[stevebrot]

Copal?

Yes, Copal. They make the shutters for both Pentax and Nikon. And for both brands, they are essentially off-the-shelf components.


Steve

[stevebrot]

Oh come on, I knew somebody would drop the bird!

They have a point. About a quarter of the rants on this site come from people who bought a camera without the feature they needed (poor market research) and about a quarter come from people who have unreasonable expectations (limited domain experience) and another quarter come from people who wish for a different mix of features (the never happy crowd) and the final quarter come from those who never read the manual and really never used their camera either.


Steve

[stevebrot]

And no, I don't think K50 should be less easy to use than K3 just because it's cheaper as you implied in your comment.

I have used both cameras and for shared features, usability is equivalent, though not always identical in implementation. Pentax is exceptionally consistent in regards to its user interface. This fact is almost always noted in reviews of new Pentax cameras. That you might get more dedicated buttons and a higher level of customization options on the flagship model over the consumer line is sort of a given (duh). I believe that to be the case across brands and the expectation of most purchasers.

Out of curiosity, what would you suggest should differentiate a $600 camera from a $1200 camera?


Steve

[stevebrot]

Have you used a Sony mirrorless? Utterly un-usable IMO.

ROFL

I could not agree more, though I still consider them to be decent tools for those who are able to work around the deficiencies.


Steve

[stevebrot]

ISO on a scroll wheel?

Ansel Adams must be turning in his grave right now. Oh wait, they couldn't adjust ISO on the fly back then!

You could, and he did! He shot primarily large format using sheet film and would vary exposure based on the development intended for each sheet. Exposure Index (EI) rather than box speed is the norm for serious B&W film photography.


Steve

[kadajawi]

I think a sensor that lets you automatically adjust the screen brightness could help a lot. Of course it makes things less consistent, but to judge actual brightness and exposure the histogram is more useful anyway.

The mirror mechanism isn't off the shelf though, is it?

[stevebrot]

As for the others, keep bashing, that's what you do all day on this forum.

I guess it is "bashing" when a person honestly posts invalid assertions out of ignorance and others point that out. That might be preferable to ridicule. To be fair, the original post lists impressions and impressions always reflect the substance being pressed upon. I found the impressions to be fairly shallow.


Steve

[jeverettfine]

You could, and he did! He shot primarily large format using sheet film and would vary exposure based on the development intended for each sheet. Exposure Index (EI) rather than box speed is the norm for serious B&W film photography.


Steve

Ansel Adams would LOVE the new digital cameras and what they do. He was always a tech guy and considered digital to be the future of photography. He knew that future photographers would be able to do things with his negatives that were impossible during his life time. That is why he donated them to the University of Arizona with the instructions to make them available to advanced students etc. Throughout his career he used 35mm cameras and medium format. In his later years he used his Hasselblad mostly and had begun to get more into color photography. A friend of mine attended one of his workshops in the 1970's and people brought all kinds of equipment. A view camera was not necessary.

As far as Fuji is concerned, back when I still did 4x5 and 8x10 I preferred Fujinon lenses over Schneider etc. My favorites were the Fujinon-W line with their wonderfully large image circles.

[Nicolas06]

To be honest I have difficulties to understand some of the OP remark.

-ViewFinder/OVF: Fully understand, choose your poison. If it for size through understand through that mirrorless tend to have shorter registration distance and so bigger tele past 50-60mm. If you like fast tele, mirrorless is not helpfull.

-SR I don't get it. SR is to handle camera shake and that is mostly due to the operator hand. SR work quite well but you should also be sturdy and you can't expect it to work at the same speed (say 1/20) for all focal lengths. 1/20 can be managed handled on a DA15 and no SR but will not work well with best SR on a 300mm. SR get you 1-2 practical stop, and that already a lot. Try without on a smaller body and you'll find you'll need not 1/20 but 1/50 or 1/100 to avoid shake. I can check in practive if the lense as no OS bundled (like all old lenses and most primes) SR is invaluable.

The iso thing for me I'am completly lost, honestly.

Couting the focal length is selected differently there only 3 parameters you can work on on a photo:
- shutter speed
- apperture
- isos.

With almost all mode you can control theses 3 parameters fully. The goal of changing mode is not to get the same behavior (like same whell doing the same thing) otherwise it would just mean you have 1 one mode.

In All mode except M, the camera keep a correct exposure automatically and so if you force any 2 of the parameters by definition the remaining one as to be controlled by the camera automatically... Otherwise you would not get correct exposure. That what the automatic modes are for. But obviously you can make the last parameter to take exactly the value you want by setting the other 2. So you still achieve full control on it.

So you can choose to control Apperture and Iso or Shutter speed and Iso or Apperture and Shutter Speed. Depending your choice you choose the Av, Tv or TAv mode. If you don't like one mode... well do not use it.

You can do everything with one mode and that without any issue or limitation. The different mode just exist to help you. If you prefer to keep one that make more sense for you, so be it.

At any time on M, Tv, Av, you can use the iso button, change you isos setting, see all the setting in the view finder without having to look at your back screen.


My conclusion

Honestly I don't think a camera without SR will give you any gain. Most just do not have it and so you'll get more often blured images or you'll have to up the isos more to keep acceptable. speed. Optical stab work on Pentax and other camera but then it is a lense choice to make. This is neutral. Beware that the smaller you'll camera will be, the less grip you'll have, the more it will be difficult to be sturdy, and the more you'll have blured images.

Settings control: Pentax has lot of control and direct button. You can go very far for customization and by no way you have to use all mode. I mostly do everything in Av or M and I feel no guilty of that. Other camera will not really help on this subject, most would be worse.

OVF/EVF/size: do as you wish. If size is important for you, there always smaller camera. I mean most shoot with their phone or compact for a reason that can be sumerized as it is small/light and that you can have it with you all the time without feeling it. The smaller you'll get, the lesser the ergonomics (less button, more risk the activate the wrong thing...), the lesser the image quality (smaller sensor, compromized lenses design...). APSC mirrorless do share the sensor performance of course and so that a matter a priorities and use. For fast zoom/tele mirrorless appear quite useless and maybe even counter productive. Anyway the lenses are going to be big/heavy and you'd need a good grip. For wide angle mirrorless gain an edge with smaller primes.

I think like normhead that anyway you should lean and use your gear to your best. Having today a K50, you may get better AF with a K3, sligtly better picture quality on FF (not always really visible) and smaller/lighter with a mirrorless.

What ever you choose for a change, you aren't going to be able to make much better photos and you are unlikely to get dramatically better ergonomics. So that really a matter has how important is money for you and if you think you spend better your time changing camera than improving you skill with your current one.

[Lowell Goudge]

In retrospect, a lot of this could possible have been avoided if the OP had started by naming the thread impressions of the K50,

It would seem all he bought was the K50 kit. And some legacy MF lenses.

Why is he talking system, no flash, no K5 or K3 no remotes no discussin about AF performance , flash short comings tethering etc.......

He is talking about his impressions of a camera, not the system.

[bdery]

As for the others, keep bashing, that's what you do all day on this forum. You don't even bother to read at least the first page of a thread and come up with clever answers to misquoted and misunderstood parts of whay I said.

This forum is one of the most civil and polite on the entire Internet.

You have asked questions and made comments, but you also became quickly very defensive when people pointed out that in some cases, you simply had not done your research thoroughly enough.

Good day.

[drypenn]

You could, and he did! He shot primarily large format using sheet film and would vary exposure based on the development intended for each sheet. Exposure Index (EI) rather than box speed is the norm for serious B&W film photography.


Steve

Yup, he could adjust the "speed", but on the fly? It would probably take him a good few minutes to change everything meticulously. Even a lowly K50 would definitely be more convenient and faster to change ISO.

---------- Post added 01-30-15 at 09:48 PM ----------

To OP: don't take it too personal.

No camera is without fault. It's a matter of preference, price tag and adjusting to what you have. Either live with it, or ditch it.

Enjoy! We'll hope to see you more around!

[stevebrot]

Yup, he could adjust the "speed", but on the fly? It would probably take him a good few minutes to change everything meticulously.

There is nothing much to change except the exposure and the notes for the film carrier. The work comes later in the darkroom, but even then it is batch processing. FWIW, he probably did the same with his Hassy since it allows mid-roll changes of film backs.

Where the changeable ISO shines is in comparison to 35mm and most roll film cameras where few options exist for changing ISO on the fly. It is a very cool feature of digital IMHO.


Steve

[misomosi]

Hello forum, a bit of a late intervention but because of the pathetic tone this conversation has sunk into I preferred not to step in anymore. But because I also felt that the original post wasn't detailed enough, I put up this article that explains more in-depth what I was trying to say, including things that i have not mentioned here.

[Oldbayrunner]

There is a lot I could counter with in your article but hindsight leads me to, you and what you have written isn't worth any further time or effort.

I will mention if you are going to write an article and want to appear knowledgeable do yourself a favor, use spell check or edit for spelling.