Sinar Bron Imaging has announced that its Hy6 medium-format SLR will be available in the United States in July 2007. The company will also replace its current CaptureShop desktop image capture software with a new program called Exposure later this year, and will launch a new line of Sinaron lenses that will be compatible with the Hy6 body in the fourth quarter of 2007. The Hy6, which was first announced at the Photokina trade show in September 2006, is the result of collaboration between Jenoptik-owned Sinar and Franke & Heidecke, the manufacturer of Rolleiflex cameras.
The Hy6 body is compatible with existing Zeiss manual-focus lenses and Schneider manual- and autofocus lenses. The new line of autofocus Sinaron AFD lenses will be optimized for use with a digital back and will include 35mm, 50mm, 80mm, and 150mm primes and a 60mm-140mm zoom.
Viewfinder options for the Hy6 include a waist-level finder and a 90-degree prism finder with adjustable diopters. The camera’s metering and white balance systems are built into the body instead of the viewfinder, and so are available with either viewing option. An LCD on the body’s rotating grip shows current settings. Exposure options include programmed automatic and priority modes; center-weighted, spot, and multi-spot metering; shutter speeds ranging from 1/1000 to 32 seconds; autobracketing; and TTL flash metering at sync speeds up to 1/1000 second.
One of the distinctive features of the Hy6 body is its large 56mmx56mm rear opening, which can accommodate 4.5×6cm and 6×6cm film backs, as well as current Sinar digital backs and future digital backs with large sensor sizes. Current digital options include Sinar’s new eMotion 54LV 23-megapixel back, which will be available for the first time in July 2007, and the 33-megapixel Sinarback eMotion 75LV, which has been upgraded to provide Sinar’s Live Video function.
The Live Video function allows both digital backs to stream a live TTL view to Sinar’s CaptureShop desktop image capture software on a connected computer. When Sinar upgrades CaptureShop with the Exposure software later in 2007, the new program will be available as a free download to CaptureShop owners. The two Sinarbacks each use a 6GB internal memory to increase shooting speed and remote viewing performance. They incorporate CompactFlash slots for image storage.
The Hy6 will be available in a $30,500 kit that includes the Sinarback eMotion 54LV, and in a $32,500 kit with the Sinarback eMotion 75LV. Both kits also include a waist-level viewfinder, an f/2.8, 80mm Schneider autofocus lens, a back interface plate, two batteries, a cleaning kit, and CaptureShop software. The kits will be available in July 2007.
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