The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

Good news for Pentax 645D owners

vieri

Well-known member
This is great news for all our US Pentaxian friends, finally Pentax US did the right thing :)

Now, I am looking forward to the 645Z announcement tomorrow... and hope for the new WA zoom lens to be announced too, we definitely could use it.
 

Chris Giles

New member
What are your thoughts on it?

Assuming it shares the same CMOS as the Phase and Hassy?

Part of me is like 'yay, much cheaper entry to MF, boo crop sensor, yay high iso performace, boo are the lenses any good'.

I don't know how to feel about it. The price is tempting and within reach for many, including me.
 

tsjanik

Well-known member
.......... boo are the lenses any good'.

I don't know how to feel about it. The price is tempting and within reach for many, including me.
Chris,
Most people are happy with the lenses. Gary can give you his experience comparing Pentax and Zeiss lenses (I know he has both, along with a lot of other gear :) ). Pentax has been in the MF business for a long time, I'm surprised this question keeps reappearing. Anyway, here's an old discussion of the FA 35mm vs. its Zeiss and Mamiya counterparts:

Pentax 645 FA 35mm Review

Ironically, most 645D users prefer the older 35mm A.

Tom
 
Last edited:

Giorgio

Member
SAFOX11 AF system, 27 point (25 cross type), LW -3 - +18

I did not think this was possible in MFD?

The specs of this camera seem to be amazing, I hope the official camera launch is also amazing!
 

pophoto

New member
Not a deal breaker but I'm disappointed to see Flash Sync speed at 1/125 sec.
Otherwise wow, the spec are amazing!
 

bensonga

Well-known member
Chris,
Most people are happy with the lenses. Gary can give you his experience comparing Pentax and Zeiss lenses (I know he has both, along with a lot of other gear :) ). Pentax has been in the MF business for a long time, I'm surprised this question keeps reappearing.
Tom
While I do have many legacy Pentax 645 and 67 lenses and quite a few Hasselblad Zeiss V-system lenses, I haven't used any of them often enough on my 645D to offer any useful impressions.

On the other hand, Dave (D&A) has done us all a great service with his extensive testing of Pentax 645 FA and A lenses posted on GetDPI here:

http://www.getdpi.com/forum/medium-...observations-pentax-645-lenses-used-645d.html

I know there are many other current 645D owners who can offer their impressions of the Pentax 645 & 67 lenses too.

A 645D owner on the Pentax MF forum has tested some P645 and Hasselblad Zeiss lenses and posted his impressions here (hopefully it's ok for me to post this link to another forum):

645D with Hasselblad V-System Lenses - PentaxForums.com

Gary
 

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
Pentax, my wallet is watching your every move with increasing fear :shocked:

This looks like a very interesting camera :thumbup:
 

tsjanik

Well-known member
The availability of FA lenses in the US is great news. Is it too much to hope for that Pentax may reopen their repair facility in Colorado?
 

laopai

New member
Not a deal breaker but I'm disappointed to see Flash Sync speed at 1/125 sec.
Otherwise wow, the spec are amazing!
Hi,

Pentax do have two leaf shutter lens in 75mm/2.8 LS and 135mm/4 LS. Sync speed can be up to 1/500sec.

Just FYI.

laopai
 

fotografz

Well-known member
IMO, this is a game changer.

While I understand that Hassey or Phase (as well as Leica) offer more digital spec optics and leaf-shutter solutions, @ $8,500 for these specifications it has got to make MFD users think twice about shelling out 3X to 4X more.

If I were not committed to my current kit, or was just moving into MFD … this is the first place I would look.

If Pentax reverse engineered an adapter for Leica S, Contax 645 and Hasselblad H lenses (the way Leica did), I'd be on this camera like white on rice … and for sure I would not be alone.

It is really getting old upgrading every 2 to 4 years at MFD prices. I don't mind paying a premium for lenses, but this obsolete business model has to change.


- Marc
 

Pics2

New member
I just hope they come with good tethering and RAW processing solution that can rival Capture One. Otherwise, it looks like most logical MFD option at the moment.
 

peterv

New member
IMO it's a game changer price-wise, but not for lens adaptability. The lenses Marc mentiones all have shorter flange focal distance. For that we would need a Sony mirrorless :)

Right now the Leica S is the way to go for adapting MF lenses.
 

fotografz

Well-known member
IMO it's a game changer price-wise, but not for lens adaptability. The lenses Marc mentiones all have shorter flange focal distance. For that we would need a Sony mirrorless :)

Right now the Leica S is the way to go for adapting MF lenses.
Well, that's too bad. It'd be interesting to use the HC-100/2.2 on this camera like I can with the Leica S2-P.

Still a nice kit for a great price.

So, what will the previous one sell for used? That could be a great entry level camera to get into MFD. That 40 meg sensor is no slouch.

- Marc
 

bensonga

Well-known member
Hi,

Pentax do have two leaf shutter lens in 75mm/2.8 LS and 135mm/4 LS. Sync speed can be up to 1/500sec.

Just FYI.

laopai
There is also the manual focus 90 and 165 f2.8 LS lenses from the Pentax 67 line. I personally prefer the build quality and feel of using the Pentax 67 lenses.

And of course all of the Hasselblad Zeiss V system lenses are LS options.

Gary
 

peterv

New member
Well, that's too bad. It'd be interesting to use the HC-100/2.2 on this camera like I can with the Leica S2-P.

Still a nice kit for a great price.

So, what will the previous one sell for used? That could be a great entry level camera to get into MFD. That 40 meg sensor is no slouch.

- Marc
Absolutely! I feel the same way, if I weren't invested in the S2 already, I'd give this a long hard look if I were looking to get into MF on a tight budget. The older, CCD version is listed for € 5.999 new.

Still, I'm more than happy to be in the Leica S camp with CS lenses.
 

D&A

Well-known member
As everyone has already expressed, this is certainly big news for both exisiting and potentially new users of MFD and especially for those already entrenched the Pentax 645/645D system. The availability of legacy Pentax 645 lenses in markets outside of Japan answers some of the concerns of those who hesitated to commit to the syetm, due to lack of available lenses. It's interesting to note the selling prices of these lenses new isn't considerably more than their last selling price in the US market when import had ceased quite a few years ago. What's interesting is the high(er) costs of some of the telephoto's, such as the 300 f5.6 and I suspect that's why the exceptional performing and relatively fast FA 300 f4 lenses may not be offered due to its prohibitive cost to manufacturer.

Like Mark and others, I too had hoped Pentax would have offered adapters to other manufacturers MF lenses but now that they are making legacy lenses available again, this at least partially addresses the issue.

Thanks ever so much Gary for mentioning my comprehensive lens tests of Pentax 645 lenses on the 645D and for providing the link. I have to ask Bob and Jack if it's possible to add text to that lenses testing report to included others more recent lens introductions and testing I've performed since that initial posting.

Like others I'm excited by the specs of the new camera (645z) and its certainly a game changer and can't wait till its put through its paces by initial users. No doubt things like better high ISO capability is a given but I'm extremely anxious to see how it's base ISO imagery with its new CMOS sensor compares to the CCD based 645D (at base ISO). For some this is still an important consideration with regards to "the look" of image output and no amount of new features completely negates the importance of this. An analogous example would be the CCD based Leica M9 vs. the current CMOS based Leica M240.

Still I have great excitement for what this new camera is capable of doing.

Dave (D&A)
 
Does Pentax offers any Tilt Shift lens or Tilt Shift adapter which can be used on Pentax 645z?

I have seen one of the great pro landscape photographer to use one of the Pentax zoom lens with Tilt Shift adapter on Nikon D800e. He is very happy with the setup. He also owns IQ180 + DF, he is not into Technical Camera by choice.
 

Paul2660

Well-known member
Pentax had up some shift lenses in the 67 series. I owned the 75mm but it was not very good on shifts.

Zork makes adapters with shift but I don't think they have one that will work on the Pentax 645 system. Mounting other 645 lenses will loose infinity focus.

Don't know if you could use the Canon 17TS-E on the Pentax.

Paul
 
Top