Just got my first DSLR

Frakkas · 06-28-2007, 02:51 AM

Hi.

After many sleepless nights wondering whether to get the K10D, D200, K100D etc. etc., I came to the conclusion that I would be better of putting money into good lenses rather than camera body.

Besides, I'll get a new body anyway when I get a Pentax sponsorship

So, I found a deal with a used *ist DS with three lenses.

- 18-55mm zoom (kit)
- smc FA 100mm f/2.8 macro.
- smc DA 40mm f/2.8 limited.

(Is it possible to search for pictures taken with a specified lens?)

There was also a flash in the package:
- AF-500 FTZ

I got it for less than I shold have paid for a new K100D kit.

I haven't done any photography the last 16 years, so I expect a steep learning curve.

Larsen.

and · 06-28-2007, 03:28 AM

Sounds like a good deal, a macro lens included as well as a dedicated flash and a good prime gives you many possibilities.

You cant search for pictures taken with a specified lens here, unless you just search the forums for a specific lens, often people posting photos will mention in the post which lens it was taken with.

A tip can be to go to pbase.com/search/cameras/pentax and pick the lens you want to check out there to view pictures taken with it.

Alex Balotskiy · 06-28-2007, 03:46 AM

Welcome to the site! It looks like a great deal.

The site Andreas linked to is a good one. Another location you can look at would be the Pentax Photo Gallery. When the site loads click on Image Data, Lens, and then select the lens that you want. Hope this helps!

davek · 06-28-2007, 05:25 AM

Yup. Sounds like you got an awesome deal. Alot of people are taking great shots with the DS & those lenses.

Pentax Cameras with Photo Samples

Frakkas · 06-28-2007, 10:07 AM

Thank you for the links.

I don't have any software yet. What do you recommend? Do I have a choise or is it soner or later going to be PhotoShop anyway?

Larsen.

davek · 06-28-2007, 10:32 AM

Originally posted by Frakkas

I don't have any software yet. What do you recommend? Do I have a choise or is it soner or later going to be PhotoShop anyway?

Can't say what you are going to want/need, but I'm using:
Bibble Lite for Raw Conversion,
PhotoShop Elements 3 for image management and further editing.

I started out with Paint Shop Pro and moved over to Elements when v3 was released. My theory was that it would make an easy migration to full photoshop someday. Doubt that I'll ever do that, or if I do, PS will be a couple of generations older, so I could have stayed with PSP.

To me, one of the key functions is image management. Comes in real handy when you are looking for "that tree shot I took about 2 years ago", or pictures of my family.

There are some free ones out there, haven't used them, but some say Picassa (google) is good.

and · 06-28-2007, 11:13 AM

I think picasa is great and the UI is very good for a free program. but it is very limited too, I think its a fantastic program if you own a PointAndShoot but if you want to do raw then you need a more flexible tool. It can be good though, if you plan to shoot jpeg with the k100d, that might well be best in the beginning anyway. I had dSLRs for about a year before I took the time to read tons of articles and learn RAW processing.

GIMP is a more advanced free program, a competitor to photoshop but there are not as many tutorials on it and basically requires more effort, but its free and it can do the job.

photoshop is great. i thought lightroom was terrible, but i guess thats just me. and my dual core laptop with 2gb ram obviously wasnt fast eanough for it since it locked my whole system for almost 5 minutes when i tried adding a folder of pictures to it.

oh. speaking of PP, Id like to recommend the best article site there is, its so good i cant believe its free: Articles
There is a lot to learn from that page, both about PP and about dSLR photography.

mingdie · 06-28-2007, 01:13 PM

Welcome Larsen. A nice set up you got.
I got PS at work but at home I am using GIMP. A bit harder to get into but it gives me the same tools as in PS. Give it a go as it is free. Go in to this site. This guy use Gimp and have some good articles and also where to download it. Look under "bildredigering". Bild och foto

Cheers

Eddie

davek · 06-29-2007, 05:52 AM

Originally posted by and

oh. speaking of PP, Id like to recommend the best article site there is, its so good i cant believe its free: Articles
There is a lot to learn from that page, both about PP and about dSLR photography.

Thanks for that. Browsed through a couple of those articles. Useful. Bookmarked.

Frakkas · 06-29-2007, 07:12 AM

@ mingdie and and: Great links! Thank you very much.

@ davek: Why don't you use "Camera Raw"? Isn't it integrated in Photoshop?

Admitted, I'm a bit confused. F.ex there is Adobe Photoshop (elements, creative suite...) and Adobe Camera Raw .... AND Adobe Lightroom ....AND (!) Adobe Bridge ...

Well, I better start reading those workflow tutorials...

and · 06-29-2007, 07:23 AM

Originally posted by Frakkas

@ mingdie and and: Great links! Thank you very much.

@ davek: Why don't you use "Camera Raw"? Isn't it integrated in Photoshop?

Admitted, I'm a bit confused. F.ex there is Adobe Photoshop (elements, creative suite...) and Adobe Camera Raw .... AND Adobe Lightroom ....AND (!) Adobe Bridge ...

Well, I better start reading those workflow tutorials...

Adobe Bridge and camera raw and photoshop are parts in the creative suite "Adobe CS, CS2 or CS3). So if you have adobe CS then you normally use all of these 3.
bridge is for browsing and orgranizing your photos as thumbnails, if you open one of your photos in bridge then, if its a jpeg, it will open in photoshop where you will PP it, or if its a raw file then you will need to convert it first and that means adobe camera raw will open and and you can select exposure compensation and white balance etc, when u are happy you select open and the photo will be opened in photoshop where you can do PP such as sharpening etc and then save your final image.

adobe elements is a photoshop light with reduced functionality, I am not sure how it handles raw files.

adobe lightroom is kind of bridge/camera raw/photoshop merged into 1 product, although the photshop part of it is very limited, its supposed to be a one stop shop for developing your raw into a PPed and conveted jpeg or tif image. hence the name lightroom.

so to summarize, from adobe you have 3 options:
Creative Suite (bridge+camera raw+photoshop)
Lightroom
Elements (again, not sure how raw files are handled)

davek · 06-29-2007, 08:09 AM

Originally posted by Frakkas

@ davek: Why don't you use "Camera Raw"? Isn't it integrated in Photoshop?

Yes, ACR is integrated in Photoshop & Photoshop Elements. I use Bibble because I like the batch workflow processing that it offers. It fits much better into my workflow.

Others like RSE, SilkyPix, ACR, or Phase One.

YMMV

dk

06-28-2007, 02:51 AM	#1
Frakkas Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Oslo, Norway Photos: Gallery Posts: 27	Just got my first DSLR Hi. After many sleepless nights wondering whether to get the K10D, D200, K100D etc. etc., I came to the conclusion that I would be better of putting money into good lenses rather than camera body. Besides, I'll get a new body anyway when I get a Pentax sponsorship So, I found a deal with a used *ist DS with three lenses. - 18-55mm zoom (kit) - smc FA 100mm f/2.8 macro. - smc DA 40mm f/2.8 limited. (Is it possible to search for pictures taken with a specified lens?) There was also a flash in the package: - AF-500 FTZ I got it for less than I shold have paid for a new K100D kit. I haven't done any photography the last 16 years, so I expect a steep learning curve. Larsen.

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06-28-2007, 03:28 AM	#2
and Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,476	Sounds like a good deal, a macro lens included as well as a dedicated flash and a good prime gives you many possibilities. You cant search for pictures taken with a specified lens here, unless you just search the forums for a specific lens, often people posting photos will mention in the post which lens it was taken with. A tip can be to go to pbase.com/search/cameras/pentax and pick the lens you want to check out there to view pictures taken with it.

06-28-2007, 03:46 AM	#3
Alex Balotskiy Inactive Account Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Hawthorn Woods, Illinois Posts: 27	Welcome to the site! It looks like a great deal. The site Andreas linked to is a good one. Another location you can look at would be the Pentax Photo Gallery. When the site loads click on Image Data, Lens, and then select the lens that you want. Hope this helps!

06-28-2007, 05:25 AM	#4
davek Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Elmira, On, Canada Posts: 461	Yup. Sounds like you got an awesome deal. Alot of people are taking great shots with the DS & those lenses. Pentax Cameras with Photo Samples

06-28-2007, 10:07 AM	#5
Frakkas Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Oslo, Norway Photos: Gallery Posts: 27 Original Poster	Thank you for the links. I don't have any software yet. What do you recommend? Do I have a choise or is it soner or later going to be PhotoShop anyway? Larsen.

06-28-2007, 10:32 AM	#6
davek Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Elmira, On, Canada Posts: 461	Originally posted by Frakkas I don't have any software yet. What do you recommend? Do I have a choise or is it soner or later going to be PhotoShop anyway? Can't say what you are going to want/need, but I'm using: Bibble Lite for Raw Conversion, PhotoShop Elements 3 for image management and further editing. I started out with Paint Shop Pro and moved over to Elements when v3 was released. My theory was that it would make an easy migration to full photoshop someday. Doubt that I'll ever do that, or if I do, PS will be a couple of generations older, so I could have stayed with PSP. To me, one of the key functions is image management. Comes in real handy when you are looking for "that tree shot I took about 2 years ago", or pictures of my family. There are some free ones out there, haven't used them, but some say Picassa (google) is good.

06-28-2007, 11:13 AM	#7
and Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,476	I think picasa is great and the UI is very good for a free program. but it is very limited too, I think its a fantastic program if you own a PointAndShoot but if you want to do raw then you need a more flexible tool. It can be good though, if you plan to shoot jpeg with the k100d, that might well be best in the beginning anyway. I had dSLRs for about a year before I took the time to read tons of articles and learn RAW processing. GIMP is a more advanced free program, a competitor to photoshop but there are not as many tutorials on it and basically requires more effort, but its free and it can do the job. photoshop is great. i thought lightroom was terrible, but i guess thats just me. and my dual core laptop with 2gb ram obviously wasnt fast eanough for it since it locked my whole system for almost 5 minutes when i tried adding a folder of pictures to it. oh. speaking of PP, Id like to recommend the best article site there is, its so good i cant believe its free: Articles There is a lot to learn from that page, both about PP and about dSLR photography.

06-28-2007, 01:13 PM	#8
mingdie Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Photos: Gallery Posts: 630	Welcome Larsen. A nice set up you got. I got PS at work but at home I am using GIMP. A bit harder to get into but it gives me the same tools as in PS. Give it a go as it is free. Go in to this site. This guy use Gimp and have some good articles and also where to download it. Look under "bildredigering". Bild och foto Cheers Eddie

06-29-2007, 05:52 AM	#9
davek Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Elmira, On, Canada Posts: 461	Originally posted by and oh. speaking of PP, Id like to recommend the best article site there is, its so good i cant believe its free: Articles There is a lot to learn from that page, both about PP and about dSLR photography. Thanks for that. Browsed through a couple of those articles. Useful. Bookmarked.

06-29-2007, 07:12 AM	#10
Frakkas Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Oslo, Norway Photos: Gallery Posts: 27 Original Poster	@ mingdie and and: Great links! Thank you very much. @ davek: Why don't you use "Camera Raw"? Isn't it integrated in Photoshop? Admitted, I'm a bit confused. F.ex there is Adobe Photoshop (elements, creative suite...) and Adobe Camera Raw .... AND Adobe Lightroom ....AND (!) Adobe Bridge ... Well, I better start reading those workflow tutorials...

06-29-2007, 07:23 AM	#11
and Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,476	Originally posted by Frakkas @ mingdie and and: Great links! Thank you very much. @ davek: Why don't you use "Camera Raw"? Isn't it integrated in Photoshop? Admitted, I'm a bit confused. F.ex there is Adobe Photoshop (elements, creative suite...) and Adobe Camera Raw .... AND Adobe Lightroom ....AND (!) Adobe Bridge ... Well, I better start reading those workflow tutorials... Adobe Bridge and camera raw and photoshop are parts in the creative suite "Adobe CS, CS2 or CS3). So if you have adobe CS then you normally use all of these 3. bridge is for browsing and orgranizing your photos as thumbnails, if you open one of your photos in bridge then, if its a jpeg, it will open in photoshop where you will PP it, or if its a raw file then you will need to convert it first and that means adobe camera raw will open and and you can select exposure compensation and white balance etc, when u are happy you select open and the photo will be opened in photoshop where you can do PP such as sharpening etc and then save your final image. adobe elements is a photoshop light with reduced functionality, I am not sure how it handles raw files. adobe lightroom is kind of bridge/camera raw/photoshop merged into 1 product, although the photshop part of it is very limited, its supposed to be a one stop shop for developing your raw into a PPed and conveted jpeg or tif image. hence the name lightroom. so to summarize, from adobe you have 3 options: Creative Suite (bridge+camera raw+photoshop) Lightroom Elements (again, not sure how raw files are handled)

06-29-2007, 08:09 AM	#12
davek Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Elmira, On, Canada Posts: 461	Originally posted by Frakkas @ davek: Why don't you use "Camera Raw"? Isn't it integrated in Photoshop? Yes, ACR is integrated in Photoshop & Photoshop Elements. I use Bibble because I like the batch workflow processing that it offers. It fits much better into my workflow. Others like RSE, SilkyPix, ACR, or Phase One. YMMV dk