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Forum: General Talk 1 Day Ago  
Your latest acquisition
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 27,136
Views: 2,082,963
.
SIGMA EX 12-24mm F/4.5-5.6 DG

From Ebay and Japan, this arrived today. It seems to be a rare lens in K-mount*, although there are plenty in Nikon and Canon mounts so those sell for half the price . At 12mm it is one of the widest rectlinear FF lenses ever made for K-mount, the angle of view is insane. The nearest Pentax themselves made were 15mm primes back in the K and A series and the current D FA 15-30mm.

It is in better condition than it looked in the Ebay pictures (one below), looks mint in fact. The seller said there was slight fungus in the rear element, and I was planning to dismantle the back end to clean it, but it is hard to see any so I shall leave it for now.

Shortly after receiving it there was a violent thunder and hailstorm here, so my first photo, from my front door, is of the hailstones still lying.

* Noticed one has just come up in the PF marketplace.



Forum: Pentax Full Frame 2 Days Ago  
A Pentax fullframe DSLR I want to see (and have)
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 57
Views: 2,766
It is not a case of that, some of us are interested in these technicalities. Moreover, bigger and brighter viewfinders are a selling point, one which Pentax certainly pushed (effectively) for the K3iii and would be wise to repeat in a K1iii. It does not mean however that everyone must throw away anything with an older viewfinder.

As someone who spent a significant part of my engineering career measuring things, for example stresses in bridge structures and safety margins against trains derailing, I disagree. A lot depended on those measurements being right.
Forum: General Photography 03-21-2024, 07:25 AM  
The worst of Craigslist/Shopgoodwill/eBay etc.
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 3,472
Views: 182,817
A couple more :

"Refurbished" - This probably means the thing has been damaged and someone (of unknown skill) has had a go at mending it.

AI generated descriptions, which is now being offered by Ebay when you list something. I am starting to recognise it : bland BS seemingly grabbed from Wikipedia and elsewhere, often comically out of date like saying "latest tech" for something 30 years old (which is probably from the maker's advertising at that time). It is not description particular to the item on sale, but is the text equivalent of using stock photos instead of ones of the actual item. I think the item in my post #3454 was an example, bubbling away about "supporting" Windows 98 and ME.
Forum: Pentax Full Frame 1 Day Ago  
A Pentax fullframe DSLR I want to see (and have)
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 57
Views: 2,766
Sounds like Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle at work

I am really not that bothered. Being mainly interested in landscape in daylight, I'm only concerned at the level of whether a particular tree is in or out of the frame, which is hard to miss at any magnification. I am still interested in the technicalities of it though.
Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras 3 Days Ago  
Thoughts on Pentax LX
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 87
Views: 3,177
The shutter speed display in the viewfinder is simply a small engraved transparent disk on the same spindle as the dial, so that would not be the cause of the stiffness. There is no gearing or anything involved.
Forum: General Photography 4 Days Ago  
Distractions
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 42
Views: 1,576
I am almost always taking photos alone, except for a few camera club outings in the past when we left each other alone; and also in the past with a photographer friend, one of who's obects in life seemed to be to kill time anyway.

My father was a good people photographer, but never saw the point of a picture without a person in the foreground. In later life my parents had friends I shall refer to as "Bill" and "Doris", and as my mother did not like being in pictures (nor me) he would usher Bill, Doris, or both, into almost every picture he took. The vast collection of colour prints and slides he left are therefore like a documentary of the travels of Bill and Doris. (Bill with Eiffel Tower, Doris on Brighton Pier, etc).

At the camera club we once had a visiting speaker who said every picture needs a red hat in it, and he carried one around to toss into his foregrounds - the pictures he showed us demonstrated it
Forum: Pentax Full Frame 4 Days Ago  
A Pentax fullframe DSLR I want to see (and have)
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 57
Views: 2,766
I'd like a touchscreen as long as it can be turned off. Please don't encourage Pentax to replace buttons with touchscreen menus : manufacturers love to do that because once you have a touchscreen it is trivial and cheaper to replace a button with a menu item. But I hate menu diving.

Having a smaller memory card won't allow the battery to be larger by any significant amount, and anyway : (1) it is better to stick to an existing de-facto standard battery than introduce yet another type and (2) battery life is a non-issue with DSLRs (as opposed to mirrorless cameras).
Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras 12-03-2023, 09:37 AM  
Thoughts on Pentax LX
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 87
Views: 3,177
They forgot an AE exposure lock. One review I have of it says it must have been an oversight. I have heard it was because of "reasons".
Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories 03-08-2024, 04:24 PM  
Thematic Post your Sculptures and Statues!
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 1,614
Views: 132,579
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Troll under the Bridge

Pentax K10-D DA 16-45mm @ 23mm
I think I might have posted this before.

Forum: General Talk 03-19-2024, 04:38 PM  
Heads up about Ford wheel nuts.
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 71
Views: 1,505
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This is my method of bead breaking. The whiteish wooden block stops the tyre from being completely crushed down.

Pentax K10-D, DA 16-45mm @26mm


Forum: General Talk 03-19-2024, 03:04 AM  
Heads up about Ford wheel nuts.
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 71
Views: 1,505
Are you saying that spider wrenches are associated with over-tightening? Not necessarily, you don't need a spider wrench to over-tighten wheel nuts. When I was in a dealer workshop the dimension of the workshop spider wrench was not really any more than that of a typical 3/4" (19mm) ring spanner for example. An experienced mechanic or fitter does not just put their full weight or strength behind everything they do up, they do it with judgment. At home I do my wheel nuts up with a 18" breaker bar and a deep 19mm socket because that is the most convenient way, but with considerably less force than the maximum I would be capable of.


Having seen some of the kid mechanics in car workshops, and what they do, I have the same attitude. Fortunately I can do stuff myself, but I am worried that "amateur" car work (and most other DiY) is being progressively banned in the UK (either by law or by software) and especially in the EU where I hear they propose to ban the sale of spares for older cars other than basic service parts. I expect the UK will follow suit, Brexit or not. Meanwhile my local council rubbish/recycling depot is refusing to take anything they consider is from "professional" work, including car parts, glass, tyres, and plaster rubble.

While I understand the need for competence to work on things like mains wiring, household gas, and car brakes, I had hoped there would be a test open for anyone to take and qualify. Instead, it is left to electrical and heating companies to "self-qualify", which is useless to judge by the incompetent gas fitter who came to repair my boiler a while ago.


My tyre service equipment is a set of big tyre levers which I think were British Army property from WW2 Of course, balancing is still needed but in this case I was only replacing the valves and put the tyres back in their same places.

Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing 03-18-2024, 03:22 AM  
Reminder: Keep your software up-to-date
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 8
Views: 1,029
My experience of software updates is that they are not always advantageous. A prime example was the episode a few years ago in which an "upgrade" from Apple slowed down the performance of older iPhones - apparently to encourage sales of newer ones (but they claimed "safety"!).

The trouble is that after having improved software to a point where it does everything most people want, companies trying to sell it have no-where else to go except to fiddle around at the the edges and change the interface style, often breaking or compomising functionality in the process. I have seen this in the Linux distribution I use (and similarly in Windows) - it peaked in usefulness about 8 years ago and since then the maintainers have removed feature after feature to "streamline" and to "modernise the look". But you often have to go along with it because some applications (new, or also updated) stop working otherwise. There are also security and bug fixes to take into account.

I always wait and see what others report before I update. With some modern software on the Windows, Apple and Android side it is probably forced on you though.
Forum: General Photography 03-17-2024, 05:13 PM  
The worst of Craigslist/Shopgoodwill/eBay etc.
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 3,472
Views: 182,817
For starters :

"Can't test, no batteries" (when only a couple of AAs are needed)
"No effect on image quality" (it means lens damage)
"Very rare" (seen it applied to a K1000!)
"Dealer"
"Fantastic" (and so on and so forth)
"Professional" (seen it applied to a plastic P&S)
"I know the true value of this"
"Takes great pictures" (the "Still takes great pictures" variant means it has serious damage or only half works)
Large purple or red fonts
Screenfulls of legalese
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 03-17-2024, 07:38 AM  
Poll: Do you see a Pentax Half-Frame in your future? Best of PF Newsletter March 6 Poll
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 132
Views: 6,088
Similarly, I have an aversion to using my phone as a Swiss Army knife, nor do I have an iPad or anything else to do with Apple (on principle). However, I sometimes use a small light box for copying negatives or slides, or even just to examine them with a loupe. I recommend one.
Forum: General Talk 03-17-2024, 07:32 AM  
Heads up about Ford wheel nuts.
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 71
Views: 1,505
Tell me about corrosion jacking; I was a power station engineer and maintaining steelwork in hot gases was a nightmare. Rust has a greater volume than the iron it was previously, but am amazed if the nuts could be distended enough to foul a socket spanner without cracking the nut. The crack may not be easily visible. Spanners and sockets have a generous clearance in engineering terms, but there are 6-point sockets (typically ones designed for impact wrenches) as well as 12-point ones and a 6-point 20mm socket would turn those 19mm nuts even if a 12-point one cannot. Get those nuts off and discard them.

Are your wheels not taken off for routine maintenance? I take mine off once a year for a good look round including checking the brake pads and shoes, and freedom of brake piston movement. Last time I bought a used car I guess the previous owner had not had the wheels and rear disk/drums off for a long time, because the rear disk/drums had rust-welded to the half-shafts. I had to get the half shafts out and wallop the disk/drums off with a sledgehammer : inside, I found the parking drum brake shoes must have disintegrated years before*. I do my own work, but this would have cost a fortune at a repair shop.

Most people (including some professional mechanics, I have worked in a dealer workshop too) do up wheel nuts far too tight. I had a car returned from a dealer recall with half the nut and wheel stud threads stripped : I didn't raise it as an issue but just replaced them all myself. A clue to about the right torque is the wrench provided with cars to do a roadside wheel change (or has that been banned now?). The wrench has quite a short handle because it is assumed that the user will stand on it when tightening it up. Sometimes those wrenches have a longer hinged part of the handle which only works in the undoing direction.

The books say that the wheel nut threads should not be lubricated. I regard that as extreme : a shot with WD-40 (which is not technically a lubricant) will help protect them from rust.

* So much for the farcical UK MoT annual roadworthiness test.
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 03-17-2024, 03:47 AM  
I want to support Pentax, but…
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 250
Views: 8,155
That last "snap", the B&W pony, knocked me back in my chair!
Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories 03-05-2024, 02:01 PM  
Thematic Street Photography (No, Not THAT Street Photography) - Share Your Shots of the Roads
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 5,342
Views: 373,102
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Gated Road somewhere in North Wales

Returning from a business trip. I prefer scenic routes.

Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories 03-03-2024, 12:02 PM  
Thematic Bad Weather Makes Good Pictures
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 1,467
Views: 110,483
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Snow and Mist in my Garden Today

Location : South Wales Hills
Harold the Heron is made of metal - supposed to keep real herons away.
Pentax K-1, D FA 24-70mm @36mm

Forum: General Photography 02-28-2024, 12:03 PM  
The worst of Craigslist/Shopgoodwill/eBay etc.
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 3,472
Views: 182,817
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So this is what a mirro[r]less lens[es] is :

RUBINAR 500MM mirroless vintage lenses | eBay

Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 03-16-2024, 03:30 AM  
I want to support Pentax, but…
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 250
Views: 8,155
So Pentax should become an independent lens maker?

I understood that the most recent Pentax lenses are re-badged Tamrons, at least my D-FA 24-70mm is, so it's not a good place to start from. I also understand that Tamron already make those lenses for other mounts (at a lower price), or could readily do so if they don't already. I suspect Pentax would be prevented from re-selling re-badged Tamrons in other mounts by their contract with Tamron anyway.
Forum: Pentax Full Frame 03-15-2024, 03:19 AM  
K1 II - not feeling the love anymore!
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 76
Views: 4,986
Depends on what you mean by performance. I seem to have different criteria from you in that I am not interested in fps, eye focus, video, focussing speed and the other usual YouTube influencer obsessions. For example I have never once used any of my DSLRs in continuous shooting mode. As a photographic hobby, I am interested in landscape and townscape and am more concerned with weather resistance, ergonomics and general robustness. While I also take some other types of shots like family photos, that is not as part of my photographic hobby and not something alone for which I would want a DSLR, I would use a phone camera for it.

I have no doubt that the vast majority of buyers who insist on leading edge video tech end up producing the same sort of boring amateur clips that my parents and their friends used to inflict on each other in Super-8 cine camera days. Few meet any dreams of becoming the next James Cameron or even reaching 1 on a scale of 10, despite the capability of their kit.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 03-14-2024, 01:36 PM  
Ricoh want your feedback
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 184
Views: 9,669
Just because not every single function of every single lens in the past does not necessarily work on every single camera body does not make lens compatiblity a "myth". I regard compatibility as a table of what can fit and work with what, and the more entries in the table the more the compatibility. Be thankful that at this point in time Pentax has a greater level of compatibility within its products over the years than any other camera maker. Moreover, a "no-frills" body that could sing and dance with every Pentax lens made since the 1950's is a contradiction in terms - that sort of ability would be a "frill" in itself, and a major one at that.


You need a really ancient flash unit to fry a modern camera. There are loads of legacy units that would not do so - practically any from a reputable maker* from around 1980. Unfortunately it was the Vivitar 283 (designed in the 1970s and the most numerous flash unit ever) that created the idea that every pre-digital flash unit need a voltage reducer : because it acquired a cult following, was made for decades, was handed from father-to-son, is still heard being recommended by some today, yet having a dangerously high voltage. Vivitar did reduce its voltage at some point but without telling anyone or changing the name (like "Mark II"), so it remains a unpredictable snake in the woodpile and was the main factor in spawning a market for hotshoe voltage reducers. Incidentally, Pentax never made Speedlights, it is a brand name of Nikon.

If Pentax wanted to make a retro camera that could take an old high voltage flash unit, they could either go the whole hog and use a mechnical trigger switch or, if electronic, they could make the camera circuit capable of withstanding the voltage. There is no reason for Pentax to make a voltage reducer.

Anyway, there are lists of trigger voltages of legacy flash units such as this one, which has more detail than the old Botzilla list but omits many of the oldest and most obscure units with a general warning just to avoid them. Unless you are particularly attached to an old flash unit already in your possession, you can buy safe used legacy units in good condition for a fraction of the price of a voltage reducer.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 03-09-2024, 01:57 PM  
Ricoh want your feedback
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 184
Views: 9,669
Yes, but this thread is about a survey where Ricoh (among other things) are asking for comments, presumably including what we would like to see in the future. So this is an appropriate occasion for wishful thinking out loud. Like Biz-engineer, I also mentioned a few easy-win additional accessories I would like to see, including flash units which would be made by a sub-contractor anyway and therefore need minimal R&D and zero Pentax factory space.
Forum: Pentax K-3 III 04-12-2023, 12:09 PM  
Paint wear
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 49
Views: 4,019
I don't want to pretend I am a busy pro photographer. I do have a friend (collects Nikon F-series SLRs) who likes brassing, not because he pretends to be a pro but because he believes the camera must have had some history, might have been in a paperazzi scrum around Princess Diana or something - fair enough but it means nothing to me.


I have sold a few cameras (analogue and digital) and no-one has ever asked me what the shutter count was. As for myself, scrolling down the pictures on Ebay does not tell me the shutter count, and I won't bother to ask if the camera looks worn (and certainly not if it looks battered). I would only look for or ask about the shutter count if the pictures looked OK first.

Knowing how badly some people treat their stuff leaving both visible and invisible scars, I don't buy anything used unless it is in very good cosmetic condition, and preferably still with its box - it will have had a careful owner and therefore less likely to have invisible damage too.
Forum: Post Your Photos! 03-06-2024, 12:25 PM  
Black & White Dolforwyn Castle- monochrome monday
Posted By Lord Lucan
Replies: 9
Views: 204
I momentarily misread that as "Dolwyddelan Castle" in Snowdonia! I had never heard of this one near Abermule. They look in a similar state of repair
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