Pixiq

Instead of throwing a party for their staff and giving everyone badges announcing their awesomeness, Pentax has decided to mark winning Camera GP Japan 2011 Camera of The Year with its almost-affordable-for-the-man-on-the-Clapham-omnibus medium 645D by releasing a special edition 645D. You’ll only be able to order one from 20 July to 20 September 2011, and each of these lacquered burgundy beauties is built to order.

They really are special edition.

Each camera has an exclusive lacquer finish, made with the traditional art of urushi, which is achieved by pasting silver leaf onto a black lacquer base and then painting it with a wine coloured overcoat. No two are going to look the same.

For added bling, the Pentax logo on the camera’s front panel and the mode dial settings are all gold-plated and ‘Camera GP 2011 Camera of The Year’ as well as Pentax 645D are embossed on the faux-leather camera strap in gold, too.

Every camera is marked with its serial number, showing its limited edition status, whilst its packaging is made of paulownia wood and laser-engraved.

It has the exclusive Centre-Spot-Matte Focusing Screen DS-80 mounted on it and comes pre-installed with the latest firmware (version 1.11), which makes it compatible with Pentax’s groovy O-GPS1 GPS unit.

And so that you don’t forget that you’re using a limited edition, when you look at the camera’s upper panel, it has white backlight illumination, rather than the standard greeny-tinge. I wasn’t convinced by the gold, but this I like.

Otherwise, it’s the same as a regular 645D. And no, they’ve not said how much it’ll cost. I’m going for a prince’s ransom though. (What would be the point of a king’s ransom? The idea behind the 645D was that it was an almost-affordable medium format.)

If you do want to put your name on the list, though, you can find out how to do that here.