A new toy/weapon in my arsenal, a Pentax 645. I got the first roll back today.

The Specs...
Pentax 645
SMC Pentax A 645 75mm 1:2.8
Ilford FP4
ISO-125

The Tool...


The Highway...










The History of my subject: The Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) is the oldest inter-city limited access freeway in all of Canada.

Originally built as "The middle Road" between 1932 and 1937 it ran from Toronto all the way to Niagara Falls.

The idea to rename the Middle Road to the Queen Elizabeth Way to commemorate a visit by His Majesty King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (The Queen Mother) on June 6th, 1939.

Alright Yokes, lets see some results from your 645!

Were those shot with the camera doing the metering? Exposure looks bang on.

Mine hasn't arrived from France yet.

Posted by yokes Were those shot with the camera doing the metering? Exposure looks bang on. Mine hasn't arrived from France yet.

Yeah, Aperture Priority mode. Shame that yours hasn't arrived yet.

nice!!!

and pentax finaly came out wth the 645D

i'll just go back to my lonely 6x7 now

Posted by Axle Shame that yours hasn't arrived yet.

It is apparently waiting to clear customs in France.

I hear only good things about Pentax 645! Wide-angle lenses for that system seem to be a bit hard to come by, but quite affordable. I believe that there are also adapters around that convert Pentax 67 lenses to Shift lenses for 645!

That's what I hear as well. Plus, it has built in AE and autofocus with the N model.

I can't find a 67-645 adapter (though, it does exist).

(Mine cleared French customs today)

Posted by yokes That's what I hear as well. Plus, it has built in AE and autofocus with the N model. I can't find a 67-645 adapter (though, it does exist). (Mine cleared French customs today)

I'm curious to hear your impressions of the autofocus. My experience with MF autofocus has never been favorable.

I only have manual focus lenses right now, so I won't be able to tell. But when I get AF lenses I'll update.

Got my first set of negs back today. All shot on matrix metering mode.. and every exposure was bang on. SO impressed.

That's a sexy looking camera you have there. For sone reason i've always overlooked the Petanx medium format cameras. I'll have to pay closer attention after seeing this thread.

I can honestly say it is the best medium format camera I've used. Image quality is as good as a hasselblad or mamiya (both of which I've used a fair bit), but with the built in metering, this camera is much more fun to use.

http://www.flickr....g/tags/pentax645n/

Posted by yokes I can honestly say it is the best medium format camera I've used. Image quality is as good as a hasselblad or mamiya (both of which I've used a fair bit), but with the built in metering, this camera is much more fun to use. http://www.flickr....g/tags/pentax645n/

Those look so good. I'd start pricing them but my next MF camera is going to be a 6x6. I've wanted one for years now, just can never make up my mind.

Posted by yokes I can honestly say it is the best medium format camera I've used. Image quality is as good as a hasselblad or mamiya (both of which I've used a fair bit), but with the built in metering, this camera is much more fun to use.

I will agree with that, I don't have as much experience with MF SLRs, but compared to my Yashica and Rollei, it's nice to have a camera with an eye-level finder that isn't awkward to use, as much as I like my TLRs, they're awkward, you almost always need a tripod, the mirrored image in the waist level finder, I guess learning with eye level finders is what makes it just that much more awkward. Not to mention the 16 shots per roll instead of 12, and the option to get a 220 insert and get even more shots.

Plus it's big, heavy, all kinds of awesome, I get wonderfully strange looks when I use it, and it makes such a noise that you know you've fired off a frame.

Plus, you can have it record the "exif" data on the side of each frame:

Posted by yokes Plus, you can have it record the "exif" data on the side of each frame: http://farm3.stati...7_8dcce2a9ae_b.jpg

That's VERY cool. I wonder if there are scanners out there that would automatically read that and record it into exif when scanning.

Posted by RenegadeOfFunk That's VERY cool. I wonder if there are scanners out there that would automatically read that and record it into exif when scanning.

IDK about how scanning under Windows goes but I imagine one could chain an OCR program running a custom script to process the EXIF data into the scanning process.

Eye-level finders are not inherent to any type of camera. You can get an eye level for some models of TLR.

Speaking for myself, I find that a waist-level finder (or ground glass on a large format rig when using a darkcloth) is superior for creation of a photographic image as it separates me from the subject and keeps me from being distracted by what my eyes see (vs what appears on the glass).

I agree, and I think it is the only thing missing from this camera.

some nice stuff yokes

the colour shots expired film?