In-Depth Review: Phase One XF Body with IQ350 Back – Is It Worth the $60,000 Price Tag?

I did it—I made the jump to medium format. This was quite some time coming, as I had been talking about it for about a year. The difference is huge, and what a fun camera it is. More about the Phase One in this review.

I played around with plenty of different medium format digital cameras: Hasselblad, Fujifilm, Pentax, and of course, Phase One. There are many points to discuss about each one of them, and a detailed review of the Hasselblad 907c & CVF100 back can be found in my recent articles. That said, I am a Phase One owner and shooter for a number of reasons. It is not the lightest or the fastest camera on the market, nor is it the most advanced. But it is the best camera for the work I do, and here is my review of the Phase One XF Body with the IQ350 back.

Introduction

I remember the moments leading up to buying this camera. I could finally afford the camera of my dreams. This was the first camera I was truly excited to own and shoot. I even shed a tear when I bought it since I had been dreaming about it for so long. Every time I shot with a medium format camera, the intrusive thoughts of owning one would never leave.

The first impressions were something along the lines of: oh, this is a heavy camera. Indeed, it is not a light device. In fact, it comes with its own Peli case for transportation. A very good Peli case, if I say so myself. I noticed that the camera is not fast by any means. There is a noticeable delay between pressing the shutter and the actual shutter going off. That makes perfect sense: mirror up, shutter curtains open, leaf shutter closes, aperture closes, leaf shutter opens, closes, shutter curtains close, mirror goes down. There are a lot of moving parts in this camera, so don’t expect to be shooting any kind of fast action with it. But more on that later.

Build Quality

The camera is very well built. Or should I say, both the body and the digital back are well built, as you can easily swap out the sensor by changing the back, just like in the good old days of film. The body and back are both made out of metal, with Danish minimalism being the design language. Every button feels very expensive when you work with it. The touchscreens are great too, very responsive to your touch—sometimes too responsive. When it comes to the weight, it is definitely comparable to the older Canon 1DX bodies, and then some on top. All in all, it won’t be a lightweight camera in your hands. Add a fast Schneider Kreuznach blue ring lens, and you will be holding over 3 kilos in your hands. It is worth it though; it is worth every gram, pound, and penny.

The camera is quite ergonomic to hold, although quite heavy. Fortunately, you do have two shutter buttons: one on the grip and another one just below the lens, allowing for grip changes. Likewise, every button you see on the XF body is customizable to suit your individual needs as a professional photographer.

Features

As with every camera, my perspective is limited to that of a mostly studio photographer. I do shoot location work a lot more than last year, but I rarely venture into other genres. And boy, is this camera made with studio photographers in mind. It has everything one can wish for, leaving a lot more desired as well, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

The Sensor

First up, let’s talk about the digital back. It’s simply impossible to compare this camera to full frame cameras, as the sensor is larger, hence better for the genre I shoot. In detail, the IQ350 back features a 50 MP CMOS sensor that captures the exact same amount of pixels as my full frame Canon 5Ds. Yet, on a medium format sensor, the images turn out sharper and have more clarity. Being medium format, this camera has a much greater dynamic range, allowing for greater shadow and highlight detail. The color accuracy is also fantastic. If you are interested in numbers, it offers 14 stops of dynamic range, an ISO range of 100-6,400, and a 1.3 sensor crop factor. Indeed, it is not a true medium format camera, as the sensor is slightly smaller than in the IQ4 back or the IQ3 100. You won’t find the famous 16-bit color depth on the IQ350 either. Moreover, the sensor is apparently the same as in the Hasselblad H6D-50c, X1D, X1DII, Pentax 645z, and GFX-50S. Then again, each camera manufacturer has their own unique way of interpreting the colors from the sensor. Having shot with the X1D, Pentax 645Z, and the GFX-50S, the Phase One is a clear winner.

Autofocus

The camera does not feature lightning-fast autofocus. Then again, when you make the step to medium format, you are sort of expected to know how to focus your camera the old-fashioned way. While it has decent autofocus, I often use depth of field principles to get sharp images of really fast subjects such as dancers. The Phase One XF body has a single autofocus point in the middle. That’s all you get. It comes with a built-in assist light for that center point, as oftentimes, the focusing system struggles without it. Mine is permanently on, and it turns on even in bright conditions where other cameras would have no problem. This is something Phase One could work on, frankly speaking. When you enter live view, you don’t get autofocus at all.

Miscellaneous Features That Matter

As I have a slightly different set of requirements for what I want from a studio camera, I would like to address them so that users who are in the same line of work have information to refer to.

Air Remote

First and foremost, the XF body has a built-in Profoto Air remote, making the three air remotes in my studio collect dust. It is one less item to bring on set, and I wish more camera manufacturers would do this. I can have the full range of capabilities of an air remote, including TTL, from the touchscreen on top of my camera. While I am now lighting with Briese lights, those run off Profoto generators nonetheless.

The body also has a built-in flash duration meter, which tells you how much light you are losing should your flash duration be longer than your shutter speed.

A Good Tether Port

Another feature that is incredibly useful to me is a well-shielded tether port. The cable sits firmly deep inside the camera, with no risk of damaging the port should it be yanked out of the body by accident.

Leaf Shutter

This is simple. A leaf shutter allows you to shoot past your sync speed without the need for high-speed sync. This is a shutter that sort of resembles an aperture, hence allowing the sensor to capture the entire image at once, not in increments like in traditional cameras.

Lenses and Rental Availability

I have noticed that rental houses are slowly transitioning away from Hasselblad cameras to Phase One cameras. As such, you will not have a problem finding a lens for your Phase One, while you may need to search a little harder to find one if you are a Hasselblad shooter. This is simply because Phase One is the most rented medium format system. Once I was doing a shoot and needed a slightly wider lens. It was not a problem to call up the rental house, send my assistant to pick it up, and have the lens on the body in an hour. The selection of lenses is also incredible for Phase One, with every need and want covered.

PC Sync Ports

There are not one, but two of them on the camera. For all those times I use some other studio pack, I like to use a PC sync port for the reliability it offers. It is simply more reliable to sync flash with a cable than with a remote trigger, as misfires happen no matter what. If the shot is critical, this matters a lot.

Peli Case

This may seem like a small thing, but it really isn’t. The Peli Case the camera can be bought with is a must if you intend to take it out of the studio. I travel with mine on a weekly basis and keep track of all the destinations it’s been to. The case offers great protection against stairs in the Paris metro and me bashing it against walls. The only problem is that it does not roll all that well.

Closing Thoughts

At the moment of writing this review, I just learned about the new Canon releases, namely the R1 and R5 Mark II. Will I be buying them? No, not really. Medium format is here to stay. I am incredibly fortunate to make the jump to medium format this early in my career, and it is making a difference in the work I am booking. The clientele have appreciated the better “look” of the images.

If you’d like to buy a Phase One, I suggest looking into used cameras. They are considerably cheaper than buying new ones. And if you are unsure, just rent it for a day, or book a job where the client has the rental budget for such a camera.