Like many here I guess, I cut my photography teeth on various MF and LF marques in the days of no auto focus or auto exposure (trusty Weston Master in hand
) and wonderful(?) days in the darkroom both colour and b&w.
I was really sad a good few years ago to let my Bronica ETRSi go (needed the money at the time!) and purchasing a reasonable 35mm Minolta. Since then I have been through a few Digital cameras including a Nikon D90 and my current D800.
I do miss the handling of MF and the potential for improved IQ. Having seen the IQ available with each generation of digital backs I have been more than a little impressed
- I appreciate of course that in the main it is the photographer not the equipment
Until recently I felt the price of digital MF was something I could not justify, but with the Pentax 645z the pricing makes the jump to MF more palatable for me and I am seriously contemplating purchase.
Currently I am reading reviews and reports including Michael's very interesting article on this forum. The more I see and read and the downloads of raw images I have looked at and compared suggests the Pentax to be a very capable MF camera.
Unfortunately there are very few dealers around and none of them local to me so I am basing my thoughts on what I have read.
Obviously I do not want to commit to buying without first hand experience so have ordered a rental camera for next weekend to see if this is for me. Currently there seems to be a winter offer where if you purchase the body you will also get the 55mm thrown in for 'free'.
Sorry for the preamble but thought it may help with showing where I am currently. I am sure I am going to have many questions in the future but a few that I hope could be answered now:
My interest is really landscape, portrait, studio. I am not a sports or bird photographer. Current raw editing ACR and LR and playing with others.
1. PEF v DNG: Is there any reason not to use PEF over DNG? I ask this as although I like the idea of an open raw standard I am a little hesitant due to the writing of the whole file in DNG rather than the relatively small sidecar file.
2. Any preference for raw editors. I am happy with LR and ACR but perhaps there are others I should consider for the Pentax? Tried Capture One but the DNG's would not load as apparently MF limited to Phase One products. Editing the EXIF did allow for viewing but I do not think this would be a sensible route to pursue at this time.
3. Lens choices: Seems there are a few Pentax 645 lenses going back to the film days at seemingly reasonable prices, are there any that you consider outstanding or definitely give it a miss?
4. Flash Sync: Not sure that 1/125 sec will really be a great problem (Nikon 1/250 sec) but it would be nice to be able to use a leaf shutter to sync at higher speeds. I know that there is a 75mm LS and samples come up from time to time, is this a decent performer?
5. Flucard: Being able to operate the camera via wifi iPad, iPod, Android is very appealing. Any thoughts advice.
I hope that I have not got too carried away with questions and look forward to your comments and suggestions
Cheers
Tony