[Ole]

RICOH has begun a series of "how to" articles on their home page under the heading Make the Most of Your Pentax Camera.

So far two are available:

- How to optimize focus accuracy with large aperture lenses
- The PENTAX Hyper Control System

These articles are well written and easy to read in part due to the illustrations provided. The articles are a useful supplement to the condensed information provided in the user manuals.

I hope we'll see more articles in this series.

[kiwi_jono]

Thanks for point this out. You are right they are useful additions!

Regarding Hyper control system: I knew pretty much all of it but I honestly did not know about the different options for green button in hyper manual use - and will now change it to Av as this is what I usually need (rather than having to push AE-L then turn wheels again)!

Also did not realise that spot AF mode was finer grain than select in middle!

[LennyBloke]

Thanks for the pointer - they do look well written, hope to see this series expand gradually

[Ishpuini]

Also did not realise that spot AF mode was finer grain than select in middle!

Same here. First time I read about this. Was this common knowledge before this article was published?

I've been using Select mode for ever since it was available. Sometimes I was indeed missing AF using the center AF point, and putting it down to user error. I had always understood that selecting the AF point was a better way to have accurate AF than the focus and recompose using the central AF point was. Suppose I have to review my habits in view of this new knowledge? Will have to do some tests I think...


Wim

[beachgardener]

I hope we'll see more articles in this series.

Me too, thanks mate

[dafbp]

RICOH has begun a series of "how to" articles ...

Thanks for pointing it out.
Always time for learning!

[stevebrot]

All I can say is WOW! It is about time! With any luck they will continue the series and in a decade or so have materials close to the scope currently available to users of certain other brands. The article on using wider aperture lenses has hints and techniques that directly echo the best advice given on this site in the last several years, particularly the setup for AF fine adjust. I particularly like the advice at the end of the article regarding when service might be advisable.


Steve

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Last edited by stevebrot; 09-11-2018 at 07:44 AM.

[aslyfox]

RICOH has begun a series of "how to" articles on their home page under the heading Make the Most of Your Pentax Camera.

So far two are available:

- How to optimize focus accuracy with large aperture lenses
- The PENTAX Hyper Control System

These articles are well written and easy to read in part due to the illustrations provided. The articles are a useful supplement to the condensed information provided in the user manuals.

I hope we'll see more articles in this series.

thanks for the notice and the links

_____________________

perhaps this could be a separate " sticky " in this area:

Troubleshooting and Beginner Help

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/58-troubleshooting-beginner-help/

or another appropriate place in the forums ??

[csa]

Thanks for the links! Bookmarking these, is a necessity!

[swanlefitte]

I bet few "hands on" reviewers have any clue of these features thus overlooking a big reason to use Pentax.
I didn't know some hypermode features that will be useful.

[6BQ5]

The next article I want to see should be something about how to set the auto focus so it continually tracks randomly moving subjects like kids running forwards, backwards, left, and right!

[chuck_c]

I hope we'll see more articles in this series.

Apparently we will, I just went there to check out the other two articles and this one was there also, labeled as NEW.

PENTAX: The choice for astrophotography / Beautiful Photo-life | RICOH IMAGING

[robbiec]

Very interesting and informative set of articles. Hyper Program is something not typically discussed properly by review sites but can be a boon when you're out and about. I think I've figured out AF accuracy on my own but the article backed up my own findings. Now to select a lens and try out the Astrotracer function

@Ole - Good find!

[cgchang]

Nice. This is a great way to show off unique features of Pentax cameras like Hyper Program mode. #greenbutton

Highlight: The advantage of Spot setting in AF mode
The Spot setting is an autofocus mode that detects the in-focus point using a single AF sensor positioned at the center of the image field.
For PENTAX digital SLR cameras marketed after the PENTAX K-3, the Spot setting detects an area approximately 30 percent narrower than that of the Select setting, which uses a set of middle AF sensors in autofocus operation.

Only applies to KP and K-1 I assume. On models K-3 and older, Spot and Select set to the center AF detection would function the same and no real advantage?

[Fogel70]

Pentax used to have these type of articles earlier and a lot more of them, but I believe Hoya killed that webpage. http://digiichi.pentax.jp:80/english/anatomicus/index.html
But it is nice to see that Ricoh has started to revive and update it.