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PENTAX 67II - When and how much ?


mark_miller

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PENTAX 67II - When and how much ?

 

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I have started to do some research on the new Pentax 67II body and

can not seem to get an answer to several basic questions.

 

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1. When will the camera be available to purchase in North America ?

 

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2. Will the camera be available in Canada ?

 

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3. And the big question ... how much ?

 

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Thanks in advance for reply.

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Just got my brand new Pentax 67II Medium Format Camera ..............

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...................Brochure in the mail today!

 

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It has a really cool picture of a sunset/landscape on page 4, and

check this out it has cool pictures of the Pentax 67II. It also has

pictures of all the cool lenses and accesories. Email Pentax and get

your own copy. Best of all it's Free!

 

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P.S. No mention of fixing the mirror shake problem. So all you rich

MF photographers who like to be guinea pigs will have to buy one and

test it out and report back to the group.

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I called Pentax yesterday (10/19/98). They said it is due in North

America in late December or early January. They said it has a new

prism finder with a center weighted and spotmeter, it will use all

existing Pentax 67 lenses, and I was told no published info is

available yet. I am pretty excited about the new body and plan on

buying one soon.

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There is deffinetely literature available on this camera from Pentax

USA. Like I said in my above message I have the brochure. You must

to spoke to someone not "in the swim." I got it by going to Pentax's

USA web site and then going to their "request information page"

Although they don't have it listed, I snuck in my request for this

camera brochure by typing it in on some other line. I think I typed

my address and then asked for the brochure.

 

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Something interesting to note is that many of the Pentax 67

accessories listed in the back of the brochure now have been renamed

to Pentax 67II accessories. For instance the bellows unit is now the

Pentax 67II belows unit. However, the brochure doesn't really state

how these accessories have been improved upon. I have a gut feeling

that these accessories just have minor cosmetic changes and don't

really have any practical advantages to the models they replaced.

 

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Peace Rolland

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Since you have the brochure, can you tell whether the new AE prism is

more of a "high-eyepoint" design with greater eye relief for eyeglass

wearers? I have a bad time with the current TTL prism, and haven't

found any indication in the existing discussions, the B&H Photo

website, or Pentax's German website about the viewfinder eye relief in

the new prism.

 

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Thanks.

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You might be able to get your local eyeglass supplyer to custom grind

and fit an eyepiece for the P67II. You would be surprised how

inexpensive that is. I have friends that had custom lenses made for

their SCUBA masks at a cost of $120.00 US. Considering that it's

only one lense, you might get it done for less. I know someone that

had a custom eyepiece ground for his Nikon FA. Any place that does

custom eyeglass frames should be able to do the work at a modest cost.

 

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Hope this helps :-)

TB

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>Does anyone know if the new AE finder offers full frame viewing?

 

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No full frame viewing. I think the brochure said 90%.

 

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>>Can you tell whether the new AE prism is more of a "high-eyepoint"

design with greater eye relief for eyeglass wearers?

 

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How could anyone tell you if a camera has good viewing by just

looking at the brochure? You will have to physically look through

the new P67II to determine this. The brochure does state that the

new AE prisim has a diopter adjustment.

 

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Peace Rolland

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>>How could anyone tell you if a camera has good viewing by just

looking at the brochure? You will have to physically look through the

new P67II to determine this. The brochure does state that the new AE

prisim has a diopter adjustment.

 

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Gee, the question, which you quoted, was: "Can you tell whether the

new AE prism is more of a 'high-eyepoint' design with greater eye

relief for eyeglass wearers?" Often the brochure will list that as a

feature that is relevant to some. Chuck didn't ask if it had "good

viewing."

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

>>Since you have the brochure, can you tell whether the new AE prism is more of a "high-eyepoint" design with greater eye relief for eyeglass wearers?<<

 

>>And the big question ... how much ?<<

 

I have the same problem and sometimes find it hard to see the corners of the frame even when I take my glasses off! With this in mind I bit the bullet and ordered a 67II from Camera World in Portland OR. Well the guys there are doing a great job of torturing me because the body is on back-order but they have already sent the AE prism to me! As you can imagine I now know Camera Worlds phone # by heart!!!

Anyway, the AE prism does offer much greater eye relief and I can now see the corners of the frame without problem, even with my glasses on.

 

As for price well Camera World is the cheapest I've found $1480 for the body and $630 for the AE prism plus shipping.

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  • 1 month later...
I have just purchased the Pentax 67II after owning several Pentax 67 camera bodies over the past 17 years. I am very excited by the metering capabilities, the much more precise film advance mechanism, the somewhat quieter mirror, the grip, etc. My initial Provia slide test of the multi-segment metering mode was very encouraging. One question. The manual refers to the need to use a circular polarizer. I think I have a linear polarizer that I have been using for some time. I don't understand why they may have said that. It is my understanding that circular polarizers are needed for auto-focus cameras and, of course, this camera is not. Does anyone know the answer to this problem? Do I really need a circular polarizer? I certainly don't want to have to buy another one at the cost of an 82 mm version. Thanks for any help someone can give me.
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Dear Ben

 

The circular polarising filter is required not so much for AF as for AE prisms. Split-beam metering systems may give inaccurate exposures when used with linear polarisers. So if you're using the TTL AE Prism with the Pentax 67 II you'll need the Cir Pol. If you're using a handheld meter and a non-metering prism a Linear Pol will suffice.

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Rene,

 

I think you've got it backwards. AF systems split the beam (half goes down to a sensor which performs the focus) and thus need circular polarizers. I didn't know that AE prisms split the beam...

 

In any case, I have the P67II w/ AE prism and I use a linear polarizer with no problem. I called Pentax several times, e-mailed them several times, and they always told me that I could use a linear polarizer. Apparently that line about needing a circular polarizer was put in the manual because Pentax only sells circular polarizers. In any case, I wouldn't really trust the manual that much. It's so full of typos it's not even funny.

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Sorry guys. I had meant to type 'AE Prism' in the first line with the 'P' in caps, which would have referred to the Pentax AE Prism in particular, and not AE prisms in general. I was talking about the auto-exposure metering system resident within the AE Prism of course, and not about 'AE prisms split(ting) the beams'. I am sorry if readers for whom English is not a first language had misintepreted the context of what I was writing about. Sorry, Marcelo.
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