Pentax 645D review

An edited version of my review first appeared in Hotshoe magazine over a decade ago. Pentax has been promising a digital iteration of their film-based 645N medium format camera for several years, and now, finally, it’s here. The biggest surprise, though, was the price of around 950,000 yen or around £10,000 ex VAT (the price has since dropped considerably, please see below). Even then, the 40-megapixel Pentax 645D was to be released for the Japanese market only, and it seemed unlikely that it would ever be officially exported outside of the home market. The low price caused ripples through the market, as witnessed by the introduction of the competitively priced Mamiya DM models featuring Leaf Aptus II backs in the summer, and the recently announced Hasselblad H4D 40, a s