Here at last: 645D

The 645D is on it's way: http://www.camera-pentax.jp/new/

excelent, now, who can read Japanese?

duplicate thread see link

Only thing I can see is a black silhouette - and I don't read Japanese

I think it's about a convention at 11 march till the 14th where it will be unveiled, at least if I understood it right.

That would be this one http://www.cpplus.jp/en/index.html.

Maybe they are going to save all the big announcements for then rather than the PMA?

Edit: I see Pentax is listed under Hoya in the exhibitors list

Yep that's it the CP+

Indeed interesting to see it listed as;
HOYA CORPORATION PENTAX Imaging Systems Division

Gwyn you need to learn not to put a "." behind a link
http://www.cpplus.jp/en/index.html

Just updating this - there is a little more of the camera to be seen now on the teaser. They are doing a striptease - one shoulder is now bare .

Naughty, naughty, naughty!

I would have thought that a FF camera would have made more sense than a medium format one, given the size of Pentax (the company + user base). It should be interesting to see how this plays out.

Is Pentax that big any more?

Considering FF is still a very small part of Canon and Nikons sales and the people buying them are mainly pro photographers for weddings and such I really cannot see Hoya putting the money into full frame.

Saying that MF is an even smaller user base but as they had all the basics of a digital body built years ago maybe it wasn't that costly to produce now.

I must admit FF doesn't interest me in the slightest.

Not so sure - there are many Pentax medium format film users out there, and if they can use their existing lenses on a 645D that has what I understand to be the same sensor as a Hasselblad but at a fraction of the price, I think Pentax could sell quite a few in a market segment they may even be able to dominate. And medium format film users have tended to be the slowest to move to digital format so perhaps there are still quite a few out there who could be persuaded with the right product at the right price.

For dSLR, dominance is something that I think Pentax will never do with 35mm/FF size sensors - Canon and Nikon have pretty much sewn that up (even Sony is struggling to get in, with a lot more resource than Pentax). That's not to say that I wouldn't be first in the queue for a FF digital MX!... and oddly enough, maybe a niche FF camera - as small and rugged as possible but stripped of all unnecessary extras, might appeal to some others apart from me if the price was right? Somehow, if Pentax go there, they will need to be able to differentiate their product.

Sadly for Pentax, I wonder if one of their main advantages to us as consumers (backwards compatability with a load of cheap and good secondhand lenses) means they don't rake in as much money through forcing people to buy new lenses, profit from which can then in turn be recycled into marketing or developing lots of new product. I think in that position, if I was weighing up trying to compete in FF dSLR or hoping to catch a significant market share of the medium format market, I'd have done what Pentax has done.

As you say, will be interesting to see how it all pans out!

Indeed, if they could price it close against the hig-end FF market then I could see them steal some market from that certainly of the ones that can't effort a Hasselblad so bought a FF instead, those shooters might be tempted.
Also for example a student or someone just starting his own studio, if he they could choose between a Nikon D3 or a Pentax 645D then for some it's a easy choice hopefully. Pentax also has a "name" in MF land and therefore also some trust, Canon or Nikon just can't bring out a MF camera for that reason and like said the FF market is dominated with Nikon and Canon, Sony is trying his best now though but is having a hard time I believe.

I at least am considering going to get a photography degree so if an MF would be in my reach I would get it.

That's what I meant. Pentax isn't a large company and can't really afford to produce anything too esoteric. Everything they produce needs to be a financial success or they could be in trouble. Like you say, the FF market isn't big and neither is the MF market. In fact, with the introduction of high resolution FF cameras like the Sony A900 and Nikon D3X I would have thought that the demand for MF cameras is on the decline. Why pay £10k for a camera that doesn't do much better than a £1.5k camera?

My wife is Japanese -I've just got her to do a rough translation.

Yves link takes you to a page which says:

"Challenge the next Dream
Super high resolution(?) image the world with a big image sensor. This real ability will be revealed with the CP plus"

Not very interesting I know - but try this page



www.camera-pentax.jp/new/news01/index.html
link

This page reads:

"In this new product, comparing with 35mm full size it has about 1.7 times more pixels(?)

From oneimage the data amount is 100MB - you can understand the impressive image quality of the big sensor by just one look at it."

(?) means there was a technical word the missus didn't fully inderstand herself.

Don't know if any of this will give any clues or not - but there you go.

H