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Fun with the 645D

gurtch

Well-known member
Dave I hope I am still shooting when I am 74 :thumbup:
I just sent you a PM. I would love to get my hands on one of your DNG/PEF files taken with your 35mm "A" lens to compare to my FA 35MM lens.

Steven
Steven: I will send you a full size file after I see your PM, as I am not sure how to do it. I am not sure you will be pleased at the performance, as I do not shoot flat brick walls, but rather scenics. Having said that, it will be hard to see exactly where the focus is, as I focus about 1/3 of the way in, and there are usually bushes, dune grass, etc from close up to infinity. I have made 17x23 prints and they are fine to my eye, but to a pro, maybe not good enough. On the other hand the 45~85 I have made 24x32 prints and they truly show off medium format.
I will send an unaltered DNG today. I always enjoy your posts and work; thans
Dave
 

gurtch

Well-known member
Steven: I will send you a full size file after I see your PM, as I am not sure how to do it. I am not sure you will be pleased at the performance, as I do not shoot flat brick walls, but rather scenics. Having said that, it will be hard to see exactly where the focus is, as I focus about 1/3 of the way in, and there are usually bushes, dune grass, etc from close up to infinity. I have made 17x23 prints and they are fine to my eye, but to a pro, maybe not good enough. On the other hand the 45~85 I have made 24x32 prints and they truly show off medium format.
I will send an unaltered DNG today. I always enjoy your posts and work; thans
Dave
Steven: I sent three files to you today. Good Luck!!:)
Dave
 

gurtch

Well-known member
645D 120mm MF Macro, monopod, f13 EI either 200 or 400. B&W conversion in Silver Efex Pro.
Dave
 
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D&A

Well-known member
645D 120mm MF Macro, monopod, f13 EI either 200 or 400. B&W conversion in Silver Efex Pro.
Dave
Dave, I love all the repetitive interwoven "lines" in the image...those from the fence and patterns in the sand. What sort of balances and counteracts these lines are the circular patterns found in the lower left, which I presume are footprints? Just out of curioisty, I wonder how this image looked in color. There appears to be a grainy pattern. Was this due to upping the ISO or introduced in post processing? Nicely done!

Dave (D&A)
 

D&A

Well-known member
Caspian Terns, migrating through the Great Lakes. 400mm.
Tom, what keeps me coming back to your image is it's realism to what one experiences when viewing birds flying in such close proximity to one another and in such a pattern. Sort of like sea gulls by the water during a feeding frenzy. Wings flapping so that there is both elements of sharpness and blurs, both of which were nicely captured in your image. Very natural looking. Have you tried printing this image?

Dave (D&A)
 

tsjanik

Well-known member
Hi Dave;

Yes it prints nicely. It's not a great image, but I love shots like this that freeze a brief chaotic moment and allow you to see what is a blur in real time. Although the 645D is a MF camera, it really does handle like a 35mm, it amazes me that it allows the capture of a shot like this (handheld, ISO 400, 400mm lens).

Tom
 

D&A

Well-known member
Hi Tom,

Like yourself, I too often feel at times, the 645D handles much like a DSLR...only a bit slower. This DSLR handling comes at such times where I'm shooting at wider apertures, allowing the camera to be hand held and/or for those times when unexpectedly, a shot presents itself and there is only a short time to capture it. It's one of the aspects I truly enjoy about the 645D.

Dave (D&A)
 

D&A

Well-known member
Tom,

I can see why you are happy with this shot. When I first glaced at it, I thought "full frame fisheye", with the amost circular and curvature of the ice formation...but of course the horizon is not really curved. The sunset is a hard thig to preserve while keeping lit detail on the ice in the shadows. What catches my eye is the glowing ice, like in a previous shot of yours. The image to me says icy cool yet parts fo the ice say "hot" in the areas where it glow. This contridiction is what makes the shot for me! With warm springtime weather settling in here, its hard to imagine you still have so much ice where you are.

Dave (D&A)
 

gurtch

Well-known member
Dave, I love all the repetitive interwoven "lines" in the image...those from the fence and patterns in the sand. What sort of balances and counteracts these lines are the circular patterns found in the lower left, which I presume are footprints? Just out of curioisty, I wonder how this image looked in color. There appears to be a grainy pattern. Was this due to upping the ISO or introduced in post processing? Nicely done!

Dave (D&A)
Thanks Dave. In Silver Effex Pro, I chose Tri-X or Plus-X emulation, which adds grain. The original color shot is not too much different: fence and posts dark brown.
Dave
 

tsjanik

Well-known member
Well Dave and Dave , I guess it's we three who are keeping this thread alive.
First attempt at focus stacking with only three exposures. 120mm macro at 5.6. Interesting technique, I could never have gotten this DOF without stopping down and bringing the ugly backgtound into focus; I should have chosen a subject not moving in the wind for my first trials, but I love these beech leaves.

Tom
 

kuau

Workshop Member
Don't forget me, One from the other day in Park Meadows, Park City.
35mm A F13 at infinity. Playing around with capture sharpening in LR3, I used Detail 100, Radius .8 and Amount 45

Steven

 

tsjanik

Well-known member
Don't forget me, One from the other day in Park Meadows, Park City.
35mm A F13 at infinity. Playing around with capture sharpening in LR3, I used Detail 100, Radius .8 and Amount 45

Steven

Opps! Sorry Steven. Love the shots you've posted. In any event, there aren't many 645D owners posting.
Nice scene, it appears you are more into spring than those of us in New York.

Cheers,

Tom
 

D&A

Well-known member
Hi Tom and Steven,

Tom, give it time...there is bound to be others who will contribute to the 645D threads. Your leaf image is interesting. The gray backgroung reminds me of leaves hanging onto a tree in the dead of winter as opposed to springtime. The colors are soft, which is what I like in this image....almost makes the image feel delicate.

Steven, lovely shot! Reminds me of winter's thaw with Spring just around the corner. Feels and looks like many of the scenes I used to see each April when I had to make trips to Colorado for work. Nice!

Dave (D&A)
 

kuau

Workshop Member
tom,
thanks, the pentax is a enigma. people who can afford 10k on this forum, usually go for the more expe sive phase mamiya system or alpa, arca swiss, leica s2, hasselblad h4 etc
i think for the hoppiest photographer the 645d is a great camera, and like Dave mentioned, with a little patience one can find good copies of FA lenses.
tbough i am affraid thep ros will stick with there phase df, techview cameras, hasselblad and leica MF sytems
steven
 

Ed Hurst

Well-known member
Can anyone advise me how you manage to post images so they display at that size? I have some 645D shots I would like to post but whenever I do they get resized and don't display embedded like these have been.
 

fotografz

Well-known member
IMO, you folks should stop apologizing for the Pentax 645D ... it is a phenomenal camera given the features, handling and IQ when measured on the Price/Value scale. Perhaps the best value currently available in MFD. And for certain types shooting a better value than top dog 35mm DSLRs which cannot measure up in IQ.

Wasn't all that long ago one had to pay more than this for a square 1.5X crop frame 16 meg MFD back that gave you any ISO as long as it was 100 ;)

People may poo-poo certain features, but given the choice of something like weather proofing who wouldn't take it? Take your $10K Pentax out in the snow storm, or your $40K Hassey/Phase One and a garbage bag ... :ROTFL:

Lenses ... lacking in some areas obviously, but so are those from other film based MFD systems that people have to pay to keep upgrading. Hassey has replaced the HC 50mm, 120mm and 150mm which isn't chump change to do for some incremental improvement. Plus, I'd bet some enterprising person will eventually write corrective profiles for some of the Pentax optics to use in Lightroom.

The camera is young and as it finds its way into more and more hands and people share their experiences and techniques for processing it will come into its own. This is exactly what happened with the Leica S2 ... lacking at first glance, but it slowly advanced and people got better with it as they learned the characteristics and shared their information.

Congratulations! Best of luck, and good shooting to all Pentax 645D users ... you may turn out to be the smartest bunch in the MFD crowd :)

-Marc
 
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kuau

Workshop Member
Marc
coming from a professional phtographer, meaning you my friend, thanks for supporting us 645d shooters, i have always valued your opinion as you have been in the MF game a long time..

steven
 

D&A

Well-known member
Marc, Extremely well put! In the beginning I did express some reservation regarding the lens situation as being sort of a crap shoot in trying to find samples that brought justice to the performance of 645D body, which was never in question as to just how good it could be. This is especially true to the value it offers at its price point. As more and more lenses were tested and good samples were found, combined with careful adjustment of the 645D AF fine tuning with these "good samples", it became readily apparent what the system had to offer. Sure, it was a pain to find these particular samples but with a bit of hair pulling and extra time spent out in the field repeatedly testing them, I then had no hesitation to say that it is a very competent system that can hold its own against similar spec'd MFD systems offered by others. Yes, not all lenses may have the resolution numbers (especially across the frame) that some Zeiss, Leica and others may have, nor always the ability to shoot them at more open apertures for critical or serious applications that require them...but on the other hand, the large assortment of excellent performing lenses of varied and useful focal lengths, including two LS lenses, certaintly adds great versitility to the Pentax system. This is especially true when considering the reasonable costs of many of these lenses.

In Photoshop CS5, lens profiles already exist for many of the Pentax FA af 645 lenses.

Your words "above" succinctly and eloquently expressed the value of going this route, which affords many the opportunity to enter the MFD arena where expenditures may be a very substantial and often limiting part of the equation. Thanks!

Dave (D&A)
 
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