January "Best of 2023" Contest Finalists Announced

Vote for the overall winner!

By PF Staff in Photo Contests on Feb 16, 2024

After the end of the nomination phase of last month's official Best of 2023 photo contest, we're now ready to announce our top 15 finalists!  Click on the link below to view the photos in full size and cast your vote in the poll:

Vote for your favorite photo in the poll

As usual for our monthly photo contests, voting closes in a week, and then we'll announce the winners.

Don't miss our February Series of Three photo contest, which closes to submissions at the end of the month.

Announcing Our February, 2024 Photo Contest

Win a gift card and other prizes in our monthly photo contest

By PF Staff in Photo Contests on Feb 1, 2024

We're herewith announcing our monthly photo contest for February. The theme for this month is Series of Three.

This month we want to see three related photos, copied into and submitted as one jpg image. The three photos must tell a story or be related in some way. They must as usual be shot with a Pentax or Ricoh camera, but the three photos need not be shot with the same camera and lens in which case you just enter the brand names in the designated fields when submitting. We recommend that you use the story or relationship as the thread title of the submitted image. Below we show a couple of examples of stories. Good luck!

"Motion"

"Railroad Nostalgia"

First prize is a $50 gift card to B&H Photo, second prize is a one year forum account upgrade, and third prize is a box of photo paper form Red River.

The official contest rules are found here.

Click here to submit a photo for the contest.

If you haven't done so already we invite you to browse our special gallery of last month's photo contest submissions and nominate your favorites.

Pentax high-performance spotting scope coming in February

The PF-85EDA has dust, water-proofing

By PF Staff in Pentax Announcements on Jan 26, 2024

Ricoh has announced the Pentax PF-85EDA, a compact waterproof spotting scope that will be available in February for a Manufacturer’s Suggested List Price of $1,299.95.

The PF-85EDA has a large-aperture 85mm objective lens, and utilizes Extra-low Dispersion optical elements and the latest multi-layer coatings. The roof prism optical design keeps things compact.

The scope uses a dust-proof glass element, and has waterproofing equivalent to JIS Class 7, with water resistance to a depth of 3.2 feet, making it a dependable companion even in mist or rain. (Ricoh specifies, however, that the Pentax PF-85EDA cannot be used underwater.) The scope is filled with nitrogen gas to prevent fogging, ensuring a clear view even in challenging conditions.

The scope will also be available in a kit with the Pentax Zoom 8-24mm Eyepiece for an MSRP or $1,599.95. The eyepiece mount features an American-standard 31.7mm/1.25 inch sleeve, making the scope compatible with a range of eyepieces, including the XF series for Pentax spotting scopes, and the XW series for astronomical observations.

You can preorder the Pentax PF-85EDA by itself or in the kit with the 8-24mm Eyepiece on the Ricoh website here. Both will be available for purchase next month on the Ricoh Imaging website and at authorized Ricoh retailers.

December 2023 "Frame within a Frame" Photo Contest Winners

Announcing the winners of our monthly contest

By PF Staff in Photo Contests on Jan 24, 2024

"Frame within a Frame" by henrikpedersen33

It is our pleasure to announce the winners of our December, 2023 "Frame within a Frame" photo contest! In first place was forum member henrikpedersen33 from Denmark who captured "Frame within a Frame" (pictured above). This photo was shot with a Pentax K-S2 and an HD Pentax-DA 16-85mm F3.5-5.6 ED DC WR lens.

Our runners-up were forum member Barna from England in second place with "Magic via Viaduct" and othar from Austria in third place with "Inside". Click on either thumbnail for a larger version.

"Magic via Viaduct" by Barma	"Inside" by othar

We'd like to congratulate the winners and also thank everyone who participated or voted! Also, be sure not to miss our current photo contest, "Best of 2023". Read all about it here.

Pentax K-3 III eBook Version 1.8 Released

Our most readable camera eBook to date

By PF Staff in Site News on Jan 16, 2024

Today we are happy to announce our 8th free update to the Pentax K-3 Mark III: The Ultimate Guide eBook. As the name implies, this eBook is a comprehensive guide to help you get the most out of your K-3 III camera. It focuses on practical use cases and real-world tips and is thus the perfect supplement to the verbose owner's manual, for both the K-3 III and K-3 III Monochrome.

If you already own the eBook, download the new version for free here.

Otherwise, you may purchase the eBook here.

The latest version of the eBook focuses on further improving the reading experience: the index section at the end of the book now has clickable links to the referenced pages to make it a breeze to find what you are looking for.

Page numbers in the index are now all clickable

An important aspect of the eBook is that it references external articles or resources for relevant information beyond the scope of the eBook itself.  These links are now highlighted in a different color to make it easier to differentiate from internal links in the book and minimize unwanted disruptions.

External and internal links now have different colors for convenience

In addition to these convenience changes, we have added three pages of new content (for a total of 198), including updates related to features added in firmware v2.11 and v2.12 and new information on smart functions, crop options, top LCD lighting, and custom image settings as requested by users.

Written from the ground up, this is our first new eBook since Yvon Bourque, the author of all prior Pentax eBooks, passed away in 2020. We hope to honor Yvon's legacy by continuing to make similar eBooks available to the Pentax community for newer Pentax models.  Free, ongoing updates to the K-3 III eBook are planned throughout 2024.

Learn more about the K-3 III eBook in the forum announcement, or download a sample today!

The PDF version of the new eBook is available exclusively via PentaxForums.com.  We are currently also piloting a Kindle version on Amazon and will share updates once this is fully made available.