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Pentax USA just recently offered a few rebates on their cameras and lenses. While I won’t go into the issues regarding fluctuating lens prices here (making the rebates utterly pointless), I will say a few of the camera bodies did see some decent price reductions. The Pentax 645D is only $8,799.95 now, a $1200 price reduction (It just so happens the 55mm f2.8 lens is $1200…). My guess is that they will be announcing a replacement this month at Photokina. 645D I had the pleasure of using one for a short time a few years ago. I was generally impressed with the camera, but even at that time saw a few issues that should have been better considering the level that camera is at. The thing was slow and didn’t have all of the features a normal 35mm SLR would have. Keep in mind the 645D was more targeted to this side of the market than it was to those ludicrously expensive medium format back and systems. While I’m not currently financially capable of owning one of these, it would be a gre...

Thanks to David at Camera Craft Inc. in Rockford Illinois, I was allowed to get some shooting time with Pentax’s 645D medium format camera.   Here is a 40 second video clip of the camera in action ( youtube link ): I’m going to go over the camera in bullet points because there are a lot of small things I noticed. Body and usage: – The camera is of course big, but manageable with one hand. The grip portion is offset forward making it easy to hold. – Coming from a K-7 or K-5 you will feel right at home. Everything about the body construction to button placement and menu system, it all has the familiarity of the K-7 and K-5 camera bodies. It even uses the same batteries. – The menu interface seems like a mixture between the K-7 and K-5. I didn’t notice multiple user modes, but maybe that was or will be added in a firmware update. – Useful buttons and switches everywhere. This makes setting changes a snap. – Auto focus type and point selection use dials instead of switches like the K-7...

Pentax USA just confirmed that the K-5 in silver will be released here. To go along with it the 40mm, 21mm and 70mm will be sold in silver. New offerings from Pentax. Another interesting product is the new pocket-able waterproof camera, the OPTIO-WG1. That looks like a seriously useful digicam. Waterproof, GPS, and substantial rubberized construction. The 645D also has a new wide angle lens available. I personally think they hit a home run with this update. I wanted a K-7 in silver, but that was limited to a 1000 piece production run in Japan. Now with the K-5 Silver available in the USA, it’s a really tempting option. The question is where to find the funds for one though…

If you haven’t visited luminous-landscape.com before, I highly recommend it. Their articles are unique in that they have a strong photographer’s feel to them, and the topics in are focused on photography for what it is at the heart instead of what many other sites have. The Pentax 645D Without getting into the 645D specific content of the article, I must say I found it very fitting with my ideas about photography, and why I feel that Pentax cameras have a certain “photographer’s camera” feel to them. This feel is the major reason why I choose to use them as my primary tools. It’s fun to read the reviewer experiencing Pentax features from a point of view that hasn’t spent much time with their tools. Here are a few quotes from the article I want to comment on: The ergonomics are, to me, stellar. This is the most usable SLR (of any format) I have had in my hand for years. Quality ergonomics in a photography tool. Always a good aspect to keep in mind. The body melds perfectly into my...