Our new reference camera: Phase One XF IQ4 150MP added to studio test scene

Digital formats have often ended up mimicking the dimensions of film formats, simply because the lenses for those formats already existed. But the higher performance and more steeply rising cost of fabricating ever larger expanses of silicon mean that the image quality gains from slavishly matching film formats becomes uneconomic beyond a certain point. In short, the possible image-quality gain of a '6x9' digital sensor simply isn't worth the fabulous cost it would entail. But this brings us to ...