It is not everyday that you get to test a camera like the SInar M with an eMotion75 digital back. It happened to me. Hotz, Belgian distributor of Sinar, gave me the chance to play with the Sinar M for a morning. The Sinar M—in the configuration that I reviewed—costs 36,000.00 Euros. No wonder then that Sinar nor Hotz would allow me to take the camera on a vacation to a far away sunny island.
The Sinar M is a modular system, and until I actually laid eyes on the camera, I thought it was more akin to a Hasselblad than it would be to a technical camera. When Hotz’s commercial representative unpacked the camera, it became clear to me that the term “Mobile” meant you can take up the camera and walk around with it. However, the Sinar M is not a camera for outdoors photography, except for taking static photographs—the kind of photos you would also take with a large bellow camera.
The Sinar M is modular. This means the camera lens, the shutter, the grip, the eye-piece, and the back, are all modules. You can use the shutter in another Sinar, and use the back for a completely different camera. Hots had two high-quality Zeiss lenses with them, but you could also use Nikon lenses with the Sinar M. The eMotion digital back was one of the modules that had their own battery power. The battery compartment of the camera as a whole was yet another module.
The modular approach is one of the unique characteristics of Sinar and it allows photographers to keep their investment as low as possible—low being a relative concept. What struck me was that the entire camera was made out of a sturdy plastic. Except the shutter module, the camera is made from a sort of military-grade synthetic material. It makes the camera less heavy than when it were made of metal completely. But the plastic is so thick, the entire system still weighed in at what seemed like some 3 to 4 kilos to me. That’s a lot of weight to carry around with you.
Huge Dynamic RangeNot surprisingly, the camera is used mainly for studio work. Commercial and product photographers love the Sinar M. I can imagine fine art photographers love it as well, although I think they will use the full technical Sinar systems instead of this mobile model. Fashion photographers will probably find the Sinar M too heavy, especially if they’re shooting the “dynamic” photos we know from the glossies.
Photographers who have to shoot products for catalogues, however, will use little else. The Sinar M turns out to be capable of quite some high-quality photography. Jewelry and other fine products, such as cars and furniture will all benefit from the exceptional resolution the lenses have to offer. The camera’s built-in capabilities together with the digital back, let photographers shoot photos over a very wide range of f-stops—if I remember correctly, the Hotz people told me this monster is capable of 11 f-stops dynamic range!
Also, the bit-depth of the files the Sinar M generates, allow a photographer to tamper with the results much more without running into problems like noise and halos.
Handling the Sinar M was childishly simple. I had imagined it would be very different from photographing with a dSLR, but it wasn’t. The only difference was that this camera has been set natively at ISO 25. Hotz explained to me that anything above ISO 50 would rapidly make for a lot of noise in darker areas. They also told me—and given their vast experience with high-end professional photographic equipment, I am inclined to believe them—that most dSLRs are in fact no better, but that it is the amateur who wants these high ISO values, to avoid having to use tripods.
Indeed, when you look at a Nikon shot taken at ISO 400 or higher, there is always some noise to be seen. At ISO 50, there was no noise with the Sinar M, none at all. The camera’s grip felt like an ordinary grip, only bigger. The shutter was light—a bit too light for me at first. The light meter and shutter information is shown at the top of the eye prism. I found this to be a bit awkward until the camera got mounted on the tripod; then it suddenly sat where it belongs.
Given the limited time we had for testing, I took a few shots, using the Powerbook that was connected to the camera. Using the Powerbook, you can control the camera without ever touching it. In fact, this seems to be the way most photographers go about when using the Sinar, because this avoids any vibrations from pressing the shutter button. The Hotz people and myself took a few photos of a hotel lobby where we had met, and of a jewelry store’s brightly lit display. The Sinar software that was used to control the camera at that time, allowed me to see the clipped areas and adjust shutter speed and lens opening.
After some 3 hours spent with this high-end system, it was time to pack it in and go home. It was time well spent. The Sinar M is in my opinion, and after this brief encounter, a very well-designed studio camera. I can imagine a professional photographer using it for fine art photography that will be printed on a fine art printer later on. I can also see the Sinar M being used as a camera to shoot architecture, when equipped with additional modules and the right tripod and lenses.
For anything else more dynamic, I think the Sinar M is too heavy and frankly, too expensive.
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Sinar M with eMotion 75: Fine Art Camera
It is not everyday that you get to test a camera like the SInar M with an eMotion75 digital back. It happened to me. Hotz, Belgian distributor of Sinar, gave me the chance to play with the Sinar M for a morning. The Sinar M—in the configuration that I reviewed—costs 36,000.00 Euros. No wonder then that Sinar nor Hotz would allow me to take the camera on a vacation to a far away sunny island.
The Sinar M is a modular system, and until I actually laid eyes on the camera, I thought it was more akin to a Hasselblad than it would be to a technical camera. When Hotz’s commercial representative unpacked the camera, it became clear to me that the term “Mobile” meant you can take up the camera and walk around with it. However, the Sinar M is not a camera for outdoors photography, except for taking static photographs—the kind of photos you would also take with a large bellow camera.
The Sinar M is modular. This means the camera lens, the shutter, the grip, the eye-piece, and the back, are all modules. You can use the shutter in another Sinar, and use the back for a completely different camera. Hots had two high-quality Zeiss lenses with them, but you could also use Nikon lenses with the Sinar M. The eMotion digital back was one of the modules that had their own battery power. The battery compartment of the camera as a whole was yet another module.
The modular approach is one of the unique characteristics of Sinar and it allows photographers to keep their investment as low as possible—low being a relative concept. What struck me was that the entire camera was made out of a sturdy plastic. Except the shutter module, the camera is made from a sort of military-grade synthetic material. It makes the camera less heavy than when it were made of metal completely. But the plastic is so thick, the entire system still weighed in at what seemed like some 3 to 4 kilos to me. That’s a lot of weight to carry around with you.
Huge Dynamic RangeNot surprisingly, the camera is used mainly for studio work. Commercial and product photographers love the Sinar M. I can imagine fine art photographers love it as well, although I think they will use the full technical Sinar systems instead of this mobile model. Fashion photographers will probably find the Sinar M too heavy, especially if they’re shooting the “dynamic” photos we know from the glossies.
Photographers who have to shoot products for catalogues, however, will use little else. The Sinar M turns out to be capable of quite some high-quality photography. Jewelry and other fine products, such as cars and furniture will all benefit from the exceptional resolution the lenses have to offer. The camera’s built-in capabilities together with the digital back, let photographers shoot photos over a very wide range of f-stops—if I remember correctly, the Hotz people told me this monster is capable of 11 f-stops dynamic range!
Also, the bit-depth of the files the Sinar M generates, allow a photographer to tamper with the results much more without running into problems like noise and halos.
Handling the Sinar M was childishly simple. I had imagined it would be very different from photographing with a dSLR, but it wasn’t. The only difference was that this camera has been set natively at ISO 25. Hotz explained to me that anything above ISO 50 would rapidly make for a lot of noise in darker areas. They also told me—and given their vast experience with high-end professional photographic equipment, I am inclined to believe them—that most dSLRs are in fact no better, but that it is the amateur who wants these high ISO values, to avoid having to use tripods.
Indeed, when you look at a Nikon shot taken at ISO 400 or higher, there is always some noise to be seen. At ISO 50, there was no noise with the Sinar M, none at all. The camera’s grip felt like an ordinary grip, only bigger. The shutter was light—a bit too light for me at first. The light meter and shutter information is shown at the top of the eye prism. I found this to be a bit awkward until the camera got mounted on the tripod; then it suddenly sat where it belongs.
Given the limited time we had for testing, I took a few shots, using the Powerbook that was connected to the camera. Using the Powerbook, you can control the camera without ever touching it. In fact, this seems to be the way most photographers go about when using the Sinar, because this avoids any vibrations from pressing the shutter button. The Hotz people and myself took a few photos of a hotel lobby where we had met, and of a jewelry store’s brightly lit display. The Sinar software that was used to control the camera at that time, allowed me to see the clipped areas and adjust shutter speed and lens opening.
After some 3 hours spent with this high-end system, it was time to pack it in and go home. It was time well spent. The Sinar M is in my opinion, and after this brief encounter, a very well-designed studio camera. I can imagine a professional photographer using it for fine art photography that will be printed on a fine art printer later on. I can also see the Sinar M being used as a camera to shoot architecture, when equipped with additional modules and the right tripod and lenses.
For anything else more dynamic, I think the Sinar M is too heavy and frankly, too expensive.
No