After a fitful start, Pentax's medium-format digital camera is now on sale. Here's a look at it.
Stephen Shankland
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
COLOGNE, Germany--Pentax is bringing its 645D medium-format camera to Europe, first showing it here at the Photokina Imaging show and in December beginning to sell it as well. Previously the high-end camera was available only in Japan.
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Pentax 645D medium-format camera
The 645D, like medium-format cameras from rivals such as Hasselblad, Phase One, and Phase One's Mamiya subsidiary, is bulkier than even high-end SLR cameras from the likes of Nikon and Canon.
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Pentax 645D medium-format camera
The Pentax 645D has an integrated design that builds the sensor and screen into the camera body, as with conventional SLRs and Hasselblad's H4D models. Phase One, which builds sensor-screen modules called digital backs, prefers Hasselblad's older V-series designs that accepted the digital backs.
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Pentax 645D medium-format camera
An underside view of the 645D. It's not an easy camera for shooting one-handed.
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Pentax 645D medium-format camera
Pentax is refreshing its medium-format lens line along with the 645D. Attached here is a 55mm model.
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This view of the side of the 645D shows its second tripod mount for attaching the camera in a vertical orientation. Closer to the back of the camera is an SD memory card slot.
