The Phase One P65+ system combines a 645 medium-format camera, designed by Mamiya, with a 60.5-megapixel digital back using a CCD co-developed by Dalsa.

The digital camera "megapixel race" is a funny thing. Just when you think everyone's finally reached the finish line, it all starts up again.

Not too long ago there were some who said that 6 megapixels was all a photographer would need to produce "usable" images for a print ad campaign. Times quickly changed, and soon others said that 11 or 12 megapixels were much better but anything higher was overdoing it. Then there were those who supported 16-megapixel and 17-megapixel cameras and some who backed 18-megapixel cameras.

Later, there were those who cried "21 megapixels are enough!" but they were quickly drowned out by those who argued, vehemently, that a 24-megapixel camera was actually the new ideal.

And then there are the medium-format digital camera makers who never seem to think enough is enough.

Take, for example, the new P 65+ camera system from Phase One which, at the time of this writing, has the highest megapixel count of any medium-format camera on the market at a whopping 60.5 megapixels. (By the time you read this, Hasselblad or Leaf or some other company will have likely trumped that.)

All this reminds me of that scene from the movie Wall Street where the young stockbroker Bud Fox (played by Charlie Sheen) questions money-mad financial trader Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) about his wealth.

"So tell me, Gordon—when does it all end, huh?" Fox asks. "How many yachts can you water ski behind? How much is enough?"

Or to translate that into the world of digital cameras: "How many megapixels are enough, really?" And truthfully, even Phase One's press release about its new 60.5- megapixel camera sounds a tad defensive.

"Photographers need real reasons to upgrade past 39-megapixel digital backs," Phase One CEO Henrik Håkonsson says in the release. "Real value includes higher resolution but also requires new functions, faster operation, higher quality through expanded sensitivity, increased dynamic range, better results in the studio or on location and a better longer-term investment."

Though that's a canned quote, it's an argument photographers need to seriously consider if they're thinking of jumping back into the megapixel race. Because along with offering mind-blowing amounts of resolution—and images shot with the P 65+ really are mind-blowing—the camera system sets another unofficial record, this time in the conspicuous consumption category. Packaged together, the Phase One P65+ back and 645 camera sells for just a hair under $42,000.

Ouch.


LOWER NOISE, LOWER RESOLUTION

I recently had a chance to test out the aforementioned $42K, 60.5 megapixel Phase One P65+ camera system both in the studio and out in the field and while I'm not a fan of constant one-upmanship when it comes to megapixels—my camera has more pixels than yours, nah-nah!—there are still some clear benefits to all that extra resolution.

At the same time, Phase One's done some interesting things to confront a major Achilles' heel with medium-format cameras—their inability to shoot anything usable at higher than ISO 800. Because they don't employ the anti-aliasing (or blur) filters used in digital SLRs to tamp down noise—at the expense of sharpness—medium-format cameras have generally been more suited for the studio where light is controllable.

With the new Sensor + technology in the P65+ back which uses pixel scaling (or binning) to target noise, some of those issues have been addressed, with the P65+ capable of shooting as high as ISO 3200. That high ISO shooting does come at a price, though, with the resolution getting knocked back considerably during binning.

In effect, your 60.5 megapixel camera becomes a 15- megapixel camera, raising the inevitable question: "Are 15 megapixels enough?"


LUXURY MODEL?

I worked with the P65+ system—which combines a 645 medium-format camera, designed by Mamiya, with a 60.5-megapixel digital back using a CCD co-developed by Dalsa—at the studio of Dan Root, a fine-art photographer who shoots decorative arts, furniture, and jewelry for the Macklowe Gallery.

I also took the P65+ out into the field and photographed landscapes and shot Macro images of new spring flowers in a range of lighting conditions. And finally, I shot with the P65+ indoors, in deliberately shadowy conditions to test ISO 3200 using the Sensor + technology.