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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
5 Days Ago
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My eclipse trip to Kerrville was fun, and tiring. I did some regular photography in addition to the attempts at the eclipse.
The eclipse was mostly clouded out, and was fraught with equipment issues (poor tracking on one mount,my first attempt at automated shooting not being in time with the actual eclipse etc...)
With such limited views of the sun it was hard to get proper focus so I got what I could. My Celestron Evolution that I set up for visual worked great so we were able to view partial phases through the clouds on occasion.
I did manage to get glimpses of totality through a couple of sucker holes and was able to see one or two porminences naked eye which was astounding to me.
That said, here's the few of my images from the eclipse. I apologize for the poor quality. These were they only ones with the Pentax. I did get some other ones with my Canon 70D.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
5 Days Ago
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Pentax K-1 and Pentax 100mm f/2.8 WR Macro
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Forum: Lens Clubs
03-28-2024, 09:51 AM
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A couple more from the bluebonnet hunt
Pentax K-1 and 100mm WR macro. the colors are more muted here then in the original image.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
03-27-2024, 02:31 PM
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There's a ot I like about Affinity from its price to its features. I use it a lot for focus stacking and find it's almost as good as Helicon Focus stacker. I also use its Astroimaging stacking feature as sometimes it gives me the best stack from my data when something like AstroPixel Processor or Pixinsight doesn't like my data. But then I also use Rawtherapee, Lightroom/Photoshop, dXO Photolab, and on rareer occasions Capture 1 (I have the previous version). So what ever tool gets the job done best is my approach.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
03-27-2024, 02:16 PM
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A few shot on a recent trek for texas Bluebonnets with my K-1 and 100mm WR Macro
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Forum: Lens Clubs
03-27-2024, 02:15 PM
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A few shot on a recent trek for texas Bluebonnets with my K-1 and 100mm WR Macro
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-26-2024, 12:39 PM
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Not buying anything for the eclipse, Between 2017, and the Annular Eclipse in Oct. 2023, I've got all my gear sorted out. I only live an hour or so off the centerline in Kerrville Tx, (where I'll be shooting from). I'm taking the following setup(s):
Losmandy G-11 mount for my Explore Scientific 127ED telescope that will have my Pentax K-1 at Prime Focus
Skywatcher AZ-Gti that has my Celestron 80ED telescope with Canon 70D at Prime Focus (Eclipse shooting will be run via a laptop and the eclipse automation program SetnC).
Celestron Evolution 9.25 for visual observations.
I just hope for clear skies
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Forum: Lens Clubs
03-13-2024, 07:51 PM
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16 image focus stack of a Cecropia moth
Pentax K-1
Pentax 100mm f/2.8 WR Macro
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-06-2024, 10:49 AM
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I live in San Antonio and going to a private event in Kerrville and I expect to get there the day before to set up my telescope/cameras and get ready for the event. I don't plan on leaving until later in the evening hoping after traffic dies down a bit. I've heard that they expect up to 500k people in the Kerrville/Fredricksberg area for the eclipse. That's a lot of people for that small of an area.
I expect cell service to be spotty, gas prices to be high, and places to run out of food. I'd bring food, water, toilet paper, trashbags, etc... Getting in to the area is going to be bad enough, getting out... That's going to be an excercise in patience.
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Forum: Weekly Photo Challenges
03-06-2024, 10:39 AM
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I've been doing astrophotography for over 20 years now, and one reason I chose theK-1 when it was time to move up to a FF camera from my Canon 70D was the astrotracer fuctionality. I don't use astrotracer all that much these days but I do use the K-1 as my primary imaging camera. here's a few of my favorite shots.
Shot with the 28-105 kit lens at 105mm using the new Astrotracer mode 3 this is 49x60s Stacked in AstroPixelProcessor and processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-27-2024, 08:57 PM
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Here's sample of using Astrotracer 3 on my Pentax K-1 with the 28-105 at 105mm
49x60sec stack
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-27-2024, 08:47 PM
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Can the planned shots do exposure bracketing? If so How many shots/stops per bracket or does it use the built in bracketing?
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-27-2024, 08:41 PM
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I've been an avid astrophotographer for over 20 years, so hell yeah I'm shootiung this one. In 2017, I traveled over 3000 miles round trip from Southern Califonia to Casper Wyoming for that eclipse (my 1st total solar eclipse) and got great pics with my Pentax K-1 and Celestron 80ED telescope.
This time I live in San Antonio under the path of totality (2:17 totality at my house) but will be driving an hour or so to Kerrvile to be along the centerline again for 4:22 of totality. I've shot partial solar eclipses before and in Oct. I shot the Annular eclipse from Comfort Texas (another hour's drive from home). So I'm really looking forward to this one at double the lenght I had in 2017.
I'm bringing a couple of cameras and will be shooting through the K-1 (hopefully using WiFiCommander) and automating the whole thing with a laptop and my Canon 70D. I'm lucky to be living in teh path of totality, somethng I never thought I'd be doing in 2017. I figured I was going to be making another long trip for it.
Here's a few of my Eclise images from 2017 and the Oct.2023 Annular eclipse.
C2 Diamond Ring
Totality Single shot
Totality 26 shot composite
C3 Diamond Ring
Annular Eclipse Sequence
Bailey's Beads
Sunspots (both of these are 2-3 times the size of the Earth
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Forum: Weekly Photo Challenges
02-27-2024, 12:46 PM
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There's so many patterns in nature that my eye gets drawn to. especially when you get close up in flowers and look at the seed arrangements. It's hard for me to choose just one, but I think this is one of my favorites. It's the center area of a sunflower I shot when I first got my WR 100mm Macro.
As you look at the details you can see patterns within patterns. Ridges, Colors, just so much is there that the compressed version here doesn't do it justice. Here's a link to a full size version.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Macro/i-ggCmdwJ/0/ChjvhPDkGZDNFCqJm5L5bzJ8ZBDNkvj...IMG1565-X4.jpg
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Forum: Lens Clubs
02-18-2024, 10:00 PM
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Pentax K-1 and Pentax 100mm f/2.8 WR Macro
41 pixelshifted shots converted to .TIFF in rawtherapee then focus stacked in Affinity Photo
ISO 800
F/4
1/30
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Forum: Weekly Photo Challenges
02-13-2024, 12:21 PM
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Wow! so amny good shots. I think the photo that really captured the spirit of the contest was:
UncleVanya's Mural. Congratulations. you get to judge the next contest.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-07-2024, 08:12 AM
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Damn, that's a good idea. I have a QS-1 and never thought about this. I need to get a K-Q adapter now.
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Forum: Weekly Photo Challenges
02-05-2024, 01:32 PM
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Got it. Let me see what the next challenge is.
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Forum: Weekly Photo Challenges
02-05-2024, 09:16 AM
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Wow... I'm speechless. Thanks for the honor.
It was a bit of looking around and seeing what might make for an interesting focus stacked image. The razor seemed to have lots of interesting detail and depth. I wish Pentax would put focus bracketing in their firmware. It would be an awesome addition IMO.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-05-2024, 09:00 AM
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If you want to spend a bit of money, you can always get the Venus Laowa 2.5-5x ultra macro. https://www.venuslens.net/product/laowa-25mm-f-2-8-2-5-5x-ultra-macro-2/
I've got one and use it with my K-1and a macro rail since it doesn't have any focus control. I do focus stacking with it. (I use Affinity Photo to do the stacking).
Here's a few of my shots with it.
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Forum: Weekly Photo Challenges
01-31-2024, 09:14 PM
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I'm exporting the Pixelshift DNGs to tiff format with RawTherapee and focus stacking the resultant tiffs in Affinity. Then I process the resulting stack.
---------- Post added 01-31-24 at 10:28 PM ----------
I got a chance to do a couple of focus stacks tonight using my Olympus OM-D EM5 mkii and m.zukio 30mm Macro
First up an in camera focus stack. The camera takes 8 shots with a set focus distance. In this case I used the widest (10)
ISO 200
f/7.1
8x2.5 sec exposure
SOOC Jpg
Next is a focus bracket that I stacked in Affinity Pro 2.3.1
this is 30 stacked .ORF files
ISO 200
f/4.5
30x0.8 sec exposure
Processed in Affinity Pro 2..3.1
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Forum: Weekly Photo Challenges
01-31-2024, 10:02 AM
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I'm going to mark these for Exhibition only until I get a chance to shoot something new. Some background, I've been interested in macro and focus stacking for some time, and picked up a Venus Laowa 2.5-5x Ultra macro for my Pentax K-1. I've also got a couple of 50mm f/2.8 macros (one a fully manual sigma with A aperture control and a Pentax FA 50 f/2.8) as well as the D FA 100 f/2.8 WR. I wanted to be able to do incamera focus bracketing and stacking so I also picked up an Olympus EM 5 mk2 and 30mm macro lens.
For the Pentax I use a Macro rail to change the focus point.
Here's a few of my Pentax shots.
Blueberry:
Pentax K-1 and Pentax 100mm f/2.8 Macro
ISO 100
23 Pixelshift images converted to TIF in RawTherapee then stacked & processed in Affinity Photo v 2.2.
Dried Shitake mushroom:
Pentax K-1 and Pentax FA 50mm f/2.8 Macro
ISO 100
56 Pixelshift images converted to TIF in RawTherapee then stacked & processed in Affinity Photo v 2.2.
Peppercorn at 5x magnification:
Pentax K-1
Laowa 25mm 2.5-5x f/2.8
ISO 100
1/10s
F/5.6
Stacked and processed in Affinty Photo V1
Table salt at 5x magnification:
Pentax K-1
Laowa 25mm 2.5-5x f/2.8
ISO 100
1/10s
F/5.6
Stacked and processed in Affinty Photo V1
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Forum: Weekly Photo Challenges
01-29-2024, 06:53 AM
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Can they be older attempts or do they need to be new for the week?
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-26-2024, 04:12 PM
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I have to agree with you on this. For me its Astrotracer and the great astroimages I get out of my K-1. If Pentax didn't have Astrotracer, or Pixelshift (which i use with macro shooting) I'd have probably not gotten the K-1 back in 2016 and gone with Nikon even though it would've cost me double what the K-1 did.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
01-08-2024, 01:12 PM
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This past weekend I took my Pentax K-1 and Pentax FA 28-200 for a walk around Boerne Tx where I went to taste some BBQ for my stepson's wedding rehersal dinner.
Here's a few of my favorite shots from the walk.
The lens is a bit softer than I prefer and I can't remember when or why I bought the lens in the first place. Probably for travel or as a walk around lens.
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