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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
06-18-2020, 08:48 PM
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My first thought was Velvia. It took me right back to those days.
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
11-08-2019, 01:11 PM
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It always strikes me as odd when we get someone here whose only posts are about the purported benefits of the Acon system. Feels like we’ve been here before...
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
02-21-2019, 12:08 PM
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I built some dual-illuminant profiles for my 645Z, and what I did was to use two strobes with snoots to get the daylight, and then removed the -500K colour-correction domes and used the modelling lamps on full power still with the snoots to get the tungsten. It was a fair bit of effort to set up, and required a lot of flagging to avoid coloured reflection interference and glare, but ended up producing some good profiles.
I got the basic concept from Anders Torger's write-up of how to build dcamprof profiles, and used his Lumariver Profile Designer software for creating mine.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
04-20-2018, 11:41 AM
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Exactly. By fudging the metadata you're not going to get lens corrections, the colour will be off and you'll have to create your own profiles, etc.
You could probably get the colour where it needs to be by using Lumariver Profile Designer, which allows for the creation of C1 profiles, but you'd still be out of luck on the lens corrections. And, particularly on the wider lenses, these are useful.
So it's doable, but you have to question the value of jumping through the hoops to end up with something that is never going to be properly optimised.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
01-09-2018, 09:26 AM
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I always thought the Pentax batteries were very competitively priced, and perform exceptionally well in the 645Z, so I've never even been tempted to look for alternative solutions.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
12-27-2017, 12:46 AM
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There is a certain something special with MF, but I think the key advantages of MF would be lost when comparing MF film versus a good FF digital with large-aperture lenses, unless you had a very high quality end-to-end workflow that was also efficient to make the most of the film. From experience I know that scanning is a real PITA, and you pretty soon encounter the limitations of the source medium in terms of grain and sensitivity, and the dynamic range is also pretty restrictive if you're shooting slide film. And outsourcing the scanning to get highest quality scans is both time-consuming and expensive.
I would recommend a good 35mm full frame with some well-chosen lenses if you're not in a position to jump into MF digital. I think you'll produce better images more easily, and with a great deal less frustration. I still suffer nightmares from my days of slide scanning.
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
12-26-2017, 09:32 AM
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So you bought one product that reverse-engineered Pentax's P-TTL protocol and then triggers that also reverse-engineered Pentax's P-TTL protocol, and when the two didn't play together nicely straight out of the box it's obviously the fault of the trigger company and ergo they are junk and their customer service sucks? Where were Metz during all of this, making sure their products properly behaved like Pentax flashes?
I have mine working with gear they were never designed for, can get high-speed sync from strobes that were never designed for it, and I've had firmware updates that have added extra functionality like P-TTL that was never even on the radar when I bought my first triggers.
So if that makes the product junk then I'm all about it.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
12-20-2017, 01:46 PM
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I love that last one in particular.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
12-05-2017, 03:39 PM
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You know, I actually think the battery life is great! I'd like more AF points or an implementation of Hassy's TruFocus where the camera uses the accelerometer to correct the focus after you recompose based on the focus distance and the angle by which you've moved it. That would make AF a winner for me since I like the central point anyway. Then, of course, I'd like them to use the upcoming 150MP BSI sensor from Sony rather than the current 100MP FSI one that Phase and Hassy use. Hopefully they won't go with the 100MP crop sensor.
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
12-01-2017, 06:34 PM
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The 1/1000 spec is the fastest sync speed it's compatible with, not the sync speed you will be able to achieve. It won't go beyond than the x-sync speed of your camera or 1/1000, whichever comes first.
Medium format cameras with leaf shutter lenses could potentially take advantage of these higher sync speeds, but focal plane shutters will be in the range 1/125 to 1/250 generally, as you've already discovered. To go beyond that you need high-speed sync capability, which requires the V6 II trigger.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
11-27-2017, 12:11 PM
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I just use a JerkStopper with a loop on the cable long enough that movement on the cable isn't enough to dislodge it. I do know what you mean though, and the micro-B connector is pretty flimsy.
I haven't tried this, but if you have an Arca-Swiss plate on the site of the camera then this might work out for you, in terms of locking the cable down better. It still doesn't deal with the security of the plug itself though:
Cable Relief Spacer |
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
11-25-2017, 11:33 AM
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Lightroom Classic CC with the Pentax tethering plugin and an external USB3 hub is working completely reliably for me now.
Images come straight into Lightroom, but are also left on the camera’s SD card, so that achieves your goal.
Having gone from being totally frustrated with it (before I added the hub), I’m finding it works flawlessly for me now.
I just wish that the Lightroom plugin would be more integrated with the camera and let you adjust shutter/aperture/ISO like Capture One’s tethering, but actually being able to trip the shutter reliably will suffice.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
11-22-2017, 01:37 AM
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This is what I get with no edits except for tweaking the colour temperature with my default profile.
It really looks like your colour temperature is off with whatever lighting you're using, because I don't need to make anywhere near this kind of adjustment with my strobes.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
11-21-2017, 04:35 PM
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That's exactly what I originally thought, but in (inconvenient) testing with 1m and other short cables I found the problem was just as bad as on the long cables.
Regardless of the underlying cause, the USB3 hub seems to resolve the issue, so I'm happy with the final outcome.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
11-21-2017, 12:48 AM
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Gerd
I think you hit the nail on the head! I bought a powered USB3 hub that could operate on bus power or external power (thinking I might need to go for external power), and since I added this into the mix, tethering has been rock solid, and that's without needing to use the external power supply. I've tested it on both the laptop and desktop that were previously struggling and it's working perfectly on both of these now.
I guess it's a different chipset in the hub versus the different PCs/laptops I've tried to use the 645Z with that simply works together more harmoniously.
For anyone that wants to try it, it's the super-cheap AmazonBasics 4-port USB3 hub (amazon.com: AmazonBasics 4 Port USB 3.0 Hub with 5V/2.5A power adapter: Computers & Accessories?tag=pentaxforums-20&).
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
11-14-2017, 11:30 PM
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Yeah, it's remarkable that they'd written the review back in the day, but decided not the cover MF and therefore suppress the results for no good reason until they managed to surpass it with something from one of the brands they've espoused previously.
In my opinion I think they are full of crap and are beholden to their sponsors.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
11-10-2017, 09:24 AM
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Interesting. I wonder if they have never tested with Windows 7 then, because my setup is exactly the same as yours except that I use Windows 7 64-bit. I have random disconnects (usually during transfers) that may or may not lock up the camera badly enough to have to remove the battery. And I get the exact same behaviour on two different computers from two different manufacturers, and on my choice of 4 different USB3 cables.
I tested using LR Classic yesterday and it was just as awful as on the last pre-Classic version of LR.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
11-09-2017, 01:34 PM
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I used to get that error occasionally before the update. The tethered capture plugin is so flaky it's untrue. So frustrating on this expensive a camera.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
10-30-2017, 08:03 PM
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I found the same as TonyW, which is odd. My own profiles generated with Lumariver Profile Designer are red-biased on this image as well, as are the Torger DCamProf ones.
Camera Natural is about the best on this image, which is the last thing I'd expect as you usually have very flat, low-contrast images with that one.
Do you have a shot of your ColorChecker under the same lighting conditions and power settings? I'm interested to know what the colour temperature and tint come out to in Lightroom when you white balance off the light grey square below the green one.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
10-28-2017, 01:18 PM
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The path is C:\Users\Your_username\AppData \Roaming\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfile
Restart Lightroom and you'll see them.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
10-27-2017, 11:54 AM
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Try some other profiles rather than your own and see how they work out for you:
http://torger.dyndns.org/dcamprof-v0104-pentax-645z-neutral.dcp
http://torger.dyndns.org/dcamprof-v0104-pentax-645z-neutral-plus.dcp
If these look good then it's your profiling workflow and that may help identify the issue. If they still look too red then you need to be looking at your colour calibration workflow probably.
If you like the Anders Torger ones then his Lumariver Profile Designer software is great for creating your own custom profiles. That's what I use now.
If you are able to post a raw file somewhere then also post a jpeg of the same file but with no edits applied in Lightroom, except for the application of your colour profile. That ought to be very telling.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
10-27-2017, 11:46 AM
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It appears the 1/125 sync speed is right on the edge for the 645Z. Using Cactus V6II triggers I get the problem on my Broncolor Mobil packs, but the Graft packs are fine, so I think it's accumulated latency across the trigger and the pack, and a camera that's borderline stable at x-sync. As soon as I drop below 1/125 the problem goes away on the Mobil packs.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
10-19-2017, 01:29 PM
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
10-11-2017, 10:37 AM
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I don't think the 645Z sends the AF assist signal until it thinks it's dark enough to need it, based on how it behaves on my Cactus triggers, so maybe try it in a very dark environment to see if it works then.
I do have a SN600FGZ that I pretty much never use, so if I get a chance to test mine I'll see if I can coax it into working.
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Forum: Pentax Price Watch
10-04-2017, 01:50 PM
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They do the 4% in rewards pretty often on the 645Z. I got it on mine a couple of years ago, but it's nice to see the price coming down regardless.
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