If looking for a medium format camera, there are many choices. There are many famous brand names in the medium format field, including some that may not be as well known in the more popular 35mm world. However, trying to find a medium format Canon camera would be an excellent path to pursue. Canon has an outstanding reputation for quality, innovation and reasonable price. They bring over 60 years of experience best ice cream maker in the photography field to their medium format offerings.
Before going whole hog into the idea of buying a medium format Canon camera, one needs to take a step back and understand what medium format is all about. Medium format cameras take pictures on film that is physically much larger than standard 35mm film. While standard 35mm film will typically measure out to 36mm by 24mm per frame or picture, the typical medium format film is 600mm by 600mm, or 6×6 centimeters. With such a large area for the film, much more information can be recorded on the film thus allowing enlargements to be far clearer and crisper than from 35mm film. Additionally, enlargements can be not only much clearer but also much larger as the starting point, a 6 centimeter square, can retain its clarity as it is blown up.
Notice the phrase above “the typical medium format film.” In truth, although all medium format film and cameras, including the medium format 1200 calorie diet Canon cameras, fall into a certain range, it is a range and not one exact size. Some of the more common sizes are the aforementioned 6×6 as well as a 6×4.5 centimeter, a 6×7 centimeter, 6×9 centimeter and a 6×17 centimeter. While most cameras require the user to commit to one film size or the other, with a medium format camera, one can purchase “camera backs” or simply “backs” that allow them to utilize different sizes of medium format film.
Although periodically reported in the media, film cameras are not quite dead yet. Many companies are making the transition to digital images and the same is true of the medium format field. Similar to the way a user can purchase and use backs with different sized film, camera makers began making digital backs for medium format cameras in the 1990’s. These, like most things for the medium format field, were and still are rather expensive. However they do provide the opportunity to use both film and digital media in the same camera.
All this aside, there are some cameras that while not technically a medium format camera in many ways mimic a medium format camera. The Canon EOS-1Ds series with the Mark I, Mark II, Mark III and Mark IV are digital SLR cameras that capture huge amounts of information. How much information? The Mark III, for example, has a 21 mega pixel sensor and can produce images that are 50 MB in size. That’s big. Coupled with the shooting speed of a digital SLR the EOS-1Ds series cameras are highly regarded as medium format replacements. Canon has been rumored to be making progress towards a medium format camera for literally years but as of yet have not done so. Some posit this is because in the EOS-1Ds cameras, the user has practically the same thing they would find in a medium format camera, just without the medium format technical specs or name.
Regardless of one’s position, Canon’s long awaited medium format camera is yet to arrive on the scene. Many people may hope and wish for it, but it’s technically not here yet. If someone is desperately looking for a medium format Canon, the EOS-1Ds series will have to suffice for the time being.