The ever-elusive Pentax medium-format digital has surfaced again, this time on the Japanese site Impress Watch. I see my fate in this camera, to an extent. I picture myself looking like Imogen Cunningham's father at ninety, feeble and nearing my end. And they'll say to me, "You've had a good life, Mike—well, at least after you became an internet tycoon in 2013. Anything you regret?" And I'll splutter "But...but..." and then whisper my last words into the ear of my faithful great-grandson. And then I shall expire.
The others will turn to my grandson, wondering what my parting words of wisdom could have been. The lad will shake his head sadly. "He said it was such a shame that he had to go just now, just before the new Pentax medium-format digital camera comes out...."
Such is life.
Imogen Cunningham, My Father at Ninety, 1936
ADDENDUM: Speaking of Imogen Cunningham and heroic California landscapes, another book of (mostly) large-format photography I like is Rondal Partridge's Quizzical Eye, which I notice you can still get as well. It's a softcover exhibition catalogue from a 2006 show called "From the Byways to the Highways: Rondal Partridge Photographs California 1936–1969." The pictures are quirky, almost impish in their inquisitive good humor and playfulness; I particularly like the early photographs of Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange at work, although he has a roving and wide-ranging eye and mind. (I first became aware of Rondal Partridge through a fairly bizarre portrait of a shorn and severe-looking Lange dressed in an almost outlandish white dress with poofy shoulders and 19th-century skirts, seated in front of a window...I still wonder what the occasion was, whether she was dressed in period costume for a play or to adorn an historical reënactment or something? The picture is in the book.) For a long time I thought Rondal was Dorothea's son, but that's wrong; he's Imogen's son (and thus the grandson of the white-bearded fellow above). A long-lived crew, that bunch: Imogen died at 93 and Rondal must be nearly that age now.
Expect irony as much as beauty from Rondal Partridge. His famous photograph of Yosemite's Half Dome is a pointed but very funny commentary on his mentor (and his mother's friend) Ansel Adams's work.
Oh come on... they said it would be out early 2010 at $10,000. *coughing*
... And just before Nikon introduces their 30MP D5x at $1,000... after which Pentax stops production, and shows another 645D under glass which would boast 50MP to be available in 2013.
Posted by: ShadZee | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 02:40 AM
I'll never afford such a camera, so I can just sit back, and enjoy the rumors and speculations around it.
Not to mention the humor...
Posted by: Torgeir Frøystein | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 03:04 AM
Pentax did state at PIE in Tokyo this weekend that they have a set launch date in next year and a price level hopefully below 1 million yen (feel free to have your pinkie in your mouth as you say it).
You may have to grow old and tycoonish awfully fast for your prediction above to come true. :)
Posted by: Janne | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 04:15 AM
While I certainly cannot make any promises, the following link on the Pentax Japan site says it is due in 2010, along with a 55mm f2.8 lens.
http://www.pentax.jp/japan/news/2009/200907.html
I wonder what the price will be.
Alex
Posted by: Alexander Vesey | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 04:44 AM
Pentax has been showing a mock-up for about 6 years. I think we'll finally see it. Now I wonder about the IKEA Leko car...
Posted by: misha | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 04:49 AM
One more note: "Anything you regret?" And I'll splutter "But...but..." and then whisper my last words into the ear of my faithful great-grandson. And then I shall expire."
That reminds me of the story told about GB Shaw: Oh, doctor - if I could only live six more years. When the doctor asked why, Shaw replied: Then people could say, 'There was an Irishman who hated the British for a whole hundred years.'
Posted by: misha | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 05:05 AM
LOL Mike, your comment was the funniest I've seen on the soon-to-be-but-never-actually-released 645 digital Pentax... but I'm sure you will have the pleasure to use it for many years.
Not me, sure: too expensive for an amateur. But this will by my 7 series BMW-like camera: not for me (no way to put a family of 4 kids within such a car), although I can't avoid to dream about it everytime I see one of those in the streets...
Posted by: Cateto/Jose | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 05:35 AM
I have no personal or potential interest in this Pentax camera, but a replacable back would make the investment easier even if it increased the initial cost.
Posted by: Joe | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 06:25 AM
Whenever I see somebody complaining about this, part of me wants to say that it's likely that it'll be a matter of decades before I'll be able to justify the cost of such a beast, so I personally see no particular rush.
But of course it passes, and I understand that we all benefit from a world in which pros have access to a greater variety of tools with which to create, and that every new player in the medium format digital market creates new competitive forces that will reduce prices and make these technologies available to more people sooner (even if they remain out of reach for folks like me), and that, as a Pentax customer, I stand to derive a number of indirect benefits from the research that goes into building such a thing and from anything that can improve (or, at this point, even just maintain) the health and prestige of the Pentax brand.
And in the end none of that matters either, because when i look deep into myself I know what's actually important is that this sounds like a really cool gadget, which therefore ought to exist as soon as possible.
Posted by: Benjamin R. George | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 06:25 AM
I see numbers on a top plate! It must be ready to go!
Posted by: Nick | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 06:54 AM
Ouch. That struck home. Cheap shot Mike.
I’ve been holding on to my Pentax 645 lenses during the ongoing announcements of the 645D, expecting that it could be the camera that replaces film for me. I’m also on the far side of 50; I’m not old yet, but I can see it from here.
“Waiting for the 645D” could become a colloquialism for an unfulfilled goal. Oh well, it’s still likely to appear before I get around to reorganizing the garage.
Posted by: Tom | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 07:43 AM
Looks like Pentax is either pushing vaporware, or making yet another marketing blunder. Don't get me wrong, I love some of their quirkier moves. I had a huge Pentax 35 mm system before I got into digital, all the way up to their colossal 600 f:4 lens. I still think Pentax SLR's have the best, most intuitive exposure controls on the planet. But they hamstrung their 645 system by giving it a fixed back with inserts, making it much less flexible than competing systems with interchangeable backs. Looks like they're about to make the same mistake with their digital 645, and this is much more serious. It locks buyers into a fixed sensor at a time when image quality is a moving target. Mamiya likely found this out to their regret with the ZD camera. Even if I had the cash to buy into a medium format digital system (which, pointedly, I don't), I would never lock myself into one with its resolution and image quality set in stone.
Posted by: Geoff Wittig | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 09:05 AM
fwiw - the forest picture in the background is noted as having been taken with that camera - so it isn't entirely vaporware.
Posted by: James | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 10:33 AM
With the cost of backs, aren't they essentially throwing in the camera for free anyway? Fixed back or not.
Posted by: Nick | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 10:46 AM
Forget Imogen Cunningham's father at 90... I'd rather have been Imogen Cunningham at 90... especially when she got to photograph Twinka nude!
Posted by: Ed Buziak | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 12:29 PM
Yes, and I have a review of 645D in my new journal, which will be debuting very soon...
Posted by: MBS | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 12:34 PM
@ Geoff Wittig
See third row of images here:
http://www.digitalcamera.jp/html/HotNews/image/2008-03/07/p645d/
That looks like a user replaceable sensor unit. Cool, crossing fingers!
Posted by: Tim | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 01:47 PM
Mike, you are such an optimist :-P
Posted by: Richard Man | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 03:35 PM
Are you sure that's Imogen Cunningham's father and not Gene Hackman from "Young Frankenstein?"
Posted by: JonA | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 04:15 PM
Never never never regret. The cards are in your hand, and they're what you've got. Play them as well as you can, and you won't go wrong.
Posted by: Graham Glover | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 04:18 PM
"“Waiting for the 645D” could become a colloquialism for an unfulfilled goal."
You mean like "Waiting For Godot"?
Posted by: misha | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 06:46 PM
I just can't get enthusiastic about a camera that has so many buttons. I count 20, plus several dials. I think I'll set an upper limit on how many buttons a camera can have before I lose interest. The problem being, having all those buttons means I have to remember what they are there for & that gets in the way of my using the thing.
Posted by: Michael W | Tuesday, 31 March 2009 at 04:23 AM
The 645D looks like the K20D's bigger, fatter brother, and not unlike the way a 6X7 looks compared to a 35mm Pentax. The control layout is very similar to that of the K20D, though not as similar as it could be. If you had both cameras, it would be a bit annoying. (I have a K20D and the layout works well for me.)
On the Impress Watch site one shot shows a row of four buttons on the top of the camera, but the middle two have a bit of black tape over them, hiding their purpose. Hmmmm.
Geoff, if they are aiming for a similar market as the 6X7, it will not matter that it has a fixed back and the sensor cannot be changed, if there are enough pixels and the image quality is good. The 6X7 had a fixed back and did alright.
Posted by: Roger Bradbury | Tuesday, 31 March 2009 at 04:27 AM
My income is far too modest to actually own a 645D, but as a Pentax shooter I'm looking forward to the bragging rights. I don't know if Pentax / Hoya can afford to have a loss leader, but they sure could use the mind share that this camera could generate.
Posted by: Andre | Tuesday, 31 March 2009 at 01:39 PM
"You mean like "Waiting For Godot"?"
Yes, you read my mind, but unlike Godot, I think the 645D will appear. I don’t think Hoya wants the Pentax name to descend to a 2nd class status, especially in Japan. So do they produce a 35mm full frame, “me too” DSLR or do they produce the 645D at a price accessible to dedicated amateurs? When they stopped production of the FA series and replaced them with the DA lenses, they painted themselves into a APS-C corner. Producing the 645D at $10,000 would restore Pentax to a status they held before the digital era. Does it make economic sense for Pentax to do this? I have no idea, but there are motivations other than short term profit (at least there were).
Posted by: Tom | Tuesday, 31 March 2009 at 09:48 PM
just linked you to my facebook, great blog you have and thanks for shearing, you have my respect
Posted by: Allan Johnston Photo | Tuesday, 21 April 2009 at 11:56 PM