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Forum: Pentax Medium Format 02-05-2022, 09:03 PM  
Pentacon 6 to Pentax 645 Adapter Stuck in Mount
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 5
Views: 1,197
The P6 breech lock ring is threaded onto the adapter. If it is not tight onto a P6 lens (or all the way in the “tight” direction with no lens), it will tighten down onto the camera and prevent movement. Try turning the breech lock ring—remove the P6 lens from the adapter first—in both directions to make sure it isn’t tightened against the Pentax body. That seems to me the most likely issue if you are playing the the loose adapter with no P6 lens attached.

I doubt it’s the lock pin preventing removal. These sometimes bind in the bayonet, and only gentle but persistent fiddling works them loose. The adapter would be a bit less fiddly if the P6 had one more millimeter of lens flange mounting distance relative to the Pentax.

I find it much easier to remove if a P6 lens is well attached, but you have to figure it out first—hence the above things to try.

There is nothing to take apart on these adapters that will help, though you can remove the breech lock ring after removing the screw in the edge that serves as a limit pin.

Rick “just studied one to recall details” Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 01-17-2022, 09:59 AM  
Sticky: Pentax 645Z Now IN STOCK at B&H
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 18
Views: 26,523
The 55 DFA is much better than the wide-angle 55 for the 67.

The 150/2.8 645 versus the 165/2.8 for the 67 is a more interesting comparison. I would make photos with the 150, and if those meet your needs you will reach for it instead of the less convenient adapted 67 lens.

In my view, there are 67 lenses more worth adapting than these two.

Rick “like the 105/2.4” Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 01-01-2022, 06:52 PM  
Is Pentax done in Medium Format?
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 321
Views: 16,426
Actually, I think I have Covid right now—as yet untested. Little fever and mild cold symptoms. But I’m definitely holed up.

Rick “who’ll be fiddling with a P67 bellows once out of the hole” Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 01-01-2022, 10:08 AM  
Is Pentax done in Medium Format?
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 321
Views: 16,426
You’re kidding…right?

Rick “who thought the collective business intelligence of online forums unassailable” Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 12-29-2021, 08:01 PM  
Is Pentax done in Medium Format?
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 321
Views: 16,426
It’s not that the whole post is in focus—that’s almost impossible. It’s that the transition from the focus plane to what is merely within the depth-of-field window is rendered more smoothly with larger formats. That transition, microscopic though it seems, is in my experience a lot more important than we realize, and it’s the first victim of excessive sharpening.

I find that with my 645z images, I often don’t need to apply any sharpening at all. That’s a huge advantage in my mind.

Rick “whose first experience with the larger-format effect was seen in comparing the smoke wisps in two photographs of the same person smoking a cigarette—printed at only 11x14” Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 12-29-2021, 07:47 PM  
Is Pentax done in Medium Format?
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 321
Views: 16,426
Vocabulary for art is the domain of criticism. Artists usually say their art must speak for itself—that’s their vocabulary.

Even artists whose work moves me deeply rarely find the words that provide more than the barest expression of that. Ansel Adams can attribute much of his vast success to the rare combination of great art and clear descriptions thereof—very much including gear and technique.

I’m reminded of a classically trained trombone player who studied with Arnold Jacobs, the great Chicago Symphony tuba player and pedagog. He told the trombone player that he expressed himself more eloquently with words rather than his playing. The man became a successful journalist.

Rick “who can only rarely understand why some of his photos work as art, let alone explain why” Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 12-29-2021, 09:55 AM  
Is Pentax done in Medium Format?
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 321
Views: 16,426
I can tell the difference at A2 (16x20). There is a smoothness of tonality with larger formats visible at 10 or 12x enlargement. The smoothness can be simulated with filtration from smaller formats, but larger formats don’t need it and simply look better without it. It isn’t all about resolution.

Rick “this was true in the film era, too” Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 12-29-2021, 12:18 AM  
Is Pentax done in Medium Format?
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 321
Views: 16,426
You use that word proven and you are so sure of yourself. But you prognostications are invariable negative. I’m glad entrepreneurs aren’t as smart as that.

I remember cassette fans bragging that their Nakamichi decks had improved to the point that they were competitive with open-reel decks. Yet the things that they did to cause that improvement (particularly high-bias tape) could also be applied to open-reel decks. But I also know what it took, and cassette decide were mechanically much more challenging and troublesome that open-reel decks aimed at the same market.

Both died in the hands of a true technological advance, but cassettes didn’t win because they were better. They won because they were more convenient and”good enough”. Making them as good as open-reel was like the camera club guys who would show their 35mm Tri-X-souped-in-Microdol prints as being competitive with 120 roll film handled in high-acutance developer. But it never really did. Or comparing their Panatomic-X photos (ISO 25) with my Tri-X 4x5’s (ISO 320).

I’ve seen large prints from full-frame cameras that met my requirements (up to, say, 16x20), but they didn’t do it with film-era lenses that cost $200 on the used market. That’s a big advantage of the larger format—it’s less demanding of other system components for a given print size.

Rick “larger format provides a fundamental advantage not always realized” Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 12-27-2021, 09:32 AM  
Is Pentax done in Medium Format?
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 321
Views: 16,426
I sure do wish Pentax would trade on that past by buying up old lenses, refurbishing them, and selling them as certified preowned lenses with a modest warranty. That would turn it into a profit center even for people buying them to adapt to Fuji cameras.

I’ve suggested it before. Please, Pentax, read this. It would require no additional resources and would keep the factory service techs profitably busy. Hire Roger Cicala to show them how, if necessary.

Zodiac watches (owned since 2000 by Fossil but dormant until 4-5 years ago) revived their brand by selling refurbed vintage watches, and then selling new watches in the vintage style. People will like vintage revivals with new tech built in if presented as being cool. SLRs can be just as vintage-cool as rangefinders.

Rick “marketing, people!” Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 12-25-2021, 01:14 PM  
Is Pentax done in Medium Format?
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 321
Views: 16,426
Dude, no CEO worth his check goes off-script, even when the script is obfuscatory.

And media outlets reprint corporate communications, quotes and all, all the time.

Rick “unless we sit in the guy’s office, we’re just guessing their true intentions” Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 12-19-2021, 10:02 PM  
Is Pentax done in Medium Format?
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 321
Views: 16,426
Dudes! Trying to catch up on this boatload of wild speculation makes me wonder if people actually bought their cameras to use rather than kvetch about.

Fact is, the 645z is still a superior camera that makes the same stunning images it made when first introduced.

Fuji makes great cameras, but their introduction hasn’t made 645z images any less useful than before. As long as it does, I’m making use of the money I’ve already spent.

Use your cameras while you have them!

I’m reminded of Jobst Brandt (RIP)—a leading expert on bicycle technology back in the days of newsgroups—summarizing thousands of posts that split hairs about the micro-advantages of this versus that argued by those nearly always unable to explore any value in those differences with two words:Ride bike!

In the long history of medium format, Fuji has made some great cameras, and so has Pentax. Fuji made more models but sustained them for shorter periods, abandoning them sooner. Pentax has always been the long-hauler. Medium format is not for spec chasers who are apparently compelled to change equipment every year to feel like they are keeping up. Medium format is and has always been for photographers who know what they need to produce images that meet their mature and well-understood requirements based usually on professional use cases.

Rick “Make photos!” Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 12-08-2021, 08:30 AM  
How often do you print?
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 35
Views: 1,870
I make prints reasonably often, and also photo books. The books don’t need medium format to sustain the illusion of endless detail. But 16x20 prints from 24x36 cameras that really do that require very expensive lenses. I can do it in the 645z with eBay lenses that often cost under a coupla hundred.

Rick “would like to make many more prints” Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 12-08-2021, 08:25 AM  
Sharpest aperture for the SMC Pentax 67 200mm F4?
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 6
Views: 1,302
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/48-pentax-medium-format/366484-grand-len...ml#post4285970

Note the point down-thread: unless you subject is flat, you may need depth of field more than absolute sharpness to make a photo seem sharp at whatever enlargement.

Being out of the focus plane makes a bigger blur than the difference between f/5.5 and f/11, even within the depth-of-field window.

Rick “focusing on what’s important” Denney
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 11-09-2021, 08:32 AM  
Amateur Photographers (UK) Predicts End for Pentax
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 1,318
Views: 111,514
I think you may be wrong here. All it will take is a few articles, some Instagram influencers, and some famous hipster photographers to talk about the “reality” and “authenticity” of an optical finder to create demand among those who don’t currently have a camera. There will always be a high-touch reaction to high-tech.

As serious Canon and Nikon DSLR owners see their platforms being phased out, they will look to alternatives when they need features used cameras don’t offer. I say that as a Canon user whose wife is a Nikon user with a D500. Some will end up at Pentax, if Pentax sticks with optical reflex designs. Those that don’t will move to some other camera architecture.

The dead zone will be cheapie plastic DSLRs with mirror finders instead of pentaprisms. This was the lesson of the Swiss watch industry. The Quartz Crisis should really be called the Cheap Quartz Crisis. Cheap pin-lever mechanical watches ceased to exist in favor of much better cheap quartz watches made where labor costs were low. But the Swiss industry survived on the basis of style, and have since then flourished by moving upmarket.

Pentax (for consumer cameras) has always been mid-market, a bit below Canon, which was a bit below Nikon. Leica was high-end, and there were a zillion lower-end brands (and Ricoh was one of them). Chasing the low end is a race to the bottom, but trying to be high-end will require a monumental paradigm shift.

Pentax would make a statement by bringing out a modern good-quality film SLR—as a halo model. I’m not saying make a fetish object like the current Leica, but something solidly usable and fully updated at an affordable price. This was exactly their positioning (in a commercial sense) with the 645D—a high-end camera concept at a much lower price than the fetishist Leica S2 or Hasselblad. These wouldn’t define Pentax, they would validate Pentax. It wouldn’t matter if the halo models lost money on their own.

Refurbishing, warranting, and selling vintage and used Pentax gear would be a major positive leap, and would give Pentax a way to monetize its past. That was Fossil’s strategy for bringing back the Zodiac watch brand—start with refurbished old watches and then add some modern vintage-style revivals, aimed at the same market segment (mid-market that don’t think of themselves as luxury) that was buying Zodiac in their heyday. SLRs are the vintage revivals of the future.

Rick “it’s about buzz” Denney
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 11-09-2021, 07:58 AM  
Amateur Photographers (UK) Predicts End for Pentax
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 1,318
Views: 111,514
I’m well bought into Canon, and have been since I chose an F-1 to use instead of my two KX’s. (I have a 5D, a 5DII, and a large range of lenses.) But I have considered a switch to Pentax DSLRs.

But my 645Z is so dominant in my usage pattern, it could be argued that I’ve already made the switch.

Rick “who used the Canon last week because it was easier to pack” Denney
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 10-28-2021, 04:52 AM  
Amateur Photographers (UK) Predicts End for Pentax
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 1,318
Views: 111,514
You know, I totally forgot about the Rikenon lenses. Sheesh. I even had a buddy who had a Rikenon 135mm lens for his Mamiya 500 DTL. (My first SLR was a 1000 DTL.)

Rick “so much for my rambling” Denney
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 10-27-2021, 05:08 AM  
Amateur Photographers (UK) Predicts End for Pentax
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 1,318
Views: 111,514
Abundantly, but in actual constructed quality more than brand value.

But there was a line between optical manufacturers and camera makers. Zenit was made by KMZ, a first-quality optical house by the reduced standards of the Second World. Praktica was part of VEB Pentacon, and they owned everything. (Though at all price points—Meyer Görlitz was more a budget brand than Carl Zeiss Jena, for example.) But Ricoh didn’t make lenses, or at least none of note. (Neither did Hasselblad or Rollei, but where are they these days?—shadows of their former selves).

Pentax is a halo brand for Ricoh. While Pentax was the more budget-conscious of the Big Three back in the day, it was still one of the Big Three. That was on the strength of its optical house as much as the ubiquitous Spotmatic. Canon and (especially) Nikon owners might have thought themselves better, but they still took Pentax seriously.

The main reason is that those three carved their own original product development path, having outgrown the copycat products they made in the 50’s. Pentax was the first of them to really innovate.

But in pro circles, Pentax medium-format cameras were deeply respected, and they still are. In that space, Pentax was the premiere Japanese brand, while Mamiya was more budget-conscious. Nikon and (particularly) Canon stayed out of that space (though Nikon did make some superb lenses for larger formats). Ricoh’s only presence was a cheap TLR copy of a Rolleicord. In the middle 70’s, I saw a commercial pro making promotional photos at a technology exhibition, and he was using a Pentax 6x7. Other pros were using Hasselblads, but they were quite respectful of what the Pentax guy could do with larger film, and none of them wanted to use a Mamiya RB-67 in the field. I was obviously more modest with my C-series Mamiya.

So, Pentax has always enjoyed unusual multilevel positioning.

One final point: the SLR is not dead, but it may become less “talked about”. It’s similar to the housing market. The buzz is about minimalist living in a flat in the city, in opposition to the dystopian views about suburban life, but plenty of unhip people are still buying single-family houses in the suburbs and not feeling guilty about it.

Rick “miscellaneous rambling” Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 10-22-2021, 10:16 AM  
FA* 645 300mm f/4 ED IF or 400mm F/5.6 SMC FA ED IF
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 9
Views: 1,522
This is fine but not better according to my testing:

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/48-pentax-medium-format/366440-grand-len...ml#post4300023

But it is more flexible for a given space in the pack.


Rick "sample variation disclaimer goes here" Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 10-21-2021, 03:07 PM  
Could a 67 III be released in todays market?
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 21
Views: 1,605
Depends on the price. I’d pay a thousand bucks for one in a heartbeat. I wouldn’t pay $10,000, but I’d fondle it longingly in a store. In between those prices, who knows?

But if they couldn’t sell it for less than $20K and make money on it, then it’s not commercially viable. I suspect that’s how it would be.

The way you said it, though, it sounds like nobody would want one. That’s clearly not the case.

Rick “everything has a price” Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 10-20-2021, 06:41 PM  
Understanding "Equivalents" for Medium Format Lenses
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 68
Views: 6,660
The digital world did not introduce the issue. Photographers have shot in multiple formats since the beginning.

Forget translating one format to another, which imposes mental gymnastics (easy for some, not so for others) every time reach into the bag for a different lens.

The way multi-format photographers have done it in the past starts with the diameter of the film. Yes, I said diameter--what's the distance across a circle that just touches the corners of the frame. Those diagonal measurements are (nominally, which means no intention or need for exactitude):

APS-C: 29mm
24x36: 43mm
33x44: 55mm
645: 75mm
6x6: 80mm
6x7: 90mm
6x9: 105mm
4x5 (inches): 160mm
8x10: 320mm

Lenses with these focal lengths are considered "normal" lenses, which simply means that they are the same focal length as the diameter of the format (and that's all it means--it says nothing about the design of the lens, which is and should be a whole separate taxonomy).

Once we establish the normal lens, everything else is a ratio of that.

(Sidebar for geeks--OP should skip: It's a mistake of terminology to refer to shorter-than-normal lenses as "wide angle" and longer-than-normal lenses as "telephoto". Those terms apply to the design of the lens. A wide-angle lens's physical glass is centered ahead of its optical center, which is necessary for cameras with reflex mirrors to get the glass in front of the mirror. Another term for these is "reversed telephoto" or "retrofocus" and the design was first commercialized in the late 40's by Angenieux It made possible short-focal-length lenses on the new SLR design that had just emerged--the Exakta. Telephoto lenses sit further back than their optical center, making it possible to have a physically shorter lens for a given focal length. They did by adding a magnification corrector behind a conventional lens, which forced a few compromises. These terms aren't as clear for modern lenses on smaller cameras because of the complexity of the designs. But they don't mean "short" and "long". It's quite possible to have a wide-angle lens with a longer focal length--the 55mm lens for the Pentax 67 is a wide-angle lens, even when it's adapted to an APS-C camera, on which it would be nearly double the diameter of the format. And a 45mm wide-angle lens for the 67 makes a perfectly usable normal lens when adapted to a 35mm camera, but it's still a wide-angle design, despite that the smaller format can't make use of that fact. Fun fact: Most lenses used on large-format cameras are neither wide-angle nor telephoto, being approximately centered physically around their optical center. Some are wide-field designs, confusingly called wide-angle, because their coverage angle is greater than about 45 degrees. That means simply: greater than is needed by a lens of normal focal length to cover the format. This allows shorter lenses to cover the format and provide for movements. I routinely use a 300mm lens on my 4x5 camera when I want a lens about twice normal, even though that particular lens was really marketed for use on 8x10 cameras. And so on. The point of the fun fact is that large-format photographers are as interested in lens design as in focal length, because it dictates what they can do with it on a view camera with movements. End of sidebar.)

"Standard" lenses are not exactly "normal" lenses, though the terms are used interchangeably. The "standard" lens for a 35mm camera is traditionally 50mm, while the normal lens is 43mm. The standard lens for 8x10 is traditionally 12" (305mm), while the normal lens is a bit longer. But here's what you should remember: The normal lens will provide a similar field of view on its respective format as any other format's normal lens. So, a lens that is one half the focal length of the normal lens will provide the same wide field of view on its respective format. The 28mm end of the 28-45 zoom on the 645z is right at one-half of the normal lens. A 21mm lens on a 35mm camera is very close to one-half of the normal lens on that format. A 75mm large-format lens on a 4x5 camera is not far from one half of the normal lens for that format. And they will all provide similar fields of view, as long as one compensates for the shape of the format.

I know what lenses that are one-half of the normal lens do on some of my cameras, and so I can know about what they will do on all of my cameras. By "know what they do" I can tell from looking at the scene that it's the lens I want to use.

Going longer than normal: A popular focal length for portraits is not quite twice the normal focal length, say, 80mm on a 35mm camera (when twice the normal focal length would be closer to 90). On a 645z, with a normal focal length of 55mm, not quite double that is--shazam!--105mm, which is why a certain fast "standard" lens for the P67 is particularly popular for adaptation. And it's why the preferred portrait lens for the P67 is the 165/2.8 (and why Pentax designed a lens of that focal length with such a large aperture). And it's why the 50/1.4 "standard" lenses for 35mm make such good portrait lenses for APS-C. I know what a lens a little less than twice the normal focal length does on any camera--and it does about the same thing on all cameras.

Greater precision than "half" and "about twice" is a waste of arithmetic--it will get you no closer to a worthwhile conclusion. But it will help you decide which lens to grab. Your feet can make further adjustments.

Now, about the f/stop and aperture--a rabbit hole if there ever was one. The aperture is the size of the hole as projected to the rear of the lens, but nobody ever measures that diameter. It doesn't matter. What matters is the ratio of that diameter to the focal length of the lens, because that's what describes how much light is getting through no matter what that focal length happens to be. So, f/4 on one lens moves the same light as f/4 on any other lens no matter the focal length (roughly speaking--there are differences in transmission efficiency that work at the margins). Format size has no role in defining the f/stop. Format size is just how much of the scene projected by the lens we happen to be recording.

BUT...(and there's always a "but"), some people are interested in matching the rendering of the out-of-focus areas between lenses sized for different formats. Depth of field is dictated by focal ratio (f/stop) and magnification (focal length). To get the same degree of blur in that distant background, you can't change one without changing the other. A lens of low magnification (as in, shorter than normal) needs a lower f/stop than a lens of high magnification. This is why a lens that twice-normal portrait lens needs a wider aperture (i.e., lower ratio, or f/number) to achieve the same degree of out-of-focus blur. One can consult depth of field tables to determine the similarities, and I agree with the point upthread that similarities are the best you'll get. Experience with specific lenses will take you the rest of the way--there are too many confounding factors at the subtlety level.

Rick "working in multiple formats for 45 years" Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 10-17-2021, 05:53 PM  
Could a 67 III be released in todays market?
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 21
Views: 1,605
Not in the old ad I saw.

Rick “who should find that old catalog” Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 10-15-2021, 09:39 AM  
Could a 67 III be released in todays market?
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 21
Views: 1,605
The 67 variants were manufacturing challenges even when we knew how to make things. They are far too mechanically complex to be produced at anything like a reasonable cost. I do not confuse price and cost, but price does have to be higher than cost or every sale loses money. The 67II was well over $2500 plus another $1200 for the AE prism in '99 when it was introduced, and the cheapest lens (the 105/2.4) was over $1200. We forget this stuff. Expect new production to need to be priced similarly (at the very least) to a new 645Z--when it was introduced. Yes, that means five figures with a lens.

I don't think the film resurgence is ready for pricing like that for a Pentax. (Leica, maybe.)

Fuji may have been the last to introduce a successful 6x7 camera system, and that was the GF670, a fixed-lens folder of far simpler mechanics (and far less flexibility) than the Pentax 67. Fuji is selling their own overhauled pre-owned cameras for several thousand each. The production cost for a camera like that must be a mere fraction of what a new version of the 67 would have to fetch.

And the 67 would have to solve some of the usability problems that owners have to be careful about, the main one being the fragile chain connection between the lens aperture and the TTL prism that requires a specific procedure when removing and replacing the prism. The other one being less-than-wonderful film loading (in comparison to, say, a Rolleiflex, which senses when the film begins and sets the starting point automatically).

Now, if Pentax wanted to cash in on the film resurgence, it would find old 67's in need of repair, overhaul them, and sell them as "certified pre-owned" with a modest warranty. People would pay a lot extra for that certification and warranty. Or, at least go back into production on the most critical parts so that folks like Eric Hendrickson, who is Pentax's best friend in the whole world, don't have to depend on dead bodies to salvage key parts.

Rick "mechanical things are expensive" Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 10-15-2021, 08:51 AM  
Ideal Day-Hiking 645z Kit
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 14
Views: 1,017
Let me call my response to this thread A Tale of Two Hikes.

I was in Alaska again in September, and participated in two longish hikes while I was there. The first hike started at sea level and climbed to the top of Sadie Knob, across the Ketchemak Bay from Homer (I was staying on the other side of the knob on Sadie Cove, which really should be called Sadie Fjord). Elevation gain was about 3000 feet. The bottom half of the hike was in very tall brush that was soaking wet, and that made us soaking wet. Everything got sunny and dried off when we got over the tree line (which is only at about 2200 feet above sea level in those latitudes). Distance was a little over nine miles for the whole hike, with lots of required careful foot placement due to rocks and roots hiding under the brush. (At least the bear that had left very fresh prints and scat on the trail didn't bother us).

For that hike, I took the 645z with the 55 attached to it, mostly because I was unsure of the wetness conditions and wanted something water-resistant. That was correct thinking, even though my 28-45 is also weather-resistant--I just didn't want to carry that much weight. (I was hiking with the daughter of our friends and a couple of her friends, who were worried I wouldn't be able to keep up. Ha!) I took that plus a water bottle, a sandwich, and a hiking stick that doubles as a (too light) monopod. I found (again) that the camera hanging on a neck strap becomes a problem, not because of the weight, but because of the swinging. I ended up carrying the camera in my hands, and because of the wetness and tall brush, I had to hold the camera at shoulder height for much of the hike. Switching back and forth between arms managed elbow soreness. No real complaint but it was not optimal. My inadequate lightweight hiking shoes were attacking a couple of toenails and that had my attention far more than the weight of the camera.

Sure, there were times I wished for both a shorter and a longer lens during that hike, but you make the photos that the lens you have in your hands will make.

Later that week, I hiked to Crow Pass from the Girdwood end of the Crow Pass trail--about 7.5 miles round trip and maybe 2500 feet of elevation gain. This trail is part of the historical Iditarod route that is near Anchorage. This time, I wore my camera daypack--a Think-tank Streetwalker--but took out most of the camera stuff and put in water and lunch. I brought the 28-45 (!), the 55, and the 200. For that hike, I hung the camera the way I should have done going to Sadie Knob. My strap has steel clips that connect 8" pig-tails to the neck strap--those pig-tails connect to the strap eyelets on the camera. When wearing that pack, I remove the neck strap and attach those clips to D-rings on the shoulder straps of the pack. With that rig, the camera is high enough not to swing and the weight is not on the back of my neck. I never noticed the weight of what I was carrying (but I am reasonably fit). I never felt like I didn't have the lens I needed during that hike. I was wearing my good mid-weight day-hike boots that day and my feet were thanking me.

During my last trip to Alaska, I hiked from Kennecott to the Root Glacier and back--a fairly flat 5-miles round trip--and carried very light daypack (with lunch) plus a waist pack with my lens choices--35, 45-85, and 200. To my waist-belt, I added the lens case for my 400 and put a water bottle in it. That trip was during an extended weight-loss period (I had lost 50 of the 80 pounds down that I am now), with only moderate fitness. Since then, I'm post-cancer and my fitness, while not where it was during my endurance sports days, is reasonable for an old guy. That probably contributes more to enjoying day hikes with a big camera than anything.

With the 200:


With the 35:


My wife made this photo on her Nikon:


There have been many more hikes, and I think the only repeating pattern is 1.) hanging the camera from the pack's shoulder straps when possible, and 2.) always bring the 200/4, which is too tiny to leave at home.

Rick "still working on the images from the recent trip" Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 10-15-2021, 08:01 AM  
Just Got a Pentax 645NII! Any Lens Recommendations for Landscape Photography?
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 44
Views: 5,596
You've already decided on the first two, and you've already discovered that asking for advice on a couple of lenses to buy will return a list of at least a dozen. So, forget all those other guys and listen to me. (That was a joke; you can laugh.)

I agree that the one great walk-around lens for the 645 film cameras is the 45-85. It was the first and only lens I used with my NII for many years, but I tended to use that camera for paid stuff (read: portraits and events) more than for my own landscape work. Even so, for the full 645 frame, 45mm is reasonably wide.

The only reason to get the 80-160 in my view is that they are really inexpensive, even in the autofocus version, and for me fall into the "why not?" category. It would not be my second lens (actually, for me, it was more like my 10th or 12th 645 lens).


If you find yourself bumping up against 45mm too often, your next lens should be the 35mm. 45 is reasonably wide on the film format and something between 24 and 28 on 35mm, but for me it was wide enough on film for group photos but not for landscapes. Yes, the A version of the 35 has a better reputation than the FA, and the DFA is better still. But do not underestimate the quality of the FA version. Just don't expect it to give you 3-foot-wide prints used at wide apertures. That lens is a dedicated landscape lens for me, and should be reserved for tripod use at f/11. You'll need at least f/11 to get adequate depth of field anyway. 35mm is gratifyingly wide on the full 645 format (sorta like a 21 on 35mm)--I doubt I'd get better images with wider lenses, which I love to use but find the rectilinear "distortion" usually goes too far. But if you find that 45 is wide enough for your needs, skip anything wider until later.


After that, then I would consider a longer lens. There are two choices of note here. The first is the 120mm macro lens, which is simply superb. But don't discount the 200/4 FA lens, which is still not too long even for portraits on the full 645 frame (something like a 105 on 35mm). F/4 is fast enough at 200mm to use as a hand-held portrait lens, and for portraits the lens softens up just enough to favor the subject. But by f/8 or f/11--which you'll need anyway to get sufficient depth of field for most landscape subjects--it's critically sharp in my testing and experience. But the main advantage to the 200 is that it is tiny. It's a lens I'll throw into my daypack for a day-long hike without further consideration, even if I don't anticipate needing it. The 80-160 is a beast by comparison (though still not that beastly compared to, say, the 28-45 for the 645z). Get the autofocus version--the optics are newer and you don't pay enough of a price penalty not to.


But the advantage to the 120 is macro. it's a little short for a landscape telephoto--about like a 70 in the 35mm format. But the A version focuses at macro down to 1:1 without any additional doo-dads, and that is a big deal. And it is critically sharp when stopped down to an aperture that will provide sufficient depth of field. Like the 200, it's faster than the 80-160 and will do double-duty as a portrait lens, but if you are into gentle, smooth out-of-focus backgrounds with wide-aperture portraits, you'll need to be careful about what's in the background when you use the macro.

I'd rather have both the 120 and the 200 than the 80-160. All three are in the really affordable category.

Save your money for a good tripod, which will bring you far more improvement than the difference in any of the lens choices from Pentax. None of the 645 lenses are bad enough to really need improving when used properly, but all of them suck if the camera moves while the shutter is open, and it always will if you don't use a tripod. I spent more on my tripod (bought used) than probably what the camera and any two of the lenses you are considering might cost. I own about 10 tripods, all intended for professional use, and my carbon-fiber Gitzo blows them all away for lightness, rigidity, and smooth operation for cameras in this size class, even using a 400mm lens. Add a good ball-head (I use an Arca B1) and you'll never need anything better. That's expensive but a truly worthy investment. But even an old Star-D tripod, which my local camera store sells used for way under $50 in usable condition, will improve your images more than the differences in any of the Pentax 645 lenses.


If you had just gotten a digital 645, I'd recommend the 55 DFA, which is the (superb) normal lens for the digital format, just so you'd have something weatherproof to go along with the weatherproof camera. But the film 645's are not weather-resistant, so that is not a consideration.

Rick "an NII with a 45-85 is self-contained excellence, but a 200 in your jacket pocket will add a lot of flexibility" Denney
Forum: Pentax Medium Format 10-13-2021, 07:15 PM  
Pentax 645D usability in 2021?
Posted By rdenney
Replies: 54
Views: 7,059
Cameras change fast, but photography does not. A camera that produced stunning images that made us all drool in envy in 2010 still has that capability now, if we approach it that way.


If, on the other hand, we insist on having every current feature, we will never be happy with whatever camera we have, and would always be looking to replace it. That's a decision each person has to make.

Rick "who hates throwing stuff that still works well in the landfill" Denney
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