How a 150MP Medium-Format Camera Preserves Japan’s Historic Manga

Nov 30, 2025

Jeremy Gray

Two people sit at a table displaying colorful "One Piece" artwork and prints. The prints feature anime characters in vibrant costumes. The individuals face the camera in a bright, modern room.

For many, digital cameras are tools for creating art. However, in some very specialized applications, high-resolution digital cameras are used to preserve it. In Japan, Shueisha Manga-Art Heritage is using 150-megapixel Phase One medium-format cameras to digitize manga, ensuring that fast-fading artwork is preserved for generations to come.

“Manga is more than ink on paper — it’s a cultural language, a bridge between generations, and a living art form,” writes Phase One. “But with time, many originals — especially color illustrations from the 1980s onward — are fading fast, locking away both their artistic and commercial potential.”

Using the Phase One iXH 150MP Camera System, Shueisha Manga-Art Heritage meticulously, carefully digitizes manga artwork. Digitizing artwork using high-resolution medium-format cameras is fairly common, but original manga artwork, especially from the 1980s onward, is particularly challenging to handle.

Many color pieces over the past 40 years were created with dye-based inks, which are extremely sensitive to ultraviolet light and prone to fading. In the case of original works, they are very risky to display. Phase One notes that even black-and-white artworks have their own challenges, as the very delicate screen tone dot patterns must be digitized with “exceptional capture fidelity.”

A man wearing glasses and gloves sits at a desk in a studio with bright lights and camera equipment. A monitor displays a colorful image. The workspace appears organized and professional.

A person with short hair and glasses is looking at a monitor displaying colorful artwork from the anime "One Piece," which features several characters and manga-style graphics. The screen also shows color calibration tools.

That’s where the Phase One Cultural Heritage solutions come in. The Phase One iHX-150MP camera system promises exceptional resolution, tonality, and color accuracy. Meanwhile, the Capture One CH software supports efficient tethered capture solutions and precise color management. The complete system also comprises motorized book and flat scanning copy stands.

Shueisha Manga-Art Heritage had previously used scanners to digitize its manga artwork, but this approach often failed to capture accurate tones, especially with light, softer colors.

A colorful framed artwork featuring characters in elaborate costumes hangs on a white wall. Another smaller, monochrome picture is partially visible to the left. The setting appears to be a modern gallery or hallway.

A framed artwork shows a blond-haired person riding a white horse through a forest of white trees, with a large, ethereal face of another person with blue eyes and curly hair in the background.

“But after switching from the scanner to Phase One, those issues were resolved almost instantly,” says Mr. Koyanagi from Shueisha Manga-Art Heritage.”I was amazed that it could capture even the texture of the paper itself, also the full tonal range so beautifully.”

“We believed that to create the best results, we needed to use the best tools available,” Koyanagi continues.

Image credits: Phase One, Shueisha Manga-Art Heritage. One Piece © Eiichiro Oda / Shueisha Inc. Bleach © Tite Kubo / Shueisha Inc. © Ikeda Riyoko Production / Shueisha Inc.