Here are few pointers from my 30 years with the same 645 relative to other makes, models, formats, media, etc:
The mirror slap causes a lot of vibration. Therefore:
a) I rarely use this camera on a tripod with long exposures.
b) With medium format, grain and resolution from higher ISO film still holds up well, so Iʻve given up using low ISO like Velvia 50 or 100, and will only use Ektar 100 if I absolutely want intentional blur or shallow depth-of-field. 400 ISO is so much more forgiving and versatile and thus I try to keep the shutter speed around 1/250" just to eliminate vibration from the mirror slap.
With nearly 4x the size of the 35mm or FF formats, that gives us so much more potential to crop without sacrificing too much IQ. Because of that and the concern for shutter speed (greater telephoto requires faster shutter speed to eliminate camera movement), I usually crop loosely in camera and rarely use anything greater than 75mm unless I want compression.
My 645 does not seem to be weather-sealed and will often stop working (temporarily) when I go from a cool air conditioned dry air to warm humid outdoors. The key is to give it time to "acclimatize" when transitioning from indoors or a car to outside, and in the winter the reverse.
The 6 AA batteries can last a very long time, but if left in the grip, will eventually leak and corrode. So every year, I will just go ahead and replace the batteries. I donʻt think itʻs a good idea to just take out the batteries. It drains the internal button cell and the ʻold schoolʻ electronics seems to like to have some juice in the tank.
As an electro-mechanical device, it does not like dormancy. Every 6 months, if you havenʻt been shooting, put the false back and shoot it at all different shutter speeds. Put the buttons through their paces. It should not take more than 5 minutes.
The quirkiest aspect of this camera is that now and then, it will just not fire. My top suspicion is low power (use a volt meter on all 6 batteries). Sometimes humidity will cause something to prevent firing, and usually the solution is taking out the batteries, cleaning the contacts, and then just being patient for something to dry out. Iʻm not an engineer, but it could also be an old capacitor/resistor/chip that is taking a siesta. It fixes itself in time.
I once had mine totally shut down on a trip. It was, of course, the one time I didnʻt bring a back up camera. So I took mental pictures and enjoyed the first trip in years when I was camera free. When I got home, I was about to send the camera in for repairs, and it worked perfectly. I tried everything to duplicate the problem (unseated lens, no film, weak batteries, etc), but it refused to fail, and that was 3 years ago and it has worked fine ever since.
Last note: The camera is LOUD. Ok, not Polaroid loud; not a booming Bronica; but when you fire, everyone will know something was shot. I take one of two approaches if this is an issue:
a) Own it; at first youʻll see everyone react....dang son, youʻre a real photographer? Give them that Usain Bolt smile. Sorry, mine is bigger AND louder than yours.
b) Desensitize them; Put on the fake back and shoot nonstop until they ignore you. Then load film, and they will mostly ignore your noisemaker 645.
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