PENTAX 645Z / SHOOTING REPORT

When a standard medium digital camera cost around few million yen, PENTAX release the 645D which cost less than one million yen in 2010. In the film age, the medium format used to be a step-up from the 35mm full-size format as well as the transit to the dream large format. Similarly, the medium format was my first step to the dream, so the release of the 645D was so sensational to me. The realistic price made it available not only to the professionals but also the advanced amateurs. And, after 4 years, the 645Z was released. The new sensor has approximately 51.4 megapixels, which is a significant increase from the predecessor's 40 megapixels. It looks like the trend of increasing number of pixels has come to the digital medium format, too. Of course, what's most important is the balance with the sensor size. So, maybe, this number of pixels can be close to the limit for this sensor size, or maybe not. And, I don't have to mention that it maintains the great balance between resolution and tonality. Now, let's start checking the sample shots.

( Photography : A.Inden & Z II / Text : KIMURAX )

Polished resolution. Fascinating reality.

Even if you're used to the 35mm full-size image quality, you'll be stunned with the superb resolution and the wide dynamic range. In this shot, the outlines of the leaves look sharp and the gradation of the shadow has the 3D quality. They are so overwhelming that I remained speechless. Because there's so much information, the tone seldom jumps even if I changed the parameters with software. Thanks to the "lowpass-less," the subject is clearly isolated from the defocused background. I even feel I'm almost drawn into the scene, but it's comfortable unlike the 3D images that make me feel tired. All I can do is to be stunned by the great details realized by the powerful resolution.

Taken in Owakudani Hakone where you can observe volcanic activity. The ground is savage and the white smoke like a veil should make you almost smell sulfur. By clicking here, you can view the original image. Yes, the 51.4 megapixel output is nothing but powerful. It realistically drew all the small stones and the rocks in great detail. Maybe, it doesn't look very beautiful with this high resolution, but it expresses the white veil very well.

The still grave and the moving waves. It clearly captured the small bubbles between them. The grave look so realistic, and the bulges of the waves look very solid.

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Even a plain look so special when it's shot with the 645Z. I can feel the moist emitted from the grass and I feel like walking into the plain.

This amount of bokeh can only be realized by the large sensor. You can also get this level of bokeh with the 35mm full-size format if you use fast lenses. But, if you use the F1.4/F1.2 lenses wide open, you should worry about the corners. This makes me believe in the advantage of the medium format in the image quality.

I shot way under, but the shadow isn't painted in black easily. The veins and the outlines of the leaves stand out. The weather was bad in this scene, but I could concentrate on shooting thanks to the anti-dust and weather-resistant mechanism.

Even from this distance, it captured the uniform's texture. Also, look at the fine detail of the grain on the wood ceiling. It also expresses the moist Japanese taste of the house and I think it's clearer than what I can see with my own eyes. The optical viewfinder with 98% field-of-view provides bright and clear finding. It was easy to manual focus because I could detect the focus peak easily. Actually, our oldest photographer said in an excited manner, "I hadn't used a camera that I can focus at the corner of the frame for a long time!"

The long-awaited second model ensures brisk operation.

While the predecessor's max ISO was 1600, the 645Z supports way up to 204800 thanks to the CMOS sensor replacing the CCD sensor, and this is the great advantage. This photo was shot at ISO3200 in the evening twilight time. There's not much noise that bothers me and I can see it only when I zoom in a lot. The texture of the skin and the shiny super bowl is so realistic. After trying a variety of sensitivity, I found the noise starts to increase at ISO6400/12800, but again, I don't notice it very much unless I zoom in. since the increased number of pixels made it more prone to camera shake, I'm glad I can use faster shutter speed. As for the AF, it's a medium format camera that drives larger lenses and we shouldn't expect it to be quick. Yet, it focused on moving subjects (moving not so fast) smoothly. In addition, the continuous shooting speed improved from 1.1 fps to 3 fps. It's not surprisingly fast, but fast enough for the use of a medium format camera and I'm sure it is realized by the new PRIME III image sensor. Also, I felt less mirror shock than I expected. Because the size of the mirror is larger than the 35mm full-size, I expected some level of mirror shock. So, I believe PENTAX took a variety of measures to reduce it.

The refined front and back bokeh is massive and it's unique to the large sensor. The flowers look as if they are floating and I felt like touching them.

In this low place, I used the liveview on the 3.2-inch vertically tilting LCD screen. And, it was easy to view because it has 1,037,000 dots. I could still choose to crouch, but I didn't want to wake up the cat. I used the tilting mechanism stretching down my both arms and it was just like I was using a modern mirror-less camera. How convenient! I'm sure it will help you shoot in a variety of situations. Plus, with the liveview, you can enlarge the focused area and you can focus on small subjects effortlessly. Actually, I was able to focus on the peaceful sleeping face perfectly.

The sky doesn't look colorful, but there're many blue colors. And, this camera reproduced them with the smooth tonality. Just because of this blue background, this scene looks so special.

After looking at the samples one by one, I got used to the high resolution and I realized how greedy the humans are. Anyway, this resolution makes me wonder if it even captured each grain of the sand. And, I could confirm it when I zoomed in. Now, I feel like I have seen something I shouldn't see. How about you? Will you look away from the truth? Or, will you face it and try to get this quality? You have an ample time to decide.

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The power of medium format digital. A dream of all camera enthusiasts.

Our Photo Yodobashi photographers use so many kinds of equipment everyday, but we seldom have opportunities to use medium format digital cameras. So, we had many applicants to try the 645Z. And, by looking at the sample shots, I'm sure you understood they were charmed by the image quality. At first, the body looked majestic, but once they started using it, they didn't care even on the street. So, the handling is something you can get used to easily. In fact, it's not much different from the PENTAX APS-C cameras, so you can use it without a difficulty. It's a big camera, so you may not be able to shoot everything with it, but at least, it's so much easier to use than the film medium format cameras. Maybe, those who have been interested in the 35mm full-size format can skip to the medium format with the 645Z. And, of course, the existing 645D users can continue to use their lenses including the old MF ones which still generate descent image quality thanks to their professional quality optics. To those who now want to start digital medium format, I recommend the combination with the handy zoom lens and you can add others any time later. As of now, there're 15 lenses from PENTAX. This means there's no danger of falling in "the lens swamp." So, why hesitate? The eye-popping world is just in front of you.

( 15.07.2014 )