Keeping Things In Perspective; The Old Versus The New

Pentax 6X7 and Fuji X-T1 shown for perspective (click to enlarge)

Just when I think that my Fuji X-T1 APS-C sized camera and lenses seem to be too big and heavy for an all-day photo outing, I think back to my 20+ years carrying a Pentax 6X7 with four lenses.  Just so you (and I) can appreciate the difference and be grateful for what we have to work with today, I brought out the old Pentax with a lens to show you some comparison photographs of it next to my Fuji X-T1.  Here are some of the specifications as well.

        Pentax 6X7 w/55mm f/4 lens and Meter Prism        Fuji X-T1 w/23mm f/1.4 lens

Weight               5.43 lbs. (2467 grams)                               1.5 lbs. (692.2 grams)

Dimensions  184 X 175 X 156 mm (approx. w/prism)           129 x 89.8 x 46.7 mm    

The Pentax is 43% wider, almost twice the Fuji's height (98% taller) and 334% deeper!  This giant 35mm style camera is a beast, no matter how you look at it.

(click to enlarge)

Are you kidding me?  The Pentax weighs in at almost 5 1/2 pounds with a moderate wide angle lens!  The Pentax, meter prism (prisms were sold separately and could be bought three ways: waist level, pentaprism without a meter and with a meter) and 55mm lens (28mm in 35mm terms) are really heavy compared to what we complain about today.   

Remember, I also carried a 90mm f/2.8 (normal) lens, a 135mm f/4 macro lens and a 200mm f/4 tele-photo lens. How do all those translate to 35mm?  Exactly the opposite of Micro 4/3.  You halve the focal length as opposed to double it as you would for Micro 4/3.  So a 90mm lens for the 6X7 format had an equal field of view as a 45mm lens on a 35mm camera.  These lenses were very heavy not only because of their size and the image circle they had to cover, but because of the amount of glass contained within each.  No plastic lens elements.  All heavy optical glass.  Top notch optical glass.  

For example, the 55 f/4 shown here alone weighs 25.5 oz. (725 grams).  By comparison the Fuji 23mm f/1.4 (remember also that we are talking about a relatively slow f/4 versus an very fast f/1.4 lens!) weighs just 10.6 oz. (301 grams).  That is 2.5x more weight just for one lens!

When you add filters, accessories and a very large bag in which to carry everything, the weight was well over 20 lbs.  Everything about the Pentax was oversized and you needed a huge bag in which to carry it all.  But carry it all I did.  I took it on airplanes and photographed all over the U.S.  Oh!  Don't forget the large, heavy tripod to hold all this weight steady!  Big, big, big!  But I loved it and never complained as the quality of my images was terrific.

I feel safe saying that the image quality of the X-T1 and excellent Fuji lenses equals or surpasses the huge 60 X 70 mm (2 1/4" X 2 3/4") negatives from yesteryear. There is less grain/noise in comparable ISOs, more dynamic range and better color.  Of course, to change look of your images in the Pentax days, one had to change film.  To change ISO, one had to change film, sometimes in the middle of a roll so there was money wasted. 

Don't think the Pentax lenses were second class.  Before I purchased the Pentax, I put some professionally made approximately 30" X 45" Pentax prints up against the same scene made with a Hasselblad and the Hassy had nothing on the Pentax!  The Pentax was half the cost so I went with the Pentax and it was a wonderful 20+ year marriage for the two of us.  As I have written in the past, I used 35mm mainly for slides and the Pentax mainly for enlargements.  I was never happy with 35mm enlargements, even at 8" X 10". Medium format, with its like of grain, smooth tonal gradations and subtle colors was more to my liking.  It just had a quality that 35mm couldn't match, in my book.

I think the quality of today's sensors is remarkable.  Just think of the difference between the size of the Fuji sensor versus the size of the Pentax film frame.  The Fuji's sensor is 23.6mm X 15.6mm versus a negative or transparency that is 60mm X 70mm. The area of the 6X7 film frame is almost 11.5 times larger than the area of the APS-C sized Fuji sensor.  Again, I"m loving digital photography much more than the old film days.

Below are three examples of images I made with the Pentax over 30 years ago.

 Still life (click to enlarge)

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse before the move inland (click to enlarge)

Steam Locomotive drive wheel (click to enlarge)

If you are interested in learning more about the Pentax, here is a site you can visit by a fellow by the name of Mike Butkus that has info on the Pentax as well as what accessories, etc. were available.  Pentax viewed this as a serious professional camera and had lots of accessories available. It was a first class system, in my opinion.

So, when I think the Fuji may still be too big to carry, I just keep things in perspective as to how they were for much of my photographic career.  Then, I just appreciate what I have.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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