daniel how does the pentax compare in size to an H hassie with a filmback and 80mm?
Jim,
the Pentax 645 is a great little camera. Compared to the H(1 or 2), I
owned an H2 , and it was a beast weight-wise. If I were walking around, or even just taking photos of the family around the house(which I do since I'm still at home w/ the family while in school, I'm 22 btw).
you know what the H is like weight-wise, so you know its not too light. But think of something around 1/2-2/3 the weight of the H, with a faster motordrive(IMO, haven't checked specs) and a nice "in the hand" feel. Not too small(and I have bigger hands than most normal people), but just big enough. The viewfinder is quite nice, a little "tubey", but still very nice(IMO).
the AF is pretty damn accurate too.
here's a little write-up from our best friend, Ken Rockwell
the lenses these days are going for pennies on the dollar, check KEH prices, but I've really been considering just dumping my Nikon 35mm system(film) and just going with a 645n, the one from my friend I mentioned before.
a bigger negative, a fast enough motordrive for most things, and it ain't too expensive, you can always have an extra backup body, or 2, or 3
the lenses are all great too. I've made 16x20's from some studio shots I did for a college class, and everyone was wondering if I had shot 4X5 for it(since I'd shot 4x5 for pretty much everything else that semester) "nope, that shitty-looking man. focus bastardized Pentax that no one wants to check out from the stockroom". I've had a hard time checking it out since
oh... and I shot the series on 400Tmax. that film just rocks!!! soup it in pretty much anything(I use pyro), and the results can mimic anything, that classic "tri-x" look(I've found if used with Rodinal), or Panatomic-X(if dev'd in the Tmax developer, which is designed for super-fine grain, a little less sharp, but really nice overall).
I've found the 75mm 2.8 lens to be a great performer, everyone seems to thing that you need to have some sort of "special" whiz-bang lens for shooting portraits, or for "creamy bokeh". I seem to use that P.O.S. lens(heck it was a rental camera b4 being donated to the school) about 80% of the time, with the remainder split between the 45mm and the 120mm.
to be quite honest, I've come to love this camera so much, my RZ's getting withdrawal symptoms ! It's like shooting a 35mm on steroids. Light and fast, and gives you a nice big negative(not like a 6x7 mind you ), but still damn good enough to make 16x20's that knock people's socks off(at least in my experience )
cheers!
-Dan
