[impact]

First thing I did was:

- change file type to JPEG+RAW
- select single AF point (the middle one)
- change JPEG profile to the 2nd one (the "normal" one with muted colors)

Anyways, this was one of my first shots with the K-m (the cat was intriuged by the new toy and the strange noise from the AF motor ):



But what I really want to know is where'd you get that nice case for the K-m/2000 and how does it fit? I got the neoprene case and don't like it, it's very tight. By very tight I mean I really have to force the camera inside with no room to spare (I bought and put a Hoya UV filter on the lens, perhaps that is the problem?).

[LeDave]

I bought this case off Amazon, they also sell it on B&H for the same price. But on Amazon from a third party dealer named M Z Photo is selling it with cheaper shipping of under 3 bucks instead of over 4 bucks like on B&H. So I bought it from there and I received it just today, the shipping was pretty quick.

Amazon.com: Pentax SLR Holster Bag: Camera & Photo

Pentax | SLR Holster Case (Black) | 85100 | B&H Photo Video

If you can wait a bit I can take new pictures of the camera in the bag for you to see how it fits. It fits nicely with the Hoya filter on and the cover. If you saw my pic on the last post on the first page, I also have a Hoya UV filter on the lenses, the Pentax plastic cap is over it.

There's some spare room on the sides but it's OK. There's also a front pocket to store some things in such as memory cards and such.

EDIT: ImageShack Gallery

Here are the pictures with my K2000/K-M in the bag.

[pbo]

Nice

[brecklundin]

I bought this case off Amazon, they also sell it on B&H for the same price. But on Amazon from a third party dealer named M Z Photo is selling it with cheaper shipping of under 3 bucks instead of over 4 bucks like on B&H. So I bought it from there and I received it just today, the shipping was pretty quick.

Amazon.com: Pentax SLR Holster Bag: Camera & Photo

Pentax | SLR Holster Case (Black) | 85100 | B&H Photo Video

If you can wait a bit I can take new pictures of the camera in the bag for you to see how it fits. It fits nicely with the Hoya filter on and the cover. If you saw my pic on the last post on the first page, I also have a Hoya UV filter on the lenses, the Pentax plastic cap is over it.

There's some spare room on the sides but it's OK. There's also a front pocket to store some things in such as memory cards and such.

EDIT: ImageShack Gallery

Here are the pictures with my K2000/K-M in the bag.

Neat holster bag. Looks as if there is room for a body with the 50-135 mounted and enough space for one of the Limited's as well (in it's official Pentax Lens Condom sleeve of course... ) Might be a snug fit but the Limited's are small so getting an extra lens in there because it's S.M.-all would be great for a holster style bag...plus it is not expensive, yet, maybe Hoya has not gotten around to jacking those prices up just yet...

[impact]

Looks awesome. Too bad no local shops carry it.

I am going to take a look at the Lowepro and National Geographic bags. There is a discounted Lowepro Stealth Reporter D200 AW nearby, but I fear it may be too big right now (supposed to hold a SLR and 3-4 additional lenses).

[Duck Dodgers]

I've got the same bag; didn't care for the flap near the lens falling over all the time, and now I never use it since it won't fit a camera+grip.

My main bag (the mother ship) is a Tamrac Super Pro 14 (614). I off-load to smaller bags, like the Tamrac 344 and 346 when carrying extra lenses.

[Earlybird]

I am an experienced Pentax K100D user but am switching to the K2000/KM. I usually relied on manual mode which was easy to use on the K100D. Loved the jpegs with this camera.

With the K2000/KM, what are the best incamera settings for taking pictures (jpegs)? I do like my pictures sharp, but not oversharpend. I know there were discussions between using the bright vs. natural mode. Heard that the jpegs were too compressed -- is there anyway to minimize this without shooting RAW?

[NaClH2O]

I am an experienced Pentax K100D user but am switching to the K2000/KM. I usually relied on manual mode which was easy to use on the K100D. Loved the jpegs with this camera.

With the K2000/KM, what are the best incamera settings for taking pictures (jpegs)? I do like my pictures sharp, but not oversharpend. I know there were discussions between using the bright vs. natural mode. Heard that the jpegs were too compressed -- is there anyway to minimize this without shooting RAW?

Earlybird: I think the best JPEG settings on the KM/K2000 are what you like. Try different combinations until you get one you mostly like and then play around with minor changes to it until you are satisfied with your settings. On the K20D I almost always shoot raw, but my favored JPEG settings are: Natural; Sharpness +1; Contrast +1. But you most likely will be different. I first decided on color, then I played around with contrast and finally I played around with sharpness. Those are the settings I like.

NaCl(and you can even change your mind later)H2O

[NaClH2O]

LeDave
My recommendations are close to pbo. Read the manual, then put the lens on the camera (I see you've done that) put the manual in your pocket and go out and take pictures. Play with the different modes, play with the buttons. One of the nice thing about digital cameras is that they remember what you did in a thing called an exif file. After you've played a while then go out and get some books if you want. Photography should be fun, not work. K McCall has good advice in playing around with one thing and seeing what happens. Fiddle with it until you are moderately confident about what it does in your photos. Photography is a craft and like any craft they require practice, but make your practice as fun as possible. One last piece of advice, don't expect to be perfect right away, it takes time to be good, but don't let it discourage you either. You got the camera, it looks put together correctly, now take it and go shoot some stuff.

NaCl(but most of all remember to have fun!)H2O

[GerryL]

There's some spare room on the sides but it's OK. There's also a front pocket to store some things in such as memory cards and such.

EDIT: ImageShack Gallery

Here are the pictures with my K2000/K-M in the bag.

Pretty good sized holster bag. I always thought that they were smaller. Thanks for the photos. That at least changed my view about these.

[LeDave]

LeDave
My recommendations are close to pbo. Read the manual, then put the lens on the camera (I see you've done that) put the manual in your pocket and go out and take pictures. Play with the different modes, play with the buttons. One of the nice thing about digital cameras is that they remember what you did in a thing called an exif file. After you've played a while then go out and get some books if you want. Photography should be fun, not work. K McCall has good advice in playing around with one thing and seeing what happens. Fiddle with it until you are moderately confident about what it does in your photos. Photography is a craft and like any craft they require practice, but make your practice as fun as possible. One last piece of advice, don't expect to be perfect right away, it takes time to be good, but don't let it discourage you either. You got the camera, it looks put together correctly, now take it and go shoot some stuff.

NaCl(but most of all remember to have fun!)H2O

Thanks man, that helped a bit. I'm going to go out and take pictures soon. I have a question about the warranty. Is there a form or something I have to fill out to get my warranty? Or is the warranty already registered on my camera the day I bought it and I just don't know it? I bought it for B&H and it comes with 1 year warranty.

EDIT: Nvm, just talked with Customer Service in Live Chat. They say I don't need to fill anything else, it is in my date of purchase. Probably thought I needed to fill something out since I always buy timepieces and they have paper to fill out =/

[snkenai]

Do you mean that after 50 years, I've got it all wrong? Do you mean to tell me that, that little book is not a free coffee cup coaster? Well I'll be...wonder what else I've missed.

Take a quick look at the basics in the book while the battery charges, Put it in "P" ( that's not PARK it"s DRIVE) and shoot something! You can go back to the book and here as often as you need or care to.

Enjoy,

[GerryL]

I have a question about the warranty. Is there a form or something I have to fill out to get my warranty? Or is the warranty already registered on my camera the day I bought it and I just don't know it? I bought it for B&H and it comes with 1 year warranty.

EDIT: Nvm, just talked with Customer Service in Live Chat. They say I don't need to fill anything else, it is in my date of purchase. Probably thought I needed to fill something out since I always buy timepieces and they have paper to fill out =/

I think as long as the purchase was from an authorized Pentax dealer, all you have to keep is the receipt from the store.
Once something goes wrong with your camera within the warranty period, all you have to do is contact Pentax and you have to include the receipt together with your camera that you'll ship to them.
I think it actually says on the end of the users manual how to get your warranty if ever your camera becomes broken.

[Graham67]

I am brain dead on DSLR's. My very first DSLR is scheduled to arrive tomorrow by UPS and UPS never misses a scheduled delivery.

I know nothing about shutter speeds, this aperture, this f 1/500, f 1/250, etc. thing and I am just lost! So my first DSLR the Pentax K2000 will arrive tomorrow. I know the first thing I'll do after putting in the batteries and screwing on the lens is download the latest firmware update for my camera.

What was your first time like on your first DSLR? How confused were you? Any tips to better prepare myself?

Quite amusing to be honest.

I'd had 35mm film compacts (Pentax & Yashica), then a (digital) Compact (but decently manual) Canon A80, then an A95, then a Lumix FZ18 (digital bridge/superzoom).

I took a long time reading reviews and eventually settled on a Pentax K200D as my first ever SLR (digital or film).

After proudly buying it and despite being fully conversant with apertures and shutter speeds etc. I spent close on an hour sitting in my car with a set of new AAs in the camera fiddling with every button and menu and frantically reading the manual before I finally realised that the image I wanted to shoot wouldn't appear on the LCD as it does on a digital compact/non-SLR.

Lol and Doh!!!

However, now, when picking up any camera I instinctively raise it to my eye, even if it doesn't have any form of viewfinder.

[Paul MaudDib]

Congrats on your first dSLR! I still haven't gotten one yet.

With regard to shutter speeds: In short it's how long the picture is exposed. If this is longer, your picture will be brighter. The tradeoff is that your exposure is longer! If you are shooting something that's fast, it will blur. If you go below roughly 1/60th of a second, your photo will probably blur just from the shake in your hand, at which point you will need a tripod to do longer exposures. Faster action needs a faster shutter - running kids or shooting sports will need a short exposure.

Aperture: This is basically how far open the lens is. A perfect lens would be a pinhole, infinitely small. This lens could focus everything at once. This can't actually exist, so the closest thing is fully stopped down, which can focus most things. This is a very dark picture. The opening is measured in f-stops. I'm not sure how it works for dSLRs but for film lenses the smallest is usually f/16, f/22, or f/32. The tradeoff here is depth of field, how much is in focus, for light. Also, lenses are not at their best either fully stopped down or fully open. Keep them in the middle of their range for the sharpest and best picture, or open them up all the way to soften the picture (careful with the focus though!).

ISO speed: This is the "sensitivity" of the sensor/film. It's how much light it needs to expose the same amount of data. An ISO 800 film can expose twice as much in the same time as an ISO 400 film, and 4x as much as an ISO 200 film. The tradeoff here is grain. Film used to get grainy, and sensors do too. It will show up as light/dark spots in your image, google "ISO noise". You should be good up to ISO 800, 1600 will have moderate grain, and it gets worse from there.

To tie this all together: everything actually revolves around f-stops. Each exposure notch doubling the time doubles your light, this is 1 f-stop. For example, going from 1/250th of a second to 1/125th of a second gives you one f-stop increase in light. Opening your aperture one full stop gives you one f-stop. Doubling your ISO gives you an f-stop.

Now, basically you play a balancing game. You have a certain amount of f-stops to "spend". You can slow your shutter and try to have a wider depth of field, or try to use a slower ISO to get finer detail. You can increase your ISO to try and get a wider field of focus or a faster shutter. You can open your aperture to try and speed up your shutter or use a slower ISO.

Now, to make this still more complicated, if you save your RAWs (which you are, ) you can post-process and try to change things even more. You can do what's called "pushing" or "pulling". In film terms, this is shooting a film at the wrong exposure and under or over developing the film. You can push a picture and increase the brightness, possibly making the picture look right or getting extra detail in the shadows, at the expense of possibly "blowing" the bright areas. You can "pull" a shot and try to get extra detail out of the bright areas, darkening the picture and possibly losing detail in the dark areas. You can sort of do this in the camera by using the EV controls too, and I think this is supposed to be better, but obviously must be done in real time.

Someone tell me if I'm wrong on any of this, but I think it's a good place to start.