The FF DSLR vs Medium-Format price-gap evaporates with the new Aptus II 5

The British Journal of Photography made news earlier in the week when the Leaf CEO pre-announced his company's upcoming Leaf Aptus II 5 digital back. Now the camera has been officially announced at BJoP which details UK price and availability.

The Leaf website has also been updated with the new digital camera back announcement, and more importantly for those interested, the price! This new 22-megapixel digital back has a price tag of $8000. And if you are looking for a camera body+lens kit, you can add the Phase 645 AF and 80mm lens for an extra $2000. This is a sensor larger than 35mm full-frame, it is a 48x36mm CCD.

Obviously it's not going to challenge DSLRs in terms of ISO (25-400) or burst mode (0.9fps), but that's not the reason why photographers use medium format :)

This new development is discussed in detail in the Luminous forums.

This essentially blows away the price-gap between 35mm full frame and medium format. With the Nikon D3X starting at $8000, and the Leica M9 at $7000, this new Aptus II 5 camera kit includes a lens for $10000. If you add to the D3x and the M9 an appropriate lens that matches the sensor, the price delta evaporates. Plus, you can't change the sensor in the D3x/M9. Before this announcement, (as far as we can tell), the lowest priced digital medium format kit was the Mamiya DL28 for $15000.

And now that Leaf Imaging has created a Twitter account, the name MeFo is solidified as the web 2.0 name for Medium Format ;-)