Mamiya ZD is both a digital back that fits Mamiya 645 AF cameras – and the later editions made by Phase One – and also an all-in-one camera. It’s old, it’s based on a CCD sensor, and it’s a large medium format sensor. The sensor is larger than those of more modern digital medium format cameras like the Hasselblad X1D/X2D, and the Fujifilm GFX series of cameras.
I love to use this camera for several reasons. First of it’s a bit on the quirky side, no I correct myself, it is very quirky, but I am very fond of cameras that are not like all other cameras, and this camera certainly provides in this respect.
Secondly, the output from this camera is gorgeous. Even plain jpegs are just awesome, and though they require some work, the raws give even more room to make the images astonishing.
But that is not all, as this camera has something I haven’t met in any camera. Not that it is something I will use a lot, but definitely something that comes very handy, when I need it. It has a removeable or should I rather say exchangeable filter. That means you can remove the IR blocking filter and put something else in, or – by a small degree of hacking – remove the filter totally, making IR shooting on this camera possible without any modifications on the camera as such. That is plain AWESOME.
This is just meant as a first impressions look at this camera, but you can get more information through my youtube video on the camera: Mamiya ZD – first impressions of a rare CCD sensor medium DSLR format camera.
I will be back with a full review, so stay tuned if you are interested in this speciality of a camera.