I had the opportunity to get a hold of a 645Z early on and did a test using the Z mounted with a FA645 150mm 2.8 lens for some beauty shots. All test images were taken in a studio and the lighting used was a Broncolor Scoro battery pack (very stable and accurate color) using clamshell lighting with a Para 88 overhead and a small Broncolor soft box for fill on the lower, and a third rim light from behind. In my limited time with the Z, I quickly solidified my opinion that this camera has a lot to love. It's functionality, handling and ease of use for a medium format is unprecedented. I was pleased with the focusing and even the couple of lens I used exceeded my expectations (I frequently use Hasselblad lenses which never disappoint IMO so I was concerned about the IQ of the Pentax lenses. The performance of the 150mm and 55mm laid my fears to rest). My initial motivation for the test was to see how the Z would stack up to my Hassy CCD medium format, specifically regarding skin tones, color accuracy and that magic tone that CCD's tend to have. In spite of the overwhelmingly number of positives that I encountered with the 645z, I did experience a great deal of frustration in one area, color balance. No matter what adjustments I made, the skin tones were not accurate. When I tweaked the color temperature to favor the skin, the background went way off. If I adjusted the temperature to get the background accurate, the skin tones seemed to suffer. No matter what I did, I could not get both the background and skin tones to be true to life color, especially both at the same time. Thus, I set it on Auto WB and figured I would sort it out in post. When I shoot with the Hassy, the color is spot on for both the background and skin tones, both at the same time, with little or no fuss at all. With that said, I was able to make the anticipated adjustments in post and although it took some extra work, I was very pleased with the end results. Again, there is a lot to like about the 645Z. Lastly, I'm not sure if my frustration with the color accuracy in a studio environment was due to a driver issue (although the jpg was off as well), my unfamiliarity with the camera, or was due to the camera's processor, but it is certainly an issue that I need to look into more before I permanently replace my existing equipment with a Z. I've included a sample of the processed image and I plan on posted more samples at
Stills and Video . If anyone else has had the opportunity to use the 645Z in a studio environment, I'd be interested in hearing about your experiences regarding color accuracy and skin tones.
Last edited by stillsandvideo; 08-03-2014 at 02:30 PM.