80 Megapixels of RAW power just landed on my desk. I’m not shooting pretty pics of this. But I wanted to share opening the case, so I took a quick shot with my point and shoot camera. The back ships in a waterproof rolling case with foam cut outs that are custom tailored , plus accessories. As you can see, the quick start guide is very unique and will allow you to easily slip this into your back pocket for quick reference while out in the field.

I’m really looking forward to taking the Phase One IQ180 out on a field test. I believe that, at this moment, this is one of the very few units currently in North America – so I feel privileged to be given the opportunity to shoot with it this weekend, in Algonquin Park. I’m hoping the weather is going to be great and that I’ll be able to provide a full review. I will be adding images to this post over the weekend, and will write a short review of my experience with the PHASEONE IQ 180, and PHASEONE 645 DF camera system, when I return next week.

In my role at Vistek as Professional Products Manager, I’m going to be setting up some hands-on demos of the camera in the very near future: both in- store and in the field (Bluffers Park or Leslie Street Spit, perhaps, for our landscape shooters) You will be welcome to bring in CF memory cards and take a few images with the camera, and return home to work with the image files. In the meantime, if you have any questions – or if you would like to setup a more personalized demo – please feel free to email our Commercial Sales Division at Vistek.

On another note, check out this un-boxing video created by Phase One.

Here is an update! The weather in Algonquin was quite nasty this weekend, in between rain, mostly on Sunday, I was able to take the Phaseone IQ 180 out and do some testing. There will be more of these coming, but I thought this first shot is very interesting to see just how much dynamic range can be pulled out of this. There is about 4 stops that I pulled out of the shadow’s below.