[Raffwal]

...7yrs. old, battered but still ticking K3 Gen 1...

Wow. Have you used the camera as a hammer too?

[Fogel70]

If Ricoh museum willing to take my 7yrs. old, battered but still ticking K3 Gen 1 to put in the section "Pentax Reliability", in return half price to me the new beast, I will not complain

Do you tumble dry your camera after being out in the rain?

[someasiancameraguy]

If Ricoh museum willing to take my 7yrs. old, battered but still ticking K3 Gen 1 to put in the section "Pentax Reliability", in return half price to me the new beast, I will not complain

Inspirational. Time to see if I can use the pentaprism bump as a bottle opener.

[lotech]

Inspirational. Time to see if I can use the pentaprism bump as a bottle opener.

You have to get drunk first !

---------- Post added 10-30-20 at 01:32 PM ----------

Do you tumble dry your camera after being out in the rain?

No wonder why my washing machine broke down the other day ha !

---------- Post added 10-30-20 at 01:38 PM ----------

Wow. Have you used the camera as a hammer too?

Almost, I keep banging my head with it try to find an excuse and the cash for the new model !
It was 'natural wear and tear' you can imagine after 7yrs. of 'normal use'

[MJKoski]

Well, I put Sony A7R2 into a drying cabinet for two hours after accidentally pulling it out of camera bag too early after a day in -30C. No issues.



That battered K-3 looks like it should after a good use.

[thibs]

I'm sure Pentax is doing what they think they need to do to survive.


It's just a shame that someone looking to move up from a cell phone camera may one day (soon) be looking at $2000 to get into a new Pentax kit, which means most of them won't do it. Fewer good photographers with good kit isn't a good thing.

To extend the car metaphor, in 2025 it may be taking the bus or buying a BMW. Can't afford a BMW? There's always a BMW with 75,000 miles and Cheetos wedged in the back seat.

People but $1500 cellphones so I guess it is actually relevant as upgrade.

[thibs]

As far as I'm aware, the SD Quattros are still in production, and they use the SA mount. L-mount is just the next new game now, and Sigma will be the company selling the most lenses out of the three.

I believe Yamaki-san has stated in interviews that they regard gaining a foothold in the camera market as a long-term, slow-burn project. Not in those exact words, but that has been the gist for the last... decade? They were making analog SLRs back in the day, too.

I'd like to see more Foveon cameras. It will be an awesome technology once they can get it to work to usable standards of dynamic range at elevated sensitivity.

Well Sigma entered the SLR camera business in... 1995 AFAIR (SA 300 SLR, SA mount). Not very efficient business IMO.

[Serkevan]

People but $1500 cellphones so I guess it is actually relevant as upgrade.

While some people pay through the nose for whatever shiny thing Apple or Samsung put out last week, that's not what most people do: Statista says the average smartphone price is ~290 USD, which my anecdotal experience supports. The *vast* majority of phones sold are Huaweis or similar entry/mid-level offerings around 200-300€, with a good chunk of slightly more expensive stuff. 800€+ phones are very much not the norm.
I would say it's not even a comparable market, a phone is an everyday thing. A DSLR is far more niche (which is the main reason it's gonna cost more).

[ThorSanchez]

If Ricoh museum willing to take my 7yrs. old, battered but still ticking K3 Gen 1 to put in the section "Pentax Reliability", in return half price to me the new beast, I will not complain

That looks like equipment we'd get back from heavy US Navy shipboard use. Is that the paint scuffed off, or is it salt? Impressive if it still works.

[UlrichSchiegg]

I think people don't really get what that phrase means when used by a camera company.

Nikon will say they have this new sensor, Pentax will have designed an 'all new' sensor, etc.

They're wrong if we think the sensor is just the pixel array itself, the thing in Sony's catalogue. The Sony A7R and Pentax K-1 have the same wafer.

But on top of that wafer, the layers are individualized by the purchaser, and there can be different outputs, too - dual gain and so on. Forum member pinholecam had the microlens array taken off his A7 because he was sick of the artifacts caused by it on wide angle shots. Others do IR photography by having another layer removed, AFAIK.

So, from that perspective, Nikon can claim that it's *their* sensor in the D5, and *they* designed it.

I think we all understand that today camera manufacturers are assemblers, like car manufacturers. AFAIK, there are only two shutter manufacturers, for instance, and for a while pretty much every EVF was a Panasonic.

This may be interesting for some, Sensor is one element, but there is a bit more to it ...

Pixels for Geeks: A peek inside Nikon?s super-secret sensor design lab

[BryantCP]

Most cell phones use AGPS, where they use cell towers to assist in the location finding. Do these phones have the capability to rely just on the satellite GPS when out of cell range? And if so, does the phone require a clear line of sight to the sky to make that work? Usually the phone is in a pocket when you're shooting.

The GPS function on IPhones & probably Samsung phones & tablets does not rely on using data or cell coverage, it works off satellites not cell towers. I use Earthmate a legacy mapping app from Delorme (now Garmin) that works fine in mountain areas like in New Hampshire's White Mountains where the cell coverage is very poor. Earthmate uses downloaded maps including topo maps & shows your exact location on the map. A Bluetooth connection is probably a viable option although I would prefer the GPS to be built-in.

[ThorSanchez]

The GPS function on IPhones & probably Samsung phones & tablets does not rely on using data or cell coverage, it works off satellites not cell towers. I use Earthmate a legacy mapping app from Delorme (now Garmin) that works fine in mountain areas like in New Hampshire's White Mountains where the cell coverage is very poor. Earthmate uses downloaded maps including topo maps & shows your exact location on the map. A Bluetooth connection is probably a viable option although I would prefer the GPS to be built-in.

I think that almost all cell phones, including iPhones, use AGPS. Which is a combination of satellite signals and information from cell towers. I think it can use GPS signals alone, but it is slower to lock on and determine your location.

[The Squirrel Mafia]

If Ricoh museum willing to take my 7yrs. old, battered but still ticking K3 Gen 1 to put in the section "Pentax Reliability", in return half price to me the new beast, I will not complain

Now that's how you use a camera.

[thibs]

I think that almost all cell phones, including iPhones, use AGPS. Which is a combination of satellite signals and information from cell towers. I think it can use GPS signals alone, but it is slower to lock on and determine your location.

Even without cell towers a GPS fix on a modern phone should be fast: the phone can get the trajectories of satellites in advance, it speeds up quite a bit.
Except if the phones hasn't been use for weeks but less likely IMO.

Even my old Garmin GPSMAP 60CX can get a fix pretty quickly and it is not Assisted in any way.
Modern phones do the same in the worst case. At least this is my experience.

[normhead]

Comparing two different cameras is irrelevant to a discussion about the "accelerator unit" (which neither the K-1 nor the K-3 have).
Never have I claimed that one camera cannot be more accurate (have higher fidelity) than another.

It's a logical conclusion based on your statement above. My point is that some cameras are better at maintaining colour accuracy than others. Accelerator chip or not is moot. Sometimes I think you miss the point on purpose just to argue. It is quite possible that the cameras with the accelerator chip are more accurate. And it's quite possible the accelerator chip contributes to that. But as afar as I know that's never been demonstrated, so anecdotal evidence from owners is all we have.

The fact that the input DR has to be compressed to an output DR is irrelevant.

Take any input or output DR you like, e.g. 7EV. You can artificially increase that to say 8EV by using image processing. That's what the "accelerator unit" does as well. It performs a post-processing step.

You do understand a K-1 or K-1ii will capture almost 15 EV DR given the opportunity? Why would you even consider a case where the camera only produced 7 EV? The fact that you can, doesn't mean anyone does or should.

The only element you need to concern yourself with, is capture DR. There is one fact you are leaving out. 7 EV increased to 8 EV in post, will have less colour depth, and fewer increments than 15 EV reduced to 9 EV. Taking a 7 EV image and increasing it to 9 for your monitor or TV, produces an inferior image, with all kinds of possibilities for artifacts like banding etc., the two processes are completely incompatible. One gives you the best possible image, one gives you a noticeably inferior image. When you add DR in post you cannot increase under-exposed shadows or blown out highlights. It adds nothing to the image visually. However in carefully reducing EV you can make visible all the original captured information, added detail in shadow and highlight.

I know you know all this, I'm not sure why you're even arguing this.

I guess you're pointing out that DR added in post is not the same as DR captured by the sensor. And that's a perfectly valid observation. Even if the accelerator chip increases the DR, it adds no new information beyond what the camera captured. The accelerator has no ability to help the pixel wells hold more photons nor does it change the lower limit at which the sensor can detect light. Nor can it add more values to the colour depth. All those things are functions of the sensor's capture capabilities.

Did I get it?