Forgot Password
Pentax Camera Forums Home
 

Reply
Show Printable Version Search this Thread
10-06-2010, 11:42 PM   #1
Forum Member




Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Sunnyvale, California
Posts: 57
645d sample shot from tonight..

The first photoshoot with the 645d turned out to be an epic failure. Arrived at Garrapata beach only 20mins before sunset, I didn't have enough time to contemplate on the composition. Got great light around sunset, but most of the photos were ruined because of a number of control mistakes, somehow the AF on the FA 33-55mm didn't work right and I ended up with a blurry foreground. The only shot that I could salvage was from the last few mins, when all the colors subdued looking grey all around. Will provide better samples next time. : )

- Resize


- 100% Crop #1


- 100% Crop #2



Last edited by harklee; 10-07-2010 at 08:54 AM.
10-06-2010, 11:45 PM   #2
Veteran Member
SteveM's Avatar

Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 3,294
It's nice to see some shots with the 645d....finally getting out to where people can see it. I like the first shot and am looking forward to seeing more.
10-06-2010, 11:50 PM   #3
Forum Member




Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Sunnyvale, California
Posts: 57
Original Poster
SMC, FYI, the 2nd and 3rd are 100% crop of the 1st shot. So only one photo provided. : )
10-07-2010, 12:32 AM   #4
Veteran Member
SteveM's Avatar

Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 3,294
You're not helping the 645d CBA...

10-07-2010, 04:32 AM   #5
Forum Member




Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Baguio, Benguet
Posts: 91
Very nice, Hark. What was the ISO and did you use a tripod?

Best, Alan
10-07-2010, 06:46 AM   #6
Banned




Join Date: Jan 2009
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 9,675
Well for a failure shot this looks already very nice. New camera's do need getting used to all the new things they bring. Keep surprising us.
10-07-2010, 06:59 AM   #7
Pentaxian




Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Pugetopolis
Posts: 11,008
Shots like #1 you can stop it down and focus with the DOF scale on the lens and really don't need to use auto focus since you were after a long exposure. I do those shots all the time with a 6x7 and 6x6 camera.

10-07-2010, 07:55 AM   #8
Veteran Member




Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Boston, PRofMA
Photos: Albums
Posts: 3,026
Not much shadow noise too...you can probably bump the exposure/contrast in post...
I'd suggest just running hyperfocal for landscape shots too...
10-07-2010, 08:49 AM   #9
Forum Member




Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Sunnyvale, California
Posts: 57
Original Poster
Alan, I used ISO 200 (on a tripod) - which is the lowest the camera provides when not expanded. I could've gone with ISO 100 (expanded), but as far as I understand 'expanded' usually means that you don't gain that much in IQ / noise (as a matter of fact ISO 50(expanded) on the Canon 5d II has the same noise as ISO 100 but narrower DR). The settings were f/14, 30sec. From my experience with the 5d II, which has a similar pixel density, the diffraction limit kicks in very noticeabley around f/16 so I wanted to stay around f/11-f/14.

Tuco, of course. But the problem is that 645 FA lenses don't have DOF scales on them. Since I was using the wide angle zoom FA 33-55mm, even the focus scale is not that helpful when your target is between 7ft and infinity, because these are the last two marks on the focusing-meter and no other numbers in between.

I normally memorize all the DOFs for my conventional pan-focus shooting conditions (for different focal lengths) and mark them on the lens so that I can fast-focus manually (since you can stop down only so much due to the diffraction limit and you almost always want to have sharp background(infinity), so you just need to focus at a certain distance for maximized DOF.

But I couldn't do it last night since theses lenses were new to me, so I decided to go hyperfocal and just double the distance to the nearest subject and tried to auto-focus there, which usually gives you a pretty good estimate. I did it a few times to make sure, but somehow the AF got screwed. Normally I zoom in to 100% and double check on the LCD but that wasn't working either since I didn't know what zoom rate is close to 100% (the 645d offers up to 40X magnification, which turned out to be way larger than the life-size) and the image review is so slow on this camera. Now I know that you have to keep it around 8X - 16X to get a good sense of what your 100% is going to look like. : )

Last edited by harklee; 10-07-2010 at 08:58 AM.
10-07-2010, 12:37 PM   #10
Veteran Member
pcarfan's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Dayton, Ohio
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 2,978
Thank you for sharing these images. Sorry to hear about your misfortune, hopfully you would have sorted things for the next shoot.

I wonder whether you got the new PENTAX-D FA645 55mm F2.8 lens as well, which seems to control CA much better than the older lenses.

Overall the image looks very pleasing, the rock surfaces look promising. In the second crop the water looks a little 'digitized' (possibly my computer though) and a bit of PF is visible as well.

Would love to see shots from your next shoot.
10-07-2010, 04:36 PM   #11
Pentaxian




Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Oregon
Photos: Albums
Posts: 1,435
It's not the sort of image I'd autofocus. Of course, modern lenses make DOF focusing problematic. And the long snout on most dslr's makes it tough to see the DOF scale on old lenses. Landscape and still life shooters are mostly ignored these days. It should not be too difficult to integrate DOF info into the viewfinder readouts.
10-07-2010, 04:45 PM   #12
Veteran Member




Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Lithuania
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 490
thanks for sharing
10-07-2010, 08:25 PM   #13
New Member




Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Crowley Lake, CA
Posts: 22
Dear Harklee

Your fore ground gravel etc. looks sharp. What looks out are the sea stacks and back ground. It appears that you're too front focused or that's what the AF did. I think that you would be better served, as would potential 645D purchasers, if you picked an easy, bland and boring subject that gave you hard data about the camera and lens performance. For instance, I live at Crowley Lake at 7,200 feet on the east side of the Sierra Nevada. The fall colors are going off against a foot of new snow. Diaphanous clouds are rolling across the mountains creating beautiful dappled light. But if I had just received the 645D and lens I'd be shooting pictures of the side of my house trying to know for certain that the sensor was aligned, that the camera focused repeatedly on the exact same spot at all focal lengths, that corner to corner sharpness was achieved at a certain f stop and I'd make damn sure that infinity focus indeed focused on infinity. I don't care what f stop I stopped down to. Diffraction doesn't matter in a big print. I've never seen it and I used f 32 and 45 plenty. If you need f22 you need f22. Who wants a blurry image. And you bought the 645D to make big prints, right? I only used a 4x5 because I wanted to print to 32"x 40". Otherwise I would have used a 35mm camera.

Do a sample, no jpegs, of a subject 4-6 feet away from the camera. Who cares about bokeh. When was the last time you saw an Ansel Adams image with bokeh. A bush of some sort will work well. You can look at how detail is rendered in a very difficult depth of field situation. Then do the side of a building at 30 foot distance, or a tree, or rock wall. Check corner to corner sharpness. Then check infinity focus. A mountaintop, the moon, distant buildings are good. Infinity focus is VERY important and it should not be assumed that when a lens is turned to infinity that that is where it is focused!! Lenses with infinity stops are REALLY useful.

The goal is to prove the camera and lens and sensor can do what you want them to. Craft first, and that includes equipment, then unfettered expression and creativity can follow.

I look forward to seeing meaningful tests that prove the 645D is what we hope it to be.

Claude Fiddler
Wilderness Light
10-07-2010, 09:06 PM   #14
Site Supporter
Site Supporter
Digitalis's Avatar

Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Melbourne, Victoria
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 11,694
QuoteOriginally posted by claudefiddler Quote
A bush of some sort will work well. You can look at how detail is rendered in a very difficult depth of field situation. Then do the side of a building at 30 foot distance, or a tree, or rock wall. Check corner to corner sharpness. Then check infinity focus. A mountaintop, the moon, distant buildings are good. Infinity focus is VERY important and it should not be assumed that when a lens is turned to infinity that that is where it is focused
I suggest he do the complete opposite..how many times did Ansel Adams ever photograph a wall? I would say that is extremely unlikely he tested his lenses the way you are suggesting it would be a criminal waste of time. I certainly don't obsess over the performance of my lenses. And I was taught to use an 8X10 camera by my grandfather who did his best to impress upon me the tenets of the f64 group.

what I would do is just go out and take photos that I like to create, if I came across an issue with the sensor/lens experiment, then I would learn how to control or eliminate it. I don't subscribe to doing the ridiculous amounts of "testing" people spend most of their time doing, With new lenses I just do a basic resolution,vignetting,distortion and flare test - that's all that really matters.
10-07-2010, 09:27 PM   #15
Ash
Loyal Site Supporter
Loyal Site Supporter
Ash's Avatar

Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Toowoomba, Queensland
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 23,920
I too would like to see more real world images from the 645, so thanks for this one harklee, and keep them coming!
Reply

Bookmarks
  • Submit Thread to Facebook Facebook
  • Submit Thread to Twitter Twitter
  • Submit Thread to Digg Digg
Tags - Make this thread easier to find by adding keywords to it!
645d, camera, crop, medium format, shot, sunset, time
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Getting the 645d in a few days, will provide sample pics. harklee Pentax Medium Format 8 12-09-2010 03:17 PM
645D Sample Shots Ed Hurst Pentax Medium Format 1 08-12-2010 10:25 PM
645D sample images eyedias Pentax News and Rumors 13 05-26-2010 04:32 AM
Two from tonight scott-devon Post Your Photos! 10 02-09-2009 09:25 AM
Shot some Ilford HP5 Plus (2 sample shots) CSoars Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras 15 01-12-2009 10:24 AM



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 06:45 PM. | See also: NikonForums.com, CanonForums.com part of our network of photo forums!
  • Red (Default)
  • Green
  • Gray
  • Dark
  • Dark Yellow
  • Dark Blue
  • Old Red
  • Old Green
  • Old Gray
  • Dial-Up Style
Hello! It's great to see you back on the forum! Have you considered joining the community?
register
Creating a FREE ACCOUNT takes under a minute, removes ads, and lets you post! [Dismiss]
Top