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Forum: General Photography
10-05-2023, 05:53 AM
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You're not alone: "the point is recording what we see, not recording instead of seeing. But, so approached, we both feel that having a camera in our hands allows us to see more and notice more while we’re traveling. The very act of taking pictures focuses the mind and attention on the present, on the real in front of us. Trying to get a shot helps us see and notice the remarkable, the typical, and the human. So taking pictures not only aids memory, it actually helps us take in more to remember."
https://hillfort.com/2019/09/28/general-comments/ |
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-06-2023, 05:55 AM
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Yes, but it's not just a matter of silence. I owned the earlier version and sold it shortly thereafter (used it as a trade-in actually) both due to slow focus, and abyssmal AF performance in low light--just wouldn't lock on my K-3. The PLM version I recently acquired is night and day better (especially night ).
That's a bit unfair, since it also a comparison between K-3 AF and K-3iii AF, but I still tend to think that the $100 or so I saved not getting the PLM version from the start was my biggest Pentax purchase mistake ever.
bob5050
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Forum: General Photography
05-31-2023, 11:14 AM
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That's about as nice a shot of Rome as I've seen. Well done.
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Forum: General Photography
05-31-2023, 06:06 AM
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Undoubtably true, but uniqueness/originality isn't the only thing of value in the world
0986 DSC02315
I took this shot wandering around Segovia with my wife one fine day in 2016. Objectively, it's about as trite as one could get--I'm sure the shot has been taken thousands if not hundreds of thousands of times.
But the picture for me brings back that day--it's near perfection, my companion and the love of my life who still wanders the world with me (and has for the last 50 years, since we met in Spain as fellow students in 1972). There's a restaurant down in the lower town across the plaza where we had lunch that day in '72, so the picture is a palimpsest with the power to recall to mind and heart multiple trips and shared adventures. The shot is, I hope, sharable in the sense that it might assist others in recalling (or imagining) their own visits. To a certain extent, one mlight say that non-uniqueness is a central characteristic. General Comments – Hillfort.com
So no--we're not leaving our cameras at home more. Our gear is currently spread across our dinner table being prepared and packed for our next adventure ...
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Forum: Site Suggestions and Help
03-25-2023, 12:14 PM
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One suggestion and one question:
1. Suggestion: what about putting a special 'welcome aboard' discount membership offer to newly migrating members of the DPR Pentax forum. Wouldn't have to be any more than your normal holiday/year-end discounts.
2. Any way to change a username? I'd like to adjust my name to use the same name I used on DPR.
Thanks
traveler
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
11-14-2022, 08:01 AM
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Using K-3iii, love it. Moved from K-3
First question: yes, much better AF than before. As good as the latest Sony? Probably not, but I'm not going to use a camera I dislike the ergonomics of for AF at a level that is simply beyond my needs. The K-3iii's is more than adequate.
Second question: no. Most of my lenses are DC, but the older screwdrives (for example, the DA 35mm f/2.4) are much improved in AF performance as well.
traveler
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
06-05-2022, 03:09 AM
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Definitely agree about considering aperture as well as FL.
I also shoot zooms, and the 18-135m probably the most, but I tend to think in terms of roles/situations rather than just FL.- The 18-135mm is obviously a day/good-light walkabout
- But if I'm going to be urban all day, then the 16-85mm--a bit sharper and probably won't need the reach.
- On the other hand, indoors or evenings need more light, so my 20-40mm or constant F/2.8 or faster (like the 17-50mm).
It's pretty much always a trade-off, so even just in mid-range you really can't have too many choices |
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Forum: General Photography
01-10-2022, 04:31 AM
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I tend to disagree. You can become a Canon/Nikon/Sony user by accident, just because that's what the nearest box store had on the shelf. But Pentax you have to research and discover. It's not a 'default' choice. That, in itself, tends to filter the user base and make it distinctive.
traveler
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Forum: General Photography
12-28-2021, 09:33 AM
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"an amateur who takes photos for memories"
Fits me to a T--
However, as someone who takes a lot of low-light pictures (indoors, restaurants, churches, etc.), getting the best shot possible may mean adjusting to a negative EV, then bringing the picture back up in post. I can always correct underexposure, but a picture blurred by too long a shutter, or too wide an aperture, can't be fixed. I'd rather start off with dark and sharp. That's easy to restore to my memory of the scene. So taking the best picture possible really means taking the best picture possible in the context of your camera, lens, goals, AND the pp tools available to you.
Additionally, fidelity to memory is a tricky standard: sure, that wire might have really been there, but is that actually what you remember about the cathedral façade?
I don't print a lot, but I do post, and there my practice splits: posts to gear forums like this are usually/generally/always SOOC, while posts to my website gallery are almost always tweaked in LR to get the best possible picture to share. Is that 'altering' a photo? Perhaps, but remember that the very act of framing is a 'falsification' of the original scene. The photographer is always 'directing' attention in one way or another. Calling post an alteration but not calling moving to the side to exclude that garbage can from the scene alteration seems rather arbitrary.
So bottom line: do what feels best to you, and that might be different under different circumstances or with image/occasion-specific goals.
traveler
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
11-30-2021, 08:56 AM
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I have and use both, and this aligns with my subjective experience: sharpness and rendering a tad better with 16-85, flexibility (obviously) better with the 18-135.
And usage pattern also as has been mentioned: for an urban walkaound, the 16-85, for out on a field trip where I'm more likely to want the range, the 18-135.
And again as someone else said, you can't go wrong with either.
traveler
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
10-06-2021, 10:18 AM
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Quite so--all modern cameras deliver very good IQ. That's not the primary limitation for most shots.
Also depends on the picture being taken, of course. For my purposes, APS-C all the way. On the other hand, if I were trying to make a living as a studio portrait photographer, I'd no doubt want FF gear for both higher resolution and potentially shallower DoF. So 'best' depends on that the photographer is trying to achieve.
traveler
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Forum: General Photography
09-30-2021, 08:35 PM
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Difference in perspective: I don't look at a viewfinder to see what's going on with the camera. I look at it to see and frame the scene, and based on what I see, I'll decide what I want the camera to receive by adjusting its settings. Setting up a camera based on diagnosing (through an EVF) what it's already done just seems terribly circular and too removed from the actual subject.
traveler
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Forum: General Photography
09-29-2021, 03:44 AM
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Primarily computational photography (CP), and it's not really here yet. By 'computational photography' I mean the ability of the always-exposed sensor to capture a light information stream that extends both before and after you actually press the shutter, and use all that information to calculate or build up what the scene must have been, through frame stacking and other means.
The primary issues with this are that (1) there's no 'real' camera available today that does is as well as a top-notch cell phone, (2) it's still fairly primitive: 'artificially enhanced' reality isn't good enough yet, and (3) there's no camera available today that's 'future-proof' on this capability: current cameras lack the power to fulfill the promises of CP, even if the necessary software were available.
So future or not, there's no current reason to switch.
traveler
---------- Post added 09-29-21 at 04:04 AM ----------
I've always had an issue with the WYSIWYG claim.
Sensors capture data--the closest we get to that is a raw file. But a raw file isn't directly viewable--it has to be interpreted to be displayed on the electronic viewfinder, and that interpretation is susceptible to all the limitations of in-body image conversion. Rather than 'what-you-get', and EVF shows you a fairly 'neutral', speed-optimized rendering of the raw data that might or might not correspond to what the photographer would actually do with the image in post.
So an EVF shows you neither the world actually out there nor the final image, but some intermediate thing that, if the photographer shoots raw and 'processes to taste', might never be seen again.
traveler
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
09-18-2021, 05:22 AM
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While I'm totally in agreement with the sentiment, I don't think we've seen the end of camera advancement by any means. Specific areas of improvement can, I think, be expected through focus stacking, aperture stacking, HDR compression, and focal control approaches, such as Canon's new eye-control AF (the camera senses where your eye is looking within the frame, rather than having to guess or be told what your point-of-interest is). All these are essentially software advancements. On the hardware side, flat lens technology may eventually find its way to larger cameras, as might variable-resolution sensors.
While it might be argued that all the low-hanging fruit has been taken, I think we're still in a golden age of camera tech.
traveler.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
09-03-2021, 11:11 AM
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Wow--that's a big boy. I know, perspective and hood and all that, but still--it looks like a serious lens.
Three points of comparison might be relevant to your audience:
1. performance against prior Pentax *16-50mm
2. performance against Sigma17-50mm F/2.8
3. And just in light of the size: performance against 20-40mm limited within the overlap range (especially, perhaps, in low light).
traveler
traveler
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-28-2021, 05:30 AM
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The Pentax HD 16-85. Basically to replace my beloved 18-135mm as my primary walk-around lens. Willing to trade a bit of range for the HD coating and a bit more sharpness.
And the opposite: the Sigma 18-300mm: this lens was never intended as a default walk-around, but more as a special purpose lens for when I anticipated the need for the extreme range flexibility, but would not be able to change lenses. Doesn't happen very often.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-25-2021, 04:12 PM
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Of course, the rumor is 'next week,' not specifically Thursday.
A more auspicious date might be 12 July (feast date of St. Veronica, patron saint of photography).
No thanks, If it's 1 April, that will be just fine.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
03-24-2021, 05:47 PM
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I do expect the major vendors (B&H et. al.) will offer their own kittings.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-23-2021, 03:16 PM
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Sure--that's a fine lens. It was my first (kitted), and had Pentax not worked out so well for me, might have remained permanently mounted as my only Pentax lens. Nevertheless, I tend to think of a 'superzoom' as having more reach--out to 250mm or more.
But despite the notion that superzooms are somehow 'down market,' I see them more as special purpose. Too many compromises perhaps in size and optical qualities to be every day use lenses, but irreplaceable when you really need one.
I bought my Sigma 18-300 for a specific event: the Oberammergau pageant. The requirement: take a lot of pictures at this once-in-a-decade event of everything from wide-angle crowd shots to close-ups of the happenings on stage, while being in an uninterrupted environment of a large, possibly jostling crowd that really doesn't leave much room for safe lens changing or a bag of alternative lenses. Sometimes, only a superzoom will do.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-23-2021, 05:26 AM
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If Pentax decides to make another production run of the 18-270mm, I'd expect them to update the coatings and produce an HD version. But since there is, as you say, no indication of a new 18-270 on the lens roadmap, this isn't one I'd hold my breath for.
So your current options appear to be either the used market, or possibly the generally well-regarded HD 55-300mm PLM, and pairing that with a mid-range.
HD Pentax-DA 55-300mm F4.5-6.3 PLM WR RE Review - Introduction | PentaxForums.com Reviews |
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-18-2021, 03:51 PM
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If anyone can post on the new lens information, that would be wonderful
traveler
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
01-24-2021, 04:37 AM
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You've already thought out the feature pluses/minuses, so just depends of the depth of budget and urgency of need.
traveler
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
10-30-2020, 07:59 AM
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In this case, those statements are probably incompatible. The camera is algorithmically trying to determine the best focal plane considering all 27 points--and any such algorithm is going to tend to bias toward the closer points. I say "probably" because I've never found actual detailed documentation of how the multi-point algorithm works. But changing to center point focus seems the most likely fix to me. I tend to never trust 27 point because it forces the camera to guess what the center of interest is, and me to guess how the camera is guessing--not a recipe for reliability.
Past that, Alex645 is quite right in suggesting alternative test shots to systematically isolate possible sources of error.
traveler
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
09-24-2020, 10:07 AM
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A fact often overlooked. Pentax doesn't need a mass defection from Canikon--a trickle of defectors here and there would be significant and healthy. And that's credible, given that the EU sales manager remarked that the KP sold to a lot of new-to-Pentax buyers.
Concur. Pentax has to hit the mark to make existing Pentax APSC customers want to upgrade, many of which are still using pre-KP and K-70 cameras. It sounds very much like they think they've done that, and I'm optimistic that they have.
traveler
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
09-19-2020, 05:53 AM
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Much depends on cost structure--where and how economies of scale kick in. Certainly, it's not a straight slope. And if Pentax is primarily a design foundry at this point, contracting manufacturing facilities as needed rather than owning them, their actual running expenses can be very low.
traveler
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