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Author Topic: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D  (Read 22201 times)

fredjeang

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Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« on: November 13, 2010, 01:29:00 pm »

Interesting review, aimed to the photographer.

(but a brick wall could not fail...)
Well, just to say that my experience with Pentax digital is very good indeed. I think that since the K20, the brand got it pretty much spot-on and never stopped to improve.
Surprisingly, I find myself liking the Pentaxes more than the Canons and saying that a 35mm FF is still missing in their product's line, but their cameras are just right.
They are not exciting but deadly efficient, easy, as the reviewer said, you just forget about the gear.
They are not made to dream but to take pictures in the more direct way. In short, no hassles.
It's very simple: if Pentax would come with a 35mm FF I would stop immediatly to use any Canon. But they don't so I thank the 5D2.

I find the Pentax politics very healphy: the same treatment for all their products. Just looking at the 645, it is an inflated K7 or K5. So costs are reduced.

And this lcd...they finally did it! Sure that it will force the big MF boys to bring a decent lcd very soon.

It seems to be a great product, and considering the crisis panorama, it might give nightmares to others very soon. Because if they hardly listen to the claims in all the world's forums, they will listen beleive me to the sales curves.

The only downside to me is that it does not have the flexibility of the backs and this is very important IMO. Just for that reason I won't personaly look after it.
« Last Edit: March 26, 2011, 01:51:44 pm by fredjeang »
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Peter McLennan

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Re: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« Reply #1 on: November 13, 2010, 02:10:54 pm »

Superb review, Nick.  Thanks for sharing your expertise.

As a long-time 67 user, I WANT ONE.  ;D
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fredjeang

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Re: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« Reply #2 on: November 13, 2010, 02:35:35 pm »

Does someone know about the sync flash capabilities?

(gosh, I had to edit once again my english because I wrote first does someone knows ...)
« Last Edit: November 13, 2010, 02:38:42 pm by fredjeang »
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Rob C

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Re: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« Reply #3 on: November 13, 2010, 02:40:55 pm »

I hope Keith doesn't see those published test images...

Rob C

bcooter

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Re: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« Reply #4 on: November 13, 2010, 03:00:53 pm »

You'd love to see a review of a medium format camera where everything really fell into place.

Obviously this sounds like a pretty good camera.

iso . . . check

lcd preview . . . check

inexpensive . . . check

inexpensive lenses . . . check

tethering . . . ?

Something broke and I gotta send it to Japan . . . ?

Sync Speed  . . . ?

For the intended market which I assume is well heeled amateurs it sounds great.   For the professional market that has to tether, needs every lens to be sharp, every part to be bulletproof, rentals and fast turnaround on repairs . . . ?

IMO

BC
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sixbysix

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Re: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« Reply #5 on: November 13, 2010, 03:24:20 pm »

For us amateurs, I think the joy of seeing a "big four" small format manufacturer move into medium format is the extremely high chance of finding significant reductions a year or two down the line. $5k 645Ds in 2012? Here's hoping!

As far as the review's concerned, i'd have liked a little more information on the flash sync too. I know little about their small format TTL flash system, but if the 645 is capable of off-camera wireless TTL triggering that would be another major coup d'etat for Pentax.

(edit: according to dpreview's announcement of the spec & press release, x-sync is 1/125, and wireless TTL IS possible)

Martin
« Last Edit: November 13, 2010, 03:29:27 pm by sixbysix »
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peterurban

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Re: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« Reply #6 on: November 13, 2010, 03:28:25 pm »

I had the chance to play with one a couple of weeks ago at a photo show and while it was far from real world shooting I have to agree with everything Nick says especially on the handling and operation side of things. I never worked with a Pentax before but this one just fall into your hand and works intuitively.

THe one thing that I found lightly irritating is that it took several seconds of 'processing' before the image showed up on the rear screen and it took several button presses to bring up a histogram. But that could have been a) that I am not used to MF 'processing' times and b) that the camera wasn't configured properly to bring the histogram up right away - I don't know.

All in all I have to agree that at the price-point, features, handling and image quality this camera is disruptive.
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dudu307

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Re: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« Reply #7 on: November 13, 2010, 03:50:49 pm »

You'd love to see a review of a medium format camera where everything really fell into place.

Obviously this sounds like a pretty good camera.

iso . . . check

lcd preview . . . check

inexpensive . . . check

inexpensive lenses . . . check

tethering . . . ?

Something broke and I gotta send it to Japan . . . ?

Sync Speed  . . . ?

For the intended market which I assume is well heeled amateurs it sounds great.   For the professional market that has to tether, needs every lens to be sharp, every part to be bulletproof, rentals and fast turnaround on repairs . . . ?

IMO

BC


tethering . . .  Lightroom, IME more reliable than Capture One

Something broke and I gotta send it to Japan . . . If it's sold in USA it'll be repaired in USA

Sync speed... yeah, that can be a problem.

Every lens to be sharp... Haven't seen a camera with every lens sharp, give me the 3-4 lenses I need sharp and I'm set.

I don't see this camera as an amateur toy at all.

« Last Edit: November 13, 2010, 04:46:29 pm by dudu307 »
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Dave Gurtcheff

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Re: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« Reply #8 on: November 13, 2010, 04:03:44 pm »

Regarding synch speed: Pentax made several 645 lenses with leaf shutters, which I assume would synch at 1/500 second?
I'm in line to buy one....tons of experience with 645, 645N and 67 film cameras, but a novice with MFDSLR.
I have a number of legacy 645 lenses (manual and auto focus).
Dave
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ErikKaffehr

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Re: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« Reply #9 on: November 13, 2010, 04:26:17 pm »

Hi,

Are you sure about the lenses? I got the impression that there are a lot of bad samples around of every possible make.

This article is quite sobering: http://www.josephholmes.com/news-medformatprecision.html

In case some really believes the situation is better in DSLR land, please read this: http://www.lensrentals.com/news/2010.03.06/this-lens-is-soft-and-other-facts

Other than that, thanks for good comments!

Best regards
Erik

You'd love to see a review of a medium format camera where everything really fell into place.

Obviously this sounds like a pretty good camera.

iso . . . check

lcd preview . . . check

inexpensive . . . check

inexpensive lenses . . . check

tethering . . . ?

Something broke and I gotta send it to Japan . . . ?

Sync Speed  . . . ?

For the intended market which I assume is well heeled amateurs it sounds great.   For the professional market that has to tether, needs every lens to be sharp, every part to be bulletproof, rentals and fast turnaround on repairs . . . ?

IMO

BC

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BernardLanguillier

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Re: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« Reply #10 on: November 13, 2010, 08:21:05 pm »

Thanks a lot for the report Nick, it does totally confirm the spec sheet of the camera.

As far as image quality goes, it appears to be totally outstanding. Is it as good as a P40+? Well, we need to agree on what "good" is. Would it be fair to assess the detail without considering how well it handles moire? From what I have seen elsewhere, it appears to be superior to other backs in moire handling, which most probably results from in camera signal treatment. It would seem that Pentax has prioritized usability and lack of digital artifacts over the very last 0.1% of [possibly false] detail.

My personal view is that most MFDB photographers will prefer the time saved in not having to check moire issues over those 0.1%.

Cheers,
Bernard

ndevlin

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Re: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« Reply #11 on: November 13, 2010, 08:28:37 pm »

Hey Bernard,

It just so happens that I am formatting the P40+ vx Pentax 645D mini shoot-out as we speak.  And no, I'm not giving it away.  I will tell you that the M9 and the 1DSIII were the on the under-card.

And yes, more brick-wall abuse is in store (same damn wall).  It is such a compelling variety of tones and textures that it tells us what we want to know.   

Btw: sync is 1/125th, and Pentax has three  L/S lenses: a 75mm and a 135mm for the 645m and a 165mm for the 67 that's usable with an adapter.

- N.
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bcooter

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Re: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« Reply #12 on: November 13, 2010, 08:35:13 pm »

Hey Bernard,

It just so happens that I am formatting the P40+ vx Pentax 645D mini shoot-out as we speak.  And no, I'm not giving it away.  I will tell you that the M9 and the 1DSIII were the on the under-card.

And yes, more brick-wall abuse is in store (same damn wall).  It is such a compelling variety of tones and textures that it tells us what we want to know.   

Btw: sync is 1/125th, and Pentax has three  L/S lenses: a 75mm and a 135mm for the 645m and a 165mm for the 67 that's usable with an adapter.

- N.

While your at it how about throwing both on a computer and doing a quick (really quick) tethered test.

Thx.

BC

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ziocan

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Re: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« Reply #13 on: November 13, 2010, 09:54:51 pm »

I'm afraid this camera does not allow tethered shooting. I hope I'm wrong though.
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yaya

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Re: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« Reply #14 on: November 14, 2010, 02:32:54 am »

While your at it how about throwing both on a computer and doing a quick (really quick) tethered test.

Thx.

BC


Would also be good to see the burst speed and the capture-to-preview speed on the LCD after a burst
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BernardLanguillier

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Re: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« Reply #15 on: November 14, 2010, 06:21:54 am »

It currently doesn't, but Pentax mentioned a few months back that support for tethered shooting was to be added later. I'd be surprised if the performance were impressive though, this clearly isn't the core target application of the 645D, this is a camera designed by landscape shooters for landscape shooters.

Cheers,
Bernard
 

BernardLanguillier

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Re: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« Reply #16 on: November 14, 2010, 06:24:14 am »

It just so happens that I am formatting the P40+ vx Pentax 645D mini shoot-out as we speak.

And yes, more brick-wall abuse is in store (same damn wall). 

Cool, that is for sure a nice piece of wall! :)

Cheers,
Bernard

ndevlin

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Re: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« Reply #17 on: November 14, 2010, 08:13:42 am »

@yaya:

Burst speed is good. About 1.5 fps for about 8 frames with a class 6 card. Haven't re-tested with the new Class 10.

Capture to preview is a bit slower than the rest of the pack. I haven't timed it because, embarrassing confession, I don't have a watch. My estimation is it's in the 4 second range. Just long enough to be mildly annoying, but not that slow as to really bother me.

I will cover these in a future episode of the review.


@BCOOTER: right now it doesn't tether, as far as I know, except for remote control of the camera. I have an idea, however, that might present a novel solution that is 90% of what the others offer at the moment.  Give me a week - I have some studio time planned next weekend.

- N.
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bradleygibson

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Re: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« Reply #18 on: November 14, 2010, 10:33:58 am »

Thanks, Nick--a great review that told all about what we really wanted to know from this camera!  I look forward to your future episodes!

As a nature photographer, I took a good, long look at this camera before going with the HyFi.  Just love how they've put it all together, with the ergonomics, weather sealing, an ultrasonic lens and even multi-point AF--wonderful!  :)

Unfortunately, I've not had good luck in MF with long lenses and focal plane shutter vibration.  Serious enough that it was a real struggle to get a critically sharp shot at 350mm at typical 1/2s - 1/60s shutter speeds.  If you happen to bump into any Pentax tele's, it would be nice to hear how the system is damped in the around 1/15s range.

Great work, Nick!

Take care,
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claudefiddler

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Re: Nick Devlin reviews the Pentax 645D
« Reply #19 on: November 14, 2010, 11:27:44 am »

Nick

Posted my thanks in the Pentax forum and this question: At what focal length does the 80-160 lose image quality? And as per focus problems , couldn't you simply manual focus? And does this lens have an infinity stop?

And thanks in advance for the comparison test with the 40+. The brick wall is the perfect test subject.

And based on the samples I've seen, the performance of legacy lenses with this camera/sensor/system is not 100% spot on. Some great and others so/so. The Leica S2 has the glass, hands down.

Claude Fiddler
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