Pentax 645Z Medium Format + Headshots =?

For around $14,000 for what I would need to be able to add this to my studio I thought it is worth checking out, considering the Hasselblad 50C Back (for the H5D system, see my blog for images with the Hasselblad H5D 50C images I've shot) is $15,999 alone. (whole system with my lens of choice is around $40k)

Now, for your visual people; My 5 min Portrait Session (No joke) was fast and furious. Of course, this wasn't enough time for me to get to know my headshot victims, but it did allow me to figure out the camera's capabilities and limitations. 

So for you story readers, I will show images and you can move along to read other blogs on this page. 

Now on the the technical stuff!

I shot these with a 120mm f/4 (macro) on this Pentax 645z. It was a a pretty nice combination. As a Hasselblad photographer I find the system to be a little dslr like. Meaning they added a bunch of buttons on the upgrade of the D model. That bing said the menu was very SONY like, which is find since we Shoot Sony's Flagship 35mm Sensor as well. The lack of control, customizations, did leave me to wonder what they heck they were thinking when they laid all this out. 

One big issue was locating a AF and Manual option for the lens or in the menu, so I wasn't able to test the AF capabilities. Add this to, and an oddly low shutter sync speed 1/125 over my HV at 1/250 and H5D 50C at 1/800. It will really disable me from knocking out my ambient light like I need to. The inability to control the flash settings.  Things I did love where the Dual SD cards slots, which I used my Lexar 32gb 2000x's and the battery is technically (a Sony M battery with different contacts. I do an actual pros and cons list if anyone is interested in it.

Set up: Speedlight with built in transceiver, and a transceiver on the 645z. I used whatever I could find there, which happened to be a 12" portable softbox (talk about small), shot at ISO 100 f/6.3 and f/7.1 and 1/125. It handled well despite the limitations, but for the price tag how can you turn this down.

Video: It plain sucks.. Moire, Rolling shutter, fake live view, no magnification, native iso 200 with 3200 max, and no way to turn off the LCD makes me all cringe. 4 years ago it would have been on par, but being it's only a year+ old, Im really disappointed as this was a major factor with me looking at this. (Red Raven here I come) - Would I buy this camera? Maybe the next generation.

For literally 5 mins, 1 speedlight, and a 12" softbox this didn't come out bad. I hope they enjoyed their 3mins and 2 mins hanging out with me!