[Sandy Hancock]

The Pentax 645z is the best still camera I have ever used

Forgive me if it has already been linked.

[gavincato]

Agree. I'll be writing a similar review on my site soon after 2-3 more weddings.

[jpzk]

The Pentax 645z is the best still camera I have ever used

Forgive me if it has already been linked.

Excellent review.
I bet this guy probably bought one for himself after returning it to Ricoh/Pentax.

[PiDicus Rex]

I saw the same review linked on the Ricoh Imaging fb page.

The author did like the camera alright, except,...

4) The video quality is downright awful. Firstly, if the camera is moving at all during capture, you are going to get some crazy wild vibration on a level I’ve never seen before in any other camera. It’s as if the sensor itself is vibrating slightly, in addition to the vibrations you get from simply walking, making hand held footage utterly impossible. This would be ok if tripoded footage looked any better, but unfortunately it doesn’t. Textures are muddy, quality feels “dated” and blacks are utterly crushed. The video dynamic range was rather bad, and it’s not something I would ever shoot with. This is unfortunate, because I believe there is quite a bit to be excited about when it comes to medium format video. The Pentax, sadly, isn’t going to be the source of that excitement. The only reason I care about this, as I would have never shot video with the camera to begin with, is that it is a major selling point of the 645z for Pentax. If the video features weren’t so up-played by the marketing, I would not hold it against the camera. Unfortunately, if it’s going to be touted as a selling point, I must judge it as harshly as I judge any of the other features.

Given is was posted on their own fb page, maybe Ricoh will start to take notice of where all the SLR based models are failing.

[Sandy Hancock]

Given is was posted on their own fb page, maybe Ricoh will start to take notice of where all the SLR based models are failing.

No one buys a medium format camera for its video capability....

[Giklab]

No one buys a medium format camera for its video capability....

Oh really? Noone bought medium format cameras for video because they DID NOT HAVE video. As said in the review, this feature was hyped a lot.

I love it how every time something sucks on a Pentax, there's somebody that comes out with "Well, you don't buy [xyz] for [feature]".

[Sandy Hancock]

Noone bought medium format cameras for video because they DID NOT HAVE video.

It appears you understood my point. The 645z has the best video of any medium format camera ever

[Kolor-Pikker]

Nice review and there are a few things I'd like to comment on:

- "it's very easy to use" I agree with this, but like any new camera you still have to learn to "feel" the way it operates before you start taking risks, for instance with the 55mm lens I regularly used 1/125th SS to ensure sharp images for months, but yesterday I took a shot at 1/60th and lo and behold it was sharp too, whereas early on I struggled even at 1/160th.

Cons:
1. Button placement does seem weird coming from a Canon to me, but often there will be things like in point #2 (which I'm ashamed to say fell victim to as well for my first dozen images) that can be fixed to some degree if you know how to use the firmware. For instance, in any mode that controls either aperture or shutter speed automatically, you can configure the inactive dial to control ISO instead, so having to press the top button for ISO is only a problem in M mode.

3. If they had used the 645D before the Z, the latter would feel positively lighting fast in comparison, as on the D you could wait 3+ seconds to see the image review. With 51mp at 3fps, do realize that the Z is processing way more data than any other DSLR, but if you want the preview to pop up a little faster, you can always switch off the histogram.

4. I fall into the camp that thinks that the live view is only in this camera for the 16x magnification - for $8,500 you could buy a very decent 4K RAW camcorder that will blow away any rigged DSLR in features and image quality. I still hope that Pentax makes the video better, but I'm not too concerned about it personally.

5. Touch a tilt-screen and... it'll tilt. I would much rather have had a joystick rather than the directional buttons, as it would make placing the focus/zoom point in LV easier as well as when reviewing images.

My own cons:
1. Live view doesn't allow user to set auto brightness or exposure simulation per exposure mode, instead exposure sim is locked to M and X, all others are auto.

2. In exposure simulation, the metering system prevents the displayed exposure from exceeding +-5EV, whereas on a Canon it is unlocked.

3. In live view, the focus box disappears when you're in manual focus, but it would be convenient to be able to set the zoom/metering point freely even when using legacy/adapted lenses in manual focus.