Pentax unveils 40MP 645D medium format DSLR

By Argote
in Digital Camera Lab

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Grand Master

Argote

Posted
Posted
Five years after announcing its development, and following a month-long online campaign trailing the launch, Pentax has finally unveiled its much anticipated 645D medium format digital camera. The first digital version of the company's 645 medium format camera system, it features a 40MP, 44 x 33 CCD sensor, 921k dot 3.0" LCD and is compatible with the existing 645 system lenses. The camera will initially be available only in the Japanese market at a suggested retail price of ?850,000 (~ US $9,400) from May 2010.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/1003/10031002pentax645d.asp

It seems like an interesting development to have a medium format body under $10k

Grand Master

crazzy88ss

Posted
Posted

is there a specific reason for the megapixel count on this camera? or are we still in the age of the megapixel myth...

Megapixel myth really only applies to consumer point and shoot cameras. You can't use 12MP camera to make a giant bill board; that's when you call in the medium format cameras. They've been doing this since the days of film. The larger the piece of film the bigger you can enlarge the image. The more megapixels you have, the bigger you can enlarge the image.

Check out Hasselblad: http://www.hasselbladusa.com/ They currently go up to 50MP.

Grand Master

sanctified Veteran

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^It would more likely be a complete pain in the ass. 70mb files anyone?

Not really. I work with medium format negatives scans. Every scan 30 x 30 inches at 300 dpi and my macbook pro (A 2008 model) has no problem with them.?

carmatic:

The PENTAX 645D incorporates a high-performance CCD image sensor produced by Kodak. It measures 44mm by 33mm, and is approximately 1.7 times larger than its 35mm-format

So it's not a true medium format but something in between.

Grand Master

carmatic

Posted
Posted

carmatic:

The PENTAX 645D incorporates a high-performance CCD image sensor produced by Kodak. It measures 44mm by 33mm, and is approximately 1.7 times larger than its 35mm-format

1.7 times larger but 2.75 times the number of pixels if their highest 35mm fomat pixel count is 14.5 megapixels... so each pixel is still physically smaller

Grand Master

sanctified Veteran

Posted
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1.7 times larger but 2.75 times the number of pixels if their highest 35mm fomat pixel count is 14.5 megapixels... so each pixel is still physically smaller

Traduced on more detailed pictures :)

Grand Master

sanctified Veteran

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they'll need the optics to back that up, wouldnt they? its no point having pixels which are always only slightly different in colour from its neighbours... you'd get a really smooth fuzzy picture

A company with the history of Pentax is not going to release a medium format camera, where the detail can be reviewed like no other, without the optics to take advantage of the sensor.

on the MF topic, why is it that their max ISO is 800? You'd think that with such a massive sensor it should be able to take night shots and make them look like broad daylight!

Not really. There are other cameras that do that and believe me, this camera is like a disposable one compared to them. Just wait for the FOVEON sensors to become mainstream.

Grand Master

Draconian Guppy

Posted
Posted

Just wait for the FOVEON sensors to become mainstream.

Sigmas sensor offering? In answer to what? High ISO on mainstream cameras or medium formats? I've read little on Foveon, since CCD and CMOS is what the Canikon duopoly is about. Though I do recall reading on dpreview, years ago when it the first sigma with FOVEON came, it wasn't on par with performance with any Canikon had to offer.

Grand Master

Argote

Posted
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why do medium formats always have such low flash sync speed???(1/125 on this one)

The lower sync speed is because the shutter needs to travel a longer distance (due to the bigger sensor).

From what I read in Wikipedia, it seems that digital medium format sensors are not the 6 x 4.5 size of the film but usually smaller (something like the size mentioned here).

Grand Master

crazzy88ss

Posted
Posted

on the MF topic, why is it that their max ISO is 800? You'd think that with such a massive sensor it should be able to take night shots and make them look like broad daylight!

Medium formats are usually used mostly in the studio or landscape type of things. So they probably won't even need to go over ISO 400 because the lighting is controlled.

Grand Master

carmatic

Posted
Posted

I think you replied to the wrong post... hehe

it was in response to this

on the MF topic, why is it that their max ISO is 800? You'd think that with such a massive sensor it should be able to take night shots and make them look like broad daylight!

to which you replied

The lower sync speed is because the shutter needs to travel a longer distance (due to the bigger sensor).

hence i replied to your post

in short, the reason that the camera cannot do more than 800 ISO is because it has too many pixels

Grand Master

Argote

Posted
  • Author
Posted

it was in response to this

to which you replied

hence i replied to your post

in short, the reason that the camera cannot do more than 800 ISO is because it has too many pixels

Check the posts again :rofl:;)

Grand Master

crazzy88ss

Posted
Posted

it was in response to this

to which you replied

hence i replied to your post

in short, the reason that the camera cannot do more than 800 ISO is because it has too many pixels

umm... no. My post is talking about sync speed and you're talking about ISO.

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