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11-28-2014, 10:30 PM   #16
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QuoteOriginally posted by rabblefrabble Quote
Thanks for posting. Is the viewfinder any bigger on the K-S1 than whats on the K-x?
I hope someone else can answer your question, I've never used the Kx. I haven't noticed any particular difference between the K3 and the K-S1, but then I haven't tried shooting them back to back. It's noticeably better than the K100, if that's any help.

11-29-2014, 04:15 AM - 1 Like   #17
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QuoteOriginally posted by rabblefrabble Quote
Thanks for posting. Is the viewfinder any bigger on the K-S1 than whats on the K-x?
I believe it is significantly better. The K-S1 has a 100 percent pentaprism viewfinder with .95x, whereas the kx had a pentamirror that didn't have 100 percent coverage (although not sure the exact details). Long story short is that the K-S1 has a high end viewfinder that should be brighter and just better than the kx's viewfinder.
12-20-2014, 08:13 PM - 4 Likes   #18
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More fun with this cute camera. Last weekend I went to the Monterey Aquarium and took the K-S1 and all my new lenses, along with the DA 35 macro. I had expected to shoot mostly with the macro lens but found myself using the 21 and 15 more. While this wasn't my first time trying to photograph in this aquarium, I haven't had the best success. While I still made a number of mistakes, I had far less trouble with AF than I have had in the past. I'm sure that's a reflection more of the close-focusing ability of these 2 lenses, along with the fact that they are wide angles and so have greater dof.

They have a number of very large tanks along with what seems like a ton of smaller tanks, holding all sorts of various aquatic life. I wanted to see and photograph as much as I could so I didn't stop long enough to read about the various exhibits this time. Next time I go up I'll buy my tickets ahead of time and go up in the middle of the week, so that perhaps I can linger longer everywhere.

The kelp forest is huge - I think the tank is more than 2 stories high.



But it's always the many jelly fish that I love to look at.



They can also be very challenging to photograph as there's not much to see sometimes.



They have them in more than 1 room. It looks like they have almost unlimited tanks of this type, but that's because of a couple of mirrors.



They can be so graceful:





Someone here asked whether I had any trouble with my white camera being reflected in the glass. I think that the aquarium uses glass designed to keep reflections to a minimum. I had far less problems with reflections here than at the other 2 facilities I've taken photographs in. But it doesn't cut out all reflections. I was originally going to delete this photograph I took, about the last one I took before giving up and leaving. You can see why if you look at this otherwise lousy picture. Also - notice that while there's a lot of reflections, there's still no white camera visible. I find this picture hilarious, and visible proof of why it's better to arrive early and mid-week.



I had a great time but didn't see everything - I left wishing I had been able to spend at least a whole day and preferably a second half day there - a great excuse to plan another trip up there.

Has anyone else visited any interesting places also?
12-20-2014, 09:22 PM - 2 Likes   #19
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QuoteOriginally posted by mtngal Quote
You can see why if you look at this otherwise lousy picture. Also - notice that while there's a lot of reflections, there's still no white camera visible.
I found it! Upper left corner, with a silver DA21 mounted. This is better than "Where's Waldo"! I have so much trouble with my cameras (and sneakers) (and bald head, grrr) showing up in museum cases, I can usually spot them in a heartbeat. The jellyfish pix are gorgeous. I really like the shot of the multiple/mirrored tanks. It draws me into the room.

12-20-2014, 10:15 PM   #20
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QuoteOriginally posted by mtngal Quote
More fun with this cute camera. Last weekend I went to the Monterey Aquarium and took the K-S1 and all my new lenses, along with the DA 35 macro. I had expected to shoot mostly with the macro lens but found myself using the 21 and 15 more. While this wasn't my first time trying to photograph in this aquarium, I haven't had the best success. While I still made a number of mistakes, I had far less trouble with AF than I have had in the past. I'm sure that's a reflection more of the close-focusing ability of these 2 lenses, along with the fact that they are wide angles and so have greater dof.

They have a number of very large tanks along with what seems like a ton of smaller tanks, holding all sorts of various aquatic life. I wanted to see and photograph as much as I could so I didn't stop long enough to read about the various exhibits this time. Next time I go up I'll buy my tickets ahead of time and go up in the middle of the week, so that perhaps I can linger longer everywhere.

The kelp forest is huge - I think the tank is more than 2 stories high.



But it's always the many jelly fish that I love to look at.



They can also be very challenging to photograph as there's not much to see sometimes.



They have them in more than 1 room. It looks like they have almost unlimited tanks of this type, but that's because of a couple of mirrors.



They can be so graceful:





Someone here asked whether I had any trouble with my white camera being reflected in the glass. I think that the aquarium uses glass designed to keep reflections to a minimum. I had far less problems with reflections here than at the other 2 facilities I've taken photographs in. But it doesn't cut out all reflections. I was originally going to delete this photograph I took, about the last one I took before giving up and leaving. You can see why if you look at this otherwise lousy picture. Also - notice that while there's a lot of reflections, there's still no white camera visible. I find this picture hilarious, and visible proof of why it's better to arrive early and mid-week.



I had a great time but didn't see everything - I left wishing I had been able to spend at least a whole day and preferably a second half day there - a great excuse to plan another trip up there.

Has anyone else visited any interesting places also?
Great photos all around! The second is my favorite. And good eye, THoog! I really had to zoom in to see it.
12-21-2014, 04:39 AM   #21
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Lovely photos, Mtngal - the jellyfish are very cool.
12-21-2014, 08:29 AM   #22
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QuoteOriginally posted by THoog Quote
I found it! Upper left corner, with a silver DA21 mounted. This is better than "Where's Waldo"! I have so much trouble with my cameras (and sneakers) (and bald head, grrr) showing up in museum cases, I can usually spot them in a heartbeat. The jellyfish pix are gorgeous. I really like the shot of the multiple/mirrored tanks. It draws me into the room.
LOL! Very good eyes! I looked around for it but all I noticed was the crowd behind me. That silver DA21 lens hood does stand out, doesn't it (once you see it that is). The camera rather fades into the background, but you can't miss the lens.

If I get a chance at lunch over the next 2 days I'll go to a museum (sort-of) that I find very hard to shoot in - lots of glass cases that reflect lights and everything else. I've never quite figured out how to shoot there satisfactorily with any camera. I'll see if the white and silver camera does any worse, and if it would make a difference to shoot with a black lens on the white camera. And now that I think about it, there's 2 other real museums within walking distance of my office that I've never been in, might be an excuse to visit somewhere new after the Christmas break.

And thank you all for the compliments on the jelly fish, I was really happy with them this time. I had no trouble getting the AF to lock on some of the really small basically transparent jellies, something past cameras have struggled with.

The DA15 and 21 are new this month, while I've had the DA35 macro for quite a while. I knew that the macro lens had a long focus throw, but never particularly noticed it. Since I was shooting mostly with the two other limited lenses, which have fairly short focus throws, I was surprised with just how long it took for the 35 to go through the focus cycle to achieve focus for the small jellies. I'm also not so sure I've paid attention to just how the camera's system works either - the K-S1 goes quickly through to both ends of the focus range which will work for high contrast subjects. Then it goes through slower which seems quite effective for focusing on subjects with less contrast. I was impressed that it could lock on some of them. That allows for quick focusing on easy subjects and accurate focusing on harder subjects. Since I'm not shooting the K3 much at the moment, and I don't want to shoot them back-to-back, I'm not sure it could do any better. I do know that past cameras would not be able to focus on some of the jellies, and I wasn't able to focus manually through the viewfinder either (don't remember which camera I might have been using though).

12-21-2014, 08:44 AM - 3 Likes   #23
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Yes, very nice captures mtngal!

"I had no trouble getting the AF to lock on some of the really small basically transparent jellies"

This reminded me of a Candid Camera segment from my youth.
They set up a camera behind an empty, except of water, aquarium with a sign stating "Invisible Fish"
It was a hoot watching folks trying to see those invisible fish!
12-23-2014, 05:33 PM   #24
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LOL! I can just imagine something like that. In this case, the aquarium uses lighting to highlight them, as you can see in the 3rd picture. Those were bigger than the really small ones and not too big of a problem to focus on.

I hope others will add some of their favorite fun pictures here, too.
12-23-2014, 06:30 PM   #25
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Good job all around. Nice to read the good of this camera.
12-23-2014, 08:23 PM   #26
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Mtngal, try throwing on a CPL to deal with the reflections in museum, main draw back being the need to come up with another stop and a half or two, potentially. Sucks to lug around a tripod, but...
Lastly, a black handkerchief thrown over the camera body at the last minute can make things disappear.
12-24-2014, 08:39 AM - 2 Likes   #27
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QuoteOriginally posted by mtngal Quote
I hope others will add some of their favorite fun pictures here, too.
How 'bout a blue baby elephant?




Mentioning reflections, I managed to get all of me in this one...




More megapickles means more fabric for post processing, such as using Hugin to fix the inevitable perspective problems of shooting paintings in museums (not everyone can wear a lace neck ruff, but this lady makes it work!)




And once you start playing around in Post, sometimes it's fun to just push the sliders around and see what happens:


12-24-2014, 09:31 AM   #28
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QuoteOriginally posted by THoog Quote
How 'bout a blue baby elephant?




Mentioning reflections, I managed to get all of me in this one...




More megapickles means more fabric for post processing, such as using Hugin to fix the inevitable perspective problems of shooting paintings in museums (not everyone can wear a lace neck ruff, but this lady makes it work!)




And once you start playing around in Post, sometimes it's fun to just push the sliders around and see what happens:


I like the perspective correction of the painting - awesome! I've used CS6 and their wide angle lens correction sometimes, along with LR's perspective correction. Both work reasonably well but have their issues. Is Hugin easier? Does it work with building perspective corrections?

Your last one came out really well - so often I try playing around with things and end up ruining a perfectly good picture. Wish I had more time to really get to know my programs!

---------- Post added 12-24-14 at 08:34 AM ----------

QuoteOriginally posted by DBGrip Quote
Mtngal, try throwing on a CPL to deal with the reflections in museum, main draw back being the need to come up with another stop and a half or two, potentially. Sucks to lug around a tripod, but...
Lastly, a black handkerchief thrown over the camera body at the last minute can make things disappear.
I didn't get a chance to shoot in the museum place I was thinking of. I did try once using a CPL and a fast 50, but it didn't help with the light reflections - too many different surfaces and too many different angles for reflecting the lights. It would help with the camera reflections, I think (need to try again). Tripods aren't always welcome in museums - I just assume they are banned and don't bother even checking any more. But using a really fast lens should work reasonably well. Gotta try that again!
12-24-2014, 10:35 AM - 1 Like   #29
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I've been using Hugin since an early beta version, so I'm not a good judge of how easy it is to use. Hugin's primary purpose is for stitching photos; the first step is to make projections of the source images and figure out where they are in relation to the viewer, so it works pretty well for correcting perspective on a single image. In most cases, I just have to load the image, set some vertical and horizontal lines in the control points tab, set the output to rectilinear, run the optimizer for position and view (and maybe barrel distortion), have it calculate image size and crop, and let it stitch. It's also useful if I have to stand off to the side to avoid reflections or glare from overhead lights. In most cases, it's pretty quick and easy - then there will be that one picture that just blows up for no reason.

So many museums have rules against flash and tripods that I'm surprised when they don't. I've spent a lot of years practicing slow breathing and finding things to brace against. I've used the CPL trick - in fact, the most-viewed shot in my armour collection was done that way:


01-01-2015, 06:26 PM - 2 Likes   #30
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QuoteOriginally posted by THoog Quote
So many museums have rules against flash and tripods that I'm surprised when they don't. I've spent a lot of years practicing slow breathing and finding things to brace against. I've used the CPL trick - in fact, the most-viewed shot in my armour collection was done that way:


That's quite the picture, and I'm like you - I automatically assume that flash and tripods are not allowed.

It's pretty quiet about the K-S1 part of the forum, so here's a couple I took recently.

These polar bears were fun to look at:



It was hard to get close enough to take a picture though.



I came home from Vegas with a cold, so I've been reading Strobist 101, finally trying to learn how to use a flash. It's much more satisfying now that I have the Cactus V5 triggers, but not so much the first time I tried some of the techniques - it's really difficult to get a good picture of something that is both reflective AND refractive. On the other hand, I learned a lot about how NOT to do it!

My second try was with a subject that was neither reflective or refractive. I had 2 light sources - direct light coming from the window camera left and the flash camera right. This photo is actually a composite - the bust is from the picture I took with the flash and the background is from the one I took with no flash - the flash's light spilled over onto the background sheet too much and I wanted the darker background. Yes, I know the bed sheet hasn't been ironed and I couldn't open up the lens enough to have it more OOF, I now understand why many want Pentax to have the sync speed faster than 1/180!



The weather didn't exactly encourage me to go outside much. I was too lazy to move the tripod from the one room in the house that has a white wall into the room with this window. So this was taken hand-held using live view and focus peaking (the camera wanted to focus on the trees in the background, not the window). It had snowed the night before, the sun came out and melted it, but the temperature didn't get above freezing, so the water re-froze on the window.



Today was a little better - when I got up it was 16 F but it made it up to 33 F. Who says it doesn't freeze in Southern California???

On to the new year and more reading about flash. Do I now buy some type of grid? Or leave it for a while? There's so many interesting sounding things to get for a flash, it's like starting the photography hobby all over again!

Hope someone else got some fireworks pictures, they are banned up here and I wasn't feeling up to driving 50 plus miles to somewhere that was going to have a display.
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