[formercanuck]

Alaska is a great place for outdoors photography.
I have a picture somewhere of my trip on a Princess Cruise to Alaska, and up in Tracy Arm, I had my old red Pentax K-x - in the drizzle, and took a shot of someone standing on the deck with a Pentax 645D and an octopus tripod on the rail.
After my K-x lens (Sigma 18-200) fogged up, I was floored when someone lent me their Sigma - can't remember which model it was... but it was huge, and the closest was either 50mm or 70mm (50-500mm ?! ). I was very happy, and surprised to not only see a 645D (before the 645z existed) but in the rain, and also being lent someone else's (rare to see Pentax in the wild!) lens which was probably worth 3x my old K-x.

[dbs]

Alaska is a great place for outdoors photography.
I have a picture somewhere of my trip on a Princess Cruise to Alaska, and up in Tracy Arm, I had my old red Pentax K-x - in the drizzle, and took a shot of someone standing on the deck with a Pentax 645D and an octopus tripod on the rail.
After my K-x lens (Sigma 18-200) fogged up, I was floored when someone lent me their Sigma - can't remember which model it was... but it was huge, and the closest was either 50mm or 70mm (50-500mm ?! ). I was very happy, and surprised to not only see a 645D (before the 645z existed) but in the rain, and also being lent someone else's (rare to see Pentax in the wild!) lens which was probably worth 3x my old K-x.

Hi formercanuck

The sharing of equipment at outdoor venues is a photographers norm when are all together I have found

Dave

[formercanuck]

I agree. Coming from SoCal - place where Pentax can only be ordered and not found, I found that finding a Pentaxian has been very rare, and didn't expect to see any on a cruise ship of ~1400 people going to Alaska.
Finding gear in places like Canada has been much more common.

[texandrews]

I agree. Coming from SoCal - place where Pentax can only be ordered and not found, ...

Samy's carries Pentax, don't they?

[dbs]

Hi formercanuck

Finding stores with stock is hard to find here as well

Dave

[Bonner04]

Samy's carries Pentax, don't they?

Not in the Santa Barbara store. But there is a salesperson there that once worked for Pentax. I enjoy talking to him.

Also, there is a camera store in Thousand Oaks that once carried Pentax cameras and lenses. A few years ago I told
the manager it was good to see he had the Pentax brand and he responded to me with a rant about Ricoh and how they gave
lousy support for him, an authorized dealer. I didn't see anything Pentax the last time I visited his store.

[texandrews]

A few years ago I told
the manager it was good to see he had the Pentax brand and he responded to me with a rant about Ricoh and how they gave
lousy support for him, an authorized dealer. I didn't see anything Pentax the last time I visited his store.

Well, I can verify that from another source....up until this year. The latest I've heard is that there have been some (very much needed!) improvements. This is what I see as Ricoh/Pentax's biggest problem, support for dealers, marketing, &etc. Not AF, video, lenses, & etc.


But let's get back to the thread as originally intended---more reports from the field from Rick!

[Mike L]

We spent a couple of days in Seward, and hiked up Mount Marathon to the Bowl. Lots of good stuff to photograph on that trail, for which I mostly used the 55, and occasionally the 200. I used the 400 with 1.4x converter to photograph the Mt. Marathon Race. More on that when I show the photos. Again, the Gitzo 3235 and Arca B1 was sufficient, as long as I used a fast shutter speed. Once again, the high ISO capability and mirror pre-release came to the rescue.

That's a mighty impressive collection of gear to have lugged up Mt. Marathon. I'm looking forward to seeing the pics too.

[rdenney]

That's a mighty impressive collection of gear to have lugged up Mt. Marathon. I'm looking forward to seeing the pics too.

Yes, it would be. But that’s not what I carried up the mountain. I carried the tripod and the 400 to the chute only (near the bottom of the course), to photograph the women coming down (the daughter of a friend was competing). That was maybe three miles round trip, but relatively flat.

For the hike to the Bowl, I carried the 35, 55, 45-85, and 200, using a Thinktank three-lens waist pack that I carried like a messenger bag. I had a quart water bottle lashed to that, and a trekking pole that I could have used as a monopod in a pinch. Which is plenty. Sun was out so I didn’t take a tripod. But my wife struggled to carry her backpack, so I shouldered that for her, and hung the 645 from the shoulder strap eyelets. She carried only her D500. I was very glad I wasn’t carrying the 400.

For the hike to and on the glacier (five or six miles, but without as much vertical), I carried that pack as a waist pack, with a smaller backpack for other stuff we needed.

I carried more for shorter hikes. When I carried a tripod, I carried it in my hands, not lashed to a pack. But that Gitzo is marvelously light without being wiggly at all.

I sometimes have to remind myself that I was once avid in endurance sports. I have a picture somewhere of myself carrying a Kelty backpack down into the Maze that contained a Cambo SC 4x5 camera, 90, 121, and 150mm lenses, 10 film holders, an enormous Bogen tripod, and all the usual accoutrements. That was about 20 years ago. I almost slit my wrists with all those negatives were fogged.

But boy am I out of shape now.

I’ve have been on the road continuously since the trip, so I have not had a chance to peruse images or put anything online. Perhaps this weekend.

Rick “who ran his first marathon at age 40” Denney