Pentax 645/lens questions...

MidnightHour

I've been bitten by the medium-format but and have been looking to buy a Pentax 645 to jump into the hobby with. Since I've never used or touched a medium format camera I'm not sure what focal length lenses would be the norm. For 35mm, the 50mm lens is considered *normal*. What would that lens length be on medium format?

Also, are there any lenses that fit the 645 besides the Pentax lenses?:ivar

Lovesong

For medium format, a "normal" lens would be about 80mm. Larger film size- larger angle of view.
This may help- just find the 35mm equivalent in the table, and the medium format lens length is on the left.
http://www.viewcamera.com/images/focalchart.gif

Art Scott

MidnightHour wrote:

I've been bitten by the medium-format but and have been looking to buy a Pentax 645 to jump into the hobby with. Since I've never used or touched a medium format camera I'm not sure what focal length lenses would be the norm. For 35mm, the 50mm lens is considered *normal*. What would that lens length be on medium format?

Also, are there any lenses that fit the 645 besides the Pentax lenses?:ivar

Wth all Med format cams I do believe there are NO 3rd party lenses.....

With my Pentax645 I had a Pentax 80mm...I do miss that camera and lens...tack sharp, super light weight and loved the low profile viewfinder....but the cost of a digital back is outrageous right now and they have not come down at all in the last 5 yrs.......

Forthe 645 format a 75mm is the actual norm...for 6 x 6 it is the 80mm and for 6x7 it is 90mm.......

If I were able to afford the med format backs I would opt for a square format camera so that I would never have to rotate the camera when going to / from portrait / landscape.........bur since the backs are way too expensive I will now stay with the 35mm styled DSLR's for the wide array of lenses available....that are not available for med format........

claudermilk

Sure there are. Hartblei/Kiev/Arsenal. They will put a Mamiya, Contax or Pentax 645 mount on some & will adapt the rest from Pentacon 6. Beyond that, you can do some limited cross-platform adapting.

Art Scott

claudermilk wrote:

Sure there are. Hartblei/Kiev/Arsenal. They will put a Mamiya, Contax or Pentax 645 mount on some & will adapt the rest from Pentacon 6. Beyond that, you can do some limited cross-platform adapting.

oK.....i was refering to 3rd party made for....not thru adapters:D......you can get m42 screw mount adapters for almost any camera out there but I have not run into a P6 to newer camera mount yet......and actually....Hartblei and Arsenal are actually Kiev cameras....Arsenal was the factory (Arsenal was as its name refers a factory for weapons) name in Kiev, Ukraine and Hartblei just does mods to make the Kievs more reliable and pretty.......I was actually thinking of getting adapters for my Kiev glass (all the glass is supposed to be ground to Zeiss specs but those specs are really old....but all the glass I have is really sharp) to fit my up coming Nikon purchases but those things are built like tanks with a little lead added on...but the glass is superb.......

claudermilk

Seriously, check the Hartblei website. The super rotator at the very least is listed as being available with native Pentax, Contax, and Mamiya 645 mounts. I'm just being pedantic here. In the main, you are correct, whatever manufacturer you choose, you're pretty much using their glass with little other option. The good news is in MF pretty much everyone is supposed to have excellent optics. I can only think of a single lens that's questionable (the Mamiya 35mm C)--and I suspect that's just people hair-splitting. For the OP's question, all I've seen is a Fotodiox adapter to mount Hassy glass and the aforementioned Hartblei adapters for the Pentacon 6 lenses.