[tomsawyer]

Hello Friends,
Thank you for resurrecting my love for Pentax K10D. Here is my picture taken today with SMC-A 50mm / f1.7@16 plus two K extension tubes (26mm + 19mm).



And another one taken with DA 18-55mm / f3.5-5.6 AL WR

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Last edited by tomsawyer; 05-23-2018 at 02:50 PM.

[Dartmoor Dave]

Welcome to the club, AmsAmt and tomsawyer. Looking forward to getting to know you both.

Placebo or not, the image gathered is just so much more pleasing to me, in every sense. I am getting good images from my K-S1 and K-50, but when I open a K10D file to edit, and it's a well exposed one, there's a joy in working with it that the CMOS images just can't give me.

Wonderfully well put, Christian, and I agree with every word.

[Lord Lucan]

Little Moreton Hall, Cheshire

The "standard" view
K10D with DA 16-45


The Long Gallery
K10D with DA 16-45

[rayallen]

Little Moreton Hall, Cheshire

The "standard" view
K10D with DA 16-45


The Long Gallery
K10D with DA 16-45

What an interesting looking place.

[Racer X 69]

Little Moreton Hall, Cheshire

The "standard" view
K10D with DA 16-45


The Long Gallery
K10D with DA 16-45

Such a busy looking finish on the exterior.

[rayallen]

Such a busy looking finish on the exterior.

We need to find out when it was built. So, I asked Mr. Google: The earliest parts of the house were built for the prosperous Cheshire landowner William Moreton in about 1504–08, and the remainder was constructed in stages by successive generations of the family until about 1610.

More information here: Little Moreton Hall - Wikipedia

[RussV]

Talking of software, I have a several packages installed but I have recently taken to starting with an uncompressed TIF file extracted from raw using DxO OpticsPro 9 Elite. OpticsPro is sometimes given away free as an inducement to buy the latest version (mine was). As the K10 is technically ancient, all versions support it. I find its RAW conversion can produce quite remarkable files. I then process these further in PaintshopPro or On1 software depending on what I want. If you see a free version on offer, try it out.

[ChristianRock]

Today I got an O-ME53 and put it on the K10D. I can't believe it took me that long to get one...

My flickr is boring now because I basically went back to where I had taken some pictures with the K-50 and Rikenon P 50 1.4 and took pictures with the K10D and the same lens. So lots of lillies and clematis in similar poses...

One thing I noticed (and I think Paul has alluded to this) is that the K10D tends to soften harsh light, making full sun pictures much more pleasing with nicer colors. Since I used both cameras during the lunch break at high noon, I was able to verify this. Another "placebo" CCD effect? Maybe, but it adds to the list

So here's some more boring flower pictures..

[rayallen]

Today I got an O-ME53 and put it on the K10D. I can't believe it took me that long to get one...

My flickr is boring now because I basically went back to where I had taken some pictures with the K-50 and Rikenon P 50 1.4 and took pictures with the K10D and the same lens. So lots of lillies and clematis in similar poses...

One thing I noticed (and I think Paul has alluded to this) is that the K10D tends to soften harsh light, making full sun pictures much more pleasing with nicer colors. Since I used both cameras during the lunch break at high noon, I was able to verify this. Another "placebo" CCD effect? Maybe, but it adds to the list

So here's some more boring flower pictures..

I just love those boring lillies. The CCD "placebo" has worked well on those.

I went for a beach walk yesterday under a cloudless sunny sky so the K10D was a natural choice. It excels under those conditions. And the SMC Pentax-DA 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 AL WR also got some well-deserved love.

[rodaballo]

Just bought one of this devices. I want to check myself what's all that about the CCD thing. I promise to upload here when this device from ancient times reaches home.

[ChristianRock]

I just love those boring lillies. The CCD "placebo" has worked well on those.

I went for a beach walk yesterday under a cloudless sunny sky so the K10D was a natural choice. It excels under those conditions. And the SMC Pentax-DA 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 AL WR also got some well-deserved love.

Beautiful, all of them. The colors, contrast, composition, all is perfect.

I forgot to mention one thing. Since I got the K50 sharing space with the K10d in my "fun" photography bag, the K10d has performed flawlessly. Is it the warm weather or could it be jealous of the younger girl?

[paulh]

Ray and CR - - Awesome photos! Great examples of what the old K10D can do in capable hands. I, too have the O-ME53, but have only used it on my K100D, which really needed it. I'll have to give it a try on the K10.

[rayallen]

Beautiful, all of them. The colors, contrast, composition, all is perfect.

I forgot to mention one thing. Since I got the K50 sharing space with the K10d in my "fun" photography bag, the K10d has performed flawlessly. Is it the warm weather or could it be jealous of the younger girl?

Thanks for that, CR. Very kind of you to say that. Those images were processed in Lightroom Classic CC by pushing the "Auto" button. That just added a bit of icing on top.

Ha ha! There's nothing like a new camera to make an older one perform the way it should!

Thanks also to Paul for his kind words. Photography is my therapy.

[Dartmoor Dave]

Today I got an O-ME53 and put it on the K10D. I can't believe it took me that long to get one... My flickr is boring now because I basically went back to where I had taken some pictures with the K-50 and Rikenon P 50 1.4 and took pictures with the K10D and the same lens. So lots of lillies and clematis in similar poses... One thing I noticed (and I think Paul has alluded to this) is that the K10D tends to soften harsh light, making full sun pictures much more pleasing with nicer colors. Since I used both cameras during the lunch break at high noon, I was able to verify this. Another "placebo" CCD effect? Maybe, but it adds to the list

I've become so used to the O-ME53 that I'd genuinely forgotten it wasn't a standard part of the camera until I read this.


My own theory about the CCD look is that it's a combination of the sensor hardware and the camera's firmware. The K10D, and the earlier 6MP cameras, were released at a time when there was still a huge number of photographers who needed to be tempted away from film, so camera manufacturers had a very good reason for making DSLR's that produced quite a film-like look. I know that I was far from the only one who was put off for years by the video freeze-frame look of early digital cameras.

But then a combination of factors kicked in. The cheaper and much more profitable CMOS technology reached a point where DSLR makers could get away with using it, and by that time DSLRs had overtaken film as the dominant medium for "serious" photographers. So now camera makers needed a new whiz-bang marketing angle, and the mad race for bigger pixel counts and higher ISO began, and who cares about the aesthetics anyway? The overwhelming majority of DSLRs are male jewellery that are never used for anything more than family happysnaps, and what those guys want is the latest hi-tec trophy around their neck to prove that they can afford it.

Oops, I seem to have gone off on a rant. . .

Anyway, I suppose my point is that the photography world has become so obsessed with resolution and ISO performance that the aesthetics of rendering are hardly ever mentioned at all. Even Pentax Forums has got too many lens comparison threads where people agonise over insignificantly tiny differences in corner resolution, without ever seeming to notice or care about the clearly different rendering styles. It makes me want to weep for the future of photography when somebody says that two test shots look exactly the same, when actually the camera has obviously chosen wildly different auto white balances.

And. . .

Nope, still ranting. I think I'll stop now.

[tomsawyer]

This is another example of "pretty useless" ISO 1600 :-).