History Recovered

By PF Staff in Influential Photo Gear on Nov 29, 2012

My dad was hooked on Kodachrome since, well, the beginning of time I think. Ektachrome became his mainstay for a while, and then there were experiments with Agfa and Seattle film works. He loved taking pictures, but I never was entranced with photography myself. I remember in the 70s when I was a kid, my dad painstakingly sliced open dozens (maybe hundreds) of glass mounted slides and remounted them in cardboard so they would work with his new auto feed projector. Family gatherings, parties with the neighbors, trips, our days out on the boat - all captured and later plastered up on a screen at home for friends and family.

Somewhere along the way, slides became passé, the mechanism on his last projector became cranky, and he moved on to prints. The slides were stored away in a closet, undisplayable and forgotten. Plastic covered pages in sticky paged photo albums ruled the day. After he passed away, I wondered what family history was locked away in those slides. I researched scanners off and on, and my mom agreed to help label pictures if I could scan them. I finally bought a Nikon Super COOLSCAN 5000 ED, and plunged into a project. The earliest slides were from 1941. The first one I scanned was my grandmother, her sister and a cousin sitting on a dock, and I realized what a treasure I had just unlocked. The next few were my dad, still a kid, with my aunt (now seen as a pretty teenage girl) on the beach with my grand parents. Then this picture hooked me, a fire truck from what is probably a July 4th parade in 1941:

 Fire truck

Why I love the Pentax K5

By PF Staff in Influential Photo Gear on Nov 28, 2012

As long as I can remember, I have loved looking at the night sky. 

 Portland Head Light

When I was in High School, my mother and I would head out to the back yard, wrapped up in quilts to sit in lawn chairs, late at night and watch the beautiful Perseid Meteor showers.  And when I was in college, I took an astronomy course that required a night astronomy lab and that we be able to identify many of the familiar and not so familiar constellations that grace the constellations of the Northern Hemisphere. 

The World is a Strange Place...

By PF Staff in Influential Photo Gear on Nov 21, 2012

The world is a strange place, where something relatively meaningful can be sparked by the oddest of things. For me, this was the purchase from a co-worker of what at the time I thought was a new “mantel” piece camera. A Polaroid Land Camera Automatic 100, which has sparked my explorations into film photography. This eventually led to my purchase of a Pentax P30t and a couple of Vivitar early ‘80s era lenses. Lately I have been even eying some of my other acquired “mantel” piece cameras, like my Kodak Brownie No. 2 box camera.

Before I go any further maybe it would be useful to describe this camera. Though there are copies of manual available, they do not delve into the mechanics. It might not have been because the intended market would not care, or the mentality of the time was more on technique than equipment. The source for information on these cameras is the Land List [1]. According to the section on the 100 series Land Cameras (built from 1963 to 1965); these had a 3-element glass, which gave an aperture of f8.8, and a focal range of 114mm. The electronic ten second shutter resulted in a shutter speed of 1/1200. It is a robust design which is something one should expect from equipment that era. This is a camera where one appreciates the availability of a camera strap.

Polaroid Land Camera

Obliviously after purchasing my “mantel” piece I began to do research, if only to have juicy information tidbits when showing to friends. Imagine my surprise, if you will, when I found I could still buy film and even batteries (the tendency to standardize had not materialized at this point I would surmise). This camera, built before I was even a twinkle in my parents’ eyes, could still be functional piece of equipment. Frequent film users can probably guess the next part, and will be snickering behind their hands. For they know that there something in film photography which still has not been completely reproduced in digital photography. It is also more challenging, because until the picture develops you really do not know what you might have; a true test of photographic skill. Maybe that is the draw, that sense of mystery.

[1] The Land List -- Film Index

My Pentax K-5

Most influential piece of photographic gear

By PF Staff in Influential Photo Gear on Nov 19, 2012

Hello! I am a 17 year old photographer, well on my way to improving my work in the field and studio, and hopefully one day a professional. I have been interested in photography since I was a kid (well, a smaller kid than I am now) and I can feel that I have been improving ever since. My first DSLR was (and still is my only DSLR) a Pentax K-5, and it has completely changed my photography and the business that I am trying to create. I spent major time last year over the summer working at a minimum wage job at a snowcone stand in Texas, just south of Austin. My first semi-decent camera was a Pentax X90, but it was not a DSLR and had nowhere near the image quality of a DSLR. It still taught me many things, I first learned to shoot manual mode at the age of 15, and I generally only use Manual mode now. Pentax brought me into the world of photography from the first time I picked up a camera artistically was in seventh grade, with a Pentax Optio M30. I realized then that photography was very interesting to me and that I knew I finally had something to be passionate about.

Behold: My Pentax K-5 and the first lens I ever purchased for it: The Pentax M 50mm f/1.7

Pentax K-5

When I first was looking at a DSLR to buy, I saw my friend's Nikon D90 and I had my mind set on that. Completely oblivious to how large the world of photographic equipment was, I started researching on the internet. "Hmm... I have had 2 Pentax cameras and I have liked them both." I said as I was on Amazon. I looked into the Pentax K-7, and at $200 less than the D90 with a great build and I even loved the body much more than the Nikon. I then came across a B&H sale price on the Pentax K-5. I instantly fell in love. Even at sale price, with the lens, it was way over budget on what my little 16 year old mind could fathom. But "Oh well!" I said, for I still wanted to get a job anyway, why not now? So in April of 2011 I started work for a snowcone stand at minimum wage, I worked part time. after 3 months of 9 hour shifts in 101+ degree weather, and then 4 hour shifts for 3 moths after, I finally bought the Pentax K-5 body only. This camera has completely changed my life and the business I hope to have for myself in the future. The quality is fantastic, and I do not regret going for a Canon/Nikon FF one bit. This camera was a huge step for me and I am looking forward to the announcement of it's replacement, FF or not.

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