| Showing all 4 reviews by Vranx | |
| Review of: Pentax Winder ME II by Vranx on Thu July 28, 2011 | Rating: 8 | View more reviews | |
Views: 32452
Reviews: 4
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You can't go wrong with this winder if you want to pimp your classic Pentax film camera! It fits:
ME-F, ME Super, ME, MG, MV-1, superA, SuperProgram, programA, ProgramPlus, P5, P50 (!!!)
Pentax engineers have created a versatile, yet easy to operate winder. The only thing to check with the camera beforehand is whether the camera batteries are fresh or sufficient, because the winder blocks the battery compartement door. Some cameras have a dust cap over the socket for the winder, unscrew it from the body and screw it into the reserved socket on the winder - excellent idea for not loosing those little caps!
Attaching is 5 seconds: place the camera on top of the winder and attach the winder to the tripod socket by turning a milled wheel on the back. Make sure body and winder are sitting flat.
You can choose between single shots and continuous mode and you can switch between "Auto" and "125x", thus synchronising the winder speed with the camera options (125x for use with flash).
The motor is quite noisy, but if a silent shot is required, you can operate the camera with the winder attached without using the winder! A remote cable is available (but very rare), take of the top button cover and stick&screw it into the socket.
A red LED indicates winding and some kind of status control. Unfortunately, rewinding is still fully manual, the winder does not offer this! It takes four AA batteries or rechargeables, leading us to the only real weakness: the plastic battery door clamp is the "predetermined breaking point" - and it breaks if not handled carefully! Other problem areas are the rake-like golden contacts below the shutter button, they tend to deform, but can be redone do-it-yourself.
Overall verdict: an all-time classic, inexpensive, versatile and easy to find!
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| Review of: Pentax FF-1 Waist-Level Finder by Vranx on Thu July 28, 2011 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
Views: 18724
Reviews: 6
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This came along with a used LX together with the standard finder.
When putting it on the LX body and unfolding it, you get the medium format waist level feeling: the camera is hanging in front of you and you observe your ambience just by glancing down to the bright, reversed image, very similar to a finderless camera, looking at its screen.
The main difference is the excellent optical quality of the picture under all light conditions and the comfortable eyepoint distance.
No other 35mm or APS-C Pentax camera offers this cool feature so far!
Build quality is excellent, the folding mechanism still works smooth after some 20 years, it is very compact in closed position and very lightweight.
It might not fit everyone's preferences or shooting habits, but for me it was a help insofar as it allowed literally me a "new view" and giving my so often unsuccesful photographical tries a new perspective. People who are die-hard SLR traditionalist and need the eye on a good glass viewfinder with pentaprism might have more difficulties with this waist level finder then the younger generation, used to take pictrues from cellphone screens and live view cameras.
Maybe it is advisable to try it before buying one if you are not sure how it works! For the rest, it is highly recommended!
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| Review of: PENTAX Copipod by Vranx on Mon September 27, 2010 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
Views: 17003
Reviews: 5
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This compact, four-legged copystand comes in parts, stored in a leather case of the size of a flute or recorder bag. It is assembled in less than two minutes and you can attach the camera (as shown in the product picture, the lens points always to the ground) using the 49 or 52 mm adapter ring. There used also to be a 46 mm ring from the M42 era. But of course, you can adapt most filter ring diameters up to 58 mm without vignetting.
This item from the Spotmatic era serves two purposes:
1) repro work (book pages, manuscripts, paintings, slides)
2) taking pictures of collections (coins, stamps, jewels, small items)
When you have to do reproductions in a library for facsimiles in books etc, it comes in handy, because any serious library would not allow you to bring your super-sturdy-bulky tripod. This slim lady enters unnoticed... The spider legs have click marks, they give you defined reproduction area sizes (listed in the manual). These dimension are calculated for the 4/50 mm macro lens or a similar 50-55 mm normal prime. For DSLR, I've used the M 3.5/28 lens with good results. The lens in use should be as distortion-free as possible. Always use the combination of cable release and mirror pre-lift to reduce shake, a refconverter and the helicoid focussing tube are very helpful additions to the setup. Spend an extra minute for a good lighting setup!
The copypod can be placed over the objects on the ground or on a table, you might even digitize your color slides: just place the lightbox between the legs and concentrate on a (manual operation recommended) perfect in-focus shot. The easy repositioning of the copypod allows any combination of shadow free lighting when shooting coins or similar shiny items. To avoid having the camera setup reflected on blank surfaces, a black cardboard can be put between the top plate of the pod and the lens.
The accompanying manual is excellent and instructive, it covers everything from assembly, magnification, light setup and filter use.
Beware: this is not really suitable for macro work in nature, like insects or flowers. It might work with mushrooms or moss, but nature macros are more flexible and easier with a regular (sturdy) tripod. The copypod shows its abilities on a perfectly flat surface/ground, so in most cases indoors.
A sidenote with a smirk: I got this very cheap from a professional photographer who lives and works in Paris today. He's doing mainly portraits and glamour in MF, but he unveiled a flashback into his Spotmatic beginnings when selling the copypod to me...
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| Review of: PENTAX AF 400FTZ by Vranx on Wed July 14, 2010 | Rating: 8 | View more reviews | |
Views: 18711
Reviews: 5
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No one yet on this excellent flash that was the dedicated flash for the SF1/SFX camera bodies? OK, here we go:
This flash is powerful, well built and quite easy to use, especially on TTL-flash capable bodies. The display at the rear of the housing is clear and informative, way better in comparison to the new P-TTL flashes from Pentax and Sigma.
A nice feature is rear shutter sync, even nicer is the flexible setting of shutter speed automatically (requires SFX and SMC-F Zoom lens) according to the ambient light situation. An autofocus assist beam is on board and several automatic and manual modes to solve practically every lighting situation. Bounce flash is easy with the tilt and swivel rotating head, I normally attach a peace of white cardboard on top of the head pointing 45 degrees upwards (no more red eyes, but still nice radiant dots in eyes).
The only reason why I prefer the good, old AF 280 T is the fact that the manual setting of the zoom head is somewhat cumbersome (it never snaps to the right focal length in the first place), but the advantage of the manual procedure is, that it does not produce any additional noise from a zoom motor (my Sigma 530 zooms brutally noisy). If you use a Super A and the AF 400 FTZ, you hold a setup for excellent silent flash photos (weddings, funerals etc.).
The flash is quite heavy when loaded with batteries or accus (those work nicely), but this is less a problem with SFX and Z/PZ bodies, because they feature the hot shoe on top of the right hand grip/battery compartment, which gives much better balance.
Overall verdict: they are available cheap and mostly in quasi-new condition, if you have a TTL-flash body and AF 280 T is not powerful enough - get one! But I don't know about P-TTL-only cameras, maybe someone else has tried this combo already.
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