Note the bias in my signature. There are several advantages of the Pentax, but someone else is better qualified to list them.
Advantages of the open platform Phase/Mamiya/Leaf/Schneider ecosystem:
One sensor, multiple bodies - You can purchase one digital back, and use it on several camera bodies. The DF body is a modern autofocus/autoexposure/autowinding bodies. It is great as a general purpose camera doing most everything pretty well. The Mamiya RZ - as you already know - is a lovely camera with waist level viewfinder, excellent/classic lens draw, and a certain feeling of tactile-ness that is hard to find in other cameras (very subjective obviously). A view camera, though not as fast to work with, is by far the most flexible option for still life and macro photography. A
tech camera can't be beat for landscape/architecture/static-wide-angle photography. With a Pentax you have what you have with a Canon/Nikon - a "one size fits all" body which is pretty good at a lot of things but not specialized for anything.
In other words I wouldn't usually advocate an RZ Pro IID as the only camera a photographer owns, but the fact you can use a back on an RZ Pro IID where suitable and then take it off and put it on a DF body a few seconds later (when/where e.g. you need autofocus) and then later take it off and put it on a tech camera for landscape photography is very valuable to me.
Leaf Shutter (LS) Lenses - You can use leaf shutter lenses from Schneider on the DF body and from Mamiya on the RZ system. This enables fast flash sync with strobes**. Notably, the DF body has an optional V-Grip which includes a Profoto Air transmitter. Using this you can wirelessly sync with strobes at 1/1600th of a second.*
Tethered Support - Phase/Mamiya/Leaf are able to tether; currently Pentax cannot. Pentax may add tethering in the future but tethering is not (in my experience) a switch that you simply flip and everything is hunky dorey. Phase/Leaf have been doing tethering for more than 15 years; they have a very strongly proven track record of fast, reliable, simple, but powerful tethering. With FW400/FW800/USB3 (depending on model) they are fast, and built - frankly - from the ground up assuming that tethering was a core functionality. If you've not previously ever tethered I'd strongly encourage you to give it a try. The ability to review/adjust images during a shoot on a 30" display rather than scroll through images on a small camera LCD is night-and-day. The ability to categorize/organize/name images as you capture them is a boon to workflow. The ability to have an Art Director sign off on an image or pick favorites during the shoot can be great for client relationships (obviously it comes with it's own relationship/workflow requirements to avoid the AD's review of images becoming a bother - rather than an aid - to the shoot). The ability to quickly/easily back up to another drive mid-way through the shoot with a single click is a great fail-safe to prevent catastrophic loss (corrupt CF card, lost/damaged CF card etc).
Capture One Support - Both systems are supported by generic raw convertors like LightRoom, but Leaf/Mamiya/Phase also have their own very well regarded software (also compatible with Canon/Nikon/Leica etc) which allows for tethering, advanced image improvements like Keystoning, Skin-tone-targets, focus mask evaluation, overlays (for when you have to fit your image into a pre-deigned layout), local adjustments, and review/evaluation/approval on an iPad (for art directors / assistants). Just as importantly the engineers who make the back are in a room just a door down from the engineers who make the software and they collaborate heavily to ensure every bit of theoretical image quality possible from the sensor makes it to the final processed file; everything from multiple ICC profiles for different lighting scenarios to tweaking noise reduction/sharpening/detail-extraction based on the exact nature of the sensor and A/D convertor including proprietary implementations of techniques like dark-frames.
Wide Variety of Modern AF lenses - Mamiya/Phase/Schneider have a large number of designed-for-digital autofocus lenses. Several are some of the best lenses I've seen on any platform including the Schneider 55mm LS, Schneider 80mm LS, and Phase One 150mm D. There are a few weaker lenses (the 35mm for instance), but bottom line is you have an entire line of modern lenses. Pentax is starting to grow, slowly, a line of such lenses - having launched the camera with just one. Legacy lenses should not be discounted as they are a great way to fill in some gaps without breaking the bank - with either the Pentax or the Mamiya you'll have a good variety of options for older lenses which are directly compatible or compatible through an adapter.
Industry Support/ecosystem - Profoto, Mamiya, Schneider, Leaf, and Phase One have cooperated on various aspects of the Phase One / Mamiya / Leaf Ecosystem. This has led to a broad set of lenses, accessories, and workflow options. To highlight one: during a tethered shoot in Capture One you can control (with optional USB accessory) Profoto lights in your studio from within Capture One. I strongly feel that you'll see more of these cooperative efforts in the coming months and years. In the pro market Phase One has a very strong position, a lot of history, and some very strong relationships.
Shooting Speed/Depth - Phase/Mamiya/Leaf systems were built with portrait/fashion in mind. Maximum shooting speeds are no where close to the fastest dSLRs, but the consistency and buffer depth are crazy good. Once you've established a pace/rythem you'll be able to shoot that same speed more-or-less indefinitely (provided you are using a fast CF card of course). Last time I tried the Pentax it hit a buffer when shooting long sequences of images. Depending on your shooting style this may not matter at all - or it may be a big deal. You'll want to confirm exactly has fast and how deep you can shoot on the fastest card using the Pentax.
Dealer Support - Typically Phase/Mamiya/Leaf are sold by value added dealers who specialize in medium format equipment, know the gear inside and out, can provide evaluation rentals, real-world advice, and accessories. This is a very selfish statement because this is what I do full time; I've taken four tech support calls while authoring this post and each of them was brief because I was able to answer them off the top of my head. No call center, no wait times, no scripted answers, no relying on someone who was trained to defend the product at all costs - just fast, expert answers with an emphasis on the practical and possible. If/when you have a repair need a value added dealer will make it as quick and painless as possible. I'm NOT commenting on Pentax in this paragraph - just highlighting a strength of Phase/Mamiya/Leaf - you should do your own research as to who sells the 645D and how much of this applies to those sources.
Sensor Size - Several Phase/Mamiya/Leaf systems use the same sized sensor as the Pentax 645. Several of them however use a larger 1.1 crop or full-frame medium format sensor.
Warranty - Phase/Leaf/Mamiya have various warranty options, up to and including a 5-year warranty on Phase One IQ backs which includes a loaner back during any repairs. Turn around times are fast (especially for Mamiya and Leaf which are repaired in the US for US customers) and reliable and you get real communication (through your VA dealer) on what was found/repaired.
Modularity / Residual Value / Trade Ins - This one is a bit tricky since you can never know the future. However since a digital back is not tied to a specific body you can upgrade either the body or the back independently. You can also sell the back to someone who already has a body (or vice versa). And Phase/Mamiya/Leaf have a long legacy of providing advantageously-priced upgrades to their customers to upgrade their back down the road. Take the Canon analogy for instance. I'm fine with the sensor of the 5DII - I don't need the new higher ISOs or faster frame-rates of the D1x; however, I would LOVE the new AF and metering of the D1x Body (especially regarding it's probably impact on TTL flash in tough fast-moving situations). With Canon, and any other integrated solution I'm forced to buy the D1X sensor and body together.
*You can use legacy Pentax LS lenses on a Pentax 645D but unless I've missed a development the Leaf Shutter is disable so you do not get any of the benefits of an LS lens.
**Nikon/Canon have their a form of high-shutter-speed-sync with their small flash units. The power range of those systems is very limited when using higher-speed-sync, availability of professional lightshapers is quite limited, and the elegance is not really there (though to be clear they make for a great small-systems lighting setup for some applications).
Doug Peterson
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Head of Technical Services, Capture Integration
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