Hartblei CAM: medium format camera announced

rparmar · 09-17-2009, 06:56 AM

Hartblei have cooked up something rather wacky, a medium format camera with a 35mm lens mount! While at first this seems counter-productive, it appears the main impetus is to enable very wide field of view, especially when using their own tilt/shift lenses or the TS-E lenses from Canon.

So far they have targeted Canon EF, Nikon F or Sony Alpha mounts. I wonder if Pentax 6x7, 645 or k-mount might be forthcoming? Maybe not for this application.

Obviously not just any lens would work optimally, but the press release states that "many lenses designed for DSLRs, including the Zeiss 100mm F/2 Macro, Nikkor 17-35mm ED and 14-24mm G-ED produce large enough image circles to illuminate larger format sensors (though their performance will only have been optimized for their native formats)."

The Hartblei CAM costs €4985 plus shipping and taxes. On top of that you need to shell out for a digital or film medium format back (up to 4.5x6cm).

Details on dpreview.

*RawheaD* · 09-17-2009, 08:49 AM

Well, except for the EF mount, which they plan to upgrade in the future (I think) to allow electronic coupling/controlling, all lenses will be mounted as a fully manual lens. Which means, all you need is an EF mount; you can attach any Pentax lens, 135 or 645, via an adapter.

Note the widest rectilinear FOV you can get with this came is by using Canon's TS-E 17mm f4L tilt shift lens. That is some mind-blowingly serious wide angle tilt lens you'll get on 645

rparmar · 09-17-2009, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by RawheaD

That is some mind-blowingly serious wide angle tilt lens you'll get on 645

Ya. I think that is the whole reason for this camera. Very expensive but it gets results impossible any other way.

*pingflood* · 09-17-2009, 09:33 AM

Apparently the 17mm TS-E lens has a 67mm image circle. Pretty cool.

Since you can shift it up to 12mm, you could shift+stitch and get an image on full frame 35mm equivalent to at least the width of a 645 neg though, right? 36mm frame + 12mm in either direction.

*Andi Lo* · 09-17-2009, 11:01 AM

Okay I'm kinda lost... the camera is a medium format 6x4.5 but the lens will only cover image circle possible with 35mm lenses? Last time I had a 645 I'm pretty sure the lens mount has bigger diameter than my K mount.

*pingflood* · 09-17-2009, 11:13 AM

Did you miss the post right above yours? Some lenses do have sufficient image circle.

*Andi Lo* · 09-17-2009, 11:18 AM

I must confess to not understanding what it meant at first... Thanks

lithos · 09-17-2009, 10:01 PM

Originally Posted by rparmar

So far they have targeted Canon EF, Nikon F or Sony Alpha mounts. I wonder if Pentax 6x7, 645 or k-mount might be forthcoming? Maybe not for this application.

According to Hartblei's website, yes, Pentax 645 and 67 will be supported.