Leaf Aptus 22 and Leaf Aptus 17 medium format digital camera backs.

After successfully testing the Leaf Valeo 22 wireless for six months, we had a chance to see the Leaf Aptus 22 and Leaf Aptus 17 at Photokina 2004 and then at PhotoPlus trade shows.

The Leaf Aptus 22 and Leaf Aptus 17 look as though they have improved the few aspects of the Leaf Valeo that needed updating. You can find a rather comprehensive series of reviews of the Leaf Valeo 22 wireless in the FLAAR Reports. Nicholas Hellmuth had a Leaf Valeo 22 wireless with a Mamiya 645 AF for six months. During this time he produced more reviews and evaluations on this camera than are available for any of the competing products.

But then Kodak bought Creo, so that meant that all of a sudden Kodak owned Leaf too. So Mamiya America recalled the Leaf Valeo (Mamiya America Corporation is the importer, for Creo, of Leaf from Israel). Now that Kodak owns Creo (and Leaf) it is unknown what will happen to Leaf camera backs (they use Dalsa CCD sensors, not Kodak sensors).

Until Kodak, Creo, and Leaf decide what direction they intend to take, we acquired an Imacon Ixpress 528C with a Hasselblad H1 camera body. Very nice.

The Imacon Ixpress 528C has the advantage in that it can do 4-shot and 16-shot mode for added quality. Leaf (and Phase One) are one-shot Bayer Pattern systems.

The FLAAR Medium Format Digital Camera initiative is dedicated to comparing the image quality between 35mm full-frame cameras (such as Kodak SLR/c and Kodak SRL/n and Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II) and medium format backs from all manufacturers: Leaf, Imacon, Jenoptik, Phase One, and Sinar. Sinar has reportedly dropped out of producing its own backs; from now on it will market the backs of Jenoptik.

FLAAR is about the only independent testing institute, managed by photographers (three of us are photographers), that has experience in all four levels of digital cameras: large format tri-linear scanning backs (we have three); medium format backs, 35mm SLR, and point-and-shoot. FLAAR is the only such evaluation institute in the world to have the 80-megapixel Cruse digital camera, a $70,000 camera for recording oil paintings and watercolor paintings to reproduce as giclee.

Because of our experience, and since we are independent, professional photographers, photo studios, pro-sumers, and photo enthusiasts tend to recognize that our reviews are crucial to obtain, and read, before making a decision: what format? what brand? what model? what accessories?