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Forum: Pentax K-70 & KF
09-22-2023, 08:29 PM
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Forum: Pentax K-70 & KF
09-22-2023, 05:31 PM
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Hello everybody,
Is the O-GPS1 compatible with the KF (with astrotracer support) ?
I found some sources saying that only the O-GPS2 would be compatible, and other ones saying that both units are.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
03-15-2023, 11:47 AM
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Raw PEF, always. Then processed with DxO PhotoLab.
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Forum: Pentax K-70 & KF
03-15-2023, 08:10 AM
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For me , using a DLSR in live view is a no-no. Simply makes no sense to me and cripples the usability.
---------- Post added 03-15-23 at 08:18 AM ----------
I know it, I have for Sigma SA and for Pentax.
The problem with this is that if you do the lens calibration for a specific body you will mess with any other body you mau have.
I have a K5 II and a K3 II, and I tried to calibrate te lens for the K3 II using Lens Alling and FocusTune., I'm using this for years...
But this precedure didn't fix the issue with the K3-II and 18-35 together, just messed up with the K5 II.
I ended up installing a manual focusing sreen on the K3 II and living with this.
Now I'm evaluating the pros and cons of buying a 2022 made K70... Do you think the solenoid problem was solved ?
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Forum: Pentax K-70 & KF
03-15-2023, 08:07 AM
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This post is amazing and I would like to congratulate the author for being so detailed.
Do you think is it safe to buy the most recent K70 bodies ? I found one made in July 2022.
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Forum: Pentax K-70 & KF
03-14-2023, 10:59 AM
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Hi Gatorguy,
I've been using the K5-II with the 18-35 without any issues and the AF is working perfectly for my kind of use. But on the K3-II it misses a lot and enough to ruin the image, no matter if the subject is still, moving, under good light, etc... It's random.
I'll see with the seller if it would be possible to return the camera in case of problems. There are no Pentax dealers or service in my country.
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Forum: Pentax K-70 & KF
03-14-2023, 10:03 AM
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So, basically bad news... I just read about the solenoid problem. Maybe it would be better to avoid it.
The K70 has the Safox X AF system, the same of the K5 II.. It should work...
Thanks !
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Forum: Pentax K-70 & KF
03-14-2023, 08:54 AM
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Hello,
I'm planning to buy an used K70 but I had a bad time with the Sigma 18-35 F1.8 ART when used with the K3-II. The AF missed to properly fosus about 50% of the times. Strangely, this lens always worked perfectly with the K5-II.
Does anyone have experienced AF issues with the K70 and the Sigma 18-35 F1.8 ART together ?
Cheers,
Antonio
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Forum: Pentax Full Frame
08-11-2022, 05:07 PM
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I choosed the Sony A7-III as my full-frame body. It's not outrageously expensive and its performance is much better than I will ever need.
I gave up on the K1 due the fact I have lots of old lenses that aren't suitable for it, like Minolta MDs.
Still have my faithful K5-II and the K3-II and they will probably be my last Pentaxes.
Not a big fan of the Canon R series or the Nikon Z series.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
08-11-2022, 02:29 PM
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Hi,
I have something like 170k images (about 2 TB of space).
What I have here:
- Photo Supreme as a DAM. This is a wonderful, inexpensive (for what it is) and extremely powerful software to manage huge image collections.
- Main library stored in a LaCie 2Big Thunderbolt 3 RAID unit with two 4 TB hard drives (mechanical)
- Backup to a NAS and to two USB-3 hard disks
- keep the backups in different places
- backups done using rsync and scripts I made.
Working smoothly this way for some years.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
04-22-2022, 08:22 AM
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Again,
Radiation danger is a matter of quantity, distance, energy, scattering and absorption.
What is between the lens and you ?
There is a mirror made of 1mm glass
There is a IR/UV filter over the sensor, made of glass/quartz
There is a sensor made of silicon
There are the internal camera parts
There are the internal camera EM shieldings
There are lots of soldering (tin/lead/silver alloys) on the circuit boards
There are copper wires and flat cables
There is the camera back
There is a LCD screen that has aluminum foils, glass and plastic.
There is the distance between the lens back and you.
Zero chance for alpha and beta particles to heach you. Zero.
If you put a glass filter in front of the lens, there will be zero chance to have alpha and almost zero for beta escaping, supposing the front element is radioactive.
The gamma emitted is low energy and statistically irrelevant. Cosmic rays are more dangerous.
Please relax.
By the way, did anyone here made the experiment I suggested before with B&W film on an envelope and placing one of these lenses over it ?
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
04-22-2022, 07:30 AM
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Okay. Colour rendering is subjective and can be adjusted to whatever you want if you do a little post-processing. The simpler ways is to use LUT tables, then you will be able to obtain, for example, the Fuji-like colour rendrering from a Pentax, Canon or whatever.
Fujis are great for their jpeg output. I had several Fuji cameras, sold all of them about two years ago. The really good thing about Fujis are the lenses. They are all excellent with no lemons hidden in the basket. Fuji's raw files still are a pain to extract all the juice, especially in terms of definition. I shot thousands of images with Fujis and unless I tweak on Capture One or RawTherapee and take a lot of care to not exagerate on sharpening, very fine details are smudged. To keep it short IMHO Fujis are fantastic but the images always needs some tweaking for definition.
But thanks God, DxO Photolab now has support for X-Trans files (experimental). It's like seeing an image with/without using glasses. It has support for many cameras/lenses cominations and woth a try. It does NOT support older cameras like the X10/X20/X30.
Pentaxes are great but I'm very frustrated with the K3-II due to its Astrotraces precise calibration. It rarely works. Besides this I love the camera. It's reliable and the raw files have plenty of information to play. Also, DxO has full support for it. I don't plan to buy any other Pentax gear for now.
My main photo gear now is Sony. I have two A7 , Mk2 and Mk3 and the reason is that I have some very good Minolta MD lenses, mostly wide angles, that I can't use on my Pentaxes (K5-II/K3-II).
I still use the Pentax when I need WR and for night sky photography.
If you want to try something different, I would recommend the Sigma DP2/SD1/SD Quattro (Foveon sensor). They are tricky for sure but in terms of brute reality the image quality is stupendous.
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Forum: General Photography
09-28-2021, 08:19 AM
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Long, long time ago... It was a ME-Super in the mid '70s then several other ones MX, P30T, UC1, Ist*D, K200D, K5 II, K3 II and that's it.
For lenses I don't have any clue about how many manual focus ones I had... Lots of them, but never wider than 24mm or longer than 200mm
For digital lenses, just the basic: 18-55 WR (kit), 21mm, 35 Macro, 50 1.8, 40 DA limited pancake, 18-135, 70 DA limited
Too bad Pentax is not sold in Brazil.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
09-28-2021, 08:11 AM
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Hello !
In my experience, I can say that there are just a few progams that can do this kind of things really well and the one I like the most is DxO Elite.
This program has exceptionally good optical corrections such as variable sharpness from center to corners based on specific lens/camera body combinations and for my taste it's on the edge of what can be done (well) by software enhancement. It usually get rid of fringes and CA very well.
There are also what they call "smart lighting" and "clear view" for shadow/highlight recovering in a level that I never found on any other program.
It's amazing how much juice this program can squeeze from cheap lenses.
They have 30-day trials
About Topaz Ai , Luminar Ai I really didn't like them.
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
01-10-2020, 10:56 AM
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
10-24-2019, 09:37 AM
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
10-03-2019, 05:56 PM
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@Jonathan
It depends on what you expect of course. I always shoot in raw for multiple reasons that is beyond the scope here, but I agree that the jpegs from the camera are generally good.
But when you shoot raw, there are just a narrow selection of programs capable of extracting all the juice from the rew files. Lightroom is one of those that aren't the best if you want extreme detail and highlight/shadow recovering. The difference of LR output compared to more capable programs like Iridient Developer, Capture One, Luminar, Raw Therapee and Silkypix is huge.
But in the end what really matters is if you like the image, not the absolute sharpness. Image quality is very subjective as we all know.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
10-01-2019, 06:02 PM
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Just an update.
I sold all of my expensive Fuji equipment but I kept a X-T1 body with just three inexpensive lenses, the XF27 pancake, the very basic XC 16-50 and the XC 50-230 to be used as a low cost and light option to my Pentax gear. A second hand X-T1 is very affordable and capable, and with equivalent image quality of the K5-II, depending on the lens used, of course.
The problem with the Fuji is, like every Fuji user knows is the raw processing of the X-Trans files. Today the best option is the freeware version of Capture One, called Capture One Express for Fuji. Works well and it's free, BUT you need to work a lot to extract all the juice from the raw files, especially in terms of sharpness.
The K5 has essentially the same output, but easyer. I recommend Luminar or DxO Photo Lab (due to the excellent optical modules)
Today I wouldn't even thing to abandon Pentax and go to Fuji. Not even considering the X-T3. It's a great camera but still a pain with the raw files and honestly, it's too expensive for what it is.
That's why I kept my K3 and gave up about upgrading my Fuji equipment.
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Forum: Pentax Q
06-14-2019, 08:28 AM
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Yes, I used it for two or three weeks a white one. I ended buying a Fuji X20, for me a decent EVF or a good OVF is very important and the Q LCD is horrible unde daylight. I never liked to hold a camera like a cell phone, it's just a matter of preference, I don't like it.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
05-22-2019, 12:58 PM
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I have the same sensation after using Sigma Foveon cameras. It's a bit off topic but I couldn't find any camera/lens combination capable of surpassing the DP2 Merrill image quality in good light. Even pixel shift from the K3-II can't compete.
Like you said, there are many niches and possibilities around.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
05-22-2019, 07:54 AM
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I'm still deciding if i'll keep both systems or not. It's not so obvious depending on the application.
There are good and bad things on both systems. For example I really hate the AF noise from some Pentax lenses and some other AF issues.
I also hate Fuji's EVF in low light and that loose aperture control rings of most of the R series lenses.
But generally speaking, I can't deny that Fujinons are awesome, I never saw a bad one or even a so-so one.
Decisions, decisions....
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Forum: Pentax Q
05-20-2019, 05:44 AM
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Some years ago I had the opportunity to handle one. It's indeed a fun camera to use, but not very practical.
- It's small but not pocketable.
- It has interchangeable lenses but the IQ is so-so, not better than any other camera with similar size sensor, for example the Panasonic LX5/7 was way better.
- No EVF and with a small rear LCD makes its use a pain
In my opinion it was aimed to the Pentax 110 nostalgics.
But again, it was a fun camera to use.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
05-19-2019, 01:09 PM
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No. I had severe issues with Oly AF in low light and under red/orange/yellow light. Impossible to get an AF lock, for example on an illuminated water fountain at night in Barcelona when it was lit by the mentioned colors.
Depends hugely on what lenses are you using on Fuji, Oly and all other brands. Some lenses are slow to focus, other extremely fast.
Fuji XF23,XF27,XF35 and XF50 are very fast to focus. Some zooms are slow.
For me the best AF is from Panasonic. Never miss.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
05-19-2019, 08:32 AM
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Francisco,
I like both X20 and X30. They have exactly the same output. Both can be extremely sharp if you do the things with care, for example shoot in raw and do the post processing with a decent raw converter (LR no please). Of course they aren't a K1 you know.
The optical viewfinder of the X20 is nice but unusable for close ups and macro, but better for low light. Battery life is low, about 250 pics maximum.
The X30's EVF is quite good and the battery lasts much more, about 450 photos.
Some days ago I posted a very short post about this on my blog. I'll update it in the next week with more examples. Note that the images quality can be compromised when uploading them to Google Photos.
Old Good Light: Remember Fuji X20 and X30 ? How Good are Them Really ?
Nowadays colors and contrast are more due to software than optics, believe me. Specially if your edition software is able to work with LUT tables.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
05-18-2019, 04:31 AM
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A bit off-topic but after some weeks thinking, I decided to keep my Pentax gear and sell the Fuji, but not everything..
I have a X-T1 (had X-10, X-E1 and X-E2) with 7 lenses, two zooms and 5 primes. But I also have two Fuji compacts, X20 and X30, and a very nice Panasonic micro four thirds set, and the Fuji is larger and heavier than it. The image quality from both systems are not that different to justify having them at the same time.
The Panasonic bodies I have are the GX85 and GX7. Both have IBIS, great ergonomics and are very good performers.
It's not a final decision but I'm really considering this.
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