Short rumor about the new Pentax 645Z camera that should feature the new Sony 51MP medium format sensor. Digicameinfo leaked the images of the camera and also the specs. And Phototumors reports that it will cost $8500.
So this will be the cheapest Medium Format camera on the market with a Sony 51MP sensor that goes up to 204,800 ISO, does a sort of 4K in interval mode (???). As you know there are rumors saying Sony will do a sort of digital mirrorless [shoplink 25383 ebay]Mamiya 7 (here on eBay) camera[/shoplink]. And it should be cheaper than the Pentax. If it becomes true this will be an amazingly interesting camera!
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If this will cost $8500 then that gives a clue where the price of the A7s ought to be. 🙂
Be serious, this is a medium format sensor 51Mp, 4k internal…
interval
Sony should make a digital back for 2,000 and play the market, for older cameras and they would need to make lens or cameras
The figure I have in mind for the A7s is 1200 Euros tops. I am serious about that too. 🙂
(4K internal/interval, no 4K, OK, I do not care. 🙂 )
Free is even better! I am serious too!
I will give 200 Euros plus my NEX-7 to sweeten the pot. 🙂
for me, a medium format starts at 6×6. 6×45 is a cropped MF, nothing else. Mamyia had once an excellent camera in this cropped format, the Mamyia Z. It died because the US market refused to sell them.
I’d be quite happy if Sony drops all the bling and gives us a medium(ish) format camera that has a pricetag that is actually justifiable without needing a whole bunch of work lined up to cover it. The larger-than-135-format market could do with a good shakeup.
44x33mm is only 27% larger than 135 (35mm FF), considerably smaller than the 56x41mm of real 645 film back in the day.
So, what would it be a “justifiable” price for what MF-ish camera?
What about the sensor size of the other cameras in the market using non-Sony sensors and their price tags? What about the price of the lenses they need?
Again, what is “justifiable” in what MF-ish?
Mamiya Leaf’s 80mp back is 53x40mm, closer to the 645 standard, and it’s $33,000.
44×33 is 68 percent larger.
Apologies. I meant the linear gain. I should have said “longer”. ~27% longer, ~35% taller.
It is a jump, don’t get me wrong, but not the same jump as 135 to 645 as companies today may lead us to believe.
44mm is 22 percent wider.
There must be pretty near zero market overlap between the A7s and this camera. If you need a 51MP resolution MF camera, I can’t imagine why you’d buy a 12MP 35mm FF one. Equally, if you want a light, compact camera aimed to give excellent low light video performance (and access to video-orientated lenses), then you’re unlikely to want a large very high resolution MF camera.
I rather suspect any 4K video will involve line-skipping (which may be what is meant by interval) in which case, so I doubt it will come near the A7s.
That it might support very high ISO is an interesting departure from all those old CCD-based MF cameras, but I suspect the results will only be acceptable for still photography in heavily downsized output.
If you want to look at a price comparison pointer for the A7s, look at the Canon 5D Mk III. If Sony are brave, they might price the A7s at a premium over that camera counting on what ought to be class-leading video from the A7s, along with unrivalled lens flexibility to justify the price.
Quite interesting design – mirror box and lens shifted to one side! This symmetric “old” design was necessary because of the two film reels…
And also very interesting: an articulated display! All those Canikon fanboys always tell us that no professional will ever need such a thing…. 🙂 🙂 🙂
The film 645 had the same design. The two-reels thing is true for 35mm, this MF had different mechanism (both reels were close together in the back of the camera and the film rails were in front of them).
that’s awesome, but i’m still waiting for my RX100 with APS-C 🙂
““4K-interval shooting mode”, meaning you can take stills at a 4K image size/aspect and turn them into a timelapse afterwards.”
From Pentax K-3 review, should be the same.
Hmmm what says the rumours about the Sony medium format camera?
Short flange distance so more like a “digital back” to be used with adapters and
any kind of lenses?
Yes we are waiting for a RX10 APS-C 🙂
And for E-mount FF a 24mm or 28mm prime, and a 85mm prime would be very welcome.
I hope Sony will make the Medium Format mirrorless camera that was rumored 🙂
For those who say that the MF sensor won’t have much difference compared to Sony’s 36MP FF sensor , take a look at this –
http://www.thephoblographer.com/2014/01/24/photographer-tim-kemple-new-phase-iq250-comparison-d800/
Shows D800 and the IQ250 at ISO 6400.
Difference is huge.
The D800 use a two year older sensor and that’s not much of a test yo begin with.
I doubt they’ll be receiving new Sony sensors in the future. Toshiba seems to be their new supplier.
Sony purchased the vast majority of Toshiba’s silicon fabrication abilities. Even if it says “Toshiba” (or Aptina or Renesas for that matter), it’s still Sony derived at this point. They are snapping up wafer makers at a rapid pace. They did the same to a smaller extent with manufacturers specializing in LED panels. Hence the 2.44 million pixel finder on the better Alpha cameras: Epson would’ve done those but Sony just bought their capabilities. If you can’t beat em, own em. Standard Oil New York lol but they were seriously good moves.
I’d hate to be in their competitors shoes in the years to come.
This kind of camera wont be able to dominate market but useful for PRO photographers 🙂
It has tripod screw holes on both the bottom and the side , which is a nice idea.
All good for Sony!!…But still looking forward to Sony’s own mirror-less MF
This is great new. Hopefully these new sensor improvements will be implemented into future A-Mount, and E-Mount cameras soon (A77II soon).
I am totally wired up to see what 645z can do and if I ever go MF it’ll likely be my choice…
…but am I the only person annoyed by (all camera manufacturers’) high ISO claims? It may go up to such-and-such, but rare is the camera that offers usable images at more than about 1/6th of the advertised max ISO.
Well, depending on how you use them the higher ISO values are still useful. For instance you could average high-ISO frames. Results will be worse if you use the same exposure (SS&A) and low ISO values. A commonplace application for such a technique is indoor places (e.g. historical) that don’t allow flash/tripod.
Nice thing about something with this kind of resolution though is that you can compress a lot of the noise from high ISO out without loosing a lot.
Is there any news on a possible 24mm FE lens admin? Sorry to be off topic but I’m quite curious. Also keen to know if the A7S is doing any better with wide M glass than the A7?
Whoa. Be cool 🙂 The A7s isn’t doing ANYTHING yet lol only a week old in the official announcment cycle. There might be, what, 5 of them in existence? We’ll know eventually.
If Sony ever do a MF digicam, lets hope it have lens with leaf shutter like
the Phase One 645+ with Schneider lens, capable of flash sync at 1/1600.
That Pentax MF camera is BUTT ugly. Only a maker could love. Lets hope Sony do something really cool to redefine the concept
Sony should license Contax 645’s design from Kyocera and do a remake already, they could make it another collaboration with Zeiss and still brand it Contax? But honestly it could use a bigger sensor than this, this one’s too close to FF size.
That’d be a really cool idea but Sony has the habit and history of doing everything in house…sometimes to their detriment. Even the Zeiss lenses are Sony made but Zeiss “supervised” and “approved”. I think they’ll ultimately opt to design their own ground up…but hopefully they’ll listen to users as they do. Fuji seems to be listening to their users and keep hitting it out of the park.
LOL!
For whatever reason pentax just doesn’t like or care about design aesthetics. Their original 645 is hideous too…and the less spoken about the pentax k-01 the better.
If only Fuji would make a MF camera. That would one well thought out design. With great glass. As long as they came with leaf shutters. Sony can supply the sensor. That’s all really Sony should make. And let others do the rest.
Omg yes….Sony MF sensor with a Fuji body design and Zeiss glass. I’d trade the kids and wife I don’t have for it…maybe the dog too.
I agree that this design is the most horrible thing I have seen. Usually design is not a dealbreaker. But I would rather kill myself than shoot with this camera 😉
Until you actually hold and use them, that is. Pentax DSLRs are superb photographic tools. The K5 is still the best designed DSLR (aside from the Olympus E1), and the K3 is even better.
Jeez, who cares how the camera looks if it does the job right? It’s not a car or a girl.
It looks like the Olympus E1 and that was a lovely camera to work with, it just fitted the hand perfectly, it was the polar opposite of my A7R. But I wouldn’t trade the Sony file for anything right now…….(:-)
MF versus organic sensor FF, which is better?
the one you have now is better.
The organic sensor is better if you’re planning on eating it.
Let’s now hope that Fuji will take the Bronicas out of the dust bin.
I thought Bronica was bought out by Tamron? What’s the Fuji connection? Do share.
You’re asking a guy who thinks the brand logo makes a camera a deal breaker. He’s no real photographer and uses a smart phone or m43 or something.
I could live without that giant Pentax logo on the front, it makes this camera an ugly duckling.
Or…You know…if you’re someone who wants or could use a larger than full frame sensor with 51MP. That too I suppose.
Neither this or the original 645D is plastic but magnesium alloy, so you have obviously never handled one….
Andrea… “Phototumors.com” doesn’t sound so nice… 😀
Sony can’t make MF camera, it doesn’t have glasses to support the system. Oh wait…. hmmmm. Go for It Sony 😉
This 645 will be fixed lens, like the RX1. Perhaps Sony should just stick to making fixed lens cameras and focus on system cameras only for A mount? Safer that way, no?
By the way. If we have 35mm as “full frame”, what is 645? Super Full Frame? XFE? And what will digital 6×6 be? Ultra Full Frame?
They haven’t used the word “mega” yet but they may reserve that for 8K-resolutions in the future.
Since this is smaller than 645, it’d be 1.3x crop 645.
6×6 is… 6×6
“Full frame” is for 35mm. No one has trouble understanding that concept.
So there will be medium format speed booster too…..hahaha
Actually, such a thing would work better on medium format than on smaller formats.
Well a super RX1 with 44×33 sensor and a short zoomlens. Would be great,but maybe a little overkill ince RX1 is allready very good.
Give us superb AF system and Medium Format market will be all Pentaks’s !
What medium format lenses are there that will make use of a superb AF system?
Hubert, here are 16 Pentax 645 lenses on bhphotovideo – http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?atclk=Brand_Pentax&ci=467&N=4288584244+4291284238
I might agree with you Bro` Pentax optics a bit limited … and there is no any F2 option the brightest one is 2.8 ((
I have started saving my money for it. It will be the DIGITAL Texas Leica.
…but only if Sony doesn’t cripple the camera as they have with the RX1R, A7, A7r by compressed lossy raw files and a vibration-prone loud shutter as in the A7R.
I can only judge the file based on my personal experiences but I’m finding the Sony RAW files far more forgiving and robust than those from my Canon 5D3. As for the critics of any Camera (or supporters for that matter) just ask to see their work and judge the validity of their rhetoric based on that.
You speak like you’ve never used a A7/A7r… actually, I think you haven’t. What exactly do you use? Is it better than any of the cameras you mentioned? 😀
Just looked at the Pope on BBC. Everybody took pictures of him! How many were smartphones and how many were other cameras? 100% smartphones. How long will the CAMERA survive?
I think A7r is my last camera! Love it but…
So you will move from an ILC FF A7r, to a smartphone, with a 24-28mm lens and a horrible low light performance?
Riiiiight…. Either you are trolling, or you are just one of those people woth too much $$$, who buys a camera and uses it with a kit lens.
Saying that you’d move to RX100 would have been more believable, and still i’d call BS.
Besides, why the heck would you take a picture of a Pope with a pro camera in that situation. You are not doing a photo session and you will probably trash it anyways.
I bet Fuji will come out with a digital Gx645 camera in due time. Can’t wait. Then again, I’m still waiting for the Fuji Klasse D (Digital) or Natura D to take on the Ricoh GR, and I’m still waiting.
Well I hope they will do better. I can’t remember seeing an exciting lens in a Gx645 camera, not compared to their 6×7-6×9 offerings at least.
Medium format is about the same spot regarding marketshare and price what 35mm Full Frame was 10 years ago, and 35mm Full Frame is about the same spot regarding marketshare and price as APS-C was a around decade ago.
Just as 35m Full Frame is becoming more and more mainstream nowadays, Medium format will become more popular and cheaper in the next decade.
Finally, a decent medium format camera. They’ve been lagging FF big time for the last few years. I guess they still are, but this is certainly an improvement.
Why a Sony version be cheaper? And where would the lenses be coming from?