[charlesdanb]

Thanks all, very helpful ideas. @Papa_Joe, I am definitely interested in trying more M series lenses. I do not develop myself, I send off to a lab, but am interested in learning to develop at home someday, maybe when I have more space.

@Lord Lucan, I'm estranged from my flash but will be back in a few weeks to test it and check the model number.

As for typical subjects, it's difficult for me to say since I've only been doing it for a year, only shot a couple of rolls, only had one developed. Like I said, I'm no professional or even serious photographer, just a young, casual hobbyist, and I'm still learning my own preferences. My girlfriend has much more experience with photography, though she shoots digital, automatic. (I have turned her onto using more manual settings, starting with aperture priority. ) I was interested in all-manual film photography for its rich history, and because it would force me to actually learn principles of what I was doing.

That said, I guess I chiefly shoot people, candid rather than portrait style, in various indoor and outdoor settings. I'm sorry I can't be more specific! What I am thinking more about is how I have tended to shoot. I'm interested in versatile equipment, equipment I can use in different situations, equipment I can grab on my way out the door and carry around for awhile. Here are a couple pictures, one out-of-doors and one in-of-doors. As you can see, another thing I am still getting a grip on is focusing the microprisms...



The films I have used so far have been Ultra Max 400 (the only one yet developed), Portra 800 (I thought it would mitigate lower light), and Tri-X. I have a couple more rolls of Tri-X, so this is probably what I will use for awhile.

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Last edited by charlesdanb; 07-28-2020 at 07:01 AM.

[troika]

A flash is problematic for candid photography. Lenses are fun, especially fixed lenses because they force you to deal with (and learn from) the perspective they present.

A faster 50 would give you more light to play with. As someone said, f1.4 lenses are not necessy sharper, but the bokah can be creamier. As a guideline the more aperture blades, the less geometric the bokah balls, especially in mid apratures.

But a different focal length would stoke your world a bit more if you were chosing one, I think.

One of the greatest things about shooting Pentax is the generations of K-Mount lenses out there in thrift shops and yard sales, not to mention camera stores.

Have fun, go slow.

[Wasp]

Getting an M 50mm f/1.4 is not a bad idea. An extra stop of bokeh or low light ability is good to have. An f/1.2 is going to be very expensive, and the extra half stop may be not worth it. The law of diminishing returns at work. Then again, life at f/1.2 can be very exciting!

Having said all that, getting a 28mm and/or a 135mm is a better way to spend your funds. They will expand your horizons and give you new possibilities.

[Papa_Joe]

Very nice pictures charlesdanb.

The second one suffers a bit from underexposure of the negativ, which results in more grain and the dull positiv. The very bright right side is the probable reason.
If you are often taking pictures under this lighting conditions a 1.4 50 mm might be a good idea. With all the downsides of this aperture mentioned afore. However the 2.0 the 50 mm is perfect for portrait as well, as you show in the first picture. Very good composition with your girlfriend not in the middle. The enviroment is recognisable, but being out of focus, does not disturb the picture.

Back to indoor shooting. I would suggest to stick to available light as long as possible. If you are not developing by yourself, I would stick to color print film. The reasons are, development is usually cheaper, it has a standardized development process which should give you good results and it is very forgiving in terms of overexposure. I might remark, that no negativ film will forgive you underexposure. The negativ will lack density.
The Ultramax 400 is a consumer film, which means that it produces more grain and has more pronounced colors then the professional films. On the other side it is cheaper and can stay in the camera a bit longer. If you like the pictures, stick to it. The porta pro 800 is a portrait film, often used to get a pasty look (use google to get a lot of wedding photography pictures). This is achieved by overexposing it by one to two stops, i.e. it is used at ASA 200 and 400. If you want a fast color print film, you can try the lomo 800, which sadly is available three together only. I haven't tried it myself yet. Examples: Film: Lomography Color Negative 800 ISO 35mm · Lomography

The Tri-X is a good high speed film as well. But you have to find a good lab, if you want good prints. Development and scanning is generally more expensive then of color print films. You can only use the full potential of B&W film by self development, but with a good lab you will get suffcient good scans and prints. If you find a good lab you even might let them push the Tri-X to ASA 800. Try it out.

Auto Flash indoors. Best way would be to practice that with a digital camera. In theory it is easy, but you have to practice a bit to get stable results. Practising with a film camera, where every taken picture costs and you can not see the result at once is not very practical. Unfortunately I can not recommend to use your Vivitar flash on the camera of your girlfriend, as it might destroy it outright because of a high trigger voltage. Thus my recommendation is to try the flash on the K1000 without a film in the camera. Use it in auto mode, bounce it to a white ceiling or wall, the flash will give you feedback if it had enough power for a good exposure. If you are sure on how to handle the flash, try it on a few prints. Await a high output of not so sufficient pictures.

Always have fun taking pictures!
And get your exposed films developed. They are not getting better over time.

Greetings
Joerg

---------- Post added 07-29-20 at 03:37 AM ----------

Here is a informative thread about telelenses on a K1000.
Short telephoto for landscape/architecture with a film SLR - PentaxForums.com

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Last edited by Papa_Joe; 07-29-2020 at 03:42 AM.

[pres589]

Speaking only for myself, learning how to shoot film and how my film camera + film was both similar and different from shooting digital got to be a lot easier when I started developing film at home. I could develop a roll one day, let it hang to dry overnight, and scan the next. That's vs. having to making a special trip to the developer's shop and then come back there again a couple of days later. It let me play around a lot more and see results faster. I know not everyone can designate space for this sort of thing but if you can it might be a nice improvement. Developing color at home is doable as well but it's a bit more involved. Mostly I just shoot black and white for a variety of reasons.

Sticking to one focal length might be a nice way to really learn what that focal length is like to use. 50 is kind of nice, maybe not my favorite, but it's useful and usable. An M 50 1.4 would probably be a nice upgrade, or the M 50 1.7 as well. I would probably go with the f1.7, honestly. Eventually something wider like a 24 or 28mm lens would be nice, and then something closer to 100mm to really round out the kit.

[charlesdanb]

Thanks again everyone for all your help. Taking all your advice into account, I think I'm going to stick with the lens I have for now until I feel entirely competent with it, then try a wide angle or telephoto, and perhaps upgrade my 50mm eventually. I will take it slow—which is often difficult for an impatient person like me.

Let me know if anyone has suggestions for books to read on photography. I want to learn everything I can about composition and other principles of the art.

[Lord Lucan]

Thanks again everyone for all your help. Taking all your advice into account, I think I'm going to stick with the lens I have for now until I feel entirely competent with it, then try a wide angle or telephoto, and perhaps upgrade my 50mm eventually. I will take it slow—which is often difficult for an impatient person like me.

Let me know if anyone has suggestions for books to read on photography. I want to learn everything I can about composition and other principles of the art.

Try Michael Freeman's books. He wrote loads of instructional books and this one looks suitable. I've not read this one but have read others of his.

The New 35Mm Handbook by Michael Freeman

Re: the 50mm lens, one of the reasons for a larger max aperture is not necessarily to use it to take the picture, but to give you a brighter view through the viewfinder prior to taking the picture, which could be difficult to focus in dull conditions. You do not give your location, but in the UK, K, M and A-Series (older manual focus) 50mmm F1.7 lenses were more common than F2.0, and in the USA the other way round I believe. So in the UK F1.7 are not that expensive on Ebay. When you start looking at F1.4 however the prices rise steeply as that was considered a professional lens and they are not very common, and the funny thing is that they have a reputation of being less sharp than a F1.7. WRT F1.2 lenses, don't even think about it - they are quite rare and fetch silly high prices Not even many of the old hands here have ever had one.

Re: the flash unit, Papa Joe rightly warned against using older design flash units on modern cameras, like your GF's perhaps. Expanding on that, some old flash units connect to the camera with high voltages that would fry the electronics of a modern computerised camera. You need to be a bit of an expert to know what old units are OK on newer cameras. But your K1000 is an old design (from the 1970s) with a simple flash release circuit that would be OK with flash units of its own era or later.

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Last edited by Lord Lucan; 07-29-2020 at 02:14 PM. Reason: Tpyo