Review 5 of 10
Summary: * Very good landscape and travel camera.
* Compact camera for serious photographers. (If you want to take pictures, why not take good ones at the same time).
* Lens has adequate speed. F/4 beats the Zoom version's f/7 (at 90mm) hands down. That's almost a two stop difference. My advice is to buy this fixed lens alternative, deciding on wide (60 mm) or ultrawide (45 mm) and then take a step or two closer instead of zooming to 90 mm... Strengths: * Superb lens
* Date and exposure info on negs (outside th picture area)
* Distance info in finder. Very useful for an AF rangefinder.
* Compact size
* Bult in flash is good to have as a spare. Not to be used except in emergency (small power, but when you need it, it is good to have it).
* Reasonable price for a top quality 645. Weaknesses: * Somewhat slow AF. Makes it difficult to get pictures at 'decisive moment'. Even the manual recommends using focus lock in situations like that, but that is not always possible.
* manual distance setting in steps, which makes hyperfocal focusing difficult. You can set the distance to 3 m or 5 m or 10 m, but not in between. It turns out that 5 m is the hyperfocal distance for f/16 (giving everything from 2.5 m to infinity sharp)and 10 m for f/8 (5 m to infinity). But you are out of luck if you want to use f/11 or f/5.6, for example. It should be an easy matter in an auto everything camera to have a button or set of buttons that automatically set the camera to correct hyperfocal distance based on pre-selected aperture.
* No double exposure possibility. Admittedly not often needed, but would add to creative possibilities.
* Focusing makes quite a noise. Unlike some others, I don't find the film winding too noisy, though. Similar Products Used: Several 6x6 SLR's and TLR's Customer Service: I have heard bad about them but only once used Fuji's Ginza service center in Japan to buy a lens hood and replace a lost lens cap.
They were friendly and efficient.
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