[daveburdickphoto]

Hi everyone, I'm a landscape photographer that is considering a move from Canon to Pentax. I currently shoot with the 5DSR, which is an amazing camera, but has its limitations. After renting a 645z, I'm hooked! I rented the camera with the 28-45 f4.5 lens, which was super sharp and amazing all around. It's also spendy and heavy.

I was looking into other lenses which would be ideal for landscapes, and have a reputation for being extremely sharp, excellent color, and have overall excellent quality. Based on my own research, and the lens reviews on this site, it seems like the 35mm 3.5 and 55mm 2.8. Also, despite the cost, the 90mm 2.8 seems impressive.

With a focus on landscape photography, what lenses do people recommend?

Read more at: Landscape lenses for 645z - PentaxForums.com

[ProfessorBuzz]

I'm extremely happy with the 35mm f/3.5 and it gets the most use. I have the other two (55 and 90) but the 35mm is the one that seems to spark joy.

[daveburdickphoto]

I'm extremely happy with the 35mm f/3.5 and it gets the most use. I have the other two (55 and 90) but the 35mm is the one that seems to spark joy.

ProfessorBuzz which version of the 35mm 3.5 do you own?

[Alex645]

After renting a 645z, I'm hooked! I rented the camera with the 28-45 f4.5 lens, which was super sharp and amazing all around. It's also spendy and heavy.

I was looking into other lenses which would be ideal for landscapes, and have a reputation for being extremely sharp, excellent color, and have overall excellent quality. Based on my own research, and the lens reviews on this site, it seems like the 35mm 3.5 and 55mm 2.8. Also, despite the cost, the 90mm 2.8 seems impressive.

With a focus on landscape photography, what lenses do people recommend?

For sure the 28-45mm zoom is "spendy & heavy" but it's an ideal landscape lens because:
a) It has the widest focal length.
b) It is an All Weather sealed lens.
c) Extra low dispersion elements.
d) HD and Aero Bright coatings.

The 645 35mm is one of my favorite lenses, but I use it on a 645N film format that gives me a wider angle of view than it would on the 645Z.

Really any lens can work for landscapes; it all depends on your style. For those that love compression, 400mm is their preference. The 90mm is really nice, especially if you're into macro (and nice for portraits too).

Currently there are 16 Pentax new 645 lenses available (12 FA, 1 DA, 3 D-FA) and of those only a few are AW or have ED glass. If you're going for the quality of medium format, don't compromise with weight or cost. It's a lifetime investment unless you compromise and then have to upgrade later.

All my medium format was more expensive than I could afford at the time, but over the decades I've gotten the mileage, reliability, and results that have been well worth what I paid; no regrets!

---

Last edited by Alex645; 10-30-2020 at 12:18 PM.

[blackcloudbrew]

For the z, I think you are right in the zone for landscapes. I love the DFA 645 28-45 for a lot of things. I have, and use the FA 645 35, but I've found that with the 28-45 around, the 35 just doesn't get enough use. I friend of mine who also shoots landscapes uses the DFA 90 to very good effect and also has the almost impossible to find DFA 25. After breaking the bank for the 28-45, I went a bit cheaper and use the FA 645 80-160 for longer shots, not quite as good as the DFA 90 but not bad either. Lastly, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the DFA 645 55 lens and I carry it when I need a bit more length than the 28-45.

I will say that last Fall, I spent about 5 days in the California eastern Sierra Nevada shooting my 645z the 28-45 almost never left the camera. Here are a couple of examples from that shoot.



Anyway, I hope you make the switch to the z.

Oh, follow up thought. Please do visit the lens review section on the forum. While clearly the grades given to lenses tend to always be a bit inflated, both the member reviews, and the indepth reviews are very useful in understanding this or that lens.

[RICHARD L.]

Pentax 67 late lenses are not bad either (67 55-100 mm f/4.5 zoom, 67 75 mm f/2.8 AL, 67 105 mm f/2.4, 67 100 mm f/4 MACRO, 67 200 mm f/4 and 67 M* 300 mm f/4) . Most are heavy and have no autofocus but plenty of sharpness and automatic exposure in Av mode with the appropriate Pentax adapter. Color palette is true-to-life. They're hard to beat and some sell "used" for peanuts these days. Worth exploring before committing any money on the Pentax 645 digital system. Check the 67 Lens Reviews Section on this Forum. Personally, I also absolutely love my little 645 FA 33-55 mm f/4.5 zoom.

Regards

67 M 200 mm f/4

67 M 200 mm f/4

67 M 55-100 mm f/4.5 (75 mm)

67 M 55-100 mm f/4.5 (55 mm)

67 M 55-100 mm f/4.5 (100 mm)


67 M* 300 mm f/4

[interested_observer]

Evening, About 18 months ago I stumbled across a Scottish landscape photographer on youtube, Ewan Dunsmuir - who shoots commercially down in New Zealand. He uses a Pentax 645Z, although awhile back, his local camera shop lent him a Fuji GFX 100 to try out (and he shot a commercial for Fuji), he is still shooting the 645Z since it is more attuned to his overall personal workflow.

Very little of his content is about gear, 99.999% is about shooting technique, composition, coloring, timing (morning sunrise, late afternoon/evening sunset), shadow casting, locations, etc., etc., etc. He only does a single video per month, but it's the overall production quality, along with his story telling that hooked me. You can get a sense of the lenses he uses from the meta data he posts for the images he features on his videos. He has a small following, and he welcomes questions. He is VERY personable and engaging - and his images are stunning.

A couple of his videos - which actually hooked me, was when he lost his "mojo". Nothing was working for him. His images were not up to his standards and he didn't know what he was doing wrong or how to fix anything. However, a couple of days later National Geographic contacted him about using one of his images.

Anyway, his technique is a bit different from most - he really does not go wide angle, but prefers to shoot a tad bit longer while shooting 2 to 4 frame wide panoramas, in order to capture a higher level of detail with better sharpness. This complements his end results, which are images that are printed very large in limited edition fine art prints.

• Ewan Dunsmuir Images - YouTube

• Ewan Dunsmuir Images | Photographer

Hope that helps,

[TDvN57]

Evening, About 18 months ago I stumbled across a Scottish landscape photographer on youtube, Ewan Dunsmuir - who shoots commercially down in New Zealand. He uses a Pentax 645Z, although awhile back, his local camera shop lent him a Fuji GFX 100 to try out (and he shot a commercial for Fuji), he is still shooting the 645Z since it is more attuned to his overall personal workflow.

Very little of his content is about gear, 99.999% is about shooting technique, composition, coloring, timing (morning sunrise, late afternoon/evening sunset), shadow casting, locations, etc., etc., etc. He only does a single video per month, but it's the overall production quality, along with his story telling that hooked me. You can get a sense of the lenses he uses from the meta data he posts for the images he features on his videos. He has a small following, and he welcomes questions. He is VERY personable and engaging - and his images are stunning.

A couple of his videos - which actually hooked me, was when he lost his "mojo". Nothing was working for him. His images were not up to his standards and he didn't know what he was doing wrong or how to fix anything. However, a couple of days later National Geographic contacted him about using one of his images.

Anyway, his technique is a bit different from most - he really does not go wide angle, but prefers to shoot a tad bit longer while shooting 2 to 4 frame wide panoramas, in order to capture a higher level of detail with better sharpness. This complements his end results, which are images that are printed very large in limited edition fine art prints.

• Ewan Dunsmuir Images - YouTube

• Ewan Dunsmuir Images | Photographer

Hope that helps,

Very nice work by him. Thank you for sharing.

[bratzmahn]

Evening, About 18 months ago I stumbled across a Scottish landscape photographer on youtube, Ewan Dunsmuir - who shoots commercially down in New Zealand. He uses a Pentax 645Z, although awhile back, his local camera shop lent him a Fuji GFX 100 to try out (and he shot a commercial for Fuji), he is still shooting the 645Z since it is more attuned to his overall personal workflow.

Very little of his content is about gear, 99.999% is about shooting technique, composition, coloring, timing (morning sunrise, late afternoon/evening sunset), shadow casting, locations, etc., etc., etc. He only does a single video per month, but it's the overall production quality, along with his story telling that hooked me. You can get a sense of the lenses he uses from the meta data he posts for the images he features on his videos. He has a small following, and he welcomes questions. He is VERY personable and engaging - and his images are stunning.

A couple of his videos - which actually hooked me, was when he lost his "mojo". Nothing was working for him. His images were not up to his standards and he didn't know what he was doing wrong or how to fix anything. However, a couple of days later National Geographic contacted him about using one of his images.

Anyway, his technique is a bit different from most - he really does not go wide angle, but prefers to shoot a tad bit longer while shooting 2 to 4 frame wide panoramas, in order to capture a higher level of detail with better sharpness. This complements his end results, which are images that are printed very large in limited edition fine art prints.

• Ewan Dunsmuir Images - YouTube

• Ewan Dunsmuir Images | Photographer

Hope that helps,

Thanks for mentioning this excellent photographer!
...and of course, I think he was the last nudge for me to buy a used 645z!
I live not in such beuatiful landscape, but I try to make the most out of it...
So down below are some examples which I have taken with the 645z and the FA45-85! A very fine lens which is easy to get and for low prices! I also get me a used DA 25mm f4 lens - very rare and built for only a short time. Further I own the FA 120mm macro lens (also good for landscape photography) and the FA 80-160mm. Except the 25mm they are not weathersealed. Maybe you can start with one of these lenses...?

First shot: smc PENTAX-FA645 45-85mm F4.5 @75mm, f20 ISO100, 0,6s
2.shot: Pano, smc PENTAX-FA645 45-85mm F4.5 @45mm, f20, ISO100, 1/20s
3.shot: smc PENTAX-FA645 80-160mm F4.5 @160mm, f20, ISO100, 1/40s

[universalfocus]

I live not in such beuatiful landscape, but I try to make the most out of it...

They´re pretty good! You also got a few lakes in your area, which could make some good locations for shooting waterscapes and sky pictures.


I´d have to drive two hours to get into open land, so I can´t do landscape as often as I wish too.

[interested_observer]

Very nice work by him. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks for mentioning this excellent photographer!
...and of course, I think he was the last nudge for me to buy a used 645z!
I live not in such beuatiful landscape, but I try to make the most out of it...
......

Morning All,

I was really drawn to his work. I'm 70 and will probably never get a 645. Several years ago I acquired a K1 and that will probably be my last camera. In reality, it's all the camera I will really need (well unless I'm shooting in absolute pitch black night, with no moon, capturing foreground landscapes for the Milky Way, and then you can always use a bit more.....)

I've somewhat drifted away from wide angle per say - and started shooting a bit longer but in panos. I saw that his approach was very similar - but only he does it better, much better and has a much better eye and sense of composition. At least he has the common sense to shoot when there is light out - that makes a big difference. He also seeks out good light (as opposed to no light).

I find that shooting longer but wider (with stitching) frees you up from needing the immediate foreground, and lets you pull in more of the details in the mid distances (which makes your images sharper). Rather than trying to squeeze more scene into your fixed frame (the sensor), you are capturing the scene through the addition of pixels. I ran across a video of a photographer shooting a famous bridge in Paris, who shot it once with a wide angle lens to squeeze the entire length of the bridge in to the frame, then shot it again at 50mm stitched. Two completely different images - with the stitched one the better of the two.

Also, I believe that this technique complements the larger medium format sensor. The K5, K1 and the 645Z each have similar pixel sizes. The larger sensors (40 to 50mp FF and 100mp MF) with larger resolutions, has smaller/finer pixel sizes - which can result in finer details, which pushes needs higher resolution lenses (at much higher cost$). By going slightly longer in focal length, you are acquiring the finer details with increased sharpness, via the larger pixels - and can also user older vintage lenses with the older optical qualities and character that the new digital lenses (more clinical) tend to loose (by their design).

After growing up in California - I'm now out in the Arizona desert. I too think that - if only I was back in California, a beach, a harbor - boats and ships, a seascape, an inland valley opening up to the sea, or up in Seattle with some islands. I'm finding that your every day surroundings tends to really blind you to what everyone else sees. You loose the sense of what potential your local area offers. I go out at night, especially during the summer since it's so darn hot out (120 during the day).

I also use to go out and shoot night cityscapes with some architecture - but sort of drifted away from that too. I just need to get out shooting more.....

[daveburdickphoto]

Thank you everyone for the recommendations, this is all great information! I'm really excited to get my hands on the 645z and start creating!

[RICHARD L.]

[w2ck]

Hi,

I think I might have to get me one of those 33-55s.

Stan

[barondla]

Hi,

I think I might have to get me one of those 33-55s.

Stan

They aren't as easy to find now. Both of the US used dealers I watch, have had very few to none in the last 2 months. Haven't looked on the bay yet. Good luck.

Thanks,
barondla