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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
07-08-2018, 03:53 PM
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I would like to nominate this photo
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
07-08-2018, 04:00 PM
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I would like to nominate this photo
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
03-09-2018, 02:44 PM
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FWIW, I use Eneloop Pros in my K-30, using a third-party AA adapter. Lots of pics, never a single problem.
I've slowly replaced all my AA and AAA batteries with the Eneloop Pros. Once you've done that, you really don't want to use "unique" batteries for anything at all, if it can possibly be avoided, so you can happily eliminate all those custom chargers and cradles.
For me, it's become a limiting factor for which camera I will own: the camera either needs to take AA directly like the K-30/K-50 (adapters are OK), or there needs to be at least an available battery grip capable of going AA like the K-3 has. My dive camera, an Olympus TG-4, still uses a custom battery (Li-92B), but at least it will charge in-camera using the USB cable. I can't use an external battery pack with it since it won't fit into the dive housing otherwise.
But standard AA/AAA capabilities are now a driving specification for any and all electronics purchases for me.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
04-19-2018, 11:09 AM
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I thought my fellow Pentaxians might be interested in this extreme-range image I shot yesterday of the Falcon 9 launch, which successfully placed NASA's TESS planet-discovery satellite into orbit.
This is from Space View Park in downtown Titusville, which is just some 12 miles from the pad, with little but the Indian River between.
I live nearby and often shoot launches with my DA 18-135 zoom, but I wanted more reach to get closer, so this time I was experimenting with the Tamron 55BB 500mm catadioptric lens, which I recently got used from eBay (note I do not consider myself anything more than a hobbyist, definitely not a serious photographer at all, having zero artistic ability, and negligible post-processing skills). The Tamron 55BB is reviewed here in the PentaxForums lens database; it's a respected mirror design but very quirky, with a fixed F8 aperture and manual focus. However, it's a very compact - and relatively inexpensive - way to get a lot of tele yet still fitting inside your camera bag. I shot with my K-30 in Av mode, and the launch occurred just after 6:51p Eastern time.
Catching the lift-off was easy enough. I posted that pic as well, but the focus isn't great - I did not realize that the Tamron can actually focus beyond infinity, and only later in the shoot backed it off to the infinity mark.
After the launch, however, tracking the Falcon was really difficult; I lost it a couple of times but was able to re-acquire. I continued shooting even as the rocket became just a tiny dot in my viewfinder (I'm thankful I thought to use the Refconverter A I kept from my SuperProgram film days to save some neck strain).
So, I had no idea what I actually caught, but was happy to find this one. This is when the Falcon is waaaay downrange, nearly 2 minutes after launch (EDIT: looks like actual time was T+1:42), and at this point has turned mostly East, away from the Florida coastline. This image is not re-sized at all, it's just very low-res due to the extreme crop. The rocket itself is only some 30 pixels in length at this point, but you can still make it out. Even better, though, is that you can see the plumes from each of the nine Merlin engines blasting away!
I have the Pentax A 1.4x-S teleconverter, but did not use it this time. Which was fine; the 500mm Tamron is already like a 750mm FF equivalent, and the subject was very difficult to track as it was. Maybe I'll experiment using the TC in the future, but I need to get used to the Tamron just as it is first.
Here is the aft-end view of the Merlin engine cluster at extreme range, somewhere around T+4:00 (note this is NOT resized, only cropped, with some color saturation turned up):
...and while not as interesting, here is the launch itself, seconds after lift-off:
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
02-02-2018, 08:54 AM
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I like the sense of stillness, and the framing seems less "forced" than most of the others.
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