The theme for the official PentaxForums.com photo contest for May, 2013 will be "Food". We encourage you to be creative, the possibilities within these theme are nearly endless!

Submit your photo here for a chance to win B&H gift card prizes and more!  Like for all previous contents, you may only submit a single photo, and it must be within the size & dimension limits stated in the contest announcement.  And while we do allow non-Pentax photos on the forum, only photos taken with Pentax cameras will be eligible to participate in this contest. Good luck! 

If you have trouble entering or need help, please read the contest announcement above, and then ask your question in the our site help forum.

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It appears that Pentax's US suggested retail prices on a number of genuine Pentax lenses might be going up again; the table below, based on yesterday's prices at authorized retailers and the new prices, contains the specifics.  Please note that we've rounded all prices for the sake of readability.

*$150 instant rebate when bundled with a DSLR through 7/31
**$200 instant rebate when bundled with a DSLR through 7/31

These new prices are now reflected on the Adorama, Amazon, and Abe's of Maine web sites. B&H has not upped their prices as of the time of this posting, so act fast if you'd like to get some savings in before it's too late!  To the best of our knowledge, this is not a temporary price increase.

For consistently-sane prices on Pentax lenses, we invite you to visit our Photographer's Marketplace!

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Pentax USA has just announced official price drops on the 645D (professional medium format), Q10 (compact ILC), and X-5 (bridge superzoom) cameras.

The following prices are now in effect:

• Pentax 645D: $6999.95 ($1800 reduction)
• Pentax Q10 02 kit: $499.95 ($100 reduction)
• Pentax X-5: $229.95 ($50 reduction)

We are very happy to see that Pentax is adapting its camera prices to remain attractive in an increasingly-competitive market, especially with the 645D.

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Pentax USA has just announced a number of instant rebates on various cameras and lenses.  We summarize these savings below:

Item Name	Savings	Terms	Buy	Info
Pentax K-5 II Body/Kits	$100		Buy Now	User Reviews | In-depth Review
Pentax K-30 Body/Kits	$100		Buy Now	User Reviews | In-depth Review
DA 35mm F2.4	$70	w/DSLR purchase	Buy Now	User Reviews | In-depth Review
DA 50mm F1.8	$130	w/DSLR purchase	Buy Now	User Reviews | In-depth Review
DA 10-17mm Fisheye	$200	w/DSLR purchase	Buy Now	User Reviews | In-depth Review
D FA 50mm Macro	$150	w/DSLR purchase	Buy Now	User Reviews | In-depth Review
DA 50-200mm WR	$50		Buy Now	User Reviews | In-depth Review
MX-1	$50		Buy Now	User Reviews | In-depth Review
WG-3 / WG-3 GPS	$50		Buy Now	User Reviews
Duration: May thru June, 2013

For the bundle rebates to take effect, you must buy all items at the same time.  All rebates are instant and are deducated at checkout.

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Pentax Europe announced today that there will be a special cash back rebate offer for select Pentax products from May 13th through August 3rd, 2013.  Save between 25 and 100 Euros on select Pentax cameras and kits, including the K-5 II, K-5 IIs, K-30, waterproof WG-3, MX-1, and Q10.  This offer is valid for customers located in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. We believe that it may be extended to other countries later on.

The full details will be made available on this page on May 13th.  Products must be purchased between the dates indicated above, must be from authorized retailers, and original recepits must be kept.

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My name is Porfìrio Azevedo, I am 27 years old, and I am an advanced amateur photographer. I apologize in advance for obvious grammatical errors as I learned english mostly by watching TV shows and movies. You said that you can be as long as you feel necessary, so I will tell you how my life as a photographer started, up to this point where I found out that it is indeed good to be fearless.

I wanted to be a computer engineer as I grew up with game consoles (Master System, Sega Genesis/Megadrive, and Super Nintendo and Playstation). Later I got a real PC and then it was all about internet and learning how computers, networks, and video games worked. They were my best friends instead of people!

The fact that I grew up "alone" made me into something I like to call a lone wolf - I like to go unnoticed and I don't like much attention. I started learning photography on my own just about 3 years ago when I saw an episode of The Discovery Channel's Myth Busters in which they tried to debunk a myth about developing film with household chemicals. I couldn't believe this was real so I got ahold of a Pentax P30 35mm film camera to test that out, hardly I knew that was the moment I became a Pentaxian...

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One of the unique features of Pentax DSLRs is their exceptional backwards-compatibility.  In fact, you're able to mount just about any Pentax lens ever made on your DSLR, even if it's 50 years old!  You can also use thousands of legacy third-party lenses from manufacturers such as Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, Vivitar, and others.  For K-mount (bayonet) lenses, no adapter is necessary.  If you'd like to use M42 screwmount lenses, all that's needed is the affordable M42 to K-mount adapter.

Best of all, thanks to Pentax's in-camera Shake Reduction, even manual lenses will be stabilized!

However, you need to change some settings before being able to use manual lenses on your DSLR.  In addition, there's a special procedure that you need to follow in order to get the camera to meter properly.  That's why we've put together this quick tutorial video to show you how things are done:

If you're currently only shooting with the kit lens, we recommend trying the SMC Pentax-M 50mm F1.7, which is available second-hand for under $50 and is currently the most popular manual lens for Pentax.

For more videos, be sure to check out the Pentax Forums Youtube Channel.

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On our forum we often get questions about teleconverters from new users. While the objective of the teleconverter - to extend the reach of a lens - is not in question, many other aspects of teleconverters may seem a bit overwhelming at first.

We will try to shed some light on this topic in this article. Our purpose is not to review the many available converters in terms of optical performance, but rather to explain the features and interaction with the camera's exposure and autofocus mechanisms. For product reviews and teleconverter options please consult the user reviews in the lens databases (Pentax teleconverters, Third-party teleconverters).

Pentax calls many of their teleconverters "Rear Adapters". We will use the more common term teleconverter or simply converter in this article.

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