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Pentax 645D goes global in December

paulmoore

New member
It's announced to come to Germany in January 2011, 10.000€ for body only and 11.000€ with 55mm lens (prices should include 19% VAT, but I'm not sure about this). A good friend might have one for a test then, so I will have the chance to compare it to my AFI-II 7 (and also Sony A900). But first I have to learn working with the AFI (have it for some 2 weeks now - and really love this beast :D)...

Andreas
would take a brave man to shoot a pentax in germany..
 

Terry

New member
Luminous Landscape about a week or so ago had a hands on with the Pentax and there is a video with the Pentax rep to go along with it. While there is only one new digitally optimized lens to start there are a lot of lenses out there that will AF and retain other integrated camera functions. Here is the link and an excerpt from the hands on

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/pentax-645d-first.shtml

"Pentax enters the MF race with the largest existing system of 645 lenses. Ranging from 35mm to 400mm, the original Pentax 645 lens system gained a solid reputation for quality, along with very attractive pricing. The Pentax 645D can use all of these lenses (with a 1.3x crop factor), without any loss of functionality, which will be music to the ears of thousands of photographers who held on to their systems rather than fire-sale them on EBay over the last few years.
With at least the last generation of 645 "FA" autofocus lenses, the 645D is able to recognize which lens is mounted. This allows access to a number of the camera's features, including shifts in program curves to match the focal length and optimum aperture and the simple, but convenient, addition of lens information to image metadata.
Pentax is also planning a new line of digitally optimized lenses. The first of these is the 55mm f2.8, which features ultrasonic focusing, which Pentax calls SDM (Supersonic Direct Drive Motor). A new fixed wide angle (read very wide) is rumoured to be the next addition to the lineup. These lenses are "digitally optimized", a phrase we have all come to know, if not understand. Bill Gouge of Pentax was careful to note that there may be some chromatic aberrations visible with older lenses, due to the tighter tolerance of the digital image plane vs film. (In the video accompanying this article Bill mentions the possibility of reduced image quality -- this applies only to older lenses, not the new digital lens-line). This will require detailed testing when a production camera with final firmware is available. I didn't see anything in my few early snaps, but this is something I will look at closely, especially with lenses at the extremes of the range."
 

fotografz

Well-known member
Crap. I now have to decide between this thing or the New H4D-31.

Hard to do when you cant get your hands on the Pentax to try it. I'm thinking that would be a pretty big leap of faith for me to take. (I need the camera before I go abroad for 6 months in February 2011).

Tough, tough, tough.

Any thoughts on the differences between these two, anyone?

-Alex
The main difference is that the H4 is a leaf shutter system and the Pentax is a focal plane shutter camera, and the H4 has a huge array of AF dedicated lenses in the market ... including available used ones. The Hassey is modular and offers a waist level finder.

The 31 is on an H4D body ... this gets you True Focus/Focus confirmation. I cannot tell you what a huge difference this has made for AF off-center subject compositions. It's faster, more accurate out to the edges than the top 35mm DSLRs.

That said, the Pentax looks like it has a lot of nice, well thought out features for those who use that sort of stuff ... i.e., 35mm DSLRs users ... and has a higher res. LCD.

-Marc
 
T

tokengirl

Guest
If it was ME and given I need everything as a system in place than in this case between the two go Hassy even though it IS a older generation sensor it is and was a workhorse for a long time. I had the P31+ which is the same and it was a good back. But I'm not your normal buyer either I buy SYSTEMS not camera's if you know what I mean. I want everything in place including software and support. So tough call for hobbyists because the Pentax looks nice and has the newer sensors but like the S2 it needs to age some. Only one dedicated lens today but obviously you can use the older 6x7 glass.

Here you need to sit down and do the Pro's and Con's on each system and figure out what works best for you and also since this is entry level what about upgrades and such. Sorry I have to be the logical one on this stuff but it takes thought and hate to see people make mistakes. Not that the Pentax is a mistake by any stretch it's new and what is the future on it and down the road firmware, lenses, support which at the moment is all unknown.

Have a correction here you can also use the Pentax 645 lenses as well
I agree, I would go with the Hasselblad too. Three main reasons: 1. Good lens choices, 2. The HTS 1.5, and 3. TrueFocus.

Something else to think about - Pentax is 14-bit, Hassy is 16-bit. Maybe someone experienced with this can comment on whether this is a significant difference or not?

With the Pentax, my concern is that while all their old 645 lenses will work, are they up to snuff for a 40mp sensor? Because I would be :cussing: if I spent $9,000 on a camera body and I couldn't get lenses that made the most of it.
 

etrigan63

Active member
14-bit image capture = 4.3 trillion colors (2^14)^3
16-bit image capture = 281.4 trillion colors (2^16)^3

Lots more crayons in the box.
 
M

ManuelGF

Guest
Greetings to everyone. Sorry for my English, is google translator.

I've been using 6008 Rollei, Hasselblad 2000, 903 ... and my last medium format camera was and is the Pentax 645N II. It is a fantastic camera, fast, comfortable, lightweight, very well designed. It has excellent optical, as the 45-85/4,5 , 80-160/4,5 , 70/2,8 , 120/4 macro, 150/2,8. All these lenses are great, cheap and very small and light, which i value greatly.

I have no doubt that the 645D will be just as good and pleasant to use, and have experience with Pentax digital 35 mm.

Greetings to everyone.

ManuelGF
 

symbolphoto

New member
14-bit image capture = 4.3 trillion colors (2^14)^3
16-bit image capture = 281.4 trillion colors (2^16)^3

Lots more crayons in the box.
You know i was recently told that Hasselblad wasn't true 16 bit. And that it was marketing hype, i'll have to find that thread. I wonder if it's true.
 

symbolphoto

New member
Specifically:

ondebanks said:
Yes, unfortunately.

There is a myth of better DR in MF digital. It used be true, a fact; but when belief persists when the fact no longer does, then it becomes a myth.

8 or so years ago when DSLRS had high sensor readnoise (around 20 electrons), in the same ballpark as MFDBs, then it was true that MF digital had a substantial DR advantage.

But it is now a myth, largely because people (and indeed manufacturers' advertising blurbs) only look at one half of the DR equation: full well capacity. MF has larger pixels (for a given total pixel count), so it has larger FWC.

Ever since CMOS replaced CCD for DSLRs, they have been eating into that advantage, by driving down sensor readnoise; currently the best are only 2 or 3 electrons at mid-ISOs. But at mid-ISO you are utilising less of the FWC than at base ISO, so this renders the mid-ISO DR of DSLRs very good but not spectacular (usually 11-and-a-bit stops). At base ISO, you get the complete FWC but countering that, DSLRs still have stubbornly high low-ISO readnoise because the main contributor is the ADC, not the sensor itself. So again you usually get 11-and-a-bit or maybe 12 stops. All told, this means that DSLRs are around par with the MFDBs, which also have 12 +/- a bit stops.

However Nikon seems to have cracked the problem with ADC noise at low ISO in the D3x, and this explains its huge DR score (13.65 stops at base ISO) in the DXO tests.

So if you "figured MF has more range", you have to realise that there is no magic involved in MF digital. It obeys the same rules as 35mm and smaller digital. If or when Kodak and DALSA can get their sensor readnoise down from 11 or 13 electrons (their current best) to 2 or 3 electrons, then MF will regain the upper hand. It certainly can be that low for large CCDs, but it nearly always requires much longer readout times than photographers are likely to put up with. Astronomers are not as fussy about waiting* ;).
 

etrigan63

Active member
OK, I looked at that thread on Luminous Landscapes and the topic jumped from color space to dynamic range and everyone got confused. The 14-bit vs 16-bit discussion is with regard to number of colors, not stops of dynamic range. The DR champ is currently RED with 18+ stops. The Pentax 645D has 14-bit color, while the Hasselblad H4D-31 has 16-bit color.

PDNOnline reported today:

But the camera, which can use all Pentax 645 legacy film lenses and, with the help of an adapter, 67 lenses, has not shipped in the U.S. or even Europe yet due to overwhelming demand (and a limited supply) in Japan. We met with Ned Bunnell president of Pentax USA, during photokina on Thursday to find out what the deal was.

"We're going to start to bring the 645D into the States in late November or early December but that's based on availability," he told us. "We're still fighting fairly significant back orders in Japan."

Bunnell added that the camera will be on display at the PDN-sponsored PhotoPlus Expo show in New York City next month but he couldn't guarantee there will be more than one working model on the show floor. (If there is only one 645D, Bunnell could be the most popular man at the Jacob Javits Center.)

"PhotoPlus is where we'll make our splash," he said, while noting that when the camera does come into the U.S., Pentax will be offering one-on-one support to 645D customers.

"What we're saying is, if a photographer buys this camera, we will provide that photographer with direct contact to one of our support staff in Golden, Co. It's different from if you bought one of our traditional cameras in the past when you got a support group. In this case, you'll have a name." Pentax plans to officially announce this new 645D support plan at PhotoPlus Expo.

Bunnell was pleased with the news this week that Hasselblad would also release a sub-$10,000 medium format camera, the 31MP H4D-31. "That was validation that medium-format can be made affordable at a fairly attractive price."
For the record, I will be at the Javits Center for PhotoPlus and I will be all over the Pentax display trying to get my mitts on the 645D for some test shots.
 

David Schneider

New member
Carlos,

At PhotoPlus, if you see a guy with curly hair and a handlebar moustache, good chance it's me. Say hello. I'm going to stop by the Pentax booth at some point.
 
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