[Wildrat]

I''ve been wanting to replace my old 35's for awhile now. My K1000 and A3000 have served me well but the allure of a dslr was to much. I have bought digital cameras and they were okay for general stuff. I bought this camera by GE and when I opened up the box for the K30 today it's button layout was a lot like the cheaper GE camera. Of course the K30 has a few more buttons and rotary switches and will likely out perform the GE a hundredfold or more.

I am happy with the camera so so far. I went ahead and bought a Pentax zoom lenses to go with the 18-50 that came with it. The zoom lenses is 55-300 so I should be happy for awhile.
My only moan is the Pentax bag, they could have put a pocket on the side or somewhere to hold the different accessory manuals and disc. So overall no complaints at all.

I am sure since I am new to the dslr world I will have a few questions soon. I also got a Pentax flash unit for the camera. I have a lot of reading to do so I will end this now.

If anyone has any accessory suggestions or other tips they will be much appreciated.

I just had a thought, will the old Cokin filter system work with this camera if you can find the correct adapter ring?

Mark

[Wildrat]

I looked at the manual for the camera and assumed it so thick because of other languages. I was wrong, it's all English and I have some reading to do.
I also found out I guess that you can not turn power on without a memory card installed. My sd cards won't be here till tomorrow. Oh well it will give me time to read.
All comments, tips, suggestions welcome.

Mark

[Ole]

The old Cokin filter holder will work but filters for black and white film photography (red, yellow, etc) do not work well with digital sensors. It is better to apply digital filters in-camera or in post processing, or use dedicated monochrome conversion software or plug-ins.

ND filters and graduated ND filters work well, and infrared filters, too (somewhat depending on camera model, though).

Polarizers work well, too, if of the circular type. But they do not really work well if at all with the Cokin filter holder.

[Ole]

I looked at the manual for the camera and assumed it so thick because of other languages. I was wrong, it's all English and I have some reading to do.
I also found out I guess that you can not turn power on without a memory card installed. My sd cards won't be here till tomorrow. Oh well it will give me time to read.
All comments, tips, suggestions welcome.

Mark

You should be able to turn the camera on even without a card. The battery is perhaps without charge?

[Wildrat]

The old Cokin filter holder will work but filters for black and white film photography (red, yellow, etc) do not work well with digital sensors. It is better to apply digital filters in-camera or in post processing, or use dedicated monochrome conversion software or plug-ins.

ND filters and graduated ND filters work well, and infrared filters, too (somewhat depending on camera model, though).

Polarizers work well, too, if of the circular type. But they do not really work well if at all with the Cokin filter holder.

Yep, there ya go learning curve. I forgot this was digital and can do anything after the fact. I can really put the Adobe products to some real use now.

[Wildrat]

You should be able to turn the camera on even without a card. The battery is perhaps without charge?

Hmmmm, I charged the battery and it did not turn on. You do turn it on with the on/off switch where the shutter button is don't ya?

[ramseybuckeye]

You can tame that big manual by downloading the pdf version from the Pentax website, then you have a totally searchable on-line manual for when you want to find things in a hurry.

[Ole]

Yes, on/of is with the switch around the shutter button.

Perhaps the battery is not inserted correctly, or perhaps it wasn't charged long enough. The battery for the K-5 takes 4-6 hours to charge the first time around. I cannot speak for the K-30.

Observe the indicator light on the charger: The indicator lamp lights up when charging and turns off when the battery is fully charged.

[Wildrat]

The problem with powering on is solved. I had the battery in correctly and the little latch down far enough to lock battery in, but I did not have it pushed far enough down to depress the switch that is there somewhere, I pushed a little harder and heard a click and now it powers on.

Mark

[Pheo]

If you are coming from film, there are a lot of functions you could learn about.

So we can recommend what to experiment with first, tell us what you like to shoot.

[Wildrat]

What I like to shoot? Everything! I was in the military for awhile and was stationed overseas where I deployed regularly. In England I photographed the landscape, castles, airplanes, friends getting wasted, girlfriends. In the Azores it was the landscape and airplanes, and the people. In Norway it landscape, military ships and submarines. In Iceland planes and ice. In Saudis Arabia landscape and airplanes, and the people. In America our country, everything. I especially liked the Grand Canyon, and mountains of the North. When flying on military aircraft I liked taking pics of aircraft refueling and fighters flying a few feet from our wingtips.
When underwater diving, most anything is interesting to capture except for dead reefs covered in silt.
I guess I like capturing most anything. Oh, did I mention my dogs and my bikes, and communications equipment, and firearms?

Mark

[Wildrat]

Still waiting for my sd cards to come in the mail.
I have not had time to mess with the camera. I have a carpet layer here and he is on his third day. Hopefully he will be done today so I can get back to normality. I bought a foreclosure house and it needs work. The paint is don't somewhat and carpet will be. Then I can move some furniture in, relax a little and read .
I received my tripod yesterday. It is heavy, it's a Silk 700 something. It's well built and rugged looking though., then they give you cheap little nylon bag for it. Maybe I will my K30 dslr photography skills on the house.
Thanks for everyone's help.

Mark