Phase One has to be one of the more interesting photography brands out there. Who else but this Danish company produces extremely high end (and extremely expensive) cameras, lenses, geospatial equipment – as well as industry standard software such as Capture One?
With many of their medium format camera systems being priced between $85K - $106K, it comes as a not-a-complete-shock to find that they are releasing The XC Camera - a $93K 1.8kg medium format camera with a fixed 23mm f/5.6 lens and calling it 'travel friendly'.
It is interesting to note that the Phase One XT (body with ability to swap lenses) only weighs 700g for body, 850g for the equivalent $21K 23mm f/5.6 lens and approximately 700g for the digital back. The question is – is saving half a kilogram, a bit of portability and $13K worth the trade off for not being able to swap lenses?
However, the 23mm focal length is an excellent choice for architecture and landscape as it is basically the equivalent of 15.5mm in 35mm full-frame terms. It would have been nice to have a much faster aperture (which would have also made the lens much larger) so that the XC could double as a street photography camera. Just imagine how much you could crop in from a 150MP image!
To find out more, visit the Phase One website.