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Forum: General Photography
12-05-2017, 07:24 AM
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The shots on your IG have a nice mood/atmosphere to them. I like them. :)
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Forum: Photographic Technique
11-06-2017, 02:48 PM
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The hard part with taking multiple frames and combining them in whatever way is that stuff moves around and it can create odd artifacts in your final image. That said, you are exactly right that when you combine multiple frames, you end up with pretty impressive results.
This is an image I took that was about 12 photos taken vertically with the K5 II and FA 31 and combined with Photoshop Elements. The combined image was about three times the size of a typical K-1 image and had a lot of color depth. Of course, the K5 II was no slouch either and that helped...
 Horseshoe Bend in the Ohio River by Vincent1825, on Flickr
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Forum: Photo Critique
11-04-2017, 09:45 AM
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Hi everyone,
I have just started trying some Astrophotography with my K5 and Tamron 17-50 2.8.
This is my first pano milky way, it is 14 photos stitched, 20 seconds ISO 12800 f3.2 17mm.
Maybe the ISO was too high?
This was taken 2 miles from a town in the England UK
I used Rawtherepee for processing, copied and pasted the pp3 file from one photo in the pano to all the rest,
to have the settings the same . There is a sudden colour change from purple to blue in part of the
photo, is this down to high ISO?. I haven`t tried the wavelets setting, would wavelets help a smooth
transition form purple to blue?. The white balance was the same for each photo.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
11-29-2017, 10:26 AM
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I would buy a better zoom first and then complement it with a prime - one that is better than the one you just bought (Sigma Miniwide I - this has, in my experience, a very bad color rendition). If you said most of the pictures are taken at 25mm, it makes sense to buy a 24mm lens, and at least experiment with the DA 21mm. If you buy used you can resell at little or no loss.
There are a lot of options for zooms in that range for all kinds of prices... I personally like my DA 16-45mm f/4. It's not f/2.8 but I mostly use it indoors, if dark then with a flash (I'm not afraid of the flash... in fact I love bouncing a flash for people pictures). It was one of the most affordable options and I like the way it sees the world, to the point that I'm not looking to replace it with a faster zoom anytime soon.
Edit: the manual focus Cosina-made Vivitar 24mm f/2.8 seems to be going for very little money these days. There's one here in the forums marketplace for 30 dollars. I would say it's worth trying - I find it to be a very good lens, and it's small and light enough to carry "just in case". Here are some pictures I have taken with it.
 Berry College Pool by ChristianRock, on Flickr
 Norcross Historic House by ChristianRock, on Flickr
 Circle by ChristianRock, on Flickr
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
11-29-2017, 10:17 AM
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I don't think you need an f2 lens, if you are OK at handholding and OK with raising ISO. I have the Pentax-F 28/2.8 and take a lot of night shots around 1/15, f4, ISO 1600. I can still adjust from there, even 1/8, f2.8, 3200, before things get harder. These settings are for pretty low light, and it's unusual for me to need another stop (f2.8 to f2) beyond that. An f2.8 lens will be a lot cheaper and smaller.
All the Pentax 28mm lenses should be very good, so just buy those on cost, condition and features. Sorting out the third-party lenses is the harder part. In general, older third-party lenses have worse coatings than any of the Pentaxes, and coatings are where the colors and contrast come from. The Sigma 28/2.8 should be a good test for you. Don't buy or shop for anything else yet. Get the Sigma and use it a lot, under many conditions. Either you like it or it should point you to what you need in your next lens.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
11-29-2017, 05:37 AM
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The "K series" 28/3.5 is an excellent lens for landscape and nature photography. It's a slower lens so the VF image isn't bright, but I've never had a problem with that. It's larger than many of the older 28mm primes (smaller than the K series 28/2, though) but even so it's fairly compact. Well within your budget.
Even cheaper is the M28/2.8, older version. Doesn't get a lot of love in the lens review section here, but I've used mine quite a bit and found it just fine, whether stopped down or wide open. It's a very small lens, verging on pancake, and can be bought very cheaply.
I also really like the A24/2.8.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
11-29-2017, 07:03 AM
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SMC Pentax 28mm ƒ3.5 - IMHO excellent lens
P-KA Sigma Mini-Wide II 28mm ƒ2.8 Macro - also very, very good lens with A-contacts that allows full metering modes and aperture control and it is very affordable.
SMC Pentax-A 28mm ƒ2 - Excellent!!! (expensive), also with A-contacts as above
SMC Pentax 28mm ƒ2 - the crown jewel but expensive and rare
The next recommendation is very close to desired focal length but very worthy contender...
SMC Pentax 30mm ƒ2.8
You can check the reviews for those lenses here
EDIT: I see that the OP got the lens already and posted while I was typing (got interrupted with phone call, while typing)
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