[texandrews]

Well tomorrow I'm hopefully meeting with a rep to chat about some of the issues I feel are at the forefront with the 645z.
I've narrowed it down to my top five.

1. Chromatic aberrations on the lenses, I can accept some of the older ones but the brand new 55mm is one of the worst offenders

not an issue for me at this time---using all old glass. I agree that this should not be an issue on your new lens!

2. AF is near useless. Can I be the only one who finds the sensor zone too small and the AF system/controls way over complicated. It is also not accurate enough to be usable.

Again, not issue for me. I am trying to leave AF behind for the most part. OTOH, I am sort of amazed that the 3 FA lenses I have work as well as they do.

3. Why is there a wait time between firing the shutter and the ability to change the ss or aperture?

An annoyance for me, if I even notice. You may be guessing I have the 645Z for slow photography. I wonder if you have expected too much of it.

4. Tethering option

Ummm, yeah, where the hell is it? We're waiting.

5. Auto gain on LiveView. You can't over ride the exposure in LV so you can focus on contrasty subjects.

Yup, bad deal. I don't have this problem on my A7R. What's the deal here, seems stupid that it can't be turned off----especially with this camera!

Any comments?

General "not ready for prime time" support issues in North America, U.S. at least, lack of availability of extras, like focus screens, & etc; pro support; advertising and marketing; AWOL at Photo Expo in NYC this past week, & etc. C'mon, let's go, Ricoh.

thanks
Rob

Thank you. One of my best and oldest (1975)friends is the Pentax idependent rep in the U.S. mid-Atlantic. She'll be getting my list---but she just started in the spring, so she's new.

[672]

I only know about getting rid of magenta and green CA with software. Never had any luck with purple. What software are you using to get rid of purple ?

The DFA lenses that I have , 55, 90 and 28-45 all have some CA and they are all pretty crap wide open. I start to like them closed down two stops. The 90 is the best lens by far IMO. But the darkened edges or center bright spot at 2.8 is pretty embarrassing.

Now if we could just get some Zeiss OTUS for P645 mount and image circle.........

[Ed Hurst]

The main issue for me with the system is the lack of professional support. I live in Australia - no Pentax presence (all outsourced), no ability to do full repairs in country (gets sent to Japan for ages), no loaners, etc.. Very frustrating for a camera system at this level.

[Victor Wolansky]

Live view auto gain is a huge problem for studio products photography, makes me want to return the camera.. If it were not because of the need I have fot the high resolution, and the good quality, I would already sent it back.

[rcdurston]

My meeting went well.
Its a new camera, launched by a company that is relatively new to this field (MFD), with evolving firmware and hardware.
Going back to my problems, point by point.

1. Chromatic aberrations on the lenses, I can accept some of the older ones but the brand new 55mm is one of the worst offenders
They will look more closely at my files and let me know. They suspect it might be the lens (not sure how he guessed at it, but okay).

2. AF is near useless. Can I be the only one who finds the sensor zone too small and the AF system/controls way over complicated. It is also not accurate enough to be usable.
Their reply, "look at the other MFD's AF systems". Ya, this is better but why compare yourself to them. Just give me 8-12 good AF points spread out across the frame. I don't need 27 points all jumbled in the centre.
We agree to disagree and come to the conclusion that LV using focus peaking is the best focus solution.

3. Why is there a wait time between firing the shutter and the ability to change the ss or aperture?
Hmmmmm, we'll look in that (while writing it in his little Ricoh notebook).

4. Tethering option
See my new thread Image Transmitter 2 preview

5. Auto gain on LiveView. You can't over ride the exposure in LV so you can focus on contrasty subjects.
It took a while for him to grasp the seriousness of this but after a few different lighting scenarios he agreed there is a problem there. I told him to look at Canon and Nikon for LV systems that work.


All in all it was a success I feel.
If I have any professional issues with the camera, I can contact him and he will make sure I'm not without a system while mine is in for service.



Rob

[texandrews]

Well done.

[Victor Wolansky]

My meeting went well.
Its a new camera, launched by a company that is relatively new to this field (MFD), with evolving firmware and hardware.
Going back to my problems, point by point.

1. Chromatic aberrations on the lenses, I can accept some of the older ones but the brand new 55mm is one of the worst offenders
They will look more closely at my files and let me know. They suspect it might be the lens (not sure how he guessed at it, but okay).

2. AF is near useless. Can I be the only one who finds the sensor zone too small and the AF system/controls way over complicated. It is also not accurate enough to be usable.
Their reply, "look at the other MFD's AF systems". Ya, this is better but why compare yourself to them. Just give me 8-12 good AF points spread out across the frame. I don't need 27 points all jumbled in the centre.
We agree to disagree and come to the conclusion that LV using focus peaking is the best focus solution.

3. Why is there a wait time between firing the shutter and the ability to change the ss or aperture?
Hmmmmm, we'll look in that (while writing it in his little Ricoh notebook).

4. Tethering option
See my new thread Image Transmitter 2 preview

5. Auto gain on LiveView. You can't over ride the exposure in LV so you can focus on contrasty subjects.
It took a while for him to grasp the seriousness of this but after a few different lighting scenarios he agreed there is a problem there. I told him to look at Canon and Nikon for LV systems that work.


All in all it was a success I feel.
If I have any professional issues with the camera, I can contact him and he will make sure I'm not without a system while mine is in for service.



Rob

if you have a chance to talk to him again, please mention that we need extension tubes for the macro lenses, they are discontinued and pretty hard to get, and very important for people that does jewelry photography like me.

Thanks!!!!! I hope they really hear you.

[rawr]

The more you try to dial it up and feather it out

How are you working it? Lightroom? LR can be very precise about dealing with fringing, I've found, having used some lenses that fringe a LOT worse than your 55

Also when you say 'tight crop' for those images, do you mean 100% or more? The width of the fringe seems only a couple of pixels.

---------- Post added 2014-11-07 at 12:46 PM ----------

no Pentax presence (all outsourced) no ability to do full repairs in country (gets sent to Japan for ages), no loaners, etc..

Outsourced is a modern phrase and perhaps not the right one. CRK have been representing Pentax in Australia continuously since the 1950's, and there are lots of examples on this forum of people having good service experiences with them, going back to Spotmatic days. Some forum members even seem to have a direct line to Clem Kennedy sometimes, and he always seems responsive. If any 645 issues crop up for you, go directly to the top would be my suggestion.

Channels of communication with professionals could always be improved, no doubt. Since CRK service Hasselblad in Australia as well, it's not like they have no experience with MF pros.

As an aside, I saw a notification a while ago (I think on the Pentax PH Facebook page) that the actual 645D/Z service location for major repairs is a facility Ricoh have set up for that purpose at the Cebu factory in the Philippines where the 645Z is made. Not Japan.

[Ed Hurst]

While I am not in any way doubting others' positive experiences, let me explain that my view of the standards of support from CR Kennedy's outsourced service in Australia is based on hard, personal experience.

I have owned a 645D since 2010. In 2012, the camera developed/revealed a fault with the sensor, causing an annoying line to appear down the middle of images shot on higher ISOs. CR Kennedy decided, after having the camera for several weeks, during which I could not get any response about what was happening, that they could not fix the problem. They told me that they had to send the camera to Japan (at the time, that was what they clearly said on numerous occasions) because the problem was beyond their local capability to investigate or repair. No estimate was forthcoming on how long I could expect the repair to take. Months passed. Not just weeks - months. In that time, I heard nothing. I chased them repeatedly by phone and email and frequently received no reply. Not just a fob off, but simply no reply. Eventually I escalated and lost my patience, at which point I got a reply that consisted of them saying "We have no way of finding out how long it will take. It's Japan, their English is not very good, we can't understand each other, you will just have to wait until it arrives." Eventually the camera appeared, by which time I had been without it for a very long time - without even any explanation of what was going on or when, roughly, I might expect it back. I never received an apology or any acknowledgement that what happened was in any way unacceptable or odd. I have spoken with other customers who have had the same experience.

So, before telling me that this is not outsourcing or that service is very good, please take these experiences into account. I simply do not believe that if Pentax/Ricoh had full local capabilities enabling them to do the full range of repairs, that this experience would have been the same - which is why I emphasise the outsourcing issue, which seems like a real problem to me. You can characterise my experience as an isolated example, but I assure you (from others' experiences) that it is not. The existence of loaners would have made this problem vanish - but there are none. Altogether far from satisfactory for a 10k camera.

Perhaps, now that the 645Z has been launched, that somehow service has improved. I hope so - but remain to be convinced. After such a bad experience, I think my caution and concern is justified. The onus is on Pentax/Ricoh to prove that it has been fixed. That means the ability to fix everything within Australia, with full explanation of what is going on, sensible time estimates, reliable replies to calls/emails and, ideally, loaners. If all of that is happening, let's see the evidence.

[Martelli]

As an aside, I saw a notification a while ago (I think on the Pentax PH Facebook page) that the actual 645D/Z service location for major repairs is a facility Ricoh have set up for that purpose at the Cebu factory in the Philippines where the 645Z is made. Not Japan.

I have been to Cebu in the Philippines many times as my father used to live there. I know exactly where the Pentax factory is (Mactan Island, close to Cebu airport) although I was never inside. I can say that if your camera was being repaired there, you might have a better experience than if it was repaired in Japan. Every Filipino speaks very good English and they are very service oriented.

I found this funny (not meant to be) Pentax film from their factory in Cebu.

You Tube

You Tube

[robertchow999]

I have been to Cebu in the Philippines many times as my father used to live there. I know exactly where the Pentax factory is (Mactan Island, close to Cebu airport) although I was never inside. I can say that if your camera was being repaired there, you might have a better experience than if it was repaired in Japan. Every Filipino speaks very good English and they are very service oriented.

I found this funny (not meant to be) Pentax film from their factory in Cebu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNYHhj5hmzg

That's it, I 'm sending all my cameras to Cebu right now. Now if I can just think up a problem for them to fix.

[rawr]

After such a bad experience, I think my caution and concern is justified.

Of course. You are right to have felt badly done by. Your experience seems like sloppy and indifferent customer service and support of the worst sort. I really hope it isn't something that we see again.

I found the bit about CRK staff 'not speaking Japanese' a funny excuse, if that's what they offered at the time. Somewhere else I've read that most of the senior CRK people are fluent in Japanese, since they manage so many Japanese brands in Australia (Sigma, Pentax, Slik, Elmo, Kenko, Tokina etc).

The main problem I have with CRK is not support related per se, but their tendency to maintain very lean inventories, it seems, of stuff like lenses (and by the sound of it bodies too sometimes). If it ain't in country, you can wait a frustratingly long time sometimes (months for me in one case with a Pentax lens) before it turns up in Australia via a CRK container.

[ru2far2c]

My meeting went well.
Its a new camera, launched by a company that is relatively new to this field (MFD), with evolving firmware and hardware.
Going back to my problems, point by point.

1. Chromatic aberrations on the lenses, I can accept some of the older ones but the brand new 55mm is one of the worst offenders
They will look more closely at my files and let me know. They suspect it might be the lens (not sure how he guessed at it, but okay).

2. AF is near useless. Can I be the only one who finds the sensor zone too small and the AF system/controls way over complicated. It is also not accurate enough to be usable.
Their reply, "look at the other MFD's AF systems". Ya, this is better but why compare yourself to them. Just give me 8-12 good AF points spread out across the frame. I don't need 27 points all jumbled in the centre.
We agree to disagree and come to the conclusion that LV using focus peaking is the best focus solution.

3. Why is there a wait time between firing the shutter and the ability to change the ss or aperture?
Hmmmmm, we'll look in that (while writing it in his little Ricoh notebook).

4. Tethering option
See my new thread Image Transmitter 2 preview

5. Auto gain on LiveView. You can't over ride the exposure in LV so you can focus on contrasty subjects.
It took a while for him to grasp the seriousness of this but after a few different lighting scenarios he agreed there is a problem there. I told him to look at Canon and Nikon for LV systems that work.


All in all it was a success I feel.
If I have any professional issues with the camera, I can contact him and he will make sure I'm not without a system while mine is in for service.



Rob

Glad to hear the meeting went well. Another system to look at for auto focus points is fuji x's. They cover even more area than Canon or Nikon and I have use both extensively. The CA is a concern especially when one is looking to get into this system. Since Ricoh is one the smaller players on the block right now let hope the improvement will show up in their next body. It seem they are where FF 35mm were a few years ago, In the long run it's all good for us. Let hope they listen as Fuji has listen to customers with improvements to their system.
May not be bad idea to invite a pentax/ricoh rep to join the MF forum for feed back etc, unless they are already here.

[rawr]

for auto focus points is fuji x's. They cover even more area than Canon or Nikon

Why raise Fuji. Not as many as Sony (eg A6000)

[monty]

rcdurston, it must be the lens. I have no ca at all. But I must say, I have the second body now and also second 55mm lens, and I "feel" that there is a difference between the bodies ... can´t compare because the first one was stolen, but the actual body seems to be more "stable" ... can´complain about the service in Germany, been to Hamburg once and they were very kind and efficient ...