The film based Pentax 645N camera, is perhaps one of my most overlooked cameras. I didn't use it very often in the past 10 years - and have to dig in deep into my archive in order to find any recent images made with it. There are not many.
However - I do like what I am seeing !!
Sharp, fine negatives - made with manual Pentax 645 lenses (since i only had 2 lenses; the older manual ones, up until one week ago when i added two more lenses, but now with AF - see photo below).
I really should use this camera more often - given that it performs so well with film.
Since I also have an optical thingy, that helps to set the focus more exactly. Quite often this was a problem with both Pentax 645 and the larger brother, the Pentax 67II. (mainly because I used lenses at wide open aperture - which gives razor thin depth of sharpness - very easy to botch / focus wrongly)
Now that optical thingy on front of the finder window, makes focusing both easier - but also slower (with manual lenses). Yet, it is worth it. When you see that the eyes in a portrait are sharp - instead of back-focus on the ears instead. Which is so annoying when you discover that much later in your film negatives
*rolling my eyes*
Autofocus works
The two other 645 FA lenses i bought very recently - work indeed in terms of Autofocus. Since I never had autofocus lenses for a Pentax camera - I wasn't even sure if my Pentax 645N I had bought in 2015 actually works with AF. (the imprinting of info into negatives, doesn not work - so i thought, who knows, maybe the autofocus doesn't work either). I was never able to test that (nor interesting into AF, to be honest).
But yes - it really does. And it is a very strange feeling to have a mediumformat camera WITH autofocus. Totally weird feeling, really.
Now; how those lenses perform, I will not know until i take images and develop them. For the time being, there is an old Ilford XP2 400 film in the camera - probably having been in there for 2-3 years - and will require C-41 chemistry. Which i avoided to use...
The issue with C-41 chemicals...
The those 5 liter i have at home, are not open/broken out yet. If i do, i need to make sure those chemicals don't get bad. Usually within 6 weeks if stored normally. However, I will freeze the 5 liter developer in order to keep it aloft for 1.5 years.
Well, that is the idea. Last time I did it with 5 liter of all three baths... I never used the chemicals. They got wasted for nothing, because I have not been dealing with film at all for a couple of years.
So: if start to mix the 5 liter for reach bath, we are talking about 15 liter liquid: developer, bleach, and fix. While the latter bleach and fix are NOT to be frozen - but stored in room temperature. The bleach needs regularly be mixed with air, so that it stays active. The fix, you do not mix with air, and shut the bottle with no air in it.
So, i have been very hesitant to break out the last 5 liter C-41 concentrates ... almost avoiding to deal with them. Still, they don't get any better over time... Perhaps at best, they may hold up for 5 years (as sealed concentrates).
And now, that time is almost over.
*rolling my eyes*
Pentax 645 FA 120/4 Macro
& scanning 6x7 negatives
It works flawless for scanning bigger mediumformat negatives. As simple as that: Sharp across the entire frame (with Fujifilm GFX camera) as well no dark corners.
Finally.
It will now be my mediumformat scanning macro lens together with the VALOI 120 device.
For 24x36mm negatives, I use the Sigma ART 70/2.8 Macro lens together with the VALOI 135 device and the Canon EOS R camera with its 30 MP.
Both VALOI devices decouple me from the darkroom, because i can scan images with the GFX or EOS R camera in any environment where daylight doesn't affect the quality negatively (e.g. stray light).
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