Comments on: Phase One takes lead in camera sensor test

The medium-format camera has narrowly edged Nikon's top-end SLR in DxO Labs' test of image sensor quality.

[kcotham]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the D3X a FX format camera? Perhaps I'm missing the point of comparing apples and oranges here.

[gerrrg]

Hmm. Looks like the D3x has a huge advantage on low light ISO, but still lost. Strange weighting of scoring.

[askj113]

I think that's one of the problems people are complaining about, that the D3X is an all around camera you could use to go anywhere in any situation, while the phase one is only going to be used in a fairly narrow set of uses that require photos of that size and quality. Thus, it doesn't need an iso range anything like the D3X, and thus takes a huge knock for it. Comparing the other two qualities they're measured would produce a fairly different score, I think.

[pjk0]

The point of having a simplistic "single number benchmark" is that it will always entail some sort of compromise - the creators of the benchmark get to decide what factors weigh into it and what their relative weights are. If they didn't stay consistent with this, then making relative comparisons would be far more complicated. Very few people are going to pore over charts of 50 different numbers on every tested product in order to make a quick comparison.

But Dx0 provides the raw numbers precisely for this purpose, if you have a particular characteristic you're looking for. For example, the best sensor in low-light remains the Nikon D3/D700, despite the fact that it rates a little lower than the D3x overall due to its lower resolution (12MP vs 24MP) and probably a few other minor details.

What I think is impressive is the overall performance of the D3x, a "35mm style" camera, compared to these "medium format style" competitors. People ******* and moaned when Nikon announced the price of the D3x ($8000), but that Hasselblad sells for $30,000, and the PhaseOne P65+ (JUST THE BACK, NO CAMERA) for $40,000!