Page 14 - NyghtVision Magazine Volume 3 #4
P. 14
It is no secret - we - all the photogra- was quickly able to shoot in low light down to
phers in our firm - are children of the DSLR. a third of a second with out a tripod.
No one was "classically" trained, and, with the With a 40 megapixel sensor initially
exception of JD, who interned briefly with a manufactured by Kodak, the 645D produces
studio photographer, no one here ever worked incredible natural skin tones - even when very
with a medium format camera. And no one little light is used. Colors are rich and the de-
ever did photography with film, at least not tail is nothing short of amazing. ISO tops out
professionally. at 1600. I rarely went over 200. While this
Early on we considered looking at a Ma- isn't much of a range given current develop-
miya or similar medium format camera but as ments, there was no appreciable noise even
DSLRs improved, the need to get one dimin- late at nyght.
ished. With DxO Lab's Optics Pro, we could Our 645D arrived with two lenses, both
deliver images whose quality rivaled medium prime, a 90 MM and a 55 MM. Like the cam-
format cameras. We were also convinced that era body, the lenses show superior quality.
medium format cameras didn't have a place Attention to detail is incredible - lens hoods
outside the studio and since we were not stu- fit well and do not come loose or fall off, lens
dio photographers, we simply couldn't justify movement is the smoothest we have ever ex-
the expense. perienced. Both lenses were designed for the
Introduced late in 2010 by Pentax, now 645D and were equipped with Pentax's imple-
Ricoh, the 645D garnered positive reviews mentation of image stabilization. The 55 actu-
early on but in the years that have passed it ally had a small "door" that could be removed
has largely been ignored. When we discovered when the hood was mounted inversely on the
it at WPPI earlier this year, it looked rather lens - this is a featured I like since I don't often
like a large DSLR. It wasn't until we looked
"under the hood" that we understood that this use a hood. (See photo 3 on this page) Other
was a very new approach to medium format
design. A bit larger in size than my Canon Pentax lenses will work as well.
1Ds Mark III, the 645D actually seemed light- We found the auto-focus system to be
er and the ergonomics of its design meant I very quick - at least as fast as my 1Ds Mark III.
could one hand it when I needed to just as I There are eleven focal points but when auto
can my Mark III. In fact, I found that over the focus is used we were never able to get more
course of seven or eight hours in the field, the than two to "light up" in the view finder. In
645D took less of a toll on me. manual mode, we were able to get them all to
That is a key point. We don't own a tra- display.
ditional studio and everything about how we Exposure can be checked through the
work is designed to deliver studio quality im- view finder or via the LCD on the back. The ex-
ages any where under any circumstances. So, posure meter in the view finder is a bit simple -
the 645D had to work effectively anywhere we plus or minus and a value - while the exposure
took it. And it did. I created images of water- meter on the back is the more conventional
falls, photographed landscapes, flowers in the style. The meter on the rear LCD is +/- five
rain, everything and anything I could. I had F-stops. Impressive. Personally I would have
to be a bit more careful holding the camera preferred the more traditional exposure meter
initially because the movement of the mirror in the view finder but the current design was
caused my first few images to be a bit out of fo- no less effective.
cus. Once I understood what was happening, I Since the meter on the LCD is the re-
never again had that problem. With practice, I verse of the one on my Mark III, it took some
getting used to, but this would be true for most
any camera. In fact, my Mark III may well be
14 | 645D
