[Duck Dodgers]

Wouldn't it transfer images during the shoot?

[barondla]

Benjikan, that is an amazing story and letter. Thanks for sharing. I have always been interested in out of the ordinary research. Dad is probably to blame for this. When I was between 10-16 yrs old dad would take me on UFO investigations (only once in a while). He helped the late DR. Harley Rutledge (a physicist wanting to debunk UFOs). DR. Rutledege did publish a book called PROJECT IDENTIFICATION. It was harder to debunk than he thought.
Have no idea what I want the next-next camera to do. Don't know what the next one does for sure. My request would be interchangeable sensor chip modules. Would love to be able to switch from a High ISO model to low, to IR, or to B&W in one body. Then we could have CBA! Ouch.
thanks
barondla

[Mr. The Guy]

But it would be cool if the raw development software worked in Linux, at least until ufraw gets a little better.

When's the last time you tried it? It's gotten way better recently. I found a number of distros were using pretty old versions too. Maybe a compile is in order... Alot of people really like RawTherapee (sp.?) too. I use a batch script and ufraw and reprocess everything from the ufraw file when there's updates.

[solar1]

Hi Ben,

That's a pretty vivid experience about the shooting. BTW, did the gentleman ever get back to you from SRI?

If I were to guess, the other experience seems like an OBE or out of body experience... sounds like your astral and physical bodies were separated enough that you could not get up. I've had somewhat similar experiences, at least with an extremely heavy body and not being able to get up. sometimes the astral body will jump back into the physical so quickly and with enough force for strange things to happen.

Last week, I was out to dinner and our waitress walked by and in my mind I 'heard' something about being from Texas, not a voice but more of a feeling... So when she came back I asked her if she was from Texas... she said no but her father was... and she asked how I knew this - I simply replied that she had a very friendly Texan way about her.

When she walked away my wife said 'wooo! that was weird' as she gets a bit spooked by some of these things.

Little things like that happen from time to time.

I also work with people and pets with energetic methods of healing and light touch... very interesting things can happen, can be very surprising results.

Would be interesting to talk to you more about these topics... too bad you're in Paris.

Sounds like you would have a very interesting reading list.

Best,

Nic

[RiceHigh]

For a true K1000D (a digital K1000, no more no less.), i would bee prepared to pay just as much, or maybee even more than the camera codiac2600 was proposing, and for that price i would bee happy with 10-12 Mp in such a camera.

Such a camera is cheap and very easily to be made. The problem is just that no one is brave or stupid enough to build and market such a camera, just because it is too simple or it may hurt sales of the current more fancy (but maybe not so good) DSLRs that they are selling.

Or at least they should put such compatibility goodies in an upper-market model, like Nikon did it in their D200 (and upwards).

[digitalphil]

No huge concern with me... I'm trying to keep the vertical extension to a minimum. Just saying that a built in V-grip may be better, and long lenses without a mount are always an issue. Not to mention the tripod head you use, compared to mine. All factors to keep to a minimum. Phil

[mutley]

Once Pentax had the K10D circulated it watched and listened to what users loved and hated about the camera.

At least with the Autofocus, in listening what people have "hated" they must have realized by now what could be improved in the K10D without new hardware:

A purely firmware update to enable a menu choice in the Custom menu for AF mode:

AF MODE>

1. Default
2. Sport

DEFAULT: As it is now, being the most accurate, but slower

SPORT: Focus lock is made faster by allowing the shutter to fire on initial acquisition or by just increasing the tolerance. ELIMINATING THE DOUBLE CHECK. (In both Single & Continuous modes).

This, in combination with a more efficiently designed AF algorithm sourced from a year's worth of R&D would be a real worthwhile improvement within the limitation of not changing hardware.

Pentax removed a few features in order to make room for more features in the K20D

What features did they remove?

there will be a few things people won't like. I already don't like some aspects of the camera.

In all this listening Pentax was doing, and hearing louder than anything about the K10D lacking useful predictive focus, and tracking modes - I assume you are not talking about the new autofocus. Cameras with much better abililities in these areas (especially in the $1400 range that Pentax will be wanting to charge for the K20D) were available for Pentax to disect and see what they are missing. So, I imagine they didn't stop until the AF was at least as good as what was available for them to see.

Even the K10D can be improved a bit (though not much) with just better firmware as outlined above. The K20, I imagine, will be much better. Its already great to hear the jpg processing will be.

Hopefully, in a couple of years when the price drops on a used K20D, I'll be able to afford to upgrade my K10D.

[mattdm]

When's the last time you tried it?

Yesterday. Version 0.13 -- haven't tried nightlys or anything. I'm really missing 1:1 view and better sharpening control, and the UI in general is not graceful.

Do you have a good color profile for the K10D?

[Anastigmat]

Well all you lucky Pentaxian, it's almost time to hear about the new entry and pro-sumer level DSLR's from Pentax.

Instead of speculating on the K20D, let's get a great list of what we'd like in a Semi-Pro body priced in around $2000.

Here is what I consider a great set that Pentax has the capability of producing come Christmas 2008.

SENSOR:
18+ Megapixel High Resolution CMOS sensor
Advanced sensor technology for truer colours and lower noise
Maybe Full-Frame, but it most likely will not have this just yet!
Advanced Shake Reduction up to 6 stops and smarter

BODY:
Weather sealed
Magnesium Build or an another alloy
Buttons and dials for all camera settings on body (ISO, WB, AF burst ratio)
PC sync port
Vertical grip built right into the whole deal
100% viewfinder with adjustable level of magnification
Live histogram in the viewfinder
Built-in wireless PTTL transmitter and focus assist lamp without pop-up flash

DRIVE SYSTEM:
New AF system with 3D tracking
Continuous capture at 8 FPS and adjustable down to 3 FPS
Live View with contrast control focusing
11 main Auto Focus points with multiple assist points

Extra Goodies:
Intuitive menu system that can be arranged to users liking
Extra settings for multiple AF adjustments
New LI-ION battery capable of 2000 shots on a full charge and low drain in cold/hot temps
Sleek style and make it feel like a luxury camera just to make others drool!

Feel free to add onto this or even change some things around. I'll hopefully send a good list off to Pentax with a copy of this thread. Oh, and they may read this so lets be reasonable with our dreams

18mp is quite a leap from 10-12mp. File sizes will be much bigger. Even Canon cannot manage 21mp at more than 5fps. So, it would be unlikely that Pentax will be able to get an 18mp camera to operate at 8fps. A more modest goal of 12-14mp full frame sensor would be more realistic and the image quality will be more pleasing, especially at high ISO settings. 5fps would be good enough, although I would not mind 8fps. Full frame probably means no in body shake reduction, but that is okay because a full frame with a modest pixel count of 12-14mp would mean low noise at ISO 1600 and 3200. ISO 6400 may even be usable and lower in noise than ISO 1600 on the K10D. Pentax may be able to produce in lens stabilization with USM motors.

I would love to see a DSLR with interchangeable viewfinders like the LX, but live view and a tilt and rotate LCD may make that unnecessary. I would like TTL flash support since P-TTL flash only makes it harder to find macro flashes in particular and flashes in general. If P-TTL flash is truly superior, users would pick it over TTL flash eventually. If it is not, then Pentax is making a decision that forces its buyers to accept an inferior flash system because of profits. TTL flash costs more to implement because of the extra light sensor inside the mirror box, but since we are talking about a pro level camera, such bean-counting practices that are detrimental to the consumer should not be condoned. Removing TTL flash support is similar to weakening automobile bumpers. They save money for manufacturers but add to the cost of ownership.

Pentax cameras have good ergonomics but there is still room for improvement. The AF button for example, is located too low on the back of the camera. It should be moved to the back of the top cover, where the AE-L button is currently located. Finally, there is no longer an excuse not to restore the aperture coupling ring so that users do not have to go through the extra button push and set dial to M routine to meter with K/M mount lenses. With a full frame Pentax supporting TTL flash and having an aperture coupling ring, it will be the most desirable camera around for Pentax users yet produced.

[ricardobeat]

Such a camera is cheap and very easily to be made. The problem is just that no one is brave or stupid enough to build and market such a camera, just because it is too simple or it may hurt sales of the current more fancy (but maybe not so good) DSLRs that they are selling.

Or at least they should put such compatibility goodies in an upper-market model, like Nikon did it in their D200 (and upwards).

I really hope no one is stupid enough. The K100D/K10D can behave just as that. Producing a crippled dumb camera that will have no price advantage is just silly. You're not forced to use any of the auto settings!

A camera sized like the K1000 sounds much more interesting.

[mattdm]

A camera sized like the K1000 sounds much more interesting.

What, like a K10D without the rounded right-hand grip or pop-up flash?

[nanok]

mattdm,

you might want to try digikam. it still has some way to go (quite some way), but in some respects it is quite impressive allready. i now use it exclusively for the first phase of my workfllow (raw processing, including usm and such), and i am quite happy. some things still piss me off imensly , but overall, i know of no better alternative (and it does use dcraw, underneath, so the quality of the conversion is pretty much as good as it gets)

what i like: live histograms, lighttable features (maybe i will also use them some day ), comprehensive set of tools, color management (hopefully i will get around to thoroughly understanding how this works, in general, so i can use it )
what i dislike: levels adjusment is a bit weird (but i can handle it fine), preview of raw files is somehow idiotic, and couldn't figure out how to customise it yet (does stupid corrections, you cannot rely on what the thumbnail shows, must open in edit mode to be sure), kind of dislike the way it displays pictures in general (they look softer than they really are, for one)

the interface is overall much more digestable than ufraw imho (allthough overall ufraw is quite a nice effort itself)

one hint which will save you a lot of hedache, if you want to give it a whirl: symlinks. digikam will not just open files, it claims to have the pictures where it expects them to be (configurable ofcourse) and builds a database based on that. however, it does follow symlinks, thank god

hope this helps

ps: my appologies to the others for the offtopic

[jthommo]

Heck, I had a lucid Dream back in 1996 where I saw broken glass, blood and carnage in Port Arthur, Hobart, Tasmania. It was as if I was there. I had never ever considered or thought about Hobart in the past. None the less I woke up with tears in my eyes. Two days after my dream, my agent called me and said "Hey Ben, did you hear what happened in Australia today? A guy shot and killed over 40 people in Port Arthur, Hobart, Tasmania." Was the biggest massacre in the history of Australia.

Ben

Until now I just thought you were an insecure egomaniac, hanging around this forum to devour scraps of praise tossed into your cage like offal to a hyena. Now I see that you are totally and utterly barking mad.

In addition, you have taken this tragedy that touched all Australians to the core and made it into a shallow gimmick to falsely prove some extra-ordinary perception. You make me sick.

[Mr. The Guy]

Yesterday. Version 0.13 -- haven't tried nightlys or anything. I'm really missing 1:1 view and better sharpening control, and the UI in general is not graceful.

Do you have a good color profile for the K10D?

Use qiv from the command line. For sharpening, why not use GraphicksMagick? It gives you four sharpening criteria vs. 3 with Photoshop. Instead of absolutes, it uses percentages so you need a calculator. I would say more, but not at my photoprocessing box for a couple of days...

No colour profile for K10D, Is have a DS and use the generic sRGB.

I use a bash script that calls ufraw, exiftool, GraphicsMagick and a command-line noise tool.

If you want a GUI that will open RAW files directly, 16-bit colour with icc profiles, and a GUI sharpening tool try CinePaint.

[equinox]

Wow, this thread is really starting to look like that useless place called Dpreview

Back on topic with this thread, would it not be wise of Pentax to develop the 645D? I am just starting to think of studio and landscape and think this would be a great camera for both.

30Mp Medium Format camera that can accomodate older MF lenses.

If Pentax did bring out a Ful Frame K1D, would they just totally drop the 645D concept?