Photography Newbies Try Using the $52,000 150MP Phase One XF IQ4
What happens when you put a $52,000, 150MP medium format monster of a camera into the hands of complete newbies? The folks at Gear Patrol wanted to find out. So they got some of the non-photographers on their staff to come in and try out the Phase One XF IQ4 before telling them just how expensive the camera really is.
The setup was pretty straight forward. Deputy photo editor Henry Phillips put a radio trigger on the IQ4 and tethered it to a laptop running Capture One. All the “testers” simply had to pick the thing up (a feat in and of itself) and press the shutter to see their images big and beautiful on the computer screen.
Overall, the video is pretty funny, and a good reminder that most people are just not that knowledgeable about cameras and photography. One of GP’s staffers admitted that the photos she was capturing were definitely better than the ones she takes with an iPhone, before asking what a megapixel is. Another described the camera with one word: extravagant. Nobody guessed a price over 10 grand.
To be fair, all of the testers were impressed with the unbelievable resolution they were seeing, but they were equally shocked by the unbelievable price tag. As Phillips puts it at the end of the video, $52,000 is “the price of a well-equipped BMW 3-Series, or a downpayment on a lot of house.” But for the photographers who need that kind of resolution from every single image they shoot, it’s an investment like any other.
Check out the full video above for a little Friday afternoon entertainment, and then feel free to share your (slightly more informed) thoughts on the XF IQ4 in the comments down below.
