[Transit]

That is pretty damn cool!

it is cool eh. Jup has looked amazing to the mk 1 eyeball the last couple of nights, parked next to the moon on saterday.
That is a single shot. Next trick is to make movies then software strips out the individual frames, selects the in focus ones, aligns them, stacks them thus getting much better contrast and detail I hope

[Kiwizinho]

Another Jupiter attempt with Q-7
Just bought a 2x Barlow (aka teleconverter) to reduce the massive cropping

That's completely out of this world!

[Transit]

That's completely out of this world!

Indubitably! 621 million ks currently

[MarkJerling]

Another Jupiter attempt with Q-7
Just bought a 2x Barlow (aka teleconverter) to reduce the massive cropping

Dang! That's very impressive. Well done.

[MarkJerling]

Mark, I am a Pentax enthusiast myself as well, dont get me wrong, I love an SLR with a big bright Glass Viewfinder, but i do fear their days are becoming numbered.
And i will say, i was a big skeptic about Mirrorless cameras initially myself, working in Photographic retail and during the initial MILC releases seeing the initial performance i was not impressed with many things about them, LCD finders, AF, LCD Lag were all among the big pains. Initially lens selections were not great as well.
But things started to turn the corner when Panasonic teamed with Oly on a standard lens mount and communicaitons, so there is a big range of lenses, Sony started releasing lenses and now have 40+ natives, plus SIgma, Tamron and others are all now producing lenses for mirrorless systems. Sure CaNikon put a pinky toe in to see where the market was going with the EOS M and the Nikon 1 series, but they were look we are in the market ranges. Sony only really got serious with the A7II and A6000 cameras and it took off from there..
I hate to say it but has truly changed and heading down the mirrorless highway,
Why? Easy, Canon & Nikon committing to Mirrorless systems fully. Canon now has 30 odd lenses in the RF mount already and more coming, Nikon will have 20+ Native Z mount lenses available by the end of the year plus the millions of EF & F mount lenses that can be used via Native Canon & Nikon adapters. Canon had their latest R3 at the Tokyo Olympics, and it is a mega beast, 24mp full frame sensor able to capture & write near on 30fps stills with AF & Tracking.... Plus 4K 120fps Video.... Sure its aimed at Pro sport shooters & media creators, but.. Even the base R is 24mp full frame, produces 4K video & 5fps stills in a body thats over $1k cheaper than the K-1. I think we will see even the likes of Panasonic & Sony start to struggle with market share as Canon & Nikon start to gain ground lost in the initial shift.
Ricoh need to get on the bullet train and get in the market, or i fear they will end up as a foot note in photography...

Another way to put it, i have sold 2x traditional DSLR cameras in the last 2 years, both Pentax's every other ILC camera in the large number we have sold has been a mirrorless
Sorry if thats a bit heavy, but that is what i have seen from the inside of the industry (Hell even Hasselblad have a mirrorless system in the X1 series)
H

I suspect that Pentax has taken the view that it's better to march to their own drum than to follow the herd into a market of diminishing returns with everyone chasing the same shrinking market. It may well be an error to not go mirrorless like everyone else, or it may be that they're aiming for people like me who don't care for lag, pixelated viewfinder displays and a sore head.

As we know, Ricoh's patent 2018-151588 for an optical (OVF) / electronic (EVF) switchable hybrid viewfinder has not yet found it's way into a camera, but that's not to say they're not working on it. Clearly, some of the tech of EVF's would be very nice to have in a DSLR. As nice as tracking the eye of a crested heron at 400 feet might be (just joking) I'm not convinced that the DSLR is headed for the scrap heap just yet.

We should also consider that they are and always have been a company primarily focused on their Japanese customers. Time will tell if their approach will be a good one, but I, for one, am not happy with EVF tech yet and it strikes me I may not be alone. Maybe DSLRs will become (even more of) a niche market as time goes on, but I don't see them disappearing entirely.

[pixelsaurus]

Another Jupiter attempt with Q-7
Just bought a 2x Barlow (aka teleconverter) to reduce the massive cropping

Nice.

[Kiwi645hauler]

it is cool eh. Jup has looked amazing to the mk 1 eyeball the last couple of nights, parked next to the moon on saterday.
That is a single shot. Next trick is to make movies then software strips out the individual frames, selects the in focus ones, aligns them, stacks them thus getting much better contrast and detail I hope

Ahh the good ol one shot wonder.. I have a couple of those in my collection too, will you use Registax for your frame stripping & stacking?

[Transit]

Ahh the good ol one shot wonder.. I have a couple of those in my collection too, will you use Registax for your frame stripping & stacking?

I got that program and a couple of others that people seem to use.
I'm a sod for just starting to use things like that while ignoring instructions and tutorials...Usually give up the second time it doesn't work. Did that with a short Jupiter movie...Even a paused video the image looks better than that shot so presumably worth doing

---------- Post added 20th Sep 2021 at 04:13 PM ----------

Nice.

Quite satisfying

---------- Post added 20th Sep 2021 at 04:14 PM ----------

Dang! That's very impressive. Well done.

Cheers Mark. I collimated the scope and it seemed to help

[richandfleur]

I suspect that Pentax has taken the view that it's better to march to their own drum than to follow the herd into a market of diminishing returns with everyone chasing the same shrinking market. It may well be an error to not go mirrorless like everyone else, or it may be that they're aiming for people like me who don't care for lag, pixelated viewfinder displays and a sore head.

Skipping past the fact newer devices have come a long way past lag and a sore head...

I genuinely still don't see a significant difference between mirrorless and DSLR cameras. To me they're all what I'd refer to as serious imaging devices.
Honestly apart from a viewfinder approach there's very little between them at all, and definitely more in common than not. It's more a battle at the moment between mechanical shutter / interchangeable lens devices and cellphones/GoPro cameras etc.

Pentax isn't going to attract new buyers until they're available to purchase. It's as blunt as that to me. I can walk into a Harvey Norman or Noel Leemings etc and purchase pretty much a camera of any brand except for Pentax.
Other than dedicated camera shops, as a brand they're just not available in New Zealand. That realistically starts limiting your customers to existing (which willl deminish over time) and any new customers will play the value comparison game before purchasing something beyond their existing camera/phone.

[richandfleur]

Loving the vibe with these guys around more. We planted the yellow flowering kōwhai tree from a seedling, so great to see it as a larger tree now attracting the Tui to it's nectar outside our lounge. Great bird song and colours.

[zkarj]

Another Jupiter attempt with Q-7

Wow! I can't even manage a decent moon shot.

[Kiwizinho]

Loving the vibe with these guys around more. We planted the yellow flowering kōwhai tree from a seedling, so great to see it as a larger tree now attracting the Tui to it's nectar outside our lounge. Great bird song and colours.

Fantastic photo.

Hopefully our kowhai might attract tui. There aren't too many around here, but I have heard them a few times, and my daughter reckons she's seen them in our garden.

In our case, kowhai are becoming a bit of an invasive species it the back yard. We have one big one, but quite a few other smaller ones coming up everywhere.

[Transit]

Wow! I can't even manage a decent moon shot.

It's much easier when not full. Low lighting angle has crater walls lit against their shadows.. High in the sky better with less atmosphere to disturb the view
The Q seems to be quite good on a telescope

---------- Post added 21st Sep 2021 at 09:16 AM ----------

Great shot Richard! I like the light background.
We have kowhai flax and flowering gums...Brings the beauties in

[MarkJerling]

Skipping past the fact newer devices have come a long way past lag and a sore head...

I genuinely still don't see a significant difference between mirrorless and DSLR cameras. To me they're all what I'd refer to as serious imaging devices.
Honestly apart from a viewfinder approach there's very little between them at all, and definitely more in common than not. It's more a battle at the moment between mechanical shutter / interchangeable lens devices and cellphones/GoPro cameras etc.

Pentax isn't going to attract new buyers until they're available to purchase. It's as blunt as that to me. I can walk into a Harvey Norman or Noel Leemings etc and purchase pretty much a camera of any brand except for Pentax.
Other than dedicated camera shops, as a brand they're just not available in New Zealand. That realistically starts limiting your customers to existing (which willl deminish over time) and any new customers will play the value comparison game before purchasing something beyond their existing camera/phone.

The most recent mirrorless cameras I've tried to like are the Nikon Z6 and the Canon R and RP. All have lag and a pixelated viewfinder. I have not had the chance to try any newer mirrorless cameras than those, so I cannot comment for other newer models.

Pentax has not been available in a Harvey Norman or Noel Leemings for as long as I remember. Even 35 years ago, it was rare to see a Pentax camera in most camera shops I frequented. I've only once seen one in a shop in Wellington and prior to that only rarely in shops in Cape Town. As stated in my previous post, remember that Ricoh / Pentax is more interested in what happens in Japan than anywhere else. Of course, I have long argued that the local New Zealand Pentax agent appears to do no marketing at all, but then Ricoh / Pentax does not do that much marketing either.

I believe Pentax's current view is that they will aim to provide a premium product with a mirror and their view (rightly or wrongly - time will tell) is that there are people who want such a thing. There may not be that many of us who wants such a thing, but that's not new. Pentax has been the outlier for 40 years or more.

[Kiwizinho]

Pentax has not been available in a Harvey Norman or Noel Leemings for as long as I remember. Even 35 years ago, it was rare to see a Pentax camera in most camera shops I frequented. I've only once seen one in a shop in Wellington and prior to that only rarely in shops in Cape Town. As stated in my previous post, remember that Ricoh / Pentax is more interested in what happens in Japan than anywhere else. Of course, I have long argued that the local New Zealand Pentax agent appears to do no marketing at all, but then Ricoh / Pentax does not do that much marketing either.

I saw Pentax K-1 in a camera shop in Queen Street in Auckland a few years back, but other than that, that's pretty much the limit.
The K-70 is the 'budget' Pentax model, but it still represents pretty amazing value for money as a still camera (so long as the aperture block behaves).
30 years ago it was a very different story, and at one stage, my Dad, my uncle, and I all owned Pentax SLRs, even though neither my uncle nor Dad were photography enthusiasts. Some of the Pentax SLRs to be honest, were basically just ILC point and shoots, as they gave very little creative control, but there were a lot of them around, and you could always take the lens and stick it on a better body.
I do wonder if Pentax may be shooting themselves in the foot a bit having such a small lineup with such a big price jump between the K-70 and the K-3 III. Canon is confusing with their huge range of models, but I think an affordable, mid-range and high end so that people can adopt a system then grow as their needs and budgets allows is necessary.
The KP seems like a good intermediate model, but I thought I saw somewhere that production has been discontinued, which would be a shame, as there are people who might upgrade from a K-70, but not as far as a K-3 III. KP is about twice the price of a K-70 but about half that of a K-3 III, so keeping all three makes a nice progression.

Mirrorless introduces some interesting possibilities, and if I were starting from scratch, I'd consider it, but I don't think there's anything compelling enough to change systems for the type of photography I do at this stage.