Taken the plunge.

That is something! Love that image with the slightly OOF lead in, almost symmetrical view, and delicious light.

Wow!
Matt

All I can say is "Bloody hell!"

Fabulous image.

If anyone's interested, here's a review from Luminous Landscape, but it seems to me that Darkmunk's shots speak volumes to the quality of the output from the right camera in the right hands.

link

So now we finally know for sure ... Great photography is not about the photographer, it's all about the CAMERA! Seriously, well done, there is something to see there, a difference. It seems to have a wider band of distinguishable tones in the low mids to deep shadows. This is where sensors of course usually fall down, as the record a fairly small proportion of the total range in these zones, but here there is a cheat advantage.

Glad to see you coping so well out and about with your new beast, and great work with your fab shot there!

Thank you folks
It's definitely making me slow down and prepare. That's got to be a good thing.
It does seem to render creamier images with longer transitions to highlights.
My trip down the valley involved two lenses, a tripod, my Metz and a light stand with reflector boom. That was a bit much but I didn't know what would be best.
In the end the tripod came out as the most useful addition. Flash was typically useful for insect chasing.
It's very much like all my Pentaxes in that it is very nice in the hand and easy to find everything. I still haven't looked at the manual

Hi Mark

Only picked up on your post last night and I have to say that the images you've produced so far are a great advert for both your skills and the 645Z. The cranefly detail is stunning and the woodland shot has qualities about it that are difficult to define. I often see comments about photos resized for the web losing their impact - well that doesn't appear to have happened with yours (or maybe that's just you skill set showing through ? ).

I've been trying to resist buying a 645D for quite some time now, and when I see results like yours it keeps tempting me back towards a purchase. I've still not seen a 'Z' in the flesh, but I'm advised it is far superior to the 'D' in terms of usability although in terms of IQ I beileve the 'D' isn't that far behind for some types of work (i.e. Landscapes).

Keep up the great work and enjoy the 'Z'

All the best

Thank you John, that's very kind
I was also tempted by the D, but I'm often required to hit ISO above 1600, so personally, I think I would have been frustrated.
I'm still figuring the Zed out, but I think its strongest asset is its ability to handle shadows and gently fade to clipped areas. It does display noise at fairly moderate ISO, but those 50 MB go a long way to mitigate that and retain detail at normal display sizes. Saturation is the first thing to suffer, possibly no better than the K5, but I'm still working on that observation.

That landscape is wonderful. Such richness and depth. I do wonder what a K5 file would look like taken at the same time.
Might be an interesting exercise.

I should do that Andrew, that would be interesting
OK, here's a brutally honest (ful-res) photo from yesterday's studio shoot (click it and zoom in). It's an early shot, pre editing, with no sharpening etc. from when we were roughing-out the lights and make-up etc. The 120 macro was stunning, incredibly sharp, with a lovely DOF even at studio light levels.
http://www.spotlessmedia.com/photos/645Z0581-gabby-unretouched.jpg
I used the Flu-card to tether the camera and that worked well for this roughing-out, giving the inexperienced model a chance to see what I was trying to achieve. I'm looking forward to the software coming out for the cable tethering, but the Flu-card is going to be a boon for corporate shoots with the client present.
A little bonus for me despite doing studio shoots for years, was the awesome sound of that big ol' mirror going off along with the popping and beeping of all the lights. It sounded so cool with that great ker-clunk each time I might not be so impressed in the church next week

Here's one of the finished shots:


low res this time; sorry if I killed your browser with that last huge image, I should have just linked to it. Maybe a mod can remove that post or turn it into a link?
Not sure how all that Magenta crept into the process, but it had to go!
Incidentally, I asked the model to clean off the foundation and go natural. I said I would clean it up in post as I prefer to retain the translucent colours in the skin if I need them.

Changed to link as requested.

I'm going to need a new monitor just to view your images, thanks much both creekside and this portrait are exceptional, what a tool you have in hand!