Taken the plunge.

After a year and a half with the 645N, I have decided to stick with the lenses I have and get the 645z gulp:
My best payers are corporate and I'm frequently asked to design roll-up banners, so it's not too irrational, but I'm definitely going to have to step-up my business game and stop treating it as a bloody hobby all the time
I'll keep the K5 kit for all the normal stuff. It's still almost unbeatable everyday kit. But I've now got a spare if anyone wants one?
I looked carefully at the Nikon 810 and 3 or 4 lenses and a flash, but it was creeping up to MF price territory and it just didn't excite me one bit. The Pentax is familiar and I love the feel of the 'N'.
I am actually fairly certain it will be a game-changer for me personally. I plan lots of tiny macro work blown up to giant pieces of wall art and it's going to MAKE me get off my arse and spend more time on Dartmoor or down on the Lizard in my man-cave instead of waiting till 'tomorrow'.
So wish me luck and I promise to post plenty of examples

looking forward to see the results!

So am I !
I'm aware that the differences will only really show up in big prints and massive screens and that kit doesn't suddenly turn us into better photographers, but I think it's as much a change of working practice for me. I will consider everything just that much more, and the low-light stuff...

Exciting news! Good move I'm sure, its a fabulous investment and a great camera. Do the newer DA type medium format lenses offer much more over earlier film era lenses? Sounds like you've got a glass collection ready to go anyway.

Just remember, sure, the camera cost a lot, but each picture is just as free free free as those from the K5 - and a LOT bigger!!

I think the newer lenses are fractionally better. I have the old 120 macro already and that will cover a lot of ground on its own, but I stumped-up for the 55 'kit' lens as it is as highly regarded as the 120, but weatherproof etc. The 45mm may get used for group shots or something, but it's not really my length!
To be honest the Nikon glass was very tempting, but I couldn't face all that again and for only a slight change in sensor quality over the K5iis really. By all accounts the 645z is exceptional. We'll see

Me, jealous, never.... well maybe. I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

K.

Good luck with it Mark, I am sure you will do it justice.

Regards
David

All the best with it, post some pics so we can see how you're getting on.

Good Luck with the new camera. looking forward to seeing some pics

Good luck, however, I am sure you won't need it

Thanks guys.
Still keep waking up in cold sweat wondering if I an get the most out of this and realise it's potential.
So far the talk about it being a hand-holding camera, is a bit far-fetched. Sure, if you reduce the images to normal size they look fine, but that's a little pointless. I'm going to need a more versatile tripod cos it's going to spend a lot of time on it.
Here's an example processed for the web, sorry, gotta go out now, but I'll get more relevant examples up when I can. But this just looked bang-on right out of the camera. Quite harsh sunlight, controlled very well.
click the image


Just for practice for when I use it in churches, I tried it at a dance event, where 6400 iso was the norm. The images were fine, but it didn't really have any real advantage over the more versatile K5iis which is just awesome in that environment.
Size isn't an issue really. It's very comfortable and easy to hand-hold, but to get the blistering quality it's capable of, you really need to keep it still and put that big ol' mirror up, which is not practical.

Here's a link to a full res image of a cranefly, taken whilst on my knees in a marsh.
It's 20MB and may be resized by you browser, so click on it when it's finished coming down
Pentax FA 645 120mm f/4.0 MACRO
Hand-held
F11
1/100th
200iso
Flash into a reflector
Local USM: 30,1,0

I'm going to need some bellows... and a trailer.

Well in a world where everything is 'amazing' and 'unbelievable', this truly is amazing. The detail that is picked up by your new system got me staring at this little beast for ages. And this is hand held!

Ugly isn't he!

I'm sure you'll manage to get the most out of this camera if anyone can. Meanwhile, I'll go back to trying to think of more superlatives that haven't been used about photos before. I may be some time.

Thanks Andy
Here's a woodland image crunched down for the web. Click it tho', it's still quite big
Had a fleeting chance to grab something as the sun came out.
55mm 2.8
F9, 1/100th, 100iso
Image was heavily under-exposed and details pulled out in post. The raw file was more than happy to be treated this way.

That image is outstanding!