[pinholecam]

There's the "One year on with the K1" thread (I thought it was like 8-9mths?), and that made me do up this post to give some further impressions of the camera 8-9mths into its use.
What better way than in real world usage as opposed to theoretical arguments.



Mandurah; K1+FA35/2

I just did a cycle tour for a week and despite the "MILC is smaller, lighter" arguments, I brought along my K1.
M20/4, FA35/2, FA77ltd - its offerings such as these that make Pentax more special to me.
Very portable despite the bigger size/ weight of the K1.
I wanted a camera that I knew would "cut the cake".
The astrotracer, the sensor shift capability, the fantastic IQ and 36mp that will allow me to crop.
Trying to go light on the bike, does mean my prime selection is tight and cropping (while retaining great IQ) does allow me a bit more flexibility.




Shore birds along the Swan River; K1+FA35/2



more to come soon...

[calsan]

What's the white camera on the handlebars?

As a fellow cyclist - how are you 'enjoying' cycling in Perth's wind?

Hope you had a nice time here!

[pinholecam]

What's the white camera on the handlebars?

As a fellow cyclist - how are you 'enjoying' cycling in Perth's wind?

Hope you had a nice time here!

White camera is a silver Q7.

I had thought that by Nov, the cooler winds from Asia would come down towards a warmer Oz.
Unfortunately, not so.
Headwinds from the SouthWest for the whole day for day 1 and 2.
Slowed me down by 3-5kph at the least.


I had a wonderful time in Perth.
Blue skies, lovely sunsets, nice food, people.

[pinholecam]

Mandurah; K1+M20/4

I do find that as the place gets 'bigger' and less of a city environ, the needs more a wider lens decreases since the large distances of objects can appear too "pushed away" with a 12mm, 14mm, 15mm lens.
As such, the 20mm in the form of the M20/4 comes in as the best lens for this sort of use.
Low encumbrance and wide enough for such 'big places'.

---------- Post added 11-15-2016 at 10:35 PM ----------



Coastal route between Mandurah and Lake Clifton; K1+M20/4

The M20/4 was certainly my most used lens for the trip.
Often, in this context of cycle touring, I'd have to cover some distance within a day and I'd just take the camera out of the bag, check if the FOV is 'right' with the K1+M20 and usually its 'about there'.

I'd attribute it to the fact that at 20mm, its able to get the subject as well as quite a bit of context with the wide FOV.
Important to me, since it serves as a record of the trip as well with the context.

---

Last edited by pinholecam; 11-15-2016 at 07:36 AM.

[pinholecam]

Lake Clifton.
Too bad the water was too high to photograph the thrombolites.
With the setting Sun and winds, it was very cold here for a guy from the tropics.

[pinholecam]

Lake Clifton viewing platform; K1+M20/4


The multiple ways the camera can release the shutter (ie. 12s timer, 2s timer, timer+bracketing, etc) sure comes in handy.
Really considerate thinking on the part of Pentax to think up of it this way.

Being time tight, or a distance away from by bike, or just fatigue (or laziness), I'd have forgotten to bring the IR remote to trigger the shutter.
But with the multiple release options, I really did not miss it at all.

[pinholecam]

Being from the city and the tropics, shooting the night skies is very hard (close to 0).

But being out in Perth certainly allowed me to give the K1 astro tracer function a go.
Its really amazes me even now to think of the amount of features they put on the K1.

Pict details :
K1+M20/4
2 frames (one with astro tracer, another for the bkgnd w/o)
black card (or rather black glove) technique to prevent blowout of the lit areas.

[pinholecam]

I remember the times before when I'd have to take bracket shots 'just in case' I needed to blend in the highlights or shadows.
With the K1, a lot of such situations are resolved in 1 frame.
The DR is there to recover a bit more of the highlights as well as more of the shadows.

[ChatMechant]

Fantastic pictures and write-up. Thanks for sharing!

[pinholecam]

"Pentax don't have enough lenses" .... So often this is used as a stick to beat at the brand and the K1 with any review.

The reality in real world use and real world limitations of money is that it sure is enough.
Not only enough, but enough to effectively take whatever one wants on a real tour too (not some theoretical tour done on an armchair in forum arguments )

M20/4; FA35/2; FA77ltd
3 small lenses to cover all the scenes I wanted to capture.
The small encumbrance helped too since this was a bike tour.

K1+M20/4
The most handy wide lens since I was on a bicycle tour.




K1+FA77/1.8

[clackers]

I'm loving this, Pinholecam. I too do cycle touring, although only for a few days at a time, not a week or month or more.

I've been very, very interested to see your gear choices and the great results!

[pinholecam]

I'm loving this, Pinholecam. I too do cycle touring, although only for a few days at a time, not a week or month or more.

I've been very, very interested to see your gear choices and the great results!

Thanks, Clackers.

You've got a really nice big place/weather to cycle tour in.


The M20/4, despite not being technically the best lens has been my go to cycle tour lens so far.
Its certainly enough imo.

I thought about the wide lens more.
It was between FA31ltd, FA35/2 and the FA43ltd.
Since I did Bali early in the year, I chose the FA35/2 instead this time.
The 43ltd and 50mm being more 'normal', was not selected as I felt that I'd need a wide lens more this time.
The more 'normal' FL, I'd usually like to pair with a 28-24mm anyway.

[pinholecam]

K1+M20/4 (Dunsborough; Perth)

[pinholecam]

K1+M20/4

The 36mp is a very useful thing, despite my initial doubts about it.

There are various 'trickery' that can be done with 36mp that is less so for 24mp.

Various uses :
1. Even if its cropped to the apsc image circle, its still a good 15-16mp file and thats plenty in any realistic application, be it printing A4/A3 or just viewing on a large display.
So essentially, on this trip (as well as on others), I have 20mm, which also is a 24-28mm; the 35mm, which is also a 50mm and the 77mm, which is a 85-100mm.
Especially so for stopped down work.

2. Things look even sharper resized down a little
Eg. 36mp downsampled to 16-18mp is almost flawless for any lens I use, and plenty of file too for any realistic usage (printing, viewing)

3. Things look less noisy sampled down to that 16-18mp size.

4. I get to choose the image size I want to keep/handle from that large 36mp one.

The M20/4 seems to have really nice 3D feel.