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Grimace

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Feb 17, 2003
3,568
226
with Hamburglar.
Pentax? Medium format? Never saw that one coming!! :eek: Not bad for under $10,000 (in this class of cameras)

Engadget Linky

pentax-645d-camera.jpg
 

Phrasikleia

macrumors 601
Feb 24, 2008
4,082
403
Over there------->
Coming in at roughly half the price of the 40MP Mamiya MF camera announced yesterday and only a couple of thousand more than the top full-frame 35mm cameras currently on the market. Plus there is a wide array of old medium format Pentax lenses kicking around on eBay. This camera should sell well.
 

Grimace

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Feb 17, 2003
3,568
226
with Hamburglar.
Hmm...it says that it will initially only be available in the Japanese market. I think there would be plenty of takers elsewhere too!
 

Designer Dale

macrumors 68040
Mar 25, 2009
3,950
100
Folding space
I priced a Canon 100mm IS macro at my local shop this afternoon and they didn't stock the IS. They said it was order only because the price changed day to day with the strength of the dollar. With a thin margin, maybe Pentax wants to sell in Japan first to pull in cash to cover R&D before selling in the States.

Don't know. I'd buy one if I had the cash.

Dale
 

toxic

macrumors 68000
Nov 9, 2008
1,664
1
I'm not sure what they were thinking starting the ISO at 200 and using SD instead of CF. anyone who already owns a high-end SLR has a bunch of CF cards that'll just go to waste.

a leaf shutter system would've been nice...but oh well, can't have everything, especially at this price point.
 

TheReef

macrumors 68000
Sep 30, 2007
1,888
167
NSW, Australia.
Looks pretty exciting.
^ISOs expandable 100-1600.

It's weather sealed...it opens itself up to new market of outdoors application, not just the studio.

Maybe if I sell my car :rolleyes: ...still only half way
 

VirtualRain

macrumors 603
Aug 1, 2008
6,304
118
Vancouver, BC
it has dual SD, according to DPR.

While this has little, if anything to do with the 645D, the thought of dual SD cards slots gets me thinking... I imagine that this kind of storage configuration (with dual identical SD cards) could be setup to either run redundantly (similar to RAID1) or striped for performance (RAID0) enabling some blazing fast speed and double capacity. :D
 

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,492
6,981
I priced a Canon 100mm IS macro at my local shop this afternoon and they didn't stock the IS. They said it was order only because the price changed day to day with the strength of the dollar.
I work for a Canon dealer. Canon's pricing doesn't change on a regular basis. Your dealer probably doesn't stock the lens because it's expensive and they may not have enough demand to justify tying up their money in a lens like that.
 

panoz7

macrumors 6502a
Nov 21, 2005
904
1
Raleigh, NC
I've been reading rumors about this camera for a while and I'm glad to see they were mostly true.

It's definitely a good deal, but you do lose out on some features for that $10k you save over a mamiya or phase one kit. Primarily the sensor isn't removable, so if you want to back up the camera body you need to buy two. You also can't swap the back amongst SLR, view, and technical cameras. I also don't see any mention of live view, which is currently missing from digital backs and would have been a big plus for the pentax.

The leica S2 share's these problems, and the pentax definitely has a much more palatable price, so it'll be interesting to see how it sells and how it changes the medium format landscape. Current world wide sales for all medium format backs is around 10k. That's not a very big market, but maybe the lower price will change that.
 

polotska

macrumors 6502
Sep 23, 2007
257
1
Looks great. Used to use a Pentax 6x4.5mm film SLR and they were absolutely terrific. Those old Pentax prime lenses are great.
 

cube

Suspended
May 10, 2004
17,011
4,972
It's definitely a good deal, but you do lose out on some features for that $10k you save over a mamiya or phase one kit. Primarily the sensor isn't removable, so if you want to back up the camera body you need to buy two. You also can't swap the back amongst SLR, view, and technical cameras. I also don't see any mention of live view, which is currently missing from digital backs and would have been a big plus for the pentax.

The leica S2 share's these problems, and the pentax definitely has a much more palatable price, so it'll be interesting to see how it sells and how it changes the medium format landscape. Current world wide sales for all medium format backs is around 10k. That's not a very big market, but maybe the lower price will change that.

Mamiya already has a $10K kit (but it's only 22 MP).
 

compuwar

macrumors 601
Oct 5, 2006
4,717
2
Northern/Central VA
Hassy's selling off the H3D at under $10K to prep for the H4D. I can't imagine many folks who don't already own Pentax 645 lenses jumping at this one. Even then, there are way more Mamiya and Hasselblad lenses out there.

Frankly, this leaves me more puzzled about Pentax than ever- they can't float their DSLR division by themselves (even as Hoya,) but they're going MF when even in the film days they were a small niche player in the 645 market?

While both Nikon and Canon have been telegraphing a sensor size increase beyond FF for a while now, they're not going out the gate at this stage for a lot of reasons- I think Pentax should have done 35mm first given the current market- 1% of a exponentially larger and growing market beats 5% of shrinking one- I just don't see how this works out well for them strategically- even if they actually started to sell enough to make the investment in tooling and sales work, Hassy can always close the price gap and take them out.

I do think they're right to limit it to one easily-served market at this point- doing a global launch will take resources they don't really want to use up- if they can pull off a minor miracle in Japan, then they can make the case for doing a wider launch.

Overall, the best interpretation I can think of for this is that Hoya thinks they've got a buyer or partner lined up, and they're not in it alone anymore.

Paul
 

Gold89

macrumors 6502
Dec 17, 2008
263
0
UK
While both Nikon and Canon have been telegraphing a sensor size increase beyond FF for a while now, they're not going out the gate at this stage for a lot of reasons- I think Pentax should have done 35mm first given the current market- 1% of a exponentially larger and growing market beats 5% of shrinking one- I just don't see how this works out well for them strategically- even if they actually started to sell enough to make the investment in tooling and sales work, Hassy can always close the price gap and take them out.

Is it not perhaps harder to get 1% of a very competitive and cheaper market than 5% of a premium market (think Apple doing better by only aiming at the top percentages of the market)?
 

TheStrudel

macrumors 65816
Jan 5, 2008
1,134
1
Fascinating. I don't think anybody saw this coming, and it portends good things for Pentax, who I rate as being the only DSLR manufacturer worth bothering with along with Nikon and Canon.

This ought to shake up competition in a good way.
 

Gold89

macrumors 6502
Dec 17, 2008
263
0
UK
Fascinating. I don't think anybody saw this coming, and it portends good things for Pentax, who I rate as being the only DSLR manufacturer worth bothering with along with Nikon and Canon.

This ought to shake up competition in a good way.

Olympus?
 

Pikemann Urge

macrumors 6502
Jan 3, 2007
276
0
melbourne.au
This is great news for photographers. There is no way I'd buy a D3X when for a few dollars more (!) I could buy the Pentax. I don't want to spend that kind of money on a camera right now anyway.

SD cards are easier to manage than CF and nowadays have large capacities. Better two SD slots than one CF (on a pro camera, that is).

By rights, if there is any common sense among photographers, one of the following scenarios should occur:

1. Nikon and Canon can't sell their highest end DSLRs (e.g. D3X) anymore

2. Nikon and Canon reduce the price of their highest end DSLRs

For real competition in the market, you need 3 or 4 strong players. A market dominated by Nikon and Canon is not giving us the products that we want quickly or cheaply enough. Contax and Kodak messed up their FF cameras badly, delaying mass acceptance for such products for years. IMHO.
 

Gold89

macrumors 6502
Dec 17, 2008
263
0
UK
^Also what about the Sony A700 as a player in the FF market? Despite their poorer lens range?
 

Obsidian6

macrumors 6502a
Apr 29, 2006
683
3
Laguna Niguel, CA
This camera has been "in the works" for years now. I definitely expected this to show up. I just thought it would have been sooner.

The pentax 645 line has been around since 1984, and If I'm not mistaken you can use ANY of the lenses they've produced for their 645 cameras so far.

I also believe there is an adapter to use any of the Pentax 67 lenses as well!

I'm really excited about this camera, it's obviously direct competition for the Mamiya 645afd (which I really like, I've shot with earlier versions of this camera and a Leaf Valeo back)

Quite an affordable system for what you're getting. Pretty cool!
 

Pikemann Urge

macrumors 6502
Jan 3, 2007
276
0
melbourne.au
Damn. How could I have forgotten about Sony! Yes, they are good cameras, too. Andt they are, AFAIK, more competitively priced than Nikon or Canon. E.g. the A850 is cheaper than the D700 and has a higher pixel count.

Sony should be a major player in this market and if they stick with it and make products people want to buy, they'll seriously dent the big two.
 

toxic

macrumors 68000
Nov 9, 2008
1,664
1
This is great news for photographers. There is no way I'd buy a D3X when for a few dollars more (!) I could buy the Pentax. I don't want to spend that kind of money on a camera right now anyway.

SD cards are easier to manage than CF and nowadays have large capacities. Better two SD slots than one CF (on a pro camera, that is).

pro cameras don't have one CF, they have CF & SD.

you're way overblowing the significance of this camera. MF SLRs hardly make a dent in the sales of 35mm SLRs. the best of them can only do ~1 fps, are extremely bulky and clunky, are slower to respond, can't track moving subjects, and can't do anything beyond ISO 400 with good results. they are pretty much only for studio and landscape photographers who need the highest resolution and image quality and aren't in a hurry.
 
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