xato

Someplace in the back of my mind is the idea that the 35mm fisheye was one of a couple of lens that would not adapt to the P645. That said the three wides: A 35, FA 35, and 33-55 are wonderfully sharp lens. If you want the fisheye, the Arsat 30mm is a pretty sharp lens as well and is not too costly.

Although I have a rather complete set of lens, the one I use the most outdoors is the Hartblei Superotator 45mm Tilt/Shift. It's very sharp when stopped down to f11 or f16. It seems to be sharper than the Pentax 45mm at those apertures.

 

Warren

I use a Pentax 645N with the Hartblei 45mm SuperRotator as one of my main lens. I love it.

I think the 17-28 lens is of Korean manufacture and tested so-so in Pop Photo tests. It is distributed under the Samyang and Vivitar names. There is another lens, an 19-35 manufactured perhaps by Cosina, which tested quite a bit better, with the names Vivitar, Cosina, Tokina, and Phoenix. I think only Vivitar makes it in Oly mount. I have the Vivitar brand one and it's a very good lens, especially for the price.

This does not sound good; Babelfish:

 

. . . sort of previous report, discontinued the development of the model which designates medium format digital camera "PENTAX 645 DIGITAL" as the base at part. You call the for the sake of it stresses to the K series of the digital single-lens reflex camera.

 

Discontinuing development, photo imaging EXPO (PIE) ever since 2005, having referred and displaying in the large-sized event of the various parts the model which designates "PENTAX 645 DIGITAL" as the base. You discontinue also the interchangeable lens and the development of the accessory. It is the thought of applying the resource to the development of the digital single-lens reflex camera K series. Deciding discontinuance 2007 fall.

However, it continues the development of the medium format digital very thing. Future concrete policy has made in the midst of examining. Format camera it continues the production of "645N II" in the film and "67II".

645 DIGITAL those where for the first time the form was shown as a sample only were the meeting place of PIE2005. At that time, announcing the adoption of the PENTAX 645 AF mount and the Kodak make 1,800 ten thousand pixels CCD. At the meeting place the mock-up of 3 types was displayed, popularity poll was done. After that, Photokina 2006, it was referred was displayed in the large-sized event of PMA07 and PIE2007 etc., called topic. With PIE2007 it executes working hours demonstration, furthermore notifying the loading CCD of 3,000 ten thousand pixels. There was no reference exhibition from direct closely PMA08.

I would take a regular Canon film body, put on the P645 lens and adapter, open up the back, put shutter on "B" and take a look at the inside of the mirror box chamber. I'd bet dollars to donuts that the larger P645 film image would be brightening up the sides of the mirror box and therefore reflecting back onto the sensor, giving a central hot spot.

 

I haven't seen any flare on any of my P645 lens.

 

Warren

I have the 630 (three section) and it's pretty steady. It should work for 250mm and less. This assumes a good head though.

With the exposure so critical and problematic, a DSLR might be the best for this job. I'd hate to come back and see that I've consistently under or overexposed the shots. Or I would take a DSLR or a digital P&S with full manual controls along as just sort of a fancy meter. Copy the shutter speeds and apertures that work and then use your MF.

I would go with the D SLR with a good macro lens. Your family won't really appreciate the time it will take you to do manual scans of a thousand slides. First you have to dust it carefully, then wait a bit for the scan, then crop it and PP the dust if the ICE hasn't handled it. If somebody wants a 16x20 or something, it can be sent out for a better scan. If you can do 10 per hour, that's a 100 hours of work or 2 1/2 weeks full time. At 25 per hour, it would take one week. If you have a family, and/or a job, let alone photography as a hobby, you simply won't have enough time to turn what is a generous offer to your family into something much more onerous.

There are some people adapting P645 lens for Mamiya, especially for stellar lens such as the FA 35mm, but they are machining new mounts for the lens. There are no off-the-shelf adapters that might do this. If you want to use the P645 lens, just buy a Pentax body, they are cheap enough.

 

Warren

Try taking out the batteries and also the lithium one on the bottom. Maybe the logic got flip-flopped somewhere in there. There's no rewind on a 120 film camera BTW--it just ends up backwards on the take up spool. Also the end of film indicator is a little switch that is blocked by the paper in the film backing. Sometimes these contacts get dirty--I would manipulate all the contacts a few times to see if this clears up the problem.

 

HTH.

 

Warren

What about a Polaroid back for your Nikon. $650.00.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/38593-REG/NPC__Pro_Back_II_for.html

Difficult to find but try a Pentax 750Z. 7 megapixels, histogram and spotmeter.

I own the 150/2.8 and the 1.4x but have never used them together--probably because I also have the excellent 200/4. I use the 1.4x strictly with the 300/4. I don't use the 2x very much (used in this instance with the 300/4) because it was sort of soft or my tripod was too shaky or bad technique or something. You may as well get a used 200/4 as it costs the same as the 1.4x. The B&H site doesn't list the 1.4x and the 150/3.5.

KEH has one right now. Used, of course.

I was chasing several P645 to K mount adapters to mount my Pentas 300 ED-IF on my Olympus digital camera by also using a Pentax K to Olympus fourthirds adapter. But they were much too expensive. I ended up using a P645 to Nikon and Nikon to Olympus fourthird adapters. Works great.

 

As far as the focal length, just pick what angle of view you want, normal, telephoto or wide angle. Then next pick the focal length you need to obtain that angle of view. You just have to remember that depending on the size of your film or sensor, you have to pick the right lens. For example a 45mm lens on my E-330 digital acts like a telephoto, while on my Olympus OM-4 provides a pretty normal field of view but on a Pentax 6x7 it would be an ultra wide.

I think there are compendium books by Hildi and Nordin. They cover all of the older cameras. If this is too expensive I am sure your local library can get it for you.

 

Warren

OT to Neal,

 

Thanks.

You have posted a very interesting comparison. If we can analogize film grain to the megapixel race, the more megapixels, the better.

 

Back on topic, I would recommend the Pentax 645. All models have a motor winder and all models have a built in meter. The 75mm is very sharp. The 120 macro is one of the sharpest for medium format.

 

Warren

http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/lenses/peleng_8_35/index.htm

is a good review. A reminder that the field of view will be even narrower than the APS sized sensor shown. Advice: save for the 8mm.

 

Warren

I do landscape so the AF feature is not much use for me, but what bothers me about the older model is the fiddly up and down buttons, which are not super easy to use. If you do a different style of photography, ie. things that move, you might want to get AF for sure.

My favorite set up is the 33-55 and the 80-160. I find that I don't use the 55 to 80 range much in my style of landscape photography. If I do take along another lens I like to take the Hartblei 45mm Superotater. This gives me tilt and shift capability. I haven't found any great differences between the 35 and the short end of the 33-55, however I have not tested the 35 FA which is reputedly one of the great lens of the world.

You don't really say what type of work you are doing and the goals. If shooting for landscape, with the time and effort and sometimes small windows of opportunity for the those rare shots, get that stuff down onto the highest resolution possible, ie. 645, 6x6 or 6x7. Worry about the rest later.

And you mentioned having your 35mm stuff drum scanned, why not, for a little more, get your medium format film drum scanned.

I don't have experience with this particular lens but I have tried the Rubinar 500/8, Harblei 500/5.6 and Pentacon 500/5.6. Aside from the out of focus highlights, the Pentacon is by far the most usable of the three lens and sharper as well.

For a different type of spotmeter, try out a Pentax 750Z. It is a 7mp digital P&S that includes a spotmeter, histogram and 5X zoom.

It sounds as though you already have a digital camera of some sort. First the digital camera, whether DSLR or P&S, should have a histogram, and also have manual settings. That way you can see the distribution of light as film might see it.

If you don't have a P&S, you might want to check out the Pentax 750Z, which has manual settings, histogram and also a digital spotmeter.