The key is its direct digital imaging straight from camera to file, it says, which eliminates the possibility of grain and scanning artefacts seen with film.

The company is displaying a 105Mb scan from 4x5 alongside an interpolated 18Mb digital camera file on its stand. Both have been printed at 500x700mm. The PhaseOne result shows similar tonal reproduction and details, and visibly exceeds the quality of the scan in the shadow tones and some fine details. The quality enhancements also support longer exposure times in conjunction with the LightProbe image stabilisation feature.

The new software upgrade,which costs 500 is free to users who bought the camera in the last year. In addition to the quality enhancements, the software includes a fast preview (including preview of unsharp masking), user-adjustable grey balance, selectable ISO sensitivity and built-in user-selectable ICC profiles for CMYK conversion on the fly.

Sales of the LightPhase, which started last year, have outstripped those of its scanning backs which were launched in 1993. Its not issuing firm figures, but says that LightPhase installations worldwide number in the thousands.

Story by Simon Eccles.