All posts filed under: Pentax 645D

Shuri Castle Portraits (645D)

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Dropped by Shuri Castle early this afternoon to take some photos. Unfortunately the sky clouded over and scaffolding covered half of the building. I did however mange to get a couple of portraits of the girls in traditional Okinawan costume that pose with visitors to the castle. After a couple of days with the camera I was comfortable enough using it for these opportunistic shots. I quickly opened up the aperture with the thumb dial to blur the background, moved the girls into some open shade and took a couple of photographs of each girl. I just realized that I never showed the girls the preview images after I took the shots. I hadn’t even considered it! It was only 30 minutes later when I sat down with a cold drink that  I even looked at the pictures I’d taken. I think this is a case of delayed chimping. Must remember I’m shooting digital not film 🙂  I will however make a couple of prints and drop them off next time I’m at the castle. …

645D Portrait Test

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Having taken photos of the dog and a quick landscape I wanted to give the camera a bit more of a challenge. I hoped to take a portrait shot that would show all the detail in a person’s face down to individual strands of hair. I knew just the man for the job. Now check out the full size image on Flickr. (Click view all sizes then click full image.)  For those who don’t have the time or patience. Here’s an idea of what you can see. This is John’s right eye. (As a bonus, the shot of the eye also reveals how I lit the photograph, a single gridded beauty dish just above my right shoulder.) There’s a whole lot of detail in the image. More importantly I am pleased with the way the image looks, the gradations in colors look pleasing and natural. If I can take shots like this out in the field, I’ll be a happy man. Thanks to John for being a great model. I’ll make sure you and Martha …

Manza Hotel test shoot.

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The story continues… Attached Kirk baseplate to camera so I can mount to tripod. Drove to Cape Maeda. Set up tripod. Set aperture to F11. Took a photograph of the Manza Hotel. Hung around for a couple of hours chatting to Nate, Luna and Akira. Unfortunately the sky clouded over so there was no spectacular sunset. I learned how to set copyright information, and  change colour space from sRGB to AdobeRGB. Returned home  and copied files. Uploaded small res. image to blog and full size image to Flickr. I am sure most experienced digital photographers will be shaking their heads, looking at the blown out highlights in the cloud by the hotel. I realize it’s a rookie mistake, and with time I will learn to use the histogram, but I am still amazed by the witchcraft that makes my pictures appear instantly on the back of my camera. More confusing  is the purple fringing that seems to be appearing on some of  the windows of the hotel. You will have to look at the full …

First images with the 645D

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The story so far… Charged battery. Turned on camera. Set language (to English), set date, set time. Inserted  32GB SanDisk Extreme SDHC card into each of the two memory card slots. Attached lens. Placed piece of bread behind ear. Pointed camera at Bear (the dog). Took a few photos of Bear until she started barking and lunging at ear. Connected camera to computer with USB cable (Must buy card reader). Copied a couple of images to desktop. Opened in Photoshop. Added file info. Added TRAVEL67 watermark. Resized for blog and added another TRAVEL67 watermark. Uploaded small images to blog and full size images to Flickr. So there you go. The first couple of images from the 645D. I haven’t changed any settings.  This was auto exposure, auto white balance, sRGB, and saving as a Jpeg to both memory cards. Need a cup of tea, and then will head out to get a few non-dog photos. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

Pentax 645D arrives!

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Pentax seems to have gone with Apple’s less is more idea for box design. Nice. Inside the box… Japanese manual & Menu Reference. (My bilingual friends wince. They are going to be pestered a lot during the next few weeks.) The camera. Just plugged in the battery charger…

Equipment for Sale

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I’m selling a few Pentax 67 lenses and accessories  to create space in my dehumidifier cabinets (and improve my bank balance) before purchasing the 645D. I’ve included the list price, and then selling price (in bold).  If you’d like more information and photos of the items please email me at chris@travel67.com   Payment with Paypal.  I’ll put the items up for sale on Ebay (at the same price) later in week, but thought I’d give readers of the blog a first look. Pentax 67 35mm Fisheye F4.5 155,000 yen (inc. case) 60,000 Yen Pentax 67 75mm Shift F.5 221,000 yen 75,000 Yen Pentax 67 T6 2X teleconverter (black) 20,000 Yen Pentax 67 Angle Finder 35,000 yen (inc. case)  20,000 Yen Pentax 67 Magnifier 14,000 yen (inc. case) 8,000 Yen Pentax 67 Metal Hood with bayonet mount for 105mm 2.4 Lens. (inc. case) 5,000 Yen

Pentax 645D v Nikon D3X v Canon EOS-1 Ds Mark III

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The April edition of Nihon Camera 日本カメラ includes a couple of very interesting things for Pentaxians. The first is a history of Pentax’s medium format cameras, the second is a detailed overview of the new Pentax 645D camera including a comparison of the camera with the top of the range 35mm digital cameras. Here’s some (but not all) of the differences between the Pentax 645D, the Nikon D3X  and the Canon EOS-1 Ds Mark III. Sensor Pentax 645D: 44x33mm 40MP CCD Nikon D3X: 35.9x24mm 24.5MP CMOS Canon EOS-1 Ds Mark III: 36x24mm 21.1MP CMOS Live View Pentax 645D: No Nikon D3X: Yes Canon EOS-1 Ds Mark III: Yes Dust Removal System Pentax 645D: Yes Nikon D3X: No Canon EOS-1 Ds Mark III: Yes Max Shutter Speed Pentax 645D: 1/4000 Nikon D3X: 1/8000 Canon EOS-1 Ds Mark III: 1/8000 Frames per second Pentax 645D: 1.1 Nikon D3X: 5 Canon EOS-1 Ds Mark III: 5 Memory Card Pentax 645D: SD / SDHC cards Nikon D3X: CF cards Canon EOS-1 Ds Mark III: CF cards & SD / …

67 lenses on the 645D body

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This post is to show how lenses from the Pentax 67 cameras will be able to fit on the Pentax 645D body. Simply attach the 67 to 645 adapter to the camera, and then attach the 67 lens. The adapters were available from B&H Photo in the States but the site says they are no longer available. I got mine from Amazon.co.jp. Using larger lenses on a smaller camera will mean that your normal lenses become telephotos, and your telephotos become super-telephotos. This particular adapter will allow aperture priority metering (unlike the 67 to 35mm adapter). It is worth remembering that larger lenses can fit on smaller cameras, but smaller lenses can’t be used on larger cameras. This means that  lenses designed specifically for  cameras with APS sized sensors won’t work on a full frame 35mm camera. When buying lenses consider if you may be switching to full frame 35mm in the future so you  won’t have to replace incompatible equipment.