An Animated Walkthrough of the Phase One XT

This is the Phase One XT. It’s a tech camera body (aka “field camera” or “pancake camera”).

The XT body has a Phase One mount. Here is the Phase One IQ4 attached to the XT. The IQ4’s Infinity Platform provides the power and the user interface for the XT.

Here is a Phase One XT lens being mounted to the XT body. The black release centered above the lens clicks to lock the lens in place for safety and the two metal levers pull the lens into precise alignment with the body. An XT lens comes with an X Shutter that is controlled by the IQ4 digital back and provides electronic aperture and shutter speed control and syncs with flash at 1/1000th sec. No additional batteries or cables are required.

The XT has high precision manual focusing, aided by the excellent live view of the IQ4, which includes live focus masking.

The lens mount is shared with the Cambo Wide series of cameras. So even though the XT is a brand new platform, it is born into compatibility with a variety of lens panels. In addition to the Phase One XT lenses you can attach Rodenstock HR or Schneider Digitar lenses in a Cambo Wide mount, or Canon or Hasselblad 500 series lenses via Cambo adapter. Phase One will also be making an adapter to use Schneider LS BR lenses.

When using a Cambo TS lens mount, tilt and swing are possible.

The same is true when using a Canon TS lens.

Rise and fall is integrated into the XT body itself, so is available on any lens.

Shift left/right is also integrated into the XT body, available on any lens, and can be combined arbitrarily with rise/fall.

The XT has an integrated rotatable dovetail. This allows it to rotate from a horizontal frame to a vertical frame without removing the camera or the digital back. Rise/fall/shift all remain accessible in the vertical orientation.

The integrated rotatable dovetail can also be removed to reduce weight and improve handheld ergonomics. The tab in the top right corner can be removed by a screw revealed by shifting the back all the way to the right, after which the dovetail rotates right off.

Movements on the XT are detented every 5mm, including the home position (0mm). The amount of shift is shown mechanically on gauges on the top and right of the camera (or left and top of the camera, when rotated to vertical; as shown here). It is also shown digitally in real time on the LCD of the IQ4, and recorded into the metadata of the raw file for automatic lens correction.

The XT uses the Cambo Accessory Mount Standard which means most Cambo accessories natively mount to the XT. Here is the Cambo Compendium Shade which can move forward/backward to mate with a variety of lenses, and can be extended in any direction to knock out flare. When not in use this mount point is covered for clean aesthetics.

The accessory mount is normally on the side. When the camera is rotated (using the integrated rotatable dovetail) it then sits on top of the camera. Most accessories, including the compendium shade, will work in either orientation.

Finally, DT will be offering the XT with various customizations only available to DT customers. For example here is the standard black handle and a custom wood handle.