If you’re into Photography and need the utmost best image quality available this side of $20.000 the Pentax 645 Z is as good as it get’s. And with a street price below $9000 its actually a bargain!

First impressions

The heft leaves you thinking if you’re up to the task. The Pentax 645 Z Medium format camera is with all its glory a camera that demands at least as much of the photographer as the photographer demand of the camera. The slow workflow makes you think and visualize every photo before you shoot it.
I started out running and gunning I soon found myself looking at my shots and despite all the technological wonder of this amazing imaging machine, at least a dozen shots came out blurred and lacking anything interesting. The Pentax 645 Z requires you to take the task seriously!

Body, design and features

With a weight of a solid 1550 grams, battery and SD Card included the Pentax 645 Z feels as sturdy as it look. With top-of-the-line 35mm camera from Canon or Nikon in mind, the Pentax is a least as solid and even more so extremely boxy – The trend with even larger sensor cameras getting smaller and smaller (APS-C and even full frame) it’s nice to see Pentax ditch the somewhat hype of a smaller camera and make it as big as possible. Use it as a hammer, go ahead, but note this isn’t a camera you’ll be doing to many selfies with. Let alone the weight I don’t think anyone would ever be able to straight out their arm that much. Who does that anyway

Going from the back to front the first thing you’ll see is the large 3.2″ Sharp tiltable TFT screen dotted with information. As the Pentax 645 Z is a professional photographers tool the ability to customize almost anything you’ll find on the screen is a huge plus. The screen is very sharp although I found it a tad too bright. This is a necessary easy adjustment, even with R G B sliders – how cool is that. The menus are so deep and the Fn options so many I’ll direct you to the manual to read them all. It’s almost overwhelming.

Leaving the menus alone for a second and still keeping our keen look at the back of the camera it’s nice to learn a dedicated button for almost everything you’ll ever need. Sure there’s a quick menu where you can easily scroll through the most common settings, the chances are you’ll use the much simpler and faster button press. A few buttons has a second/third feature but most are dedicated to one function. To mention a few there’s an AE-L, AF, WB, Info, Flash, Timer, ISO, Exposure, RAW, Bracketing and metering buttons to name a few. Then there’s a Photo / movie knob (Yes this medium format camera shoots 1080P video) and a much-loved mirror lockup button.

The viewfinder, aahhh this is viewfinder. In a true Medium Format fashion the Pentax 645 Z boasts a viewfinder the size of the front window in your car. It’s truly a pleasure looking through a finder that rivals that of a larger diameter binoculars. In familiar SLR style you’re find information such as aperture, shutter speed, ISO value if the button is pressed, buffer size and levelometer to make you sure all of your shots are level.
It hard to express how wonderful it is to use a GOOD optical viewfinder for a change but the one you will find in the Pentax 645 Z is better than any D-SLR ever made – Period!
The diopter is a huge chunk of a wheel you can trim so far a blind man is be able to see the information clearly. I love it and it’s going to be a daunting task going back to the Canon EOS 1D viewfinder Again.

On top of the camera you’ll find some of the aforementioned buttons, the mirror lockup knob and the matrix display where in true old school fashion you’ll see most of your settings. In teori you could just flip-up the tiltable screen but with a finder and matrix display this simple, informative,user-friendly and fast so you probably won’t. The grip is deeper than the Mariana Trench and even Andre the Giant would find it comfortable. Most women will probably find the grip too large and deep but I’m sure the trade-off would pay you tenfold in the end.

Removing the included Pentax D FA 645 1:2.8 55mm AL (IF) SDM AW lens (really Pentax, you couldn’t come up with a lengthier name) reveals the huge mirror-box. It’s like opening a lost treasure chest and I found myself starring at it and pressing the shutter just for a quick peek at the awesome 44mm x 33mm Medium Format sensor. It’s like you’re looking into something forbidding, like when you were a kid and discovered about the opposite sex. You’ll do almost anything for a peek even it’s looking into a flapping mirror inside a camera – Nerdgasm is allowed.
Speaking of sensor size it’s actually smaller than what is considered true Medium Format  which is 60 x 60mm. You could call this an APS-C sized Medium Format sensor but since most of its competitors uses the same sensor lets just call it Medium Format. Compared to a full frame 35mm sensor it’s about 1.7 times larger. You want shallow depth of field this is the way to go.

If you’re talking about camera’s being a sexy man-made object overall the Pentax 645 Z isn’t it. It’s bulky, longer than wide and with a design sorely made for a purpose. There’s a HUGE Pentax badge on it reminding everyone with a mile radius that this is a Pentax camera (and probably the only one in a mile radius). The camera is much wider and deeper than the included lens and features an oversize base that can hide even the largest Manfrotto lens plate. There’s a base on the right side of the camera to in the same size. An elegant camera the Pentax 645 Z is not. And in all honesty, no Medium Format camera is, well perhaps with exception of the Leica S2 but that’s stretching it.

In use and daily operations

If I told you the Pentax 645 Z functions as well as your enthusiast line D-SLR would you believe me?
The screen is when reviewing your Photos easy to use and well suited for judging whether your latest Photo is a keeper or not. The screen is, as mentioned earlier, a bit too bright leading you to over exposing your images, that is if you relying on the screen for exposure. Luckily as mentioned Pentax allows for adjusting brightness although it’s well tugged away in the menus.
If you choose to solely rely on the screen for exposure there’s a histogram to aid your exposure.

No camera is complete without novice user functions even a Medium Format one and although the camera and it’s use goes completely against what a novice user would buy as a starting camera, the Pentax 645 Z features the almost 100% Automatic P mode. So point-and-shoot a Medium Format camera is an option if you so choose.
In all seriousness you’ll also find Aperture, Shutter or Manual mode.

In Manual mode the camera is a pleasure to use. Everything functions quick and snappy. – The days where Medium Format camera reacted slower than it took to develop film are long gone. The auto-focus feels great with promptly focus acquisition even in more difficult situations. It’s at least on par with entry / enthusiast level D-SLR. Even live-view functions with auto-focus works although it’s nowhere near what you’ll find on modern day Mirrorless or EOS 70D / 7D Mark II D-SLR’s.
As with most higher-end camera’s you can fine-tune the auto-focus if you’re experiencing front or back-focus.

Focus-tracking is somewhat okay again with tracking performance around entry D-SLR level, but chances the Pentax 645 Z would probably never be used for any type of action / BIF photography.
It’s extremely nice to learn that Pentax managed to squeeze out 3 frame per second out of this shutter and circuitry – That’s a huge amount of data!
Pentax claims the buffer is around 25 images deep, a number I never experienced but let’s be fair in call it in the same ballpark. All that data requires the fastest memory card available, if you don’t prepare to wait forever.

There’s 27 selectable AF points with the 25 of these being cross type. Cross type means in theory double the accuracy as the camera searches both on a horizontal and vertical line. In the very center of the sensor there’s three focus point with increased sensitivity when using F/2.8 lenses. It should resolve in increased accuracy and ought make sure a perfect focus every time. Conclusion is it works and it works well!

All the rest of the buttons functions instantly with no lag, the shutter button ditto. You could argue that Pentax D-SLR´ed the Medium Format camera – It’s really that functional and easy to use! If you’re a landscape photographer you’ll enjoy the dedicated mirror-lock knob that ensures a steady shot each time without any hint of mirror slap vibration.

Another feature that you wouldn’t expect to be in this type of camera it the weather sealing, both on the body, hotshoe and lens. A reason to get out and use the camera even if it’s pouring down.

To make sure you never run out of space, Pentax made two SD card slots with backup capability. Simple and effective!

Image quality

The image quality is hands down the most detailed of any camera in almost any price range. The 51.4 Mpix resolution easily trumps any D-SLR and you’ll be enjoying in finding very fine detail you probably didn’t see when you took the shot. The final image has this Medium Format look that’s hard to explain and easier to show. Go ahead and grab the RAW files.

Looking at 100% crops, an exercise more important than actually taking pictures, or so it seems if you browse the internet, gives you the pleasure of knowing this is how good and sharp a Bayer sensor image can be.
The highlights holds extremely well and there’s a certain distinct film look to it with a lot of micro-contrast detail. It’s not a Foveon micro-contrast but it’s up there..

The Dynamic range of this sensor is more expressive than anything on 35mm. – While not HDR´esque is seems there’s almost no end recovering the highlight and pull out details from underexposed blacks. The highlights rolls off very smooth, something you’ll only see on medium format and the levels of grey to white feels endless. In the studio shooting model or fine details Medium format is king.

In the past you would be hard pressed going past ISO 400 in the CCD based Medium Format cameras, but just like Nikon found out CMOS is vastly superior to CCD in terms on high-ISO (gain) performance, the Pentax 645 Z shows impressive images even at super high ISO. Looking at the highest ISO values is more for show or fun but back off just a little and you’ll be more than satisfied with photos at and around ISO 25600.

Thank to the big sensor, high-resolution and no low pass filter the Pentax 645 Z gives you tons and tons of detail. True to medium format the colors are subtle and muted in a good way. Push them in post and be delighted with smooth colors and low noise in lower ISO’s. The camera seems to capture colors without any color-bias.

Samples

The DNG Raw files are available for download and needs a Raw converter to open. Use whatever converter you are comfortable with. You’ll find all the files on my OneDrive right here:

Conclusion

There’s no doubt the Pentax 645 Z was a love relationship albeit a short one. Never have I seen image quality from any kind of digital camera especially in this price range. The Pentax 645 z thrives both in low and high ISO values easily matching the D-SLR in terms of noise and beats it by a healthy margin in detail and latitude. – The Pentax 645 Z handles and feels like a fullframe D-SLR and even boasts the speed of such. AND it shoots 1080P.

In my relatively short time spent with the Pentax 645 Z I was enjoying how capable and easy it is shooting with Medium Format and I’m sad to see it go. Hands down the greatest Pentax camera ever made and in a price range for everyone who’s looking for the best to afford.

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PENTAX 645 Z Medium Format camera – Review Tobias Hjorth.

After the launch of the highly acclaimed Nikon D800 with its superb 36 Mpix sensor users, most who’ve never tried anything with an even larger sensor, were quick to discard the larger sensor sized medium format camera. Award winning nature photographer E.J. Peiker sat out on a trip to the Italien Dolomites what the pros and cons are against both formats and although the D800 can look into the shadows like few other the medium format Phase One is no sloth. Does size mater?

Read the article over at NatureScapes.net HERE

The Case For and Against Medium Format, article by E.J. Peiker @ NatureScapes.net Tobias Hjorth.

Very rarely do I have the opportunity to review a truly unique product. The last product in this category I reviewed was the awesome and huge Sigma 200-500mm F2.8 EX zoom lens.
A couple of month ago I received something in that very same class. The Pentax 645D Medium-format SLR camera.

The first thing that crossed my mind was : This thing is a BEAST. To put it in perspective the Pentax 645D is slightly lower than a Canon 1D series body and more than twice as thick. The grip is MILES better than on every other camera I’ve held so far including every single Canon and Nikon offering. It’s very deep and perfectly fitted to a regular size male hand.

The size of the 55mm F2.8 lens is about equal to a similar focal length on the 35mm DSLR format, but as soon as you remove the lens you’ll be presented with a huge mirror and just beneath that the huge medium-format sensor.

Handling the Pentax 645D is a blast meant in every positive way. As mentioned just above the grip is huge and pleasantly to hold with a slight soft rubberized patch. There´s dedicated buttons everywhere so changes are the function you’re looking for has its own button, such as the mirror lock knob which sits on the side of the housing. The only takes a simple turn on the knob enables mirror lock. – It’s so simple and easy yet it saves you loads of time you would otherwise use going through the menus looking for that very function, like you would on a Canon body. Changes are you’ll miss the last ray of sunshine – Not gonna happen with the Pentax 645D.
Otherwise the shere bulk of the Pentax 645D probably scares away most end-users. This is a professional tool – No exception! Worth mentioning is the weight and while the camera looks very heavy it isn’t and a bit surprisingly only slightly heavier than a Nikon Dx or Canon 1Dx series. Huge praises to the Pentax body and if you’re into beefy cameras this is heaven or a close and you can get for $10.000

Going into the menus Pentax continues its professional approach. The interface is easy to use as soon as you figure it out and everything has its own menu – And I do mean everything. This also means that while every function has options in the menu system, it can be confusing but once you get the hang of it and know what to look for you’ll enjoy it as much as the next thing. It’s definitely not among the prettiest menu but it’s effective and functions well.
Navigate further into the menu system reveals a HUGE customfunctions submenu where you can adjust and dial in everything from focus, exposure to the precise color temp as well as many other features as metering and what have you. It’s almost overwhelming and I love it. Ever got intimidated by a camera menu system? Buy the Pentax 645D and at first you will.

In use the camera is a joy. You’ll quickly appreciate the clonk of the large mirror in the camera – You can almost hear the exposure happening.
There’s no doubt the Pentax 645D isn’t made for anything that resembles sport or action based photography. The FPS underlines this reaching 1 per second. With that being said the files are HUGE 70+mb ones so I’m not surprised. The Pentax 645D is somewhat uniquely to medium format equipped with autofocus. The autofocus isn’t quick in any way but is no slouch either. To put it fairly it’s more than adequate for the slow frame rate. I found the standard 55mm lens to back focus a tad so a quick adjustment and it was good to go.

Putting your eye up to the viewfinder on the Pentax 645D and then switch to any DSLR will instantly give you the impression that the viewfinder on the DSLR is small and far away. Like anything else with the 645D the viewfinder is enormous and any type of information on your shot is well-lit and properly shown in the finder. The difference is striking and while the Pentax doesn’t show the same viewfinder coverage as a full frame DSLR you’ll forget it in a heartbeat and just enjoy the sheer size of the viewfinder – It’s that good.

Have in mind while the Pentax 645D is a serious no-nonsense camera it’s still pretty easy to use if you’re used to shoot with a DSLR. Heck it even features built-in sensor cleaning!

So single most important argument in buying a camera this large is image quality. As with everything on the Pentax 645D size maters and the number one selling point is the sensor size measuring a total of 44 x 33mm. It’s much larger the full frame SLR although smaller than a film medium format. Typical for medium format is the standard 4:3 aspect ratio which is something new for me beeing used to the 3:2 ratio.

Among the things contributing to the superb image quality is, besides the sensor size, is the complete lack of Anti-Aliasing (low-pass) filter. I can’t remember seeing images so sharp and detailed (Besides the Sigma DP series). With the huge 40 Mpix image and no aliasing filter the detail and micro detail is exquisite – It’s just in another ballpark than almost anything else especially a base and lower ISO’s. With that being said you wouldn’t push the ISO too high. The huge sensor is superb in lower ISO’s and below average at high ISO’s. The dynamic range is equally impressive and the Pentax 645D handles highlight extremely well even in difficult situations.
I found the Pentax 55mm  F/2.8 lens included in kit sharp across the range although it did benefit from stopping down. A thing you’ll appreciate is how narrow a field of view is at F/2.8. Great for portraits and similar situations but it needs a bit more stopping down for that extra dept of field.

Downloadable samples straight from RAW files (right click and choose save as..)
Sample collection (80mb Zip file)

Conclusion

The Pentax 645D is a camera you’ll love from get go. Everything from the superb image quality to the handling and field of the camera. But beware – Every time you’ll snap a photo you feel obligated to deliver the best result in the situation. The Pentax 645D isn’t a camera for snapshots – It’s an artist tool and if I had the money I would buy it in a heartbeat.

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While I wanted to release this review earlier I lost most of my data including sample images and text so my apologies for the standardized Pentax 645D sample shot.
Thanks to Hans from Danish distributor Focus Nordic for going that extra mile and allowing me to shoot with this baby for a couple of weeks

Pentax 645D review Tobias Hjorth.