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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
01-25-2016, 01:54 PM
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Hi guys, I thought I'd post one of my recent images. It's a mixed media project, where the background is a macro shot of tree bark that I've discovered on a photo hunt last month. The creatures where created and rendered with 3D software and everything was combined in Photoshop. I come from photography and only started with 3D recently in order to expand my creative possibilities. I want to say the tools aren't as important as the idea/concept behind a project, but I simply adore my 645z...
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
12-04-2015, 08:39 AM
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I agree with what some of you have said. The highlight recovery of the 645z isn't something to write home about. In scenes with a huge DR I underexpose sometimes by -2EV, following the classical "expose to the right" rule. This yields rediculously good results, with the right shadow recovery methods.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
11-01-2015, 07:16 AM
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It's the other way around, you'd stitch some 50mm shots into a wide angle shot for example.
Like I quoted above, the goal of stitching is not to, say, replace a 50mm shot with some stitched 90mm shots. In fact that's not even possible, because with stitching, the sensor size increases as well. The wider the stitch, the wider the sensor. So the thing I'm personally most excited about this is the possible background compression, that comes along with the technique. Also, instead of buying 12 Pentax lenses (I can actually make due with just a handfull of excellent normal to tele lenses, 55, 75, 120, 200mm. And I'll be able to cover the spots inbetween using stitching. Provided the scene is without motion. If there is motion, I'd have to try and capture the motion in one frame, and expand from that one frame outwards into parts of the image that have no motion. That would probably work best.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
10-31-2015, 01:24 PM
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You might be right, there. Let's see, I used a 120mm, expanded probably about three times vertically and twice horizontally. Not sure if my math is correct here (note: it almost certainly isn't), but I'd estimate that to lead to a 40-60mm. Which is certainly not an extreme wideangle by a long shot.
Ryan, does say that as well. But at least, we all know what technique exactly it is we are talking about :). "Panorama stitching" is misleading too in many ways...
---------- Post added 10-31-15 at 09:31 PM ----------
It's not a feature of the 645z I'm afraid. In any case this would limit the size of my stitch to how far the sensor can move (or with TS lenses, how far it can shift). By tilting the head it's true I get leaning lines, but the Photomerge algorithm does a great job in correcting these. So it's not really a concern.
---------- Post added 10-31-15 at 09:47 PM ----------
Another note on the 645z. At first I was bothered that the in-camera previews appear much brighter than the RAW files when I open them. But now I think, that's actually a good thing. By slightly underexposing, I retain so much color detail in the highlights while at the same time, there is still so much detail in the blacks that I don't really have to worry too much about it.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
10-31-2015, 01:20 PM
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Yeah computer speed (and memory!) is indeed an issue. As it stands, my 7-years old Mac Pro with 12 GB RAM can process a stitch with about 22 shots. With more images, Photoshop crashes ("out of memory"). Waiting for a new iMac now with 32 GB RAM - an upgrade was overdue anyhow.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
10-31-2015, 04:57 AM
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To come right out of the gate, let me say that "I don't like wideangle lenses". Why? Mainly it's the distortion that bothers me, but the lack of background compression pushes everything so far away and the photo ends up consisting of more sky and floor than I'd be happy with. So I made a few experiments using the panorama technique. Essentially it's shooting the scene with a tele lens on a tripod, shifting the camera from shot to shot so that each photo overlaps with what's already been shot by about a third. Then I've been using Photoshop Photomerge to put these shots together. And it works perfectly! Okay, my 7-years old Mac Pro was working for half an hour stitching these together, but I end up with a 130 MP image, that isn't distorted, has beautiful background compression and that benefits from the sharpness of the 120mm F/4 macro lens I was using. I'm now editing a fashion shoot using this technique, but before I want to share with you the result of my test session
Ryan Brenizer who is well know for using this technique with large aperture lenses has said "By stitching together these image, you don't increase the angle of the lens, but the size of the sensor". Which honestly makes it even more of an interesting technique to use. Imagine a 130 MP large format camera with your favorite lens' optical properties. How could anyone not get excited about this :).
Have fun everyone trying this out yourself
Pentax 645z w/ Pentax smc 645 FA 120mm F/4 macro @ F/11 1s ISO100 -1EV
(the -1EV is crucial in retaining all the highlight detail in the background!)
Converted and edited in Photoshop CC
---------- Post added 10-31-15 at 01:02 PM ----------
Here is a 100% crop on the trees in the background. Check out the hand print on the tree trunk. So much detail....!
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
12-13-2014, 03:36 PM
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
12-09-2014, 04:48 AM
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Could you guys explain what exactly you mean by "cock or re-cock the shutter". How exactly does one have to proceed in order to profit from the LS lenses? Asking out of curiosity.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
11-09-2014, 05:18 PM
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wow, I think I finally figured it out. And OF COURSE it's entirely my fault :D. Oh the shame. I somehow hit the bracketing button while handling the camera. Well, at least I can sleep easy now knowing that the manual will actually stay manual. Thanks everyone for your hints though.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
11-07-2014, 09:38 AM
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thank you for your response, Victor. I'm using PocketWizards (to Elichrom strobes). Anyway, it's good to know that there might be a solution and I just haven't found it yet.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
11-07-2014, 08:49 AM
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Hi,
I'm using the 645z in studio, but would like to drag the shutter (1/30s instead of the native X-sync speed). So I used M mode. However, the camera changes my chosen exposure time (1/30s) after each shot, as if it was trying to compensate. Instead it drives my crazy (just like the auto-brightness setting of LiveView). Manual should be MANUAL! I'm hoping I'm doing something wrong...
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
11-03-2014, 01:33 AM
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Yes, I noticed that too. I'd prefer a display that's not exposure adjusted as well. However, for anything that's slower then 1/50th of a second, I imagine there is no way around it anyway (assuming LV has about 20 frames per second). But for anything faster, I'd rather see what my chosen settings would give me - as sometimes we intentionally underexpose an image.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
10-19-2014, 05:50 PM
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
10-10-2014, 05:31 PM
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I've browsed through the manual for the IT2 software and had a bad feeling. I hope I'm wrong and it works great. Because I think this will be the only solution for the 645z. C1 and LR, we wish, not gonna happen. Neither has ever supported Pentax cameras. Fingers crossed.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
10-09-2014, 04:37 PM
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Capture One does open Pentax 645z DNG files, if the exit data field "camera model name" is changed to "IQ250". I'm not a C1 user, just tested this with a test version, so I can't say if it all works as it should. C1 crashed a couple of times though, so I'm guessing it's not the best method... Nevertheless, if you wanna give it a go, I put together the necessary steps to try it on my blog: Open Pentax 645z DNG files in Capture One Pro |
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
10-07-2014, 12:50 PM
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I agree, the FluCard is a waste of money for the most part. Oh man, I'm so spoiled coming from a Canon 6D with built-in Wireless and maching IOS app. Transfers fast, let's me zoom in on the IOS device etc. I so hope the tethering with the new software via a USB3 cable will be a real joy to work with...
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
10-05-2014, 04:14 AM
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Hi everyone, thank you all so much for your suggestions. I found the problem. Under Menu - Image Capture Settings: There is the checkbox: 180 degree rotation info. This needs to be unchecked, no matter if DNG or PEF is the raw format. Seeing it rotated correctly in-camera I thought, that this feature would rightfully have to be checked.
My compliments to the author of the Australia joke by the way, made my day :D.
Cheers, John
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
10-04-2014, 09:09 AM
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Hi guys,
I got my 645z last week and spend every minute I can spare familiarizing myself with it. So far, I love it, appart from a few kinks. One of those is the fact that all images I shoot appear upside down, when I copy them to my computer. There IS a feature in the menu that is called something like auto-rotate images. But then images appear fine on the computer, but are upside-down on the screen of the camera. Any ideas, what I might be doing wrong?
Cheers,
John
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
09-25-2014, 04:59 PM
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I tried tethering using the flucard, but a) it's really slow and b) when I read the Flucard with my card reader, quite often OS X Finder crashes and won't restart unless I remove the card from the reader.
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