Nikon D800E vs. Pentax 645D

The field tests showed no significant difference in color rendition and both cameras did a good job with setting white balance. We therefore decided to shoot our color checker to get a closer look at the differences, if any.

The shooting parameters were:

• Daylight
• White balance: Auto 
• ISO 100
• Indoors EV +0.5, outdoors no EV compensation
• RAW, converted in Adobe Camera RAW with no color correction but adjusted to same exposure level
• No post-processing in Photoshop
• Pentax 645D with SMC Pentax-D FA 645 55mm F.28
• Nikon D800E with AF-S Nikkor 50mm F1.4 G

Click on the images to download a 100% crop.

645D indoors:

D800E indoors:

645D outdoors:

D800E outdoors:

For reference we include the entire image from the outdoor scene.

645D:

D800E:

Verdict

Indoors, the Pentax 645D has an almost-perfect white balance whereas the Nikon D800E is a bit off. You probably will not see a difference in your web browser, but we checked the RGB values of the topmost row and found the Pentax to be spot on and the Nikon to have deviations from true grey. Both cameras reproduced the full tonal range.

Outdoors, both cameras showed minor deviations from the ideal.

But the bottom line is that for all practical purposes the two cameras perform identically.