[ricardoserpa]

Hi there, and a short introduction to the forum. I'm a Brazilian photojournalist living in Florida for the past 15 years. I'm moving to medium format and chose the 645z after much research, planning on use it in a somewhat unusual way for my travel and fine art work. The "unusual" part comes from the fact that most of my work nowadays come from long distance road trips on my motorcycle, and the 645 system is not an obvious candidate for this kind of road traveling, I guess.

After having completed two major trips in 2013 and 2014, both from South Florida to Alaska and back, and a shorter one in September through South Africa, I came to the conclusion that it is the right choice, though, despite the size and the weight. In 2013, I spent close to 3 months on the road and took an Olympus O-MD E-M5 with me, with a handful of lenses. Great little system, but with files that turned out to be way too small for what I was planning to do with them after the trip was completed. For my fine art work, I print fairly large sizes, around 6' on the widest size, and the Micro 4/3 just won't do. For this year's trip, I brought along a new Sony a7/A7r system, and the files were much more usable, but still fell short when enlarged the way I wanted them. The system is also on its infancy and I didn't get used to the whole mirrorless approach.

I have been a Nikon loyal user for the past 30 years, and I took a D810 to South Africa. A fantastic camera for sure, but I tried to enlarge a beautiful file and the limitations were very apparent. I've bee using Photoshop since 1994, so I thought I knew a trick or two to enlarge digital images, but it's clear now that even the best methods still have their limitations.

So after reading quite a lot about the 645z, and having tried one at B&H in NY a couple of weeks ago, I made my mind and made the decision to start a new photographic chapter as a Pentax shooter. Feeling very excited with it, and already planning a next motorcycle trip for 2015. For those interested in knowing a bit more of my work, please be very welcome to the website, and thanks for reading!

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Last edited by ricardoserpa; 11-26-2014 at 11:10 PM.

[luftfluss]

This sounds very interesting, and I bookmarked your site for later viewing.

Welcome aboard!

[ricardoserpa]

Thank you!

[lukulele]

Welcome to the PF. johnmflores is one of the members that do long distance motorcycle photography and journalism that you may want to contact. Again welcome and be sure and post soon.

[geomez]

I'm jealous of your 645z plans!

[tuco]

Well, in the film days the size of my 6x7 didn't stop me from taking it traveling, up mountains, week-long backpack trips, sailboat races and anywhere else. So I don't see why a digital version would be much different in that regard.

[geomez]

I checked your site Ricardo. And it's really good stuff.

[VisualDarkness]

The second amazing new 645z photographer joining in a really short time. I guess having the only really field friendly digital MF is starting to pay off for Pentax.
The Set One – 60″ – Limited Edition is amazing! They must be great to watch at that size.

[theskonesdad]

Welcome to the forum! Thank you for sharing the link to your website and your awesome photos. Have to say, I read with great interest, the stories of your motorcycle trips to Alaska. Sounds like fun! Thanks again for sharing.
,

[ricardoserpa]

Thank you all for a very warm and friendly welcome, and also for the generous words towards my work. Like pretty much everyone else, I'm trying to marry passion and existence as best as I can! Hope to be posting some new images from the road trips with the new 645 as soon as I'm ready to hit the road again. It will be a few months before I can free myself to be out there once more, but it will most definitely happen!

As of now, I got the 645z and two of the older lenses to start getting to know the camera: the 75/2.8 and the 120 Macro. I'm selling a good part of my Nikon gear, since I have right now way more than I need to keep, so hopefully I'll be adding the new 28-45 and the 400 to the system. I know this is very subjective and a theme for a lot of controversy, but if anyone cares to throw some 2 (or 3...) cents on this lens plan, please feel free to. In any case, it is a good feeling to have to learn something entirely new again...

My best to you all!

[Kerrowdown]

Welcome to the forum, looking forward to seeing road trip images from the 645z.

[gaweidert]

Welcome aboard.

I just asked my wife last night if I could hit up our home equity line of credit for about $20,000 to get a 645z system. All it got me was "The look".

Currently there are two Pentax cameras out there that intrigue me no end. One if the 645z and the other is, oddly enough, the KS-1. The few photographs that have been posted on the KS-1 forum have shown that this camera can give great results.

Currently I have a K5 and a K5-iis. Been using Pentax since the early 70's and it is nice to see how some of the old glass can still yield great results with the new cameras. No other brand has taken such pains to insure backward compatibility as Pentax.

[ricardoserpa]

Thanks! My wife was OK with the purchase, she knows it's about tools, not toys, but I will probably have a hard time with my accountant. I received my 645z a couple of days ago, and I have to say I'm really impressed with it. Not as big as one would've imagined (it's big, but not that much different from a Nikon D4s with a 24-70/2.8 attached to it), and the quality seems to be there for sure. Well built, well thought and I believe it will be a hell of a partner for the road trips. It will be some time still before I can test it on a real trip, though. Can't wait for it. Like that final line in Casablanca, all I can say for now is "Pentax, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

[JHfwp]

You have some beautiful images on your website (to put it mildly). I look forward to reading your blog when time allows.

Congrats on your purchase and welcome to the site!

[beachgardener]

G'day mate and welcome to the forum

MF is the real FF