[EricBabula]

Does anyone here use a Pentax K100D for macro photography? I’m not quite ready to give up on the K100D just yet (separation anxiety?? LOL!). Wondering if there’s any way to do macro photography with a copy stand and have LiveView, where the K100D is connected to my laptop and monitor, to be able to focus easier than looking through the little viewfinder.

I heard PK Tether might work, but can't seem to find it for download, to work with Win10 and the K100D. Not sure if anything else exists for the K100D.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[stevebrot]

Welcome to the Pentax Forums!

The inability to do live view is one of the drawbacks of the K100D and other CCD-sensor Pentax bodies and I am pretty sure that would not change even if a tether were possible.


Steve

[Zijspoor]

Does anyone here use a Pentax K100D for macro photography? I’m not quite ready to give up on the K100D just yet (separation anxiety?? LOL!). Wondering if there’s any way to do macro photography with a copy stand and have LiveView, where the K100D is connected to my laptop and monitor, to be able to focus easier than looking through the little viewfinder.

I heard PK Tether might work, but can't seem to find it for download, to work with Win10 and the K100D. Not sure if anything else exists for the K100D.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Hi Eric,

Like Steve said, the Pentax K100D has no live view functionality. Another possibility is to use an old fashioned angle finder with 2x-4x magnification. If you need not a lot of magnification a magnifier eyecup Pentax O-ME53 may help you out.

Kind regards, Ron

[EricBabula]

Welcome to the Pentax Forums!

The inability to do live view is one of the drawbacks of the K100D and other CCD-sensor Pentax bodies and I am pretty sure that would not change even if a tether were possible.


Steve

Thanks Steve. Not the answer I was hoping for, but appreciate the help.

Sorry for the questions, but I'm very new to macro photography, and not all that experienced in any type of photography (other than set at Auto and shoot!), really. I'm trying to learn more about macro and manual settings.

So, do you know if there is at least a way to tether to my laptop, to view pics direct from the camera, rather than remove the SD card, and then view?

Also, is there a remote control (cable? wireless?), that I can use to take pics without actually pressing the shutter release button? Currently, I just set the timer to 2 sec. and press the shutter release. Seems to work, but wondering if I would still get slight shake, which would give just slightly blurry pics, sometimes.

Thanks!

[EricBabula]

Hi Eric,

Like Steve said, the Pentax K100D has no live view functionality. Another possibility is to use an old fashioned angle finder with 2x-4x magnification. If you need not a lot of magnification a magnifier eyecup Pentax O-ME53 may help you out.

Kind regards, Ron

Thanks, Ron!

I will have to look up "angle finder" and "magnifier eyecup" - all new to me.

[kypfer]

I posted a reply to this question over on DPReview just a few minutes ago For reference, here's what I wrote :-


The K100D is a fairly basic camera, by today's standards, so LiveView (and tethering) was still some way in the future when it was designed.

So, it's back to basics!

A right-angle viewfinder will help enormously, especially one like the "Ref A" https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/41121-REG/Pentax_30148_Right_Angle_Finder_A.html? ... it has a prism internally so the image isn't laterally reversed (cheaper devices use a mirror and can be a pain with a moving subject), it also has a built-in 2x magnifier which helps as well.

Mine has been in regular use since I bought my *ist film camera, when it was VERY expensive, although these days I will admit to using the tilting screens and LiveView on my K-70 and KP as well

The big advantage of the viewfinder is the lack of reflections, as experienced with a LiveView screen, so I won't be retiring mine anytime soon, indeed, it's in my bag permanently!

Good luck

Afterthought : However, you do have the opportunity to utilise "Digital Preview", which may help in some circumstances. This involves configuring the camera to make a "test exposure" and display it on the screen when the Depth-of-field preview switch is operated - see p.152 in the user manual

[stevebrot]

So, do you know if there is at least a way to tether to my laptop, to view pics direct from the camera, rather than remove the SD card, and then view?

You can connect to a television with the video cables that came with the camera for reviewing the photos in playback mode.

Addendum: Instructions are in the K100D manual, available for download on the Ricoh Japan Web site:

http://www.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/english/support/download_manual.html (scroll downpage and expand "Discontinued Model" to find the download link)


Steve