[phosphoro]

Hey all
I'm a rookie filmmaker with a Nikon D90 rig and lots of Pentax (esp film) gear. I haven't moved to Canon as I don't do DP work, but I do plan on doing a little camera work on occasion. Currently waiting to see what Nikon and Pentax will be presenting at Photokina.

Was just wondering about the 645D. I really don't know much about sensor types but from what I've read tweaking a dslr to record video isn't really a hardware issue. So wouldn't it be possible for Pentax to develop a medium format camera that can record video? If course it would need some R&D, but with the right changes on the camera (addressing the rolling shutter issue, good compression, etc) would that not be very competitive against other video cameras (red one, alexa, etc), with a sensor size that's close to 70mm film. Don't know, maybe it's a completely ridiculous idea, too difficult to implement or whatever, but would be interested in learning more.

[tuco]

Why bother? Red Cameras is advertising a real video camera with a 56x42mm and 168x56mm sensor. Granted, it is vapor ware at the moment but vapor ware further down the road than you'll ever see from a still medium format digital camera offer video.

[deltoidjohn]

I really don't know much about sensor types but from what I've read tweaking a dslr to record video isn't really a hardware issue. So wouldn't it be possible for Pentax to develop a medium format camera that can record video?

Well, unfortunately you've read wrong. There's plenty of possible hardware roadblocks - the sensor, the processing chip, the media, etc. That's why the 1st gen DSLR's were so bad - they simply used the existing still-optimised hardware, which led to all sorts of problems like overheating, aliasing, soft images, poor compression etc.

Take the Canons for example. They have crappy encoding hardware so they had to compensate with a huge bitrate - then this led to incompatibilities with any cards slower than Class 6. And they still produce terrible images (techinicaly speaking, not artistically!).

Use a 40mp, 70mm sensor and you're just gonna amplify the problems. More rolling shutter issues, more overheating, more lines skipped leading to more aliasing/moire, more data for the processor to handle etc etc. It all comes down to the hardware.

Yes, in some rare cases firmware/software tweaking can improve image quality (ie GH1) but that's because all the hardware was already there but not being utilised to it's full potential.

[jogiba]

Ok, lets cut to the chase here, how many here have a 645D or plan on getting one ? Then how many would pay for a video version for $100,000 ? BTW my Panasonic HDC-TM700 3MOS 1080p60 camcorder shoots video with better quality than most of the Pro camcorders out there and I have no desire for a MF video camera that needs a film crew to operate.

[Digitalis]

I certainly wouldn't pay for it. MF video is even more of a niche product than MF digital. IMAX cameras are Huge and the lenses for them are obscenely expensive.

[RonHendriks1966]

As far as I know is it not possible to have Liveview or video-output with the Kodak CCD sensor that is in the 645D. You will probably need a CMos sensor, but that is not available for Pentax to use at the time at the size of MF.