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Pentax 645D Action Photography Video

Ryan HK went out to shoot the advertising images for Canada Olympic Park with a Pentax 645D,

and his lighting technique and shooting process was filmed as follows --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJZHQMQuufw


More images can be found at --

http://hkphotogroup.wordpress.com/

Snowboarding and the Pentax 645D

31 03 2011

This week I was booked to shoot some marketing material for Canada Olympic Park.

As some of you know I shoot a fair amount of Medium Format, even in sports.

On Tuesday The Camera Store gave me the Pentax 645D to try out.

They wanted to shoot a behind the scenes video of sports and “Medium Format” cameras.

The Pentax performed great all day. I was used to the focusing speed on the H series from Hasselblad and this new Pentax was a real treat as far as focusing speed goes.

Unlike the Hasselblad digitals and Phase One backs that both shoot in 16bit RAW, the Pentax shoots 14bit, similar to a Nikon Raw format.

I was initially a little concerned about this, for large prints.

After working a couple of the files in PS, these 14bit files are stellar.

There is a large selection of both focal plane and leaf shutter glass available for the 645D.

This is a nice little bonus, as my Hasselblad system has a very limited number of lenses available.

The Hassy is also only “leaf” shutter, so you are limited up to 1/800th of a sec for shutter speeds.

The Pentax 645D’s ability to accept both leaf and focal plane means you are able to jump up to 1/4000th if the job requires it.

For about half the price of an entry level Hasselblad or Phase system, the Pentax is a killer choice.

I can definitely see this camera making a larger presence on the lifestyle and wedding circuit.

The 645D has the ability to give you that unparalleled fall off and D.O.F. in a medium format (not to mention it shoots a native 18×24 @ 300dpi).

We shot for about 4hrs on Tuesday and the Pentax battery barely dropped a bar.

Usually when you’re shooting winter sports the batteries in the bigger cameras take a pretty big hit.

This camera held up throughout the shoot.

For those of you only running laptops to do your editing and worry that a digital medium format file will bog down your system to no end… Don’t.

The files are a modest 50-70mb each, and being 14bit, they won’t murder your machine’s RAM, whether you use PS,Lightroom or Capture One.

Overall, we had a great day of shooting at C.O.P. and I really enjoyed shooting with the Pentax 645D.