Pentax 645Z

[kdphoto]

shot with a 150mm 3.5 wide open at 3200 iso.  I love this camera

[eronald]

The production sensor is, I guess more than 2 years old; the MF industry has been at a standstill that long. I think Sony needed it anyway for high resolution video as this is a good market for them, and equipment is needed by all industry players to generate experimental content. I wouldn't be surprised to see video cameras with this sensor appear under the Sony label in labs belonging to the japanese industry. Photography is not anymore what the high added value market is about,.

However, I guess there is a larger Sony sensor just round the corner, that will be announced at Photokina, probably at the same time as ... the Sony 50MP 35mm device

Edmund

[LKaven]

I really don't think Sony sees this as a practical sensor for professional video work.  It can't do a full-frame capture in real time.  It's too big, requiring a new line of hyper-expensive cine optics.  As implemented in still cameras, the sensor demands a dark frame subtraction to mitigate thermal noise.

I think Sony is showing us with the A7s that it favors a different technology (i.e., dual conversion gain) for its video sensors that is much less problematic, and is likely to stick with 35mm and super-35 as the medium of choice, for access to the big market.

[Ken R]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oT-fnHHTFs

Very nice camera, badly in need of lenses (new, made for digital lenses, specially wide angles, also would be cool to have some with leaf shutters), but for some what is available might suffice.

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

Chris really likes the Pentax 645Z…

Noteworthy, he made a similar comparison to Lloyd Chambers's comparing A7r and Pentax 645Z, and found the Pentax sharper. It could be that 25/4 Lloyd tested may have been a less good sample.

Best regards
Erik

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oT-fnHHTFs

Very nice camera, badly in need of lenses (new, made for digital lenses, specially wide angles, also would be cool to have some with leaf shutters), but for some what is available might suffice.

[MrSmith]

Was in a pro dealer (mainly lighting and rental but some canon and phase1) today and they had just started stocking the 645z, 2 sold the first day they had stock and lots of orders, they are not able to do rental yet as the demand is high and supply of cameras tight so they will have to wait until they fulfil their backlog of orders before they can fill their own rental shelves. Seems they are very popular here in London.

[eronald]

Was in a pro dealer (mainly lighting and rental but some canon and phase1) today and they had just started stocking the 645z, 2 sold the first day they had stock and lots of orders, they are not able to do rental yet as the demand is high and supply of cameras tight so they will have to wait until they fulfil their backlog of orders before they can fill their own rental shelves. Seems they are very popular here in London.

I do wonder whether Phase and Hassy have the same problem of large unmet demand
Usually companies deliver slowly at the beginning, in case of teething issues that might need fixing.

Edmund

[BJL]

Do we know for a fact that they worked together on this design? What would Sony have needed from Phaseone that they didn't know already?

The article http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/the_phase_one_iq250_cmos_fully_realized.shtml
suggests that Sonly consulted Phase One on CFA design, which seems to be the place where camera maker inpu tis most likely, and where brand-specific variants re most likely. (As an extreme example the Fujfilm X trans sensors seem to be standard Sony "silicon" with a custom CFA.)

My guess remains that the 50mp "MF" sensor is being produced only because Pentax committed to a large purchase for the 645Z, which made the part available for smaller players such as Phaseone and Hassy.

I sort of agree: it seems likely that Sony sought commitments to sufficient purchases from multiple customers including Pentax before going ahead with making this sensor.  (This goes with my skepticism about the common claim that Sony just designs and produces sensors "on spec" and then offers them to customers, so that Nikon has to just choose from what Sony has on offer.)

[BJL]

I really don't think Sony sees this as a practical sensor for professional video work.  It can't do a full-frame capture in real time.  It's too big, requiring a new line of hyper-expensive cine optics.  As implemented in still cameras, the sensor demands a dark frame subtraction to mitigate thermal noise.

I think Sony is showing us with the A7s that it favors a different technology (i.e., dual conversion gain) for its video sensors that is much less problematic, and is likely to stick with 35mm and super-35 as the medium of choice, for access to the big market.

Agreed!  All that, plus the fact that 4:3 is no longer anyone's idea of a good shape for a video sensor.

[Doug Peterson]

I do wonder whether Phase and Hassy have the same problem of large unmet demand
Usually companies deliver slowly at the beginning, in case of teething issues that might need fixing.

No back log currently, but then again we've been shipping the iq250 for half a year .

[eronald]

No back log currently, but then again we've been shipping the iq250 for half a year .

Frankly, if money is no object and somebody already has Phase or Hassy, the follow-on products with their high ISO are no-brainers, at least as backup.

However, we don't seem to be seeing a deluge of IQ250 users or H5D50C here, although Pentax seems to be climbing steadily, starting from almost nowhere.

It's strange that price-sensitivity has set in on this forum among the historical customer base ...

Maybe too few of us here are billionaires to represent a true sample of the Phase customer base.

I wonder who the buyers are.


Edmund

[eronald]

Those with more sense than money?

You mean buyers have  more dollars than sense ?


Edmund

-- Summer is the silly season.

[eronald]

I wouldn't dream of commenting ...

Roll on Autumn  

I see you've got more sense than creative energy

Poor Phase, they're getting mucho money but so little respect - being rich is such a *****

Edmund

-- A hot summer is a very silly season.

[torger]

So, is this 645Z a hit or a flop? Any indications yet, now when it has been out for a while? Is anyone buying it?

Maybe, rather than being considered as an alternative to the H5D-50c and IQ250 it's competing with cameras like the D810?

[kdphoto]

I got one early last month, very happy with everything about the camera.  Con no tether yet

[Paul2660]

Have you heard what Pentax's direction is for tethering?  It has a USB3 port if I remember and there was some mention at anno. that it would be able to tether to LR.

Paul

[Royce Howland]

I got one of the first 645Z's to arrive in Calgary. There have been a couple of minor speed bumps but so far I'm very happy with everything about it. I've been overloaded with other stuff so haven't had the opportunity to write anything up yet, but I am shooting the camera and slowly getting some of the images developed. It's doing an amazing job for my type of work, and I can do things with it that I couldn't really do with the 645D before...

[michael]

After doing my initial review, I purchased one for my own use. I will have a more comprehensive report in a few weeks.

In the meantime it is exceeding expectations.

Michael

[Royce Howland]

[...] In the meantime it is exceeding expectations.

That's actually a good point. Are there still flaws with the 645Z? Sure, same with any camera. The question is whether the flaws are neutral or negative to the main purpose for which one uses the camera. The flaws with the Sony a7R, for example, are such that I don't really enjoy using it as much as I thought I would. I can get the job done with it, but it feels like I have to work at it much more consciously and I'm sometimes right on the edge of not getting the results I want. It's not the full, net-positive step up from my old Canon 35mm bodies (e.g. 5D Mk II) that I was quite thinking it would be.

After shooting the 645D heavily for over 3.5 years, I had what I thought were pretty solid but reasonable expectations for what the Z should or would be like. I would say the Z is exceeding my expectations as well. And it just feels really good to use.

[JV]

The main concern for a lot of people remains the lenses.

Everybody knows that the Leica, Hy6, Hasselblad, Contax 645 and Phase One glass is excellent.

How many of the Pentax lenses are at that level?