The Best Gear for Eclipse Photography

An interview with Ken Curry, president, Ricoh Imaging Americas, plus more from NASA

By cjfeola in Articles and Tips on Mar 18, 2024

The April 8 Eclipse has turned into an international festival. More than 30 million people are in the path of the totality, which will stretch thousands of miles from the Pacific coast of Mexico to the Atlantic coast of Canada. A partial eclipse will be visible across almost the entire North American continent.

We’re photographers here at Pentax Forums, so we plan to participate in this festival the usual way-by photographing it! We kicked off our coverage with The Total Eclipse Viewing Guide, which laid out everything you need to know about the eclipse itself; the path of totality, the timing, and even dealing with the traffic snarled by the event. (Traffic is projected to be so bad that several Texas counties have already declared disasters for the event.)

Then bdery gave us How To Photograph A Solar Eclipse, a step-by-step guide to safely and successfully capture photos of the sun, covering filters and other gear, camera settings and lens selections.

Today we have more advice on photographing the eclipse. And who better to advise on photographing an eclipse – or anything really – with Pentax gear than…Pentax! Here’s Ken Curry, president, Ricoh Imaging Americas Corporation.

“ANY camera and photographer should practice safety first as it pertains to the solar eclipse. Approved solar glasses and filters should be used when viewing or photographing the eclipse. Not using this protection will damage your camera and your retina,” Curry told Pentax Forums.

Pentax cameras run the gamut from the screw mount Spotmatic to the K-3 III, so Curry spoke about photographing the eclipse with both film and digital cameras.

“Most of the tactics when shooting the eclipse will be the same for both film and digital. However, DSLRs can offer a better experience due to "live view." A film camera will require the photographer to repeatedly view through the viewfinder and, since the camera will be on a tripod angled upwards toward the sun, they will need to bend frequently to adjust the camera to compensate for the Earth’s rotation. Additionally, since the photographer is looking through the optical viewfinder, a solar, not ND, filter is required. A remote control can also aid in the image capture, once the framing has been set.”

How To Photograph A Solar Eclipse

How to safely and successfuly capture photos of the Sun

By bdery in Articles and Tips on Mar 11, 2024

Solar eclipses are among the most beautiful celestial events visible to the naked eye. Such eclipses are rare, occurring much less frequently than lunar eclipses. Given their frequency and geographical localization, seeing a total solar eclipse is often a once-in-a-lifetime event. This makes the upcoming total solar eclipse, which will be visible in North America on April 8th, all the more interesting, as the total eclipse will be visible in Mexico, central and northeastern USA, and eastern Canada.

For photographers, a total solar eclipse presents an exciting opportunity. As with most unique phenomena, photographers will want to capture the various stages of the eclipse.

However, as with everything related to the Sun, photographing a solar eclipse can be dangerous both for the eyes of the photographer and for the equipment being used.

In this article, I discuss the key elements to know to properly enjoy and photograph a total solar eclipse.

Total solar eclipse showing the corona. Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Pentax Spotmatic Overview Video

Thorough overview video to help introduce new users to the Pentax MX

By FozzFoster in Articles and Tips on Mar 5, 2024

The Pentax Spotmatic of the 1960s created a paradigm shift in the camera industry. While previous camera either required a hand-held light meter or a clip-on/built-on zoned light meter, the new Spotmatic contained the first through-the-lens light meter! In addition to this amazing new feat, the Spotmatic also contained the trending eye-level pentaprism viewfinder with an quick-return mirrow and was released with the automatic push pin aperture operation with the Super-Takumar lenses.

The Spotmatic also contained the extremely popular M42 screw mount which means that this camera has an impressively large catalogue of lenses available in various focal lengths and apertures on the second-hand market. Along with containing a 'bridge circuit', allowing for use with modern 1.55v batteries, the Spotmatic is one of the most popular among film camera enthusiasts.

The PentaxTips video below provides a thorough overview of the Spotmatic to help orientate new users to this full manual exposure camera!

Want to see more PentaxTips videos? See these links for a K-70 overview and a Pentax MX overview

Hope you enjoy!

Making Fall Colors Pop with the "Gold" Custom Image Mode

A new custom image preset for the KF, K-3 III, and K-1 series

By bdery in Articles and Tips on Dec 12, 2023

In the last two years or so, Pentax made a strong push to flesh out its Custom Image offering. We discussed classic and newer Custom Image modes in a recent article. Today we take a look at the newest addition to the list of Custom Image options, a mode simply called Gold.

The Gold Custom Image mode was released via firmware in Fall 2023 for the K-3 III and KF. It was actually launched earlier on the K-1 and K-1 II, becoming available in June 2023. It follows the release of the Satobi Custom Image mode, as well as four seasonal and lens-specific modes called Katen, Kyushu, Fuyuno and Harubeni.

What Are Custom Image Modes?

Custom Image modes are built-in presets which impact how the camera processes colors, saturation, sharpness, and contrast. They apply only to JPEG files, not RAW, although Custom Image can be applied retroactively to a RAW file by using Pentax's Digital Camera Utility (or comparable software for other brands). By selecting a particular Custom Image mode, the camera produces a JPEG file with specific rendering, and those can be changed to best match the scene being photographed.

Our recent article presented most current Custom Image modes. Today we take a closer look at the newest mode released by Pentax, Gold.

Gold Custom Image Mode

Contrary to the four seasonal Custom Image modes, Gold is available for all lenses. It is offered on four cameras (K-3 III, KF, K-1 and K-1 II). Essentially, this represents all the current Pentax DSLRs, excluding the Monochrome for which Gold makes no sense. It is good to see Pentax step away from the lens-specific modes. While we understand that the company saw them as no-consequence little bonuses for buyers of recent lenses, many Pentax loyalists were disappointed to miss out on those interesting modes. Gold is thus the first generally available Custom Image mode since Satobi.

Gold impacts many aspects of the image. First, it increases the presence of yellow tones in brighter areas. Second, it enhances blue tones in darker areas. Warm colors are enhanced on the whole image, with emphasis put on brighter areas.

With this intentional color cast added by the Gold Custom Mode, images appear to have been captured at dusk, creating a retro mood. The color tone shifts from blue in the shadows, to yellow in bright areas. Sunlight and its reflections are emphasized when using this mode. However, it also leads to a slight decrease in perceived contrast, since shadows are now pulled towards blue tones. Images look a bit less three-dimensional and a bit more monotone.

Examples

The following images show examples of the effect of the Gold Custom Image mode.

This first set compares the Bright, Natural and Gold modes. You can click on images for a larger view.

Bright Natural Gold
Bright Natural Gold

The effect of the Gold Custom Image mode is immediately apparent. The whole image takes up a warm, golden cast, even on surfaces which are blue (such as the fence and disk). The tree trunk doesn't appear as dark; the whole image becomes less contrasty. Even the tree leaves, which are already mostly yellow, take on an even warmer cast. The overall effect shows that the Custom Image mode is well-named: the images gains a rich golden cast.

This second set compares Bright and Gold modes in a scene with a patch of blue sky.

Bright Gold
Bright Gold

The impact of using Gold is clear on the blue sky. The mode emphasizes yellow tones in bright areas, and this results in an almost complete disappearance of the blue color in the sky. The leaves, which show some green on the Bright image, turn almost pure yellow on the Gold image. The tree trunks show lower contrast between their brighter and darker areas.

Summary

The new Gold Custom Image mode is a welcome new option available for Pentax users. It can have a strong impact on bright scenes. Used creatively, it can enhance an image. Like other Custom Image modes, it is not a perfect choice in all situations. It is best to plan ahead and use any Custom Image mode with deliberate intent and with a clear understanding of the expected results.

If you are a K-3 III user, we invite you to read the K-3 Mark III eBook for more tips on getting the most out of custom image modes.

Pentax MX Overview Video

Thorough overview video to help introduce new users to the Pentax MX

By FozzFoster in Articles and Tips on Nov 7, 2023

The Pentax MX is one of the most notable cameras in history by having the largest pentaprism viewfinder (0.97x, 95%) of any Pentax 35mm film camera ever produced. This professional-grade workhorse camera was released in the mid-1970s and had a completely manual design in a world where automatic cameras were a thing but still in their infancy.

The MX was released with multiple compact lenses and an impressive accessories catalog. Since the camera is fully manual and fully mechanical, there are many MX cameras available on the second-hand market. Thus, this impressive camera comes highly recommended and is often sought after by the 35mm film enthusiast!

This PentaxTips video will help orientate new users of the MX and encourages other to start in the world of film photography!


Want to see more PentaxTips videos? See these links for a K-70 overview and a K-3 Mark III overview

Hope you enjoy!

Sort: Newest | Most Views | Most Comments Showing articles 1 - 5 of 184 | Last Page


facebook.com/PentaxForums PentaxForums @PentaxForums News | Reviews | Forum

Support Pentax Forums Donate to Pentax Forums Support Pentax Forums