital backs began to decrease. The performance of digital SLRs cut into the sale of film-based medium format systems, while the tremendous development expenses for medium format digital systems meant that not all vendors could profitably compete. Contax and Bronica ceased production of cameras, Kodak stopped making their DCS series of backs, and camera and back manufacturers began to integrate.
Camera maker Hasselblad merged with digital imaging firm Imacon and partnered with Fuji to design and produce a new line of digital-friendly medium format cameras, the H-Series. Since the manufacturer plans to sell digital backs integrated with the camera, other makers of digital backs are far less likely to be able to sell backs for this camera.
Camera maker Mamiya has developed the Mamiya ZD back, but also announced a partnership with back maker Phase One. Camera maker Sinar was taken over in stages by the digital camera back manufacturer and developer Jenoptik, and partnered with Rollei for the development of the Hy6 medium format camera systems. DHW Fototechnik presented at Photokina 2012 an updated version of the Hy6, called the Hy6 Mod2.[1]
The Leaf Aptus 75S digital back offers 33MP resolution, with a shooting speed of 50 frames a minute. In early 2006 Hasselblad (H2D and H3D) and Phase One (P45) released a 39 megapixel back. In 2008, Phase One announced the P65+, a 60 megapixel back, the highest resolution single-shot digital back to date. Phase One continues to dominate high end non-interpolated imaging with the largest market share. Sinar continues to provide its primary Digital View Camera system while still supporting the HY6 medium format with a new platform independent eSprit 65 LV digital camera back. On 20 September 2010, Leaf released a 80MP digital back, the Aptus-II 12.[2] The Leaf Aptus-II 12’s sensor size of 53.7 mm x 40.3 mm is 60% of the area of a 60 mm x 60 mm standard-sized frame, and 40% of the area of a 60 mm x 90 mm frame (however a 6×6 full-frame film exposure will still yield significantly larger amounts of detail[citation needed]).
Available since December 2010, Pentax 645D is 40 megapixel medium format DSLR. The camera has 44 mm x33 mm image sensor and the raw file is in DNG format. It is the first digital version of the company’s 645 medium format camera system and it is compatible with the existing 645 system lenses.[3]