Photography Roundup - 07/07

Summary of photo news, the latest contests, and more

By K David in Columns on Jul 7, 2015

Fireworks | whk1992

For those of us in the U.S., July Fourth means family, barbecue, and seeing just how hard our livers can actually work. As is often the case around holidays, the Forum was pretty relaxed this weekend. But we still had a lot to share, so here's some of the news and noteworthy threads.

Featured Deals

July is a slow time for camera deals; however, we've found a number of good ones for you this week. Here are some of the best, including the first markdown on the K-3 II.

• July Lens Deals Roundup
• Pentax K-3 II for $936 at B&H
• Pentax K-50 for $295 at B&H
• Pentax DA 50mm f/1.8 for $107 and DA 55-300mm for $348 at B&H
• DA 40mm f/2.8 for $342
• There is a single 645Z for sale at Amazon for $7,253

Pentax Forums Roundup

Splash 2 | tengo

Official Monthly Contest #106, Converging Lines, Voting is Open

Voting has begun for the Converging Lines Official Monthly Photo Contest. Be sure to check out the entries and nominate the ones that you feel captures the theme with the greatest artistic and technical excellence.

Post your Photos

From the Motorcycle Races | Wibbly

There's been a lot going on in the Post Your Photos sub-forum this weekend. Check out some of the new fireworks- and summer-themed images.

4th of July! Post it Here!

Bacon-wrapped Burgers | Rupert

Have photos from your July 4th celebration? Post them here! As an added bonus, you can see how some of your other community member celebrated. Rumor has it that there may even be some photos that show the real-life faces of some of the more reclusive members.

Gear News

Kit Lens Review | bderry

• Pentax Forums 18-50mm Kit Lens Comparative Review
• Sony to Raise $4B to Ramp up Production of Sensors (more details are available at Reuters)

Good Reads

It's a lazy week in most of the world, so what better time to read some great articles? Don't answer that. It's a rhetorical question.

• Here are all the reasons it's great Disney is banning Selfie Sticks
• These Photos Of Abandoned Amusement Parks Will Totally Creepy You Out
• The Day Will Come: When Man Falls
• Finding Afghanistan’s Resilient Spirit Amid the Destruction
• This is how much you Pay for Film Developing
• Is This The Most Insane Graduation Party Ever?
• Inspiring Photos From Around Canada That Will Make You Proud To Be Canadian
• It’s Guest Blog Wednesday featuring Kaylee Greer of Dog Breath Photography! h/t interested_observer
• Portraits of Soldiers Before, During, and After War

Interesting Kickstarter

This week's Kickstarter is a light-weight, light-duty, but very portable moving camera platform. Great for panning, tracking, and time lapse photography, the Shot Line Micro Slider will work with camera like Pentax's WG-M1. As always, Pentax Forums does not endorse this product or the makers.

Featured Online Photography Resource 

FotoForensics helps ascertain how much, or if, an image was altered. To ascertain how effective it is, I submitted two of my own photos, one that I had altered heavily and one that was straight out of the camera except for resizing. The heavily edited image is on top and the unedited image is on the bottom. Here are the results

Original	FotoForensics Error-level Analysis

The error-level analysis looks at varying compression levels within an image. The tool is not flawless, and is not a be-all-end-all for image analysis. FotoForensics helps if you want assistance finding where falsifications in an image could exist.