See this post at the Photo.net for more information (mostly technical) about the upcoming 645D:-
http://photo.net/medium-format-photography-forum/00SsTT?unified_p=1
Quoted (my comments without brackets and in Italics):-
"Today, I went to PIE 2009 Tokyo (Photo trade show) and attended Pentax 645D talk session. One of Japanese professional photographer asked several question about 645D to Pentax guys. (Sorry I am not sure they are R&D guy or marketing guy.)
Here are questions and answers:
1. When will it be on the market?
-- Some time next year. They have target date but it's not possible to reveal now."
Well, we all know that, as it has been officially announced already.
"2. Pricing?
-- Pentax wants it to be under 1,000,000 yen (roughly, $10,000) "
Wow, what a large figure! They ask for big money!? I guess it is just a price which 99.99% of existing Pentax DSLR users could not afford! :-( They really targeted this market for existing film 645 professionals.
"3. Shake reduction?
-- It's unlikely. The MF sensor can be "move" but hard to stop."
The inertia of such a big sensor is huge (because of the large mass and great weight), thus the damping is not easy and fast damping is almost impossible.
"4. What is the exact sensor size?
-- They can not answer at this point."
Well, I have made a speculation here! It is 4433. ;-)
"5. Which medium to store the photo data?
-- SD (No CF) and they say it's going to be double slots."
SD(HC) is the future of memory card and storage. Dual slots is good.
"6. Any specific data of Super Wide lens?
-- They can not answer."
I guess they are still working on it, or maybe just started their work.
"After the talk show, I personally asked about DFA 55mm lens. A Pentax guy said that
it can be used with film camera body but there is some "limitation" in operation.
He could not tell me what that means. It might be SDM?"
This "DFA" does NOT have an aperture ring! Just see the prototype image here. In Contrast, both Pentax 135 DFA Macros do have aperture ring and they are full frame (on 135). So, I am almost sure that the "limitation" is about the omission of the aperture ring. Hence, on film 645 bodies, there will be no A (Av) or M exposure modes, but just P and S (Tv) modes.
Yet, fortunately, this DFA 645 lens is designed to be a Full Frame lens on the old 645 film form factor, which is still a good thing.
They want price below $10,000. $10,000 is the limit. It's really good price. D3X is $8,000.
ReplyDeleteNew Mamiya DL33 with digital back $20,000.
And it's film camera + back. Not mono DMF.