Pentax 645D Official Book coming out in Japan (and other 645D stories)

Pentax Japan will be releasing a new 132-page book in Japan (computer-translated) on July 10 featuring the 645D digital camera. This is the "official book". Judging from the text and sample pictures, it will be a mix of photography and technology, along the "untold development story" of the 645D. We obviously don't know if they will reveal juicy details about the various twists and turns on the 645D road. The price is around 3000 yen with tax included (via DC Watch Impress)

This is something one could perhaps (in our opinion) consider importing, however, we think it would probably be a really bad idea to import the 645D camera itself if Pentax in your country or region does not have actual support behind the camera. This is a $10,000 digital camera with lots of electronics inside. It's not an all-manual film camera. It's one thing to do this for a $250 neon-purple Casio "Hello Kitty" camera because you love the particular color or design, but a $10K pro-caliber camera system does require a support mechanism behind it.

But that's just our opinion. We blog, you decide - which brings us to this story at PDN Pulse, where a Japanese exporter claims you can have your 645D in less than a month from order time. They even promise reasonable shipping fees under $50.

If your life depends on having access to 645D RAW files, and that's all you think and dream about 24x7, Chris Wilson of Travel67.com, a current owner, has a rather unusual and innovative approach to offering RAW files - buy a print and get a DVD with RAW files. The idea is that only people who are really serious about the camera would be willing to do this - in order to prevent theft and abuse of the 40-megapixel RAW images by the internet population. And this may be a super-mega-filter of who gets these, since the lowest priced print we could find is around 22,000 yen (around $250).