Nothing earth shattering and the "enthusiast" view was a tiny bit naive. All good though.
Medium well done: Two takes on the Pentax 645Z: Digital Photography Review
Medium well done: Two takes on the Pentax 645Z: Digital Photography Review
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Except for knocking it's socks off in every way! :toocool:Coming from the 5DkII it was almost like there was no difference,
The over exposure blinky is the most accurate metric since it's based on the Raw data and is the 100% saturation point, but the histogram is still based on RGB data. Setting exposure on the Z is very easy, just reduce exposure until the blinky is gone (within reason), and shoot.the live view just works- with the caveat that the exposure is perhaps not that accurate but there is a histogram for that, which I kept turned on, plus the overexposure blinkies in playback.
Focus-wise, it's actually pretty decent, the live view AF is miles faster than the 5D2 for sure. You're right about ISO, even at 12,800 you get a nice film-like grain when you convert to B&W, no need for filters! Regarding color, make sure to dial down Lightroom's default color NR, even at 12,800 the 645Z only needs 15 points in to get rid of all color noise, it's amazing how little of it there is.It is what everyone says- forget about underexposure, there are really 5 stops of push from base ISO. And this sensor is the sensor us location guys have been waiting for, LV and amazing high ISO- generally going in to a shoot indoors and balancing strobe against available light you need 400 which got us by in the film days, 800 I used occasionally in kodak or fuji, but with this, the game is totally changed- 3200ISO interiors if you want, that said, there is a decent amount of color loss it seems after about 1600ISO- but it is amazing none the less. Obviously good light yields better results, but on a lark I also used it on a journalistic assignment handheld wide open at 1600 and 3200 ISO and once reduced for output I doubt you could tell the difference to the 5D. Apart from focus issues.
Pentax has done fairly well for itself and is getting a lot of publicity, my only reservation about the system is the low rate at which new lenses are coming out, with only 4 of them designed to handle a digital sensor. When a 55mm lens is every bit as sharp as my 120 and 150mm, I'm thinking it's the older lenses that are having trouble keeping up.I'd sell everything and buy this camera in a heartbeat save for one thing: do we think Ricoh/Pentax is going to be around for 5 years? and then what? It is not the same size investment as going into Hasselblad or Phase with lenses, but it concerns me that in 5 years it is going to be an orphan and no way to get something out in resale if you needed to.
But it would totally pay for itself over that time. I just hate that technological obsolescence aspect of all this.
Besides the higher price, there are many things I personally don't like about the Hass in comparison to the Z:Hoping the 'blad comes down in price sufficiently- 30k is ridiculous for that camera, forget all the stuff about support etc. its all about protecting margins. I get that they don't have the numbers to sell any more but still, come down by half and maybe your numbers go up?
Agree on the aspect ratio, I didn't think it would be a big deal until I started shooting stuff and realized that framing was easier and I had to crop less often and to a lesser extreme than I used to.No its not an RZ, it doesn't have that real medium format feel. You get a little bit of it and thank goodness at least its not 2x3 aspect- that's worth the price right there to me. ...look for my leica lenses on the buy and sell???
Because to do parametric, non-destructive editing requires that the editor keep track of the original file....
Forcing myself to use the catalog is torture though, why couldn't Adobe just add a plain directory mode for people who already have 6+ years of photos on external media?