Retired, But NOT Quite Ready To Cash In My Chips... Yet.

FalconEddy · 03-15-2020, 03:34 PM - **2 Likes**

Having some 50+ years in photography (some initially for pleasure and the high school yearbook, some as a side business, and some as a full-time business), I've been primarily a die-hard Pentaxian (in the 35mm format) for the VAST majority of those years. The exceptions being the Argus 'brick' in high school along with a TLR Rolleiflex f2.8 with a Carl-Zeiss lens, and later on a Nikon F2 Photomic S while earning a couple of BS's in Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, then asked into the Masters program for each; finishing up a couple of years later. Funny.. I saw that MIT hosts one of the vintage Nikon F2 sites now.

I still have 'the brick' and its original case, but the range finder is a bit out of alignment. Not a big deal for me, but I kept it since it was my FIRST camera (outside of a Kodak Instamatic - which WON'T be counted). Also kept my Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta 2-1/4x2-1/4 collapsible range finder with Novar-Anasticmatic f3.5 lens. It takes really nice photos as I used it up in Montreal at Le Jardin Boutanique at the end of June 2002 (yes, the year it was at least 95°F to 103°F every damn day in the Northeastern corridor and St Lawrence Valley. As a side note, (we went up for the International Festival De Jazz), our son who was 4-1/2 at the time and was also later diagnosed at 7 as superiorly gifted, had recently watched 'The Wizard Of Oz' on TV. The three of us are sitting there eating a vanilla ice cream cone at a small, round with beet-red sweaty faces, and he says out of the blue (in a witches voice)... "UGGGH! -You Cur-sed brat, look what you've done! I'm melting! Melting! Oh...what a world, what a world! Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness? AAHHHHH! I'm gone! (he gets quieter) I'm gone! I'm going!...(as he ducked under the table)

I look at my wife and say... "Oh my God, THAT was verbatim. VERBATIM!" If I had said it that would have been normal since the family all knows I'm eidetic; but THIS was a HUGE revelation! People around us started to clap for him, so we joined in and said, "Awesome Job, monkey boy!". "Thanks, monkey dad!", he says; which drew some laughter from those people near us. Hence getting him tested later on with the WISC IV Intelligence Quotient scoring for children. They need to be 6 or older to take the test. I'd had the WAIS test for adults three times, scoring 12 points higher on each of the follow-up tests. There was the original WAIS test at age 20, WAIS R at age 30, and WAIS IV at age 55. The most comprehensive was the latter test which includes ten core subtests as well as five supplemental subtests. The five supplemental results are NOT included in the final score, although they can be added via a derivative method to get your TRUE IQ, which will be higher. Basic IQ scores do not exceed 160..

But, I digress..

I will be writing a review on the new (to me) HD Pentax-D FA F2.8 15-30mm ED SDM WR lens I picked up a couple of days ago. It was a new, unused, open box item that I got for $450 off the retail price..complete with serial card tag that wasn't filled out yet. Most likely will do the written review later this evening.

Regards,
FalconEddy

MarkJerling · 03-15-2020, 04:02 PM

Interesting first post. Welcome to the forum!

**ramseybuckeye** · 03-15-2020, 04:03 PM

Welcome Eddy, great story.

**robgski** · 03-15-2020, 04:40 PM

Welcome, I look forward to seeing your pictures

Unregistered User 8 · 03-15-2020, 06:12 PM

Hi Eddy, welcome from Australia.

dantonvb · 03-15-2020, 06:26 PM

Welcome, from Brazil!

**Mikesul** · 03-15-2020, 08:06 PM

Welcome to the forum. You have a great lens there!

**microlight** · 03-16-2020, 12:08 AM

Welcome from the UK, Eddy!

FalconEddy · 03-16-2020, 01:51 AM

Thanks Folks! A Pleasure To Be Here. Unfortunately, I was nearly finished with my VERY LENGTHY review of that lens, and took a break to do some more testing at 20mm in AF and manual, as well as to tweak the AF fine adjustment a bit. Then, verify the fine tuning in mostly 15mm and again in 30mm using the Peak Focusing (Contrast) adjustment. I came back to my main PC, sat down, and the damn thing rebooted right in front my eyes. Ahhh MAN! Ya know, the ONE time I didn't copy and paste it into an MS Word document and save it. I'm and ultra-conservative guy when it comes to rework because it REALLY IRKS ME!!!

Anyway, I still have my Pentax 35mm Super Program from around 1983 with a motor drive A, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.2 (excellent lens), Pentax-A 28mm f/2.8, Pentax-M 135mm f/2.5 (nice portrait lens), and Pentax AF-280TTL flash with wide angle and telephoto attachments. Plus a 2x tele-convertor.

Then I have my wedding camera equipment. Special rare camera...A Mamiya 645 1000s 'Golden Lizard' with ALL THE FIXIN's. Motor winder, AE Prism, Mamiya-Sekor 80mm f/1.9 lens, Mamiya-Sekor 45mm f/2.8 wide-angle lens, Mamiya-Sekor 150mm f/3.5 portrait lens, Sunpak Pro System 622 Super Flash w/Standard Head, QBC-5 Quick Charger, CL-3 Ni-Cd Battery Pack & Standard CG-10 4-C-Cell Battery Pack, Stroboframe R7 Rotary-Link Universal Flash Bracket, 4 or 5 -120 film inserts w/cases, 4 - 220 film inserts w/cases, Gossen Luna Pro-F Meter, Gossen N100 Light Meter, & Quantum CalcuFlash-S Meter. All the Pentax 67, Mamiya RB67, RZ67 bodies, prisms, lenses, & backs, are completely GONE at this point; although I DID keep a few choice vintage pieces as well as some medium-sized studio flash stuff that all syncs up with photo sensors. Oh, and my backdrops, too.

I'll start dropping photos in here eventually, but I wanted to conform to protocol first & foremost with an introduction, even though it was a bit off the wall. But hey!, what would all the 'normal' people do in the world for entertainment, without the guys that blew the Bell Curve, are EIDETIC, AND HAVE ADHD?

Two of my wife's favorite sayings to use against me and make me feel bad when I get carried away, are:

1) If I've pulled a 'Sheldon Cooper' in public on an unsuspecting salesperson, that was only attempting to give me in-depth details and information on something I was viewing at a store, then after he's finished I'll say.... "Well, ACTUALLY...", then go into this torturously low-leveled detail about why he's wrong and I'm right (without actually saying that) and explaining things down to the component level of the product itself. They generally walk away, completely dejected at that point. I REALLY don't do it to be a jerk, I actually can't help it. The information just flows out of me and won't stop (usually).

WIFE: "I can't believe you just did that to that guy. He was just trying to give you some info on it, and you had to be 'the smartest guy in the room', AGAIN."
ME: "You know I don't do it on purpose!!! Plus, it might help him with other customers in the future at some point, right? RIGHT??
WIFE: "I don't know why you do that. Your IQ is supposed to be what? It's supposed to be WHAT???"

The last two lines of that sentence are designed to jab a knife into my feelings, and they do...believe me. But, I'm improving. On Friday, as I retrieved the mail, I heard two high school kids talking as they walked past me on their way home. They were discussing calculating Pi out to only 20 places and said it was 3.14159265358979323847. Well, I bit my tongue and ground my teeth since everyone KNOWS that Pi to the 20th decimal place is 3.14159265358979323846. I mean what are they teaching our kids these day, anyway?

. . Falcon

**Kerrowdown** · 03-16-2020, 02:22 AM

Welcome to the forum from the Highlands of Scotland, enjoy all it has to offer.

**microlight** · 03-16-2020, 07:42 AM

Do you wear superhero t-shirts, Eddy?

normhead · 03-16-2020, 08:54 AM - **1 Like**

Welcome to the forum.

Given your introduction, we'll expect great things....
I hope at some point you can stop testing and start taking pictures.

We like pictures.

FalconEddy · 03-16-2020, 09:57 PM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by Kerrowdown

Welcometo the forum from the Highlands of Scotland, enjoy all it has to offer.

TheHighland of Scotland, or the forum?
Oh,THAT is one hell of a nice collection of Pentax Prime Lenses, Kerrowdown.
...Falcon

Originally posted by pjv

HiEddy, welcome from Australia.

G'DayMate! Hey... did you see HOW THICK Tom Hanks had spread the vegemite on his piece of toast on the news the other day??? OMG!!!
... Falcon

Originally posted by dantonvb

Welcome,from Brazil!

Obrigada!

... Falcon

Originally posted by microlight

Do you wear superhero t-shirts, Eddy?

Not since I gained weight, and my head became three sizes too big to fit through the neck hole.

... Falcon

Originally posted by normhead

Welcometo the forum.

Given your introduction, we'll expect great things....
I hope at some point you can stop testing and start taking pictures.
We like pictures.

Well,I'll do what I can; but first I'll need to resolve the major issue with notbeing able to load the film into the K-1. I'll find the key to successeventually; my son tells me I'm a pretty sharp guy.

... Falcon

Sandy Hancock · 03-16-2020, 11:39 PM

Welcome. It should be an interesting ride!

I reckon you could cut those kids some slack about Pi. The last digit was rounded up, as the next digit is another six (as I'm sure you already know

)

**gaweidert** · 03-17-2020, 08:41 AM

Originally posted by FalconEddy

WIFE: "I can't believe you just did that to that guy. He was just trying to give you some info on it, and you had to be 'the smartest guy in the room', AGAIN."
ME: "You know I don't do it on purpose!!! Plus, it might help him with other customers in the future at some point, right? RIGHT??
WIFE: "I don't know why you do that. Your IQ is supposed to be what? It's supposed to be WHAT???"

Your wife just served you up a great line and you blew it. Next time:

WIFE: "You had to be the smartest guy in the room."
YOU: "Of course I'm the smartest guy in the room. I picked you and they all know what a great choice I made too."

Now with your eidetic memory, you should remember this.

No charge. Us old timers need to stick together.

03-15-2020, 03:34 PM - 2 Likes	#1
FalconEddy New Member Join Date: Feb 2020 Location: Southern New Hampshire Posts: 4	Retired, But NOT Quite Ready To Cash In My Chips... Yet. Having some 50+ years in photography (some initially for pleasure and the high school yearbook, some as a side business, and some as a full-time business), I've been primarily a die-hard Pentaxian (in the 35mm format) for the VAST majority of those years. The exceptions being the Argus 'brick' in high school along with a TLR Rolleiflex f2.8 with a Carl-Zeiss lens, and later on a Nikon F2 Photomic S while earning a couple of BS's in Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, then asked into the Masters program for each; finishing up a couple of years later. Funny.. I saw that MIT hosts one of the vintage Nikon F2 sites now. I still have 'the brick' and its original case, but the range finder is a bit out of alignment. Not a big deal for me, but I kept it since it was my FIRST camera (outside of a Kodak Instamatic - which WON'T be counted). Also kept my Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta 2-1/4x2-1/4 collapsible range finder with Novar-Anasticmatic f3.5 lens. It takes really nice photos as I used it up in Montreal at Le Jardin Boutanique at the end of June 2002 (yes, the year it was at least 95°F to 103°F every damn day in the Northeastern corridor and St Lawrence Valley. As a side note, (we went up for the International Festival De Jazz), our son who was 4-1/2 at the time and was also later diagnosed at 7 as superiorly gifted, had recently watched 'The Wizard Of Oz' on TV. The three of us are sitting there eating a vanilla ice cream cone at a small, round with beet-red sweaty faces, and he says out of the blue (in a witches voice)... "UGGGH! -You Cur-sed brat, look what you've done! I'm melting! Melting! Oh...what a world, what a world! Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness? AAHHHHH! I'm gone! (he gets quieter) I'm gone! I'm going!...(as he ducked under the table) I look at my wife and say... "Oh my God, THAT was verbatim. VERBATIM!" If I had said it that would have been normal since the family all knows I'm eidetic; but THIS was a HUGE revelation! People around us started to clap for him, so we joined in and said, "Awesome Job, monkey boy!". "Thanks, monkey dad!", he says; which drew some laughter from those people near us. Hence getting him tested later on with the WISC IV Intelligence Quotient scoring for children. They need to be 6 or older to take the test. I'd had the WAIS test for adults three times, scoring 12 points higher on each of the follow-up tests. There was the original WAIS test at age 20, WAIS R at age 30, and WAIS IV at age 55. The most comprehensive was the latter test which includes ten core subtests as well as five supplemental subtests. The five supplemental results are NOT included in the final score, although they can be added via a derivative method to get your TRUE IQ, which will be higher. Basic IQ scores do not exceed 160.. But, I digress.. I will be writing a review on the new (to me) HD Pentax-D FA F2.8 15-30mm ED SDM WR lens I picked up a couple of days ago. It was a new, unused, open box item that I got for $450 off the retail price..complete with serial card tag that wasn't filled out yet. Most likely will do the written review later this evening. Regards, FalconEddy

03-16-2020, 01:51 AM	#9
FalconEddy New Member Join Date: Feb 2020 Location: Southern New Hampshire Posts: 4 Original Poster	Just An Acknowledgement... Thanks Folks! A Pleasure To Be Here. Unfortunately, I was nearly finished with my VERY LENGTHY review of that lens, and took a break to do some more testing at 20mm in AF and manual, as well as to tweak the AF fine adjustment a bit. Then, verify the fine tuning in mostly 15mm and again in 30mm using the Peak Focusing (Contrast) adjustment. I came back to my main PC, sat down, and the damn thing rebooted right in front my eyes. Ahhh MAN! Ya know, the ONE time I didn't copy and paste it into an MS Word document and save it. I'm and ultra-conservative guy when it comes to rework because it REALLY IRKS ME!!! Anyway, I still have my Pentax 35mm Super Program from around 1983 with a motor drive A, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.2 (excellent lens), Pentax-A 28mm f/2.8, Pentax-M 135mm f/2.5 (nice portrait lens), and Pentax AF-280TTL flash with wide angle and telephoto attachments. Plus a 2x tele-convertor. Then I have my wedding camera equipment. Special rare camera...A Mamiya 645 1000s 'Golden Lizard' with ALL THE FIXIN's. Motor winder, AE Prism, Mamiya-Sekor 80mm f/1.9 lens, Mamiya-Sekor 45mm f/2.8 wide-angle lens, Mamiya-Sekor 150mm f/3.5 portrait lens, Sunpak Pro System 622 Super Flash w/Standard Head, QBC-5 Quick Charger, CL-3 Ni-Cd Battery Pack & Standard CG-10 4-C-Cell Battery Pack, Stroboframe R7 Rotary-Link Universal Flash Bracket, 4 or 5 -120 film inserts w/cases, 4 - 220 film inserts w/cases, Gossen Luna Pro-F Meter, Gossen N100 Light Meter, & Quantum CalcuFlash-S Meter. All the Pentax 67, Mamiya RB67, RZ67 bodies, prisms, lenses, & backs, are completely GONE at this point; although I DID keep a few choice vintage pieces as well as some medium-sized studio flash stuff that all syncs up with photo sensors. Oh, and my backdrops, too. I'll start dropping photos in here eventually, but I wanted to conform to protocol first & foremost with an introduction, even though it was a bit off the wall. But hey!, what would all the 'normal' people do in the world for entertainment, without the guys that blew the Bell Curve, are EIDETIC, AND HAVE ADHD? Two of my wife's favorite sayings to use against me and make me feel bad when I get carried away, are: 1) If I've pulled a 'Sheldon Cooper' in public on an unsuspecting salesperson, that was only attempting to give me in-depth details and information on something I was viewing at a store, then after he's finished I'll say.... "Well, ACTUALLY...", then go into this torturously low-leveled detail about why he's wrong and I'm right (without actually saying that) and explaining things down to the component level of the product itself. They generally walk away, completely dejected at that point. I REALLY don't do it to be a jerk, I actually can't help it. The information just flows out of me and won't stop (usually). WIFE: "I can't believe you just did that to that guy. He was just trying to give you some info on it, and you had to be 'the smartest guy in the room', AGAIN." ME: "You know I don't do it on purpose!!! Plus, it might help him with other customers in the future at some point, right? RIGHT?? WIFE: "I don't know why you do that. Your IQ is supposed to be what? It's supposed to be WHAT???" The last two lines of that sentence are designed to jab a knife into my feelings, and they do...believe me. But, I'm improving. On Friday, as I retrieved the mail, I heard two high school kids talking as they walked past me on their way home. They were discussing calculating Pi out to only 20 places and said it was 3.14159265358979323847. Well, I bit my tongue and ground my teeth since everyone KNOWS that Pi to the 20th decimal place is 3.14159265358979323846. I mean what are they teaching our kids these day, anyway? . . Falcon Last edited by FalconEddy; 03-16-2020 at 09:53 PM.

03-16-2020, 09:57 PM - 1 Like	#13
FalconEddy New Member Join Date: Feb 2020 Location: Southern New Hampshire Posts: 4 Original Poster	Originally posted by Kerrowdown Welcometo the forum from the Highlands of Scotland, enjoy all it has to offer. TheHighland of Scotland, or the forum? Oh,THAT is one hell of a nice collection of Pentax Prime Lenses, Kerrowdown. ...Falcon Originally posted by pjv HiEddy, welcome from Australia. G'DayMate! Hey... did you see HOW THICK Tom Hanks had spread the vegemite on his piece of toast on the news the other day??? OMG!!! ... Falcon Originally posted by dantonvb Welcome,from Brazil! Obrigada! ... Falcon Originally posted by microlight Do you wear superhero t-shirts, Eddy? Not since I gained weight, and my head became three sizes too big to fit through the neck hole. ... Falcon Originally posted by normhead Welcometo the forum. Given your introduction, we'll expect great things.... I hope at some point you can stop testing and start taking pictures. We like pictures. Well,I'll do what I can; but first I'll need to resolve the major issue with notbeing able to load the film into the K-1. I'll find the key to successeventually; my son tells me I'm a pretty sharp guy. ... Falcon Last edited by Sandy Hancock; 03-16-2020 at 11:36 PM. Reason: Deleted numerous redundant formatting details

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03-15-2020, 04:02 PM	#2
MarkJerling Moderator Site Supporter Join Date: May 2012 Location: Wairarapa, New Zealand Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 20,406	Interesting first post. Welcome to the forum!

03-15-2020, 04:03 PM	#3
ramseybuckeye Site Supporter Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Hampstead, NC Photos: Gallery Posts: 17,291	Welcome Eddy, great story.

03-15-2020, 04:40 PM	#4
robgski Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: Shenandoah Valley, Virginia Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 8,797	Welcome, I look forward to seeing your pictures

03-15-2020, 06:12 PM	#5
Unregistered User 8 Closed Account Join Date: Mar 2015 Photos: Gallery Posts: 8,694	Hi Eddy, welcome from Australia.

03-15-2020, 06:26 PM	#6
dantonvb Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2019 Photos: Gallery Posts: 86	Welcome, from Brazil!

03-15-2020, 08:06 PM	#7
Mikesul Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 7,594	Welcome to the forum. You have a great lens there!

03-16-2020, 12:08 AM	#8
microlight Site Supporter Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Hampshire, UK Posts: 2,129	Welcome from the UK, Eddy!

03-16-2020, 02:22 AM	#10
Kerrowdown PEG Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Highlands of Scotland... "Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand" - William Blake Photos: Gallery Posts: 57,818	Welcome to the forum from the Highlands of Scotland, enjoy all it has to offer.

03-16-2020, 07:42 AM	#11
microlight Site Supporter Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Hampshire, UK Posts: 2,129	Do you wear superhero t-shirts, Eddy?

03-16-2020, 08:54 AM - 1 Like	#12
normhead Pentaxian Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Near Algonquin Park Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 40,451	Welcome to the forum. Given your introduction, we'll expect great things.... I hope at some point you can stop testing and start taking pictures. We like pictures.

03-16-2020, 11:39 PM	#14
Sandy Hancock Moderator Site Supporter Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Adelaide Hills, South Australia Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 11,272	Welcome. It should be an interesting ride! I reckon you could cut those kids some slack about Pi. The last digit was rounded up, as the next digit is another six (as I'm sure you already know )

03-17-2020, 08:41 AM	#15
gaweidert Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Rochester, NY Photos: Gallery Posts: 5,325	Originally posted by FalconEddy WIFE: "I can't believe you just did that to that guy. He was just trying to give you some info on it, and you had to be 'the smartest guy in the room', AGAIN." ME: "You know I don't do it on purpose!!! Plus, it might help him with other customers in the future at some point, right? RIGHT?? WIFE: "I don't know why you do that. Your IQ is supposed to be what? It's supposed to be WHAT???" Your wife just served you up a great line and you blew it. Next time: WIFE: "You had to be the smartest guy in the room." YOU: "Of course I'm the smartest guy in the room. I picked you and they all know what a great choice I made too." Now with your eidetic memory, you should remember this. No charge. Us old timers need to stick together.