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Pentax 645Z: Pushing Up to ~6 stops (Fruit Arrangement, Natural Light)
A “push” is an old photographic film term which involved chemically increasing the density of the emulsion (or decreasing it for negative film). For digital camera raw, it is exposure compensation during raw conversion.
CCD-based medium format cameras have traditionally been poor performers when underexposed, so how does the CMOS-based 645Z perform.
How good is the 645Z sensor when pushed to an extreme?
In the field usage benefits hugely from wide dynamic range, which by definition means the ability hold and pull detail out of deep black shadows (deep and black so that extreme highlights can also be captured without loss of detail).
The Pentax 645Z is examined here for its quality when pushed for up to nearly 6 stops. Since 5 stops is the maximum Adobe Camera Raw allows, the ~6-stop frame has been pushed 5 stops and had a highlight and a shadow boost to better match the intermediate frames.
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