All posts tagged: 645Z

Pentax 645Z for Wedding Photographers

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The Pentax 645Z may be the perfect camera for high-end wedding photographers. Of course it may seem like an unusual choice in an industry now dominated by Nikon and Canon, but the 645Z has some advantages over the competition. Can it get the job done? Shooting inside a gloomy church, a makeup room, or at the reception are now possible with ambient light. The new CMOS sensor in the 645Z means that you can use higher ISOs when required. This has been an issue with many other medium format digital cameras including its predecessor the 645D. Rain, no problem. Weather sealing on the body and lenses means you can keep on shooting no matter how “ironic” the wedding day is. Dual memory card slots, giving you redundancy in case of card failure. The “weaknesses” of the 645Z compared to the top of the line DSLR’s in terms of focusing speed and frames per second may be an issue for sports photographers, but unless you have an actual runaway bride it shouldn’t be an issue at …

Fukagawa Hachiman Festival, Tokyo – Part 2

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On Sunday 17th, Fukagawa Hachiman Festival reached its peak. Festivities began with blessings from the Shinto priest outside the shrine. Dozens of mikoshi were carried through the streets, the participants getting soaked by far more bystanders with buckets of water. As with yesterday, it was great to know that the Pentax 645Z and lenses are properly weather sealed. The camera was splashed several times, but there were no issues. However, there were some professional water soakers that I needed to stay clear of. Numerous member of the Tokyo fire departments were there to drench the groups with water. There’s weather sealing, and there’s being hit by a firehose sealing. I wasn’t going to test the latter. My goal therefore was to try and get in close to the groups without getting soaked, or crushed underfoot by a team of mikoshi carriers. And a bit of video

Soma Nomaoi, Shinki-Sodatsusen

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If the kacchu-keiba (horse race) is analogous to the race into battle, then the shinki-sodatsusen is the battle itself. Here the riders test the skill, bravery and luck. The battle is made up of several skirmishes.  Each skirmish begins with a couple of fireworks blasted up into the sky. Each fireworks carry a banner which, after the explosion at altitude, come wafting back to earth. Any samurai who catches a banner, receives fame, glory and probably a few bit of yen. On a technical note these images were shot with the 645Z and the smc FA 645 300mm F4 ED (IF) which is equivalent of a 240mm on a FF35mm camera. I used a monopod to give some extra stability and it gave excellent results. The speed of the autofocus was slow, but it the overall sharpness was great.

Soma Nomaoi – Kacchu-keiba

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Carrying the flags of their houses, the riders race around the circuit. It’s always an interesting challenge trying to convey motion in a still image. I used a slow shutter speed and panned the camera with the subject. Get it right and you should get a blurry background while the subject remains relatively sharp. One rider was a young girl who galloped around the course with the men. I didn’t manage to get her name, but it was an impressive feat of horsemanship, irrespective of age or gender. The winners collected a piece of paper from the trackside umpires and then galloped up a zig-zag path through the crowd to top of the embankment where they collect their prizes.

Pentax 645Z in Action – Karate Masters Portrait Project

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A quick update on how I shoot the Karate Masters Portrait Project. Back in March 2012 we used the following gear: Pentax 645D with 105mm or 150mm lens Tripod Profoto 7a generator with a ProHead Generic silver beauty dish PocketWizard Plus II radio transmitters Light stand 3.6′ x 6.6′ Lastolite Black Velvet backdrop And the new 2014 setup. Pentax 645Z with 90mm macro lens Profoto 7a generator with Prohead Profoto Softlight Reflector White PocketWizard Plus II radio transmitters 6.6′ x 6.6′ Lastolite Black Velvet backdrop Why the changes? 645D to 645Z – More megapixels and greater dynamic range. (However 566 not 712 images on a 64GB card, and my computer runs like molasses.) Tripod to No Tripod – Faster, more flexible. Ambient light is low so it has little effect on image quality. Action stopped by flash not shutter. Generic silver beauty dish to Profoto Spoftlight Reflector in white – Larger light source, white interior means better control of specular highlights, image quality. Light stand to voice activated light stand (James) – Faster, more flexible. Medium to Large …