We're happy to present our first in-depth review of the month: Topaz DeNoise!  If you were impressed by Topaz Adjust when we reviewed it last year, then this plug-in will simply blow you away. 

This $80 investment allows you to salvage noisy high-ISO JPEGs and RAW files alike and get the most our of the high-iso capabilities of cameras such as the K-5.  See the review for more details and some example photos!

Continue to the Topaz DeNoise 5 Review

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At CP+ this year, we had a chance to sit down and interview Mr. Hiraku Kawauchi, the Product Manager of Pentax Japan.  We asked some questions about the new K-01, the Pentax K-mount lens lineup, the possibility of making a full-frame DSLR, and more.  We hope you enjoy the video!

The interview transcript will be posted at a later time, and we'll follow up with some commentary as well.  Comments welcome!

See also our CP+ Pentax booth footage.

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We're happy to present to you our second member-submitted photographic article, which this time takes a look at how you would go about shooting star trails and getting those beautiful night time photographs!

The detailed article introduces the concept of star trails and discusses two techniques for capturing them.

Continue reading "An Introduction to Star Trail Photography"

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It has been a while since we've featured a Pentaxian profile on our front page, but today, we're reviving the series with a story from Peter Charles!  Are you a professional Pentaxian?  Share your story as well!

Like a lot of kids my age, my first camera was a Kodak Brownie Starlet and I still have it though it’s long past its best days.  Film for it was a different matter so it probably only ever had a dozen or so rolls through it.  Still, it gave me a taste for what was to come next.  In 1969 I had a hankering for a real camera, but I couldn’t afford much.  Cruising London camera shops exposed me to wonderful gear that I couldn’t afford, but in one, tucked high up on a shelf of used gear, was an Agfa Isolette III. For the princely sum of £6 it was mine.  I soldiered on with that camera until ’81 when I finally joined the ranks of 35mm SLR users with a K1000.  I’d like to say that my choice of Pentax was inspired by performance and reputation, but alas it was simply a matter of getting the most camera for the least money.   Ironically I rarely blew an exposure with the Agfa despite not having a meter, but trusting the K1000 meter produced a pile of poorly exposed images. First lesson learned.  Once started, the gear collection snowballed, running to two MXs, a K2DMD and an LX, plus a Pentax lens collection numbering over 20, ranging from 15mm to 300mm.

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Do you want to learn how to make the most of hand-held shots?  Our first member-submitted photographic article, written by Heie, discusses four different techniques for holiding your camera more steadily, and, in turn, getting sharper photos!

Continue to "Making the Most of Long Exposure Handhelds"

We hope you enjoy this article, and stay tuned for more over the coming weeks!

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In late November of last year, we lauched a holiday giveaway, featuring over $1000 in prizes sponsored by B&H. In order to enter, members wrote helpful photographic articles, the contest closed to submissions at the end of January. Now, the time has come to determine the winners of our contest!

The procedure will consist of two phases, the first of which has already been carried out:

• Phase 1: Our staff will rate all submissions on a subjective scale of 1-5 based on quality, thouroughness, and relevance
• Phase 2: Top-scoring articles will be published in the member article section of our web site, and featured on the homepage.  Once all articles have been published, are readers will vote for the one they found most helpful, and the top 8 articles will be the winners!

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The stylish 16-megapixel, 18x zoom Pentax Optio RZ-18 is currently on a special at Adorama and B&H!  Launched in September, 2011, this camera is an affordable alernative to the recently-announced Optio VS20, which we posted about two weeks ago.

Using the Adorama coupon code S1790018 you can take $20 off the list price of the RZ18, for a total of $179.  At B&H, you do not need a coupon code.

For more details on the Optio RZ-18, please visit the RZ-18 camera database entry.

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On February 4th, we hosted the World Pentax Day event, and since then, we've seen some 1,400 photos uploaded, making this our second largest event to date!

We know, however, that many of those who participated in World Pentax Day haven't had the chance to upload their photos yet. We'd therefore like to remind our users that the World Pentax Day gallery will close at the end of Saturday, February 18th, Eastern time.  Upload your photos before then!

We hope you enjoyed the event!

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