Hey everyone! Been lurking on the forums for a while now and I've read so much over the past couple of months that now I am torn between the two cameras.
I shoot people/lifestyle, portraits and commercial. I do all the work in my studio and on location with strobes or natural light. I am currently shooting with a 5D Mark II and L lenses. Most of my work is done with a 50mm and a 70-200mm. Low light is not greatly important. Nothing over 400iso. If i need to go over that i will just grab the 5DII.
Shooting on a tripod is something i rarely do but i have no problem doing. I really like the line of lenses Hasselblad has and i am skeptical with the Pentax line.
I "like" or I am familiar with the Phocus software. I downloaded it along with some of their files off the website and have been playing with it. I normally use Aperture to PS for retouching. If i did get the Pentax i would most likely use C1.
Hasselblad failed to come through with the demo they were supposed to send me for whatever reason. (said they are sending it, never got the unit, haven't called me back)...so i have not had my hands on one yet. I would really like to try the Pentax as well but it seems like no one carries it in my area.
Would you guys say that the Pentax and the more megapixels is worth it over the Hasselblad? At this point I am leaning towards the H4D...maybe their marketing has sucked me in..
Hello Dan,
I will try to dissipate some of the urban myths about Pentax (born in great part from their terrible marketing in the US). David in the post above said that there is no pro support when in fact every buyer of the 645D in the US is automatically included in the Pentax Professional Services that means something like this:
"Purchasers of the camera will have "prioritized access to a dedicated team of U.S.-based Pentax 645D specialists to answer 645D customer service and product questions (Monday–Friday 7:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Mountain Time—holidays excepted)" and will be automatically enrolled in Pentax Professional Services, which offers quick access to rental lenses and accessories and high-priority repair services."
See the reference here:
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2010/10/pentax-announces-us-availability-of-645d.htmlPentax already made in collaboration with Adobe customized lens profiles for all FA 645 and the sole D FA 645 at this moment in Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5 if you can download a trial copy of LR3 you'll have 30 days to evaluate it. I really don't see Phase One giving Pentax a hand with regard to optimizing Capture One for Pentax lenses and profiling the 645D. So IMO your best bets are either Adobe or Silkypix (a lite version ships with the camera).
If you use the 50 mm on a Canon 5D M2 then the "equivalent" focal length on a 645D would be 64 mm which don't exist as such (only on the 45-85 mm zoom) but you can chose a 75/2.8 mm for something like 600-700 USD new. You can evaluate what this combination of camera/lens could give you in a studio scenario here:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/IMCOMP/COMPS01.HTM by comparing it with pictures from your current setup side by side.
The "no upgrade myth" is also debatable since Pentax entered the DMF market less than a year a go. The future will prove me right or wrong by IMHO they have a huge potential to upgrade and refresh their camera range faster than established companies simply because they are on a very aggressive 18 months or less refresh time for the dslr line. The economy of scale and R&D time is staggering considering that they reuse a lot of those components. Besides nobody says that they must have only one DMF camera on the market at the time.
Secondly you alone must evaluate when do you plan to upgrade your camera and if that time is more than one year away I guess no one except people that work for the MF companies could tell you what will emerge in that horizon of time.
Thirdly Pentax just announced a very wide 25 mm lens designed for the entire 645 frame size and I doubt that they went to such lengths and build such an expensive lens if they don't plan larger sensors (soon).
Fourthly Pentax is in a very favorable position to work with Japanese sensor manufacturer since they buy in millions sensors for their compacts and probably more than half a million of dslr sensors. IMHO they could be the first to convince a Japanese semiconductor giant to make for them a CMOS sensor and that moment could be not very far away.
In the end my advice would be for you to contact Pentax USA and try to locate a demo unit for you to test.
Best of luck and sorry for my poor English,
Regards,
Radu