Digital Back for Pentax 645NII

Hi all,

 

Just a little FYI..

 

Was at the NYC Photo expo last week and the Pentax rep there told me

that they have in fact developed a working digital back for the

645NII. However, the rep said that Pentax won't release it until

they can get the price down from $6,000 currently to about $3,000.

He also said it was a full frame 645 sensor.

 

The way the price of digital equipment has been falling, it may be

reasonable to expect this back to reach this price point at some

time in the near future.

 

Or maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part....

Did he hint on any specs? we know NPC was working on one ( I sense some collaboration ) but never released any specs ( which sensor, it's MP count and so forth ). At $6,000 if it is at least 11/16 mp full 645 frame it might be worth it, at $3000 it would be a dream. This is the first hint of anything since Pentax made it's official statement that they will work on a digital solution for the 645, I can only hope they will follow up with another official release after I get a 645NII :D

A full frame 645 sensor for that camera would be very worthwhile at $6K, and a steal at $3K! What the hell are they waiting for?

 

I really hope this is true. Converting my 645N II to digital would be a real nice option. Until then, I'll burn more film, I guess.

 

Gotta admit, this sounds too good to be true.

The fellow I spoke with didn't have any more specs other than what I mentioned above.

 

He claimed he has actually seen it. I should've gotten more info but the Pentax MF counter was pretty crowded and others were clamoring for his attention.

If Pentax is working on this digital back, I'm sure they wouldn't tell their marketing reps. These guys can't even get info on existing Pentax products, let alone ones that are still in development

The 22 megapixel backs that are now beginning to ship from Imacon, Leaf, and

PhaseOne sell for $24,000 to $30,000. Sinar's has been shipping for a year and sells

for $25,000 to $32,000 depending on single-shot or four-shot. If Pentax offers an

almost full frame 6x4.5cm at $6,000 they will not be able to keep up with demand.

It's just not possible.

Why this concern with the back? I think it would be easier if Pentax brings out a brand new digital camera using the 645 lenses would be better.

 

But Pentax has yet to bring out a full frame 135 camera! So I'll wait...

Pentax just introduced their first digital SLR it's not full frame

costs more than than the Nikon D100 and Canon's 10D and

from all reports is not as good. To think they could produces a

full frame 645 digiatal back for $3 or $6K is a pipe dream. But

hey with Pentax sometimes that's all you have.

The Pentax *ist-D review at http://www.dpreview.com says, "...the *ist D is a capable digital SLR which can stand shoulder to shoulder with the longer established names in the digital SLR's world without compromise." DPReview gives their top "Highly Recommended" rating to the *ist-D.

 

The review at http://www.megapixel.net gave the *ist-D top marks (10 of 10) for focusing and for image quality with and without flash. The only "regrets" were related to the rough accompanying PC software.

 

The Luminous Landscape review of the *ist-D says, "Pentax's new 6MP digital SLR, is an adequate offering � producing image quality competitive with similarly priced and featured cameras from Nikon, Fuji and Canon." The review goes on to say that the *ist-D is more expensive than the Nikon D100 and Canon 10D, but less expensive than the Olympus E1 and Fuji S2. Reichmann's major complaints seem to be that the camera body is too small and that he doesn't like the name.

 

My point? Pentax has learned how to build digital camera systems are equal to the other major manufacturers in quality and value. I wouldn't bank on the release of a MF digital back that blows the competition away, but they can likely produce a back for the 645Nii that is equivalent in performance and price to the competition.

"Reichmann's major complaint...that he doesn't like the name"

 

Now this is just bull. As Michael explains in his review, and as anybody who has followed his Journal and Website knows, he has long and very positive history with Pentax. In my opinion, his reviews are very factual from a user's point of view, and he says how it is.

Hi all,

 

Recearch, development and production of a full frame 645 sensor should put the price at this stage at 20k-30k. Doing it for a specific camera only (compared to mods on the Kodak or Leaf systems for other cameras) will only push the price up.

Unfortunately there is a limit to how many chips can be produced out of a standard silicone wafer and this will dictate the price.

 

We wil not see a full frame 645 back, or insert in this case, for under US $10k for at least 3 years. ( thats what my cristal ball says anyway)

 

So keep on scanning!

 

Regards.

It's quite entertaining to see all these "accurate" price estimates on digital backs.

 

Currently a Kodak back for Mamiya 645 sells for ~ $12k. This is a 1.5 lens factor, meaning not a full frame and 16.6 mpix.

 

We're looking at a well overpriced market where the relatively low demand still creates sales at these price levels. They would like to tell us how much it costs to develop a digital back. That was a case 2 - 3 years ago. Technology is here and coming up with a new back is more like matching the pieces to a new camera mount, rather that doing it from scratch.

 

This reminds me of the plasma screens. They were going for $10k plus until Gateway dropped one on the market for $4k. A sudden change that affected the entire plasma market immediately. This the most likely scenario for the digital photography. Someone will one day realise how much can be gained from sales volume rather than inflated prices, which is what they are these days. Perhaps market is not yet ready to provide that kind of demand, but this is likely to occur within a couple of years.

 

None of us knows what Pentax is working on. I don't see anything wrong with a full frame 645 back for 6k at this stage, and a 3k soon. Pricing depends on how quickly a company wants to recover R&D costs, and again they're not (or certainly should not be) as high as the prices might have one believe.

 

Pentax has delivered top products for ages. It is unfair, to say the least, to accuse them now of some sort of shoddy marketing practices. They are most certainly no different than all of the others.

Ilkka,

 

No, my comments on Michael Reichmann's review of the *ist-D are NOT "just bull." The subtitle of Reichmann's review was "Dumb Name/Adequate Camera." He then went on to devote a major heading and two paragraphs to his view that the name was a bad idea. I (and many others, it seems) happen to agree with him. My point (made too briefly, perhaps) is that Mr. Reichmann's negative comments on the *ist-D were related more to the name and user interface than to the imaging capabilities of the camera. He actually had these positive things to say about the *ist-D's image quality:

 

"At ISO 200 � 800 there is little to fault and much to like about the Pentax's image quality"

 

"Exposure metering in matrix mode (which I mainly used during my testing) was exceptional. As good as I've ever seen."

 

"Turn-on time is fast. About 1 second. As fast an any DSLR that I'm familiar with."

 

My point is that I think that Pentax has demonstrated that it can build digital products with imaging capabilities that are on par with the other major manufacturers. Despite being underwhelmed by his total user experience with the *ist-D, I think that Mr. Reichmann's review supports this opinion.

 

Regarding the 645Nii and a possible digital back, the cost seems to be largely driven by the price of the imaging array. Who makes big CCD arrays? How much do they cost?

This is just an update for Dermot, who posted above me a while back. The pentax *istD is actually less than the current canon and nikon cameras at b&h photo. The price that is listed is 1699.00 but when you put it into your cart it drops down to 1345.00. There might be other things that you can fault the istD for, but it doesn't seem that price is on of those. Cheers.

Oh yeah, I forgot, if Pentax or any other manufacturer does in fact make a compatable insert for this camera, or even a camera that is compatable with the current lenses and accesories, I am surely in the market.

Does anybody know if this will also work in the older Manual Focus 645's?

I have a Pentax 645N with adapted 67 lenses. I love the system, and believe that in most ways it is a better "shooter" than ANY of its competition. I too, have been hoping for a Pentax 645 digital solution. I see no reason that the company cannot come up with a viable 20 mp+ full-frame digital insert that will work with ALL of its 645 models and lenses (no interconnection is needed... witness digital backs that fit graflok backs on 45 cameras). With Mamiya coming out this year (05) with its ZD camera and digital back (which are not quite full frame 645), and the back at $6k, I have high hopes that Pentax will offer a solution for its faithful users. Remember that Pentax has introduced a number of firsts in the camera world over the past several decades. Have faith, my friends... I believe Pentax is working on a solution that will literally blow the photoworld away!