Well, to be frank - I take and do dumb things with my cameras/lenses. I've been working freelance the past 3 years and at a marine park the previous 3 years taking pictures. I live near the ocean and as such, constantly take cameras in and out of the ocean. I've never been able to justify the spending of over $700 on a lens, so thus have never had the pleasure of testing a truly quality example of what Pentax can deliver.

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Why it's good to be FEARLESS? Hymm, that is very good question. Maybe because it's not enough to have a dream. Maybe you have to put away your fears and make everything to make that dream come true! I had a dream. It was New Zealand to go there.

To see. To touch...

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Pentax has recently launched instant rebates on a number of cameras and lenses, including $100 off the K-5 II and K-30 DSLRs, $130 off the DA 50mm F1.8 lens, and $70 off the DA35mm F2.4 lens.  You can go wrong by starting out with a prime lens, as unlike kit zooms, these lenses offer faster apertures, more sharpness, and better overall image quality.

We've been in touch with B&H photo and they've been kind enough to set up special bundles which include all these items at discounted prices in addition to free gift cards!  The deals are summarized in the table below:

These deals will expire at the end of the month. If you are interested in body-only kits, there are many more deals listed in this forum thread. 

Learn more about the Pentax K-30 and K-5 II DSLRs in our in-depth reviews:

• Pentax K-30 Review
• Pentax K-5 II Review

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Wow, I can only imagine owning a DA* 16-50 F/2.8 lens.

Sometimes I am privileged to fly with T-6 pilots during training or flyovers to honor our veterans. I donate all my pictures I take to these amazing pilots that fly to honor those that fought for our country. They have the expense and responsibility of maintaining their T-6 aircraft, and mine is the pleasure to hand them pictures of their flying.

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All modern Pentax DSLRs include Shake Reduction, a mechanism which stabilizes the sensor to reduce camera shake regardless of the lens being used.  This means that no matter what lens you put on your Pentax, you'll enjoy image stabilization.  The SR system's compensation thus enables you to capture sharp hand-held shots at 2-4 stops slower than normal.  For example, a photo shot at 1/15s with SR enabled will likely be just as sharp as one shot at 1/60s or 1/120s with SR off. 

However, in order to get the most out of the SR mechanism, there are a few things you should note.  For instance, you cannot assume that SR is always on; you have to arm it by half-pressing the shutter button before actually taking the photo.  We talk about this and much more in our latest video tutorial.  Enjoy!

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Being Fearless doesn't mean that you aren't afraid of anything. But rather how you manage to conquer fear, when it comes to you.

In almost a year in my photography. I usually shoot portraits, flowers, and still life. One day while walking through a park to shoot some flowers, I noticed a group of people that looked as if were fighting each other. Then I realized that the fighting wasn't real, that it was just a practice. Carrying my Pentax Kx with smc M 75-150mm F4, I mounted my camera on a tripod. Instead of taking a picture, I decided to take a video of the action instead. After reviewing the clip, I realized that I should get closer to get a better shot. At 150mm focal length on a crop sensor. Yes, I was way too far.

I told myself I should be closer. Now here comes the problem. I haven't shot a picture of a stranger before. And there I was, wanting to film what those guys are doing. What now? What keeps me from holding back from filming an opportunity?

Camera: Pentax Kx, Lens: smc M 75-150mm F4, Video Taken: November 2011
Uploaded: November 10, 2011, Software Used: Adobe Premiere Pro w/ Magic Bullet Effects

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Ok, what does it mean to be fearless? This really has several meanings to me, and I've tried to capture all of those meanings in the images that I am including. I am a firm believer that you've got to be fearless in capturing your image. Sometimes you've got to climb or crawl to get just the right angle on the subject. The first image below of the snake was taken in 2007 in Florida at a focal length of 55 mm, so as you can see, in order to get this photo, I had to crawl within a couple of feet of this snake. It also was around 6 feet long. After the photo shoot, my brother-in-law and I caught the snake and showed it to my nieces and nephew, which my sister-in-law was simply thrilled about.

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Before I first used Pentax, I looked at a lot of reviews about DSLR cameras; I read many things about advantages and disadvantages of DSLR cameras. Even though many people judge Pentax as slow with their autofocus, I was still convinced that I could take a picture of moving objects with Pentax. I tried a lot and explored my camera just to prove that the opinion about slow AF in Pentax's bodies is not definitely true. I was never afraid someone would curse me because of the inability of my camera body to capture moving objects. Then I tried to learn techniques to freeze action and I started to take pictures. Freezing is a very common technique. Given a scene with an object that moves at a certain speed, the photographer can capture it with a high shutter speed and freeze the action.

First of all, this is very difficult to do as I tried to do it in lowlight situations and without extra flash or any extra artificial light. And the result turned into high noise and many missed-focus pictures: it takes much more effort without extra artificial light.

In this photo session, I used my buddy as a role model, and they have to repeat the scene many times before I get the right exposure and the right composition, considering a green mode is not really useful because we don’t have enough light to meter the exact light condition. In order to achieve an accurate focus it is recommended to enable the camera focus points according to the object location in the planned composition.

This photo was taken in Dusseldorf, Germany in the evening with the Pentax K-7 at 24mm, F4, 1/180s

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