Debating Pentax 645z for landscapes

[Joe Towner]

Gear in hand verses what may come.  The 33x44 51mp Sony chip in the 645z is amazing, will do great things, and is available today, even used.  Waiting for some mystical camera to show up, and if your lenses will perform as needed is a mixed bag at best.

If you can swing it, go with the Z, either after renting or finding a flip-able used one.  It'll either work for you or not.  I happen to find it a lot of fun, more so than the high-MP 35mm gear.

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

I am not even sure about that flagship thing. It may come or it may not.

Sony, and Minolta before that was never consistent about having a professional line of equipment and they don't have the lenses or the organisation to support it.

Best regards
Erik

The flagship cams need to be good at a lot of things.

Expected in the near future for Sony's flagship:
- Improved action-tracking focus, especially with Canon lenses
- Handheld sensor shift multishot
- Handheld sensor-shift focus stacking
- Hi-rez frame-by-frame video for still extraction
- High bit depth Raw video output

[danielduarte01]

The Z is a nice camera.  I had one briefly during this massive testing phase I went through.

It has a nice bulk to it. It's funny, people complain about size, I am the exact opposite. 

I had a few go with a friends A7RII and while the files were nice I hated the size and feel.

Something nice about the bulk!


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[eronald]

Gear in hand verses what may come.  The 33x44 51mp Sony chip in the 645z is amazing, will do great things, and is available today, even used.  Waiting for some mystical camera to show up, and if your lenses will perform as needed is a mixed bag at best.

If you can swing it, go with the Z, either after renting or finding a flip-able used one.  It'll either work for you or not.  I happen to find it a lot of fun, more so than the high-MP 35mm gear.

Nobody here has ever complained about the Z, except maybe about tethering. That alone is interesting.

Edmund

[leeonmaui]

Aloha,

I have found the Pentax 645Z to be an absolutely wonderful camera to shoot with.
The Zoom might be a pretty nice lens to put on the front, I've  used it briefly and it seems to preform really well, although i stubbornly stick to primes. I do feel surprised with the results of some shots with the older 45-85mm so I might rethink this; great color and contrast.

At any rate I don't think there is much debate that if you are thinking of moving into MF that the Z is an exceedingly compelling choice.
I'd stand by my thinking that you won't be disappointed  with your investment.     
 

[danielduarte01]

Nobody here has ever complained about the Z, except maybe about tethering. That alone is interesting.

Edmund

Unfortunately I got a lemon / bad copy.  The mirror mechanism broke 21 days into ownership.  I was offered a new body or a refund.  I took the refund.  Looking back, I'm not sure what I would do if I could make that decision again. 

I think it's a great landscape rig where MF and time is ok.  "When you need" AF it became an issue with the limited lens selections and decent price tags.


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