[mattb123]

Using broken ice sheets in the foreground makes a great composition. Something I rarely see. Can't be easy to hike and shoot in such extreme situations.

Thanks for sharing,
barondla

Thanks! This time it wasn't really a hike at all and my Subaru was parked 20' away. I had to do a little offroading to get here but without much snow on the ground yet it was no big deal.
I love the edges of the ice sheets and all the dynamic (yet slow motion like a glacier) movement and interaction. When the sun is low the buckled parts catch the light and I like to be around when that happens!

[TDvN57]

Last night I played around with the 645z and 80-160 FA at our local village waterfront. The seafood restaurants seen here are normally packed with people, in these times they are are almost empty.

Despite high ISO between 12k and 50k and fog the 645z delivered, again.

[dsmithhfx]

Last night I played around with the 465z and 80-160 FA at our local village waterfront. The seafood restaurants seen here are normally packed with people, in these times they are are almost empty. Despite high ISO and fog the 645z delivered, again.

Great colors!

[maxloxton]

The Desert ramblings continues.

Pentax 645z + 200mm + .9 GND

[dsmithhfx]

You guys are killing it.

[kaseki]

Last night I played around with the 645z and 80-160 FA at our local village waterfront. The seafood restaurants seen here are normally packed with people, in these times they are are almost empty.

Despite high ISO between 12k and 50k and fog the 645z delivered, again.

Thanks for entombing my film-bred high ISO fears. Very nice.

[TDvN57]

Thanks for entombing my film-bred high ISO fears. Very nice.

I share that fear. I still remember going to my cousins wedding and decided to test out the then new kodak 1000 iso film. Can't remember what it was called. Turns out the wedding photographer was a friend of the groom and messed up his exposures. They asked me if I had any pictures... Well my experience with the 1000iso was underwhelming. A disaster may describe it better, had to dunk them all. They ended up without wedding pictures.

With the 645z it took me a while to trust the higher iso and was forced to push my inner boundaries when we went to see the northern lights a few years ago. Hardly did any night shots of the lights below 25k. The learning curve was steep and the one week opportunity to take pictures forced me to learn a mixture of good and bad habits. Add they say there is the 'right way' and the 'wrong way' and then there is 'my way'.

That was the only time I wished I had a f1.x wide angle/fish eye lens for the 645. I used the 28-45 which is f4.5! Actually I still think a wide angle large aperture lens is appropriate, and you certainly don't need shake reduction on it, maybe not even auto focus. For example: I have a 12mm fish eye for my KP and is manual focus. Hardly ever use the focus at all, just turn it to infinity and everything from a meter to infinity is in focus.

These pictures were all taken at 50k between 1 and 2 seconds exposure. Pse excuse the poor composition and other bad stuff, I need to go back to do a retake and fix all that....

[RICHARD L.]

I finally found and dusted my 67 M* 75 mm f/2.8 AL lens. I will try it outside on the 645Z as soon as I can.

While browsing on eBay yesterday evening, I saw a late-model 67 M 500 mm f/5.6 in excellent condition sold for 300 $ in Japan. FedEx should deliver it to my house around Dec 15. It looks like a "long pipe" with a 95 mm diameter, weighs over 3 Kg (about 7 pounds) and has a built-in retractable sunshade. It is an older design "telephoto" lens with only 4 elements in 4 groups. I hope I can manage this elephantine monster without too much trouble. It will be my longest lens, equivalent to 400 mm on the 645Z (you know, 500 mm X 0.8 = 400 mm in FF equivalent). Another project for the new year. I hope I won't be disappointed by its imaging performance.

Regards

[texandrews]

I finally found and dusted my 67 M* 75 mm f/2.8 AL lens. I will try it outside on the 645Z as soon as I can.

While browsing on eBay yesterday evening, I saw a late-model 67 M 500 mm f/5.6 in excellent condition sold for 300 $ in Japan. FedEx should deliver it to my house around Dec 15. It looks like a "long pipe" with a 95 mm diameter, weighs over 3 Kg (about 7 pounds) and has a built-in retractable sunshade. It is an older design "telephoto" lens with only 4 elements in 4 groups. I hope I can manage this elephantine monster without too much trouble. It will be my longest lens, equivalent to 400 mm on the 645Z (you know, 500 mm X 0.8 = 400 mm in FF equivalent). Another project for the new year. I hope I won't be disappointed by its imaging performance.

Regards

Yeah, but did you remember to get the ammunition for that bazooka? I hear ammunition is hard to come by recently, at least in the u.s....

[kaseki]

I share that fear. I still remember going to my cousins wedding and decided to test out the then new kodak 1000 iso film. Can't remember what it was called. Turns out the wedding photographer was a friend of the groom and messed up his exposures. They asked me if I had any pictures... Well my experience with the 1000iso was underwhelming. A disaster may describe it better, had to dunk them all. They ended up without wedding pictures.

With the 645z it took me a while to trust the higher iso and was forced to push my inner boundaries when we went to see the northern lights a few years ago. Hardly did any night shots of the lights below 25k. The learning curve was steep and the one week opportunity to take pictures forced me to learn a mixture of good and bad habits. Add they say there is the 'right way' and the 'wrong way' and then there is 'my way'.

That was the only time I wished I had a f1.x wide angle/fish eye lens for the 645. I used the 28-45 which is f4.5! Actually I still think a wide angle large aperture lens is appropriate, and you certainly don't need shake reduction on it, maybe not even auto focus. For example: I have a 12mm fish eye for my KP and is manual focus. Hardly ever use the focus at all, just turn it to infinity and everything from a meter to infinity is in focus.

These pictures were all taken at 50k between 1 and 2 seconds exposure. Pse excuse the poor composition and other bad stuff, I need to go back to do a retake and fix all that....

We can imagine scaling up the KP fisheye to 'z' size by multiplying every optical parameter (except the glass indices of refraction) by a ratio of the diagonals:

sqrt[33^2 + 44^2] / sqrt[24^2 + 36^2] = 55/43 = 1.27

Focal length would grow to 15 mm. F/no would stay the same. Blur circle would grow by 1.27. Weight would grow roughly as the cube, or X 2. Back focus would also grow by 1.27, and might still be inappropriate for the flange distance of the 'z.' I think low f/no wide angle lens assemblies need field flattening close to the sensor plane. Is the KP 12mm fish eye f/1.x?

The 30mm f/3.5 ARSAT f/no is 1.8x the sensor diagonal to focal length, so I imagine a lower f/no fisheye doubling in transverse dimensions to get to f/1.75. I think the exit glass would encroach on the flange diameter, and in any case the ARSAT's optical configuration cannot be grown in aperture without growing in focal length, or glass would overlap glass.

[RICHARD L.]

Yeah, but did you remember to get the ammunition for that bazooka?

Ha ha ! You're funny.

My only "ammunition" will be a 33 X 44 sensor. I hope this lens is like all the others I bought in Japan and that it has good contrast and sharpness. It has a tripod mount, looks all shiny and the glass is crystal-clear. I can always use the 2 sec delay mechanism on the 645Z to prevent vibrations but my 028 Manfrotto tripod has been tremendously reliable (like using the 67 M* 300 mm f/4 + 67 2X converter on my 645N to photograph snow geese in the film era).

Regards

[tuco]

Shooting up a roll of E100 before my mixed E-6 kit gets too old.

Pentax 67, 67 105mm, #1 Ext Tube, Ektachrome E100, Tetenal Colortec E-6 kit





Develop before July 1967. I think I should have added another stop of DOF.
67 M* 300mm ED IF.

[barondla]

Last night I played around with the 645z and 80-160 FA at our local village waterfront. The seafood restaurants seen here are normally packed with people, in these times they are are almost empty.

Despite high ISO between 12k and 50k and fog the 645z delivered, again.

Amazing quality! Never tried the Z last ISO 6400. Your images are motivating me to do so.
Did you use any noise reduction in post processing? The colors are fabulous.

Thanks for sharing,
barondla

[TDvN57]

Amazing quality! Never tried the Z last ISO 6400. Your images are motivating me to do so.
Did you use any noise reduction in post processing? The colors are fabulous.

Thanks for sharing,
barondla

You have to do some noise cancelling, that would be inevitable I suppose. I found the review pictures on PF for the 645z in-depth review. You can download the RAW files and extract the noise cancelling settings. I use that as a staring point and I also set the color profile to "Adobe Color" to avoid over-saturation which causes more noise. I Keep the saturation settings to a minimum and also adjust the White Balance until a find a setting that works with the picture and reduces noise. Usually it is close to the "As Shot " setting.

[BorisKolo]