Pentax 645D 40MP Medium Format Digital SLR Camera with 3-Inch LCD Screen (Body Only)

I had a Canon 5D Mark 2 before, and I love it. But two weeks ago, I bought a Pentax 645D and a 55mm F2.8, I hardly knew that what is a real good camera. I love it so much. The price is good fits. The most important is image quality, oh my God, that is only thing I can say when I taking pictures with it. I also like the color control, you have many ways to fix your colors, that's cool!

(If you don't like specifics, just know that this is a 3.5 star review and jump to the conclusion!) After having spent a few days with this camera, I though it was time to come and share some of my thoughts on it. I am a wedding photographer, and decided to give this thing a rent (Lensrentals is a wonderful company btw) to see if at some point would be inclined to invest in the Medium Format digital system. A little more background - I have worked with several Mamiya 645's (film), but shoot mainly with Canon's 1Ds-MkII for weddings. Allow me to start with a pro/con list, and then progress to discussing some of the bigger points: PROS - Has that nice, medium format feel - Not too heavy (coming from a 1Ds MkII with a giant battery) - 4:3 Aspect Ratio is nice to shoot on digital! - 40MP is a LOT to work with - Sensor is 27% larger than full frame (1) - RAW and JPEG Modes - Compatible with old Pentax 645 - Viewfinder is bright and has 98% coverage (this I enjoyed!) - Two SD card slots for backup - ISO range from 100-1600 (2) - Changeable focus (matte) screens NEUTRAL - No Image Stabilization. This is neutral because people have managed without it for a LONG time. CONS - Not a true medium format sensor - According to DATA sheet, shutter is rated for (only) 50,000 actuations (3) - Flash only syncs to 1/125 - 1.1FPS I know at 40MP, slower shutter speeds are to be expected, but with SD as the storage, are you surprised? - Less than intuitive menu system, tons of useless buttons - Uses SD cards, which are miles slowed than CF. (4) - Useless features like HDR mode, excessive metering (5) - Smaller choice of lenses (2 AF as of this writing) Now to the specifics: 1) It is definitely nice to have a solid "medium format" camera in the hand again with the convenience of digital, HOWEVER the biggest gaping flaw is the sensor. It measures at 33x44mm, which as you can tell is NOT the same as true medium format which is of course, 41x56mm. Now, while this is still a big increase from even full frame DSLRs, according to Ken Rockwell "it takes about 50 - 100% (linear) increases to make real progress." Now personally I enjoyed the size increase, and I really liked the 4:3 dimensions, but if you are looking for a true medium format digital, this won't be the camera for you! 2) The camera's ISO ranges from 100-1600. I was a tiny bit disappointed that there were no options for an even lower ISO - 25 would be asking a bit much but 50 doesn't seem out of the question. This may be a technological limitation, but I know that it IS possible and other cameras offer it. On the positive side, Pentax doesn't seem to have gone in for this whole "let's make the highest ISO possible) thing, which frankly I think is rather stupid. At 1600 ISO, noise was noticeable but not unbearable, and I was pretty happy with the results. 3) Another glaring problem with the camera is the shutter being only rated for 50,000 actuations. Now I know that this was intended for the hobbyist, but we are still talking about ten thousand big ones being laid down here. Seeing as I only rented this camera for four days (putting 1,500 clicks on it) I wasn't too worried, but it did factor in to my feelings about investing in this system in the future. 4) Why Pentax chose SD cards for this camera is absolutely beyond me. Benchmarks and real-life testing consistently show CF cards as superior in speed, and I think it was rather stupid of them to be quite honest. Again, I believe this was done for the "hobbyist" market, but in my opinion anyone willing to spend 10,000 bucks would be willing to invest in some decent CF cards too. 5) The stupid, useless modes on this camera were the final nail in the coffin for me. I mean seriously, who uses an HDR mode? This would be something that I would expect from a $200 point and shoot, not a 10K photographic investment. Along with the unnecessarily "advanced" metering system and the fact that necessary functions were mostly in the menus rather than the accessible buttons, this was the biggest disappointment for me. OVERALL As I mentioned, this is more of a 3.5 star review. I did enjoy the extra resolution and the 4:3 ratio very much, but the rest of the camera left much to be desired. With clumsy controls and the choice of slow storage, this just doesn't cut it for pro use. I would expect a hobbyist/enthusiast to be much happier with the camera, so if you fall into that category by all means go and rent the camera and see if it is worth a purchase. I was hoping to avoid the other hugely expensive digital medium format cameras and maybe get away with this instead, but I was underwhelmed and overall I was quite glad that I only spent what I did to rent it. Is it a good camera? Yes. Is it a $10,000 camera? Not in my opinion, although you may try it and fall in love.

I can't say enough about how much I am loving this camera. I had almost given up on the dream of owning a medium format digital camera, but I was happy to see the price drop on this model since the new 645Z came out. Suddenly it was affordable and I am putting it to good use.

OK, full disclosure. I have not purchased this camera. main reason: limited availability of lens's in the USA. I want a super sharp 100mm lens, a good autofocus zoom to 300mm,and something to 500 or 1000mm. Not interested in a 50 or an 80. As for the camera, why no image stabilization? For strictly tripod use, it looks great, technically.

This camera was easy to learn and the quality is awsome! I make 20x30 portraits with crystal clear image quality. I could go much larger. It came used but in absolutely new condition. Packaged very well. It was a deal at $3,180. Happy!

Exceptional image quality and camera overall handling. Too big and heavy for traveling. Must use on tripod. Must learn how to shoot at reduced pace. would be awesome to have this fire power in a Sony A7R size camera.

Awesome seller and perfect product.

I decided to upgrade from the Pentax K5 to the mighty 645D and must say, am pleased beyond all expectations at this purchase.If you are shopping for a larger than full frame, ie medium format camera, you may already know that the Pentax comes in at well under the price point of nearly every competitor. This is attractive. In my research, I had read of a lack of lenses for this platform, but as a landscape shooter, I tend to use manual focus and M mode to have full control over my image; I was pleasantly surprised to very easily find an array of available older lenses as well as a couple of new ones to add to my kit. I have seven 645 lenses, all primes, that cover the focal range I need for my style of shooting. My rig includes the DFA 25mm, A-35, A-45, D-FA 55, A-75, A-120 Macro, FA-150, and the A-80-160 (yes, a zoom, icky). Overall, the quality of the glass is exceptional, in my opinion, on par with the wonderful K-mount FA Limited primes (31, 43, 77). I have a few favorite lenses already, but let's get back to the camera. Figuring I'd need some time to adapt to using a new camera, I downloaded the manual a few days before the camera arrived so I could look it over. Well, it turns out, the 645D was designed nearly identical to the K7, K7, K?? series DSLR's, so the learning curve was nearly nothing. Handling was surprisingly easy, since the buttons are all laid out in the same places as my trusty K5. The first day I took out the 645D for some night shooting, I found my fingers slipping right onto my dials, ISO button, AF back button, AE-L, up/down arrow buttons, etc...everything was in a familiar place. This is a huge plus if you want to switch bodies at your shoot. The 645D adds a few well chosen extra buttons and knobs to take advantage of the larger body real estate which I find to be very smart. There is a dedicated bracketing button in virtually the same spot I had programmed the "RAW" button on my K5 to invoke bracketing. How convenient! The AF selection dial has changed to a knob on the 645D and easy to find and change as needed. The mirror lockup function has come out from the user menus and exists as a large knob on the front of the camera. For my night shooting, I discovered I can feel for that in the dark easily. A clever adaptation was to tilt the top LCD screen so one does not need to look completely over the top of the camera to read the settings, nice! Despite the larger size, the hand grip is extremely comfortable under long fingers, or longer fingernails, etc. I don't see ever using this as a hand held camera for my landscape photography, but the weight is not that bad. The horizontal and vertical tripod mounts are a godsend. hmm, how bout some minor quibbles? OK, I haven't figured out if it is possible to turn off the dark frame subtraction that engages on all exposures longer than 30 seconds. If this is not offered, I would hope they get a firmware fix to make it possible because not everyone wants to wait for NR following star trail shots, for example. Also, I would like some easy way to close or cover the viewfinder when shooting ND long exposures to prevent light leakage. I have not determined if that is an issue with this mirror box, but assuming it is, I prefer to have a cover. The images? Holy cow, they are amazing. I find details I never thought I would see in my images and the colors are stunning. Resolution is killer, or course, and the shallower DOF characteristic of MF is really a treat. My computer is running a bit slower with the large files, but I would not have it any other way now that I am spoiled seeing all the extra detail in the images. This is an exceptional camera and an excellent value among medium format cameras.