Phase One has just announced a summer promotion where you can pick up a refurbished medium format back, DF+ camera body and a 80mm LS lens.  You can read more about it here:

Phase One summer promotion

But in a nutshell, there are 3 camera systems that you can pick from

1. Phase One P45+ with DF+ Body and 80mm LS lens @$15,990
2. Phase One IQ160 with DF+ camera body and 80mm LS lens @ $24,990
3. Phase One IQ180 with DF+ camera body and 80mm LS lens @ #29,990

If you are wanting to start out in medium format digital, this is a good offer to consider.  Each of these three medium format backs has a set of unique features and with the DF+ camera body (which lists for $4995.00) and 80mm LS lens (leaf shutter for $3,000) it’s a great place to start.

The P45+ was the first digital back to have the ability to shoot for 1 hour and is a 39 mp CCD sensor.  You can get very clean 1 hour exposures with this back in ambient temperatures of 69 degrees Fahrenheit or lower.  It uses a Kodak CCD and has always been noted for it’s great color.  You can use the P45+ with a tech camera or the Phase One DF+ body which is going to use Mamiya or Phase One lenses.  The P45+ has iso ranges of 50 to 800.

The IQ160, is one of the three original IQ backs which were announced by Phase One back in 2011.  The IQ160 took forward the same Dalsa chip as the older P65+ which was 60mp.  The Dalsa chip set gave the P65+/IQ160 an increase in overall dynamic range that was considerable over the older P45+.  The longest exposure however could only be 1 minute and that at iso 50.  However the IQ160 brought about the IQ interface which is really one of the most significant improvements in medium format digital.  With the IQ interface you gained a wonderful touch screen LCD similar to appearance to the apple iPhone screens.  Phase one also added many new usability features like focus mask, level, touch screen, zoom to 100 to 400 percent, a LCD screen that a user could gain detailed information about foucs, Live view on the LCD, USB3 and many other features.  Considering that the original list price of a IQ160 was around $39,990 U.S. this is a very good deal to get into a large format digital back, which excellent Dynamic range which has a DxO score of 89.  One other very important feature of the IQ160 is sensor plus which takes the gain of 4 pixels into one, thus giving a very detailed image which can be helpful in higher iso needs.  You do loose the 60mp output which drops to 15MP but it’s still a very usable file.

The IQ180, which has all of the above features of the IQ160, however it’s a 80mp sensor and has a base iso of 35.  The sensor plus output is 20MP.

If you have interest in one of these offer, the best way to purchase is to contact a dealer, one of the best in the U.S., is Digital Transitions.