charles_wood

<p>Park City is great for skiing. For winter shooting with a 4x5, the Heber Valley, 15 miles south of Park City, offers Deer Creek Reservoir with views of Mt. Timpanogos in the background. Venture on towards Provo, the Provo canyon offers views of waterfalls and access to Sundance Resort.</p>

<p>I own a K1 along with a number of Pentax K and 645 mount (with adapter) lens, including the Pentax 28-105mm lens. Trust me, the K1 with the 28-105 AF will keep up with your kids as long as you have some skills with tracking fast moving objects. The myth of Pentax AF continues to be perpetuated.</p>

<p>There are no digital backs for the Pentax medium format film cameras. Pentax does make a digital medium format DSLR, the 645Z. The predecessor 645D is a 40 meg CCD design and will deliver dynamic range, color depth, S/N performance that is likely to be far superior to any used digital back you can afford for a Hasselblad. When changing film types is no longer a consideration, a digital back is less of an advantage other than allowing you to use an older body that won't be weather proof or well integrated. Whereas the 645D is a weatherized, integrated design and the lens selection is very affordable on the used market.</p>

<p>I have a Zenfolio site and I always upload full size files, mildly sharpened in an sRGB color space. I let the printing service (Miller) scale down if necessary but this allows someone to purchase a very large print without compromising detail.</p>

<p>The Pentax 60-250 F4 works superbly on the K1. I've just returned one from rental. Vignetting is significant upwards of 250mm but manually controllable in PP. The example I rented was tack sharp and as good or better than my Canon L 70-200 F4 from a few years back. One poster commented about louder, it's dead silent in focusing. I'm assuming spell check changed it from longer to focus. I didn't have a problem at all with focus, although I could tell it was marginally slower than my previous Canon lens.</p>

<p>I am for the most part, a landscape shooter. I don't shoot sports or weddings. My professional career has centered around fine art/wall art nature and travel photography. In film days I shot 4x5 and Pentax medium format. When I transitioned to digital I started with Canon because there was little available from Pentax at the time.</p> <p>I have high praises for Canon printers (I've used their IPF series printers for over ten years) and their technical support. The beginning of my disenchantment with their camera systems began when I started shooting night sky/nightscapes. The Canon sensors simply didn't compare with SONY senors in Nikons and Pentax.<br> As I had all my Pentax 645 lenses from film days, along with a 645n film body, I decided to switch in 2011 from the Canon 5D2 to a Pentax 645D and more recently the 645Z. The Z was a revelation in terms of image quality, noise and high ISO performance. Still, for night sky work it was limited by the lack of an ultra-wide lens.</p> <p>The K1 was a logical choice for this type of work as well as traditional landscape/nature shooting. Pixel shift is a game changer. When shooting in the conventional mode, the K1 image quality is very similar to the Nikon D810. When shooting in pixel shift, it's a quantum leap beyond any other FF camera or the 50 meg sensored 645Z or Hasselblad equivalents and compares head on in perceived image quality with the 80 meg Phase medium format system. In the pixel shift mode, with every pixel delivering true RGB information, rather than being derived by a Bayer Matrix, the color gamut matches or exceeds any consumer camera system available, regardless of cost. Pixel shift also extends the outstanding dynamic range and S/N performance.</p> <p>At $1800.00, it's a no brainer for landscape and night sky work, especially with builtin GPS and Astro Tracer.</p>

<p>After comparing the pixel shifted images from the K1 against the conventional outputs from the Nikon D810, Phase IQ180, Pentax 645Z and other high res bodies from Canon and SONY, it's apparent the K1 will appeal to a vast base of landscape and studio photographers. It clearly outperforms the D810 in both the conventional and pixel shifted modes in terms of noise performance and resolution. It matches the image quality of the Phase IQ 180 80 meg digital medium format system and the Pentax 645Z. At this point, with pixel shift engaged, it has the best S/N and DR of virtually any camera body available, short of the incredibly expensive 100 meg sensored bodies from Phase and Hasselblad.</p> <p>The pixel shifted images clearly demonstrate how much resolution is thrown away with Bayer filters. The advantage of image stacking in terms of improvement in signal/noise performance and pixel shifting to provide true RGB information at each pixel, is significant. Pentax, using in body image stabilization, has positioned the brand to refine this technology. SONY could jump on board as well in the future. Should that happen, Canon and Nikon will have to react at some point and neither brand is well positioned to do so due to their philosophy of providing image stabilization in lenses.</p> <p>You can go do DPReview and make the comparisons and judge for yourself.</p>

<p>Having shot medium and large format film for years and Canon digital SLRs before coming back to medium format digital, here are my thoughts, for what they're worth.</p> <p>First, ask yourself, are you planning on using a digital back with a field/technical camera? If not, my suggestion, also as a landscape shooter, would be to buy a new Pentax 645Z with the 28-45mm AF/optically stabilized lens, pick up a used 55mm and 80-160 AF lens. You can buy all of those within the budget you've allowed. An alternative WA lens is the manual focus 645 35mm, considered outstanding today and equivalent to 28mm FF on the 645Z.</p> <p>The SONY 50 meg CMOS sensor in the 645Z will have far better noise performance and dynamic range than you'll find from any of the used Hasselblad or Phase backs with CCD sensors within your budget range. The 645Z is very happy with long exposures, so nightscapes, night sky shooting, are easily captured with the Z, far less so with CCD sensors. Even shooting at ISO 6400, the noise from the SONY sensor cleans up nicely.</p> <p>Because of the image stabilization in the Pentax 28-45mm lens and the incredibly good high ISO noise performance of the 645Z, you literally can use it as a walk around system and shoot handheld with excellent results, if you're so inclined. From a practical standpoint, there is practically no difference in apparent noise between ISO 100 and ISO 800, buying several more stops of sensitivity when needed. It also will weigh less than an equivalent Hasselblad or Phase system in addition to having outstanding weather sealing. For hiking, backpacking, you'll grow to appreciate the lighter Pentax system. You would have a new system with a warranty on the body and 28-45mm lens.<br /> <br /> Finally, I would suggest renting the systems and see which matches your needs. My two cents. Others, no doubt, will have different views.</p>

<p>Another good place to start would be with websites that deal with medium format systems. Here are a couple:<br> <br />www.getdpi.com<br> This site is skewed heavily towards medium format and includes threads for Hasselblad, Phase/Mamiya, Pentax and Leica, plus smaller sensor brands, as well.</p> <p>www.pentaxforums.com. <br> Aimed specifically Pentax users of all formats.</p>

<p>No serious photographer, amateur or professional, should give Ken Rockwell's site the time of day. He's a fool who writes articles that are nothing more than click bait to keep revenue coming so he can take care of his "growing family". </p>

<p>John---I purchased the M1 to use it to scan 4x5 transparencies. I was never pleased with the results, so I continued to use a 617 holder and scan my 4x5 film one half at a time in my FlexPhoto, then stitch the two files. </p>

<p>I owned an M1. I purchased it with the intent of scanning larger format transparencies. Sadly, it did not deliver results that were anywhere comparable to files from my Imacon FlexPhoto. The M1 did a first rate job with prints and I used it extensively for scanning old photographs for restoration purposes. As others have noted, technical support is virtually non-existent in this country.</p>

<p>The more correct title for this thread might have been: Before You Buy an Epson Large Format Printer.<br> I've owned two Canon LF printers, an ipf8000 and now the 8300. I've not had head clogging issues with either. I've had to replace heads from use and Canon considers the heads consumable items (albeit expensive). I've gone as long as a month between uses when away on trips. The machines automatically clean the heads and the ink cartridges are designed with a mechanism that periodically stirs the inks to prevent settling. It will be interesting to see if a new crop of Epson printers correct past issues. FWIW, I also have an Epson 3880 and it's never clogged although I use it at least once a week.</p>

<p>At one point I had a K3, 645Z and GH4. The 645Z is pretty much reserved for occasions where image quality above all else is the goal. I was initially using the GH4 for video but after shooting stills and finding them to be excellent, the smaller size of the body and lens made it more inviting, along with faster, more accurate focusing. I sold the K3 and have no regrets. Canon and Nikon weren't even on my radar and haven't been for years, although Pentax could certainly learn from Canon Professional Services as to how to support professional products. Pentax will never win wide appeal in professional circles until Ricoh gets the service and support act together, make it an in-house function and stop farming it out to the lowest bidder.</p>

<p>The coming Winter Consumer Electronics Show starts on Jan. 6. Samsung has already announced new UHD sets with IPS display panels, likely 10 bit processing, and decoding to handle 4K streaming. So things are being notched up a bit in terms of display performance, at a price of course. SONY and LG will probably introduce similar offerings.<br> If one is willing to work with calibration via a computer video card (assuming it will drive a 4K display), one could hook up a computer to a UHD display and enjoy some level of calibration when using it with a computer--but certainly not to the level of performance of an NEC or other advanced monitor.</p>

<p>For better or worse, I've noticed a lot of real estate firms posting heavily HDR/tone mapped processed images of interiors/exteriors. Photographers I've talked with who specialize in this work tell me they typically charge $150-300 per location, are in and out in 45 minutes to an hour, sometimes much less. In one local case, the photographer and his wife work as a team, DSLR, tripod and a couple of lights. They have their routine down pat. It's a production, formula business. Likewise, the post processing is done quickly, all for web use, not fine art reproduction.</p>

<p>Another lodging option at Monument Valley in lieu of Gouldings, Kayenta AZ, or Mexican Hat, is The View, located at the visitor center and providing sunrise/sunset views of The Mittens right from your room. It's definitely the most upscale of any lodging available in the area.</p> <p>http://monumentvalleyview.com</p>

<p>If you decide in the future to create slideshows or videos in HD, you'll need software such as Roxio Toast Titanium for the Mac. Creating HD videos on BluRay is a bit more complex than burning data files but it's not that difficult to learn the process.</p>

<p>I recently purchased a GH4 and it does have a couple of shortcomings, the most notable being poor focus tracking. There are some workarounds, including pre-focusing/shooting manual focus and stopping down to F8 or so to increase depth of field. The m4/3s sensor will have wider DOF than an APS-C or FF sensor. The image quality of the GH4 makes the effort worth it. I've shot with several professional and consumer Canon and SONY camcorders over the past five years or so and none of them even come close to delivering the IQ of the GH4 if you shoot 4K and down convert to 1080. The exception would be the new SONY a7s but you would need an external recorder. XLR (balanced out) to stereo miniature (unbalanced in) audio adapters are available. TEAC makes a small, low cost unit that will mount under the GH4.</p> <p> </p>

<p>You'll likely want to have an external drive for Time Machine backup. I would get a 1 or 2 TB drive, partition it, and use one partition for image storage rather than on the boot drive. Multiple drives makes it easier, in my opinion. That's one of the nice features of the older Mac Pros--lots of internal HD storage.</p>

<p><em>My wife and I are staying in St. George Utah next week for one night and are going to make a trip up to Cedar Breaks National Monument, then loop all the way back to St. George Utah via Routes 14, 89, and 389.</em></p> <p>This is a bit late at this point but for future reference, missing Snow Canyon State Park while in St. George is a missed photographic opportunity. I find it actually far more interesting photographically than Cedar Breaks, with a variety of formations and viewpoints. Also just north of St.George is Yant Flats, an area with geologic formations that rival The Wave, Coyote Buttes and White Pocket in Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. Also, not mentioned was Twisted Forest, an area of bristlecone pines near Brian Head/Cedar Breaks. As others have noted, you'll spend a lot of time driving instead of photographing.</p>

<p>Accidental double post</p>

<p>If I did the trip I would rent a Pentax 645Z. It is weather proof, designed to operate under cold conditions, shoots up to 3fps, has a <strong>very</strong> low noise 50 meg sensor, is an all in one integrated design that is as easy to use as a DSLR, and will easily deliver gallery quality images printed 50" or more wide. It's also likely to be easier to handhold than some of the higher priced competitors and it's extraordinary ISO range make landholding practical under some conditions.<br> If you are going to be in and out of rubber water craft between the shore and mother ship, with a group of people that will be constantly on the move, I think FF or MF digital is the most practical way to go. I would think you would want the capability of shooting moving wildlife as well as landscapes and I'm not sure 4x5 film provides that capability.</p>

<p>If you want to future proof the system for 4K video editing (if video is of any importance to you) or even watching downloaded 4K, you will need a more advanced video card. I'm not sure I'd go with a 512 meg card even for stills. I'm sure it's a given you've selected Windows 7 Pro as an OS vs the home version, which I believe is limited to working with a max of 16 gigs of RAM.</p>

<p>This company specializes in coverage for photographic, lighting, computer gear for travel, location shoots, etc., domestic or international. I get about $20K coverage for all contingencies for about $500 a year.</p> Tom C. Pickard & Co., Inc. 820 Pacific Coast Highway Hermosa Beach, CA 90254 Phone: (800) 726-3701 Fax: (310) 318-9840