In 2008, Sinar offered me to establish a “tight” working relationship for a whole year and asked me to capture movements, speed, action, emotion and energy with their new Hy6 medium format camera. It was a first because Sinar’s materials are more accustomed to the studio than to the outdoors.
Sinar made use of my pictures of yachts in its advertising campaigns, to illustrate the new capabilities of this brand new “combo” (with the digital back Sinarback eMotion 75 LV -33 million pixels and Sinar lenses from 50 to 180 mm). This digital back and this case were considered at the time as the fastest in their category. I was very proud that Sinar (one of the world leaders in his field) recognized my artistic and technical skills and offered me such an opportunity.
As a result of this year of collaboration, my means not allowing me to acquire (even at a “good” price!) this gear, I came back to my good old digital reflex 24×36.
But the worms were well settled in the fruit!
Shortly after its release, I could not resist (after a month of intensive tests in 2013), to sell all of my 24×36 hardware to buy a Medium Format camera Pentax 645D and some beautiful and nonetheless indispensable optical Pentax.
The 645D had already been awarded:
– TIPA Awards 2011: Best D-SLR Professional camera
– Camera Grand Prix 2011 “Camera of the Year” (Tokyo June 1st, 2011)
– EISA: Best Professional SLR 2011-2012
And then the 645Z arrived to join the 645D which I of course kept as the second body (in a helicopter, it’s much more convenient!).
The size of the image (44 x 33mm sensor – native format 70 x 52 cm at 300 dpi!) is an important factor in professional photography. But the resolution plays a smaller role in the overall image quality of any system – the size of the sensor is a much larger part of the equation. Larger sensors have better overall image quality due to better handling of noise, potentially better dynamic range and better colors. Hence the better the ambience and depth will be rendered, the result is a quality of details, gradients and colors. exceptional, breathtaking huge prints.
Passionate, I then intensively exchanged with the technical, marketing and commercial services of Pentax Ricoh France about my own discoveries and experiences with this equipment.
Pentax Ricoh eager to deepen this relationship of trust and mutual exchange proposed to me in 2015 to be put forward on the Pentax site and to be promoted as one of the very few ambassadors of the brand.
This allows me to benefit from loans of materials (boxes, lenses, etc.) for specific jobs, as well as very sharp technical assistance.
This is of course for me an important recognition for the quality and the seriousness of my work… But above all an unequalled pleasure every time I take it in hand.
The ending of a long collaboration…
In April 2021, I ended my collaboration with Pentax and took a new step forward with a camera that meets the latest technological standards of 2021…
The real progress in this field comes this year from the Fujifilm GFX 100 S with its 102 million pixels, but also from real technological innovations that will push me forward… Even truer colors, an exceptional sharpness!
