Hi Paul,
Thanks for responding, always a nice to see your view!
Regarding Lloyd's comments, I actually would say it is a bit interesting. Now, he actually shows a lot of images. Sometimes he also posts raw images. So any reader can make his opinion based on the images actually shown.
Regarding the A7r shutter vibration, it is obviously an issue in say the 1/15s to 1/125s range. Unfortunately this is exactly where I mostly end up. The image degradation is not to bad, something like shooting 24 MP instead of 36 MP, or so. Jim Kasson has looked into this a lot, and found that is was very hard to surpass the image quality of A7 with the A7r under those conditions. As it is now, I am not really interested in the A7/A7r, anyway. I always carry a 70-400/4-5.6 lens, so size matters little to me.
Now, getting back to the P645Z, Lloyd has tested a lot of the old Pentax lenses, and they were not very good. I never had a Pentax 645, but I do have a Pentax 67, and those lenses are not as good as my Hasselblad lenses, what I have seen. I am pretty sure that modern lenses are sharper than my old Hasselblad lenses. Now, sharper is not necessarily better. There is a lot more to a picture than sharpness. Right now, I am warming up a bit to the Hasselblad, BTW.
In a way, I feel that Lloyd is focusing a bit to much on sharpness. With the DSLRs I focus using magnified live view, whenever I can. Focusing the Hasselblad is for me a bit hard, I have made a special eyepiece adjusted for my vision, or I used a 3X magnifier. The magnifier worked pretty well, but it doesn't work with my adapted ocular.
Lloyd also found that AF isn't really exact. He has pretty good evidence for that.
Now, sharpness may not be the ultimate factor, but the P645Z uses essentially the same sensor as the Nikon D800 or the Sony Alpha 7r, just a bit larger. The size has an advantage with regard to DR, high ISO, resolution and not much else. So I feel that it is good that Lloyd presents his findings, with accompanying high resolution images.
Other factors may play a significant role. I have found that a good automatic white balance plays an important role. A good camera profile may be helpful with colour, and some profiles may work well for skin tones. As a landscape shooter I don't know that much about skin tones. I am pretty sure that interpretations differ.
Best regards
Erik
I am not surprised by the "negative" Lloyd comments. Sure most of the existing P645 lenses, are not up the standards of the sensor, as most are over 5 years old and many pre-date the 645D. the 35mm FA, 33-55mm Zoom both were very good lenses and I guess still are. The 25mm results surprised me a bit, but it also could be a not so perfect copy.
Lloyd is not a fan of MFD, and in fact has usually found ways to write against it in his reports/blogs. He is also very concerned about exacting focus issues that I believe in the real world of photographic printing may be a bit overdone. But that is just one voice in the wilderness.
He also tends to miss the big picture, i.e. what the total solution from Pentax with the 645Z can offer to a photographer.
But I am glad to see he now is seeing good results with the A7r, as for the longest time, that was his bully pulpit with the issues around the shutter shake.
Each photographer interested in this system, should take the time to demo the camera if at all possible and see if it meets their needs and their workflow.
Paul
