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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 09-05-2020, 01:24 AM  
Hiking with a K-1ii
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 74
Views: 8,465
Some gorgeous photos posted and some wise words. I really like the thought of prime lenses and the "constraint" it applies to composition. I also try to take very few shots but shoot well...just for the reason that I like the process of doing it that way. Unfortunately I have developed male tennis elbow (this is like normal tennis elbow but x10 as bad because I'm a bloke) and for the last couple of weeks it's been almost unbearable to pick up a cup of tea. This makes a prime lens, and especially something like a limited lens, very desirable as the shorter the object I'm carrying the less pain it causes. Obviously, it's ok when it's on my back, but the camera isn't much use there.

I feel like one of those old men I used to tut at as a youth because I couldn't figure out how an elbow could ever hurt. I think this is karma!

Anyway, I quite liked this one I took the other day on a very wet walk.
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-26-2020, 10:17 PM  
Astrotracer vs Tracking Mount
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 20
Views: 3,261
The alt-az would purely be for visual observing; it offers go to and tracking without the faff of precise polar alignment. The eq mode would purely for photography. Perfect combination!
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-26-2020, 02:35 PM  
Astrotracer vs Tracking Mount
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 20
Views: 3,261
I do have an 80mm apochromatic refractor but I prefer that on an alt-az mount, but I'm thinking that rather than a camera tracking mount, I might as well go for something like a Skywatcher AZ-EQ5 which can work in both alt-az and EQ and could obviously handle a DSLR. It could track far longer than I'd need at wide angles but for telephoto stuff (or even my K-1 stuck on the end of the telescope to make a 600mm telephoto) I could stack dozens of images with the added bonus of having the objects found for me too. I've had one before and it worked really well. For the wide-angle stuff, I think the Astrotracer is just fine. That would make a nice overall package.
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-26-2020, 01:40 PM  
Post your K-1 pictures!
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 38,019
Views: 3,733,409
It's been a showery sort of a day.
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-20-2020, 02:18 PM  
Astrotracer vs Tracking Mount
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 20
Views: 3,261
That's one of those really simple but very clever little tips that I wish I'd thought of. Genius!

---------- Post added 08-20-20 at 02:20 PM ----------



That's the one, although I notice it doesn't give times for the K-1 specifically. Does the full frame sensor change things significantly?

A fantastic reply by the way - should be pinned somewhere as it sums everything up very clearly.

When you say equatorial mount, do you mean something like the Polarie or an actual German equatorial mount as used with telescopes?
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-20-2020, 08:08 AM  
Astrotracer vs Tracking Mount
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 20
Views: 3,261
Thanks - it's probably a bit of a luxury having both a K-1 AND a dedicated tracker, but it would give me another option so I might give it a whirl. It's not the end of the world in terms of cost and could be great fun.
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-20-2020, 06:52 AM  
Astrotracer vs Tracking Mount
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 20
Views: 3,261
Thanks - but with the astrotracer I'm finding it faffy to have to realign every few shots to keep things in the centre but I'm thinking a tracker would prevent that. I'm probably answering my own question! I used to have something called an Astrotrac which was fantastic and one of those things I wish I'd never sold! It would give me 10mins solid at 200mm without batting an eyelid.
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-20-2020, 06:08 AM  
Astrotracer vs Tracking Mount
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 20
Views: 3,261
Thanks - I found the chart...it was actually one stating the maximum tracking time for any given focal length using astrotracer, so not the 500 rule. They suggest there's no advantage in tracking time over a specific tracking mount but one would still overcome the trailing at the edges and allow easier staking of multiple images as I wouldn't need to re-frame any shots.

I think 60 seconds is about the limit I've found too.
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-20-2020, 01:22 AM  
Astrotracer vs Tracking Mount
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 20
Views: 3,261
I love the Astrotracer feature of my K1 and find it very simple to set-up and use. Not needing to align is wonderful and generally I'm getting good results. However, the trailing of stars at the edge of the image is an issue to me and one which I think would be overcome by using a simple tracking mount such as the Vixen Polarie. There are times when I would be happy to add a little bit of extra effort into the alignment of such a tracking mount to overcome this (unavoidable) shortcoming of Astrotracer. Does anyone agree or have experience of using both systems or would the benefits be so marginal as to make it pretty-much pointless?

Also, I know there's a table out there which shows the recommended tracking times for a given focal length, but I can't find it anywhere...can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-17-2020, 03:18 AM  
How accurate is the electronic level?
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 18
Views: 1,735
Yes, absolutely, but this was just an opportunity to see which was the most accurate level. It was just ironic that it was the one place that didn't need any additional help to get a level shot!
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-16-2020, 12:33 PM  
How accurate is the electronic level?
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 18
Views: 1,735
I did as I said and last night, after a magnificent day of moody sunshine and wonderfully atmospheric patchy fog, I got my camera out just too late and took two very uninteresting panoramas. On one I used the camera's electronic level as a guide and on the other I used the ball head's bubble level. The results are dull, inconclusive and, annoyingly, useless as I can't remember which was which! I can't upload them at the moment and you're missing nothing other than to say either way is perfectly acceptable!
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-13-2020, 01:21 AM  
How accurate is the electronic level?
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 18
Views: 1,735
I think I prefer the idea of going to the seaside this weekend and trying it out while eating fish and chips. Actually...that's what I'll do!
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-12-2020, 02:57 PM  
How accurate is the electronic level?
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 18
Views: 1,735
Thanks everyone. I’ll have a play somewhere pretty and perhaps take a panorama using the camera’s electronic level as the guide and another using the bubble. I have a good tripod (3leggedthing Winston) and a good head (Arca Swiss) and I believe my K-1 is well liked around here.... I just want to avoid having to crop too heavily when I get back to the office because the places where I take the panoramas are not the sort of places you want to have to go back to!
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-12-2020, 05:35 AM  
How accurate is the electronic level?
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 18
Views: 1,735
What a minefield. Everything everyone says makes sense.

Perhaps I'll just be glad that it's probably going to be more accurate than doing panoramas by hand!
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-12-2020, 04:56 AM  
How accurate is the electronic level?
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 18
Views: 1,735
I've just taken delivery of an Arca Swiss p0 ball head (I do a lot of panoramic photographs for my work) and I chose it for its ability to not require the tripod to be levelled. I would have expected the bubble on the tripod head and the electronic level on the camera to be in full agreement, but they're not. It's minor...won't matter and I could easily check by taking a panorama, but which would you think is more accurate?
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-10-2020, 01:40 AM  
Strange GPS problem
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 5
Views: 928
It worked fine this weekend so perhaps it was a solar storm issue!
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-07-2020, 04:36 AM  
Strange GPS problem
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 5
Views: 928
Possibly the battery. It wasn't cold by any means (16º) but the battery level on the screen was showing about 75% full which I'd imagine shouldn't cause any issues...but this morning, it's all working absolutely fine.

Very odd!
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-06-2020, 04:34 PM  
Strange GPS problem
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 5
Views: 928
I wanted to try a bit of Milky Way photography this evening before the Moon rose. I’ve used the Astrotracer feature a fair bit and have had some great results but tonight I was getting star trailing with relatively short exposure times (20 seconds). Then I noticed that GPS wasn’t on, but I couldn’t turn it on....not while in live view anyway. If I turned live view off GPS would work fine and it would stay on if I went back into LiveView until I pressed ok having composed my shot....then off it went again.

Any ideas?!
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-03-2020, 11:58 PM  
Hiking with a K-1ii
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 74
Views: 8,465
The lens has been returned and replaced with the f4 70-210mm. The f2.8 was ridiculously heavy for very little gain (to me) but beautifully made. If it were a telescope it would be a Questar....just a very heavy one.
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-03-2020, 07:55 AM  
Focusing (magnifying the view)
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 6
Views: 1,021
You've solved to zoom issue for me...that's all I wanted to know! There is a different...I don't have to have the function dial set to off etc. Brilliant...thank you! It must be in the manual somewhere that all you need to do is press the OK button but could I see it?!
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 08-03-2020, 07:19 AM  
Focusing (magnifying the view)
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 6
Views: 1,021
Last night the weather forecast was for dry, broken clouds which I thought would make for a lovely sunset, so I treated myself to an evening by Grasmere. It rained...a lot. Ah well, at least I can vouch for the weather sealing on the K-1.

I've read and researched about focusing using Live View and it's great; I definitely prefer manually focusing. So far, the only way I've managed to magnify the view on the screen is to set the Function Dial to the dot "disabled", press the green button then turn the setting dial anti-clockwise...then I can zoom in and out using the rear e-dial. It works and I'm getting the hang of it but is there a simpler way to do it or a way to do it if the Function Dial is set to anything else?

Also, on my lovely new 70-210f4 lens there's a MF and AF switch...of course there's one of those on the camera too. Does it matter which I use or how they're set?

Thanks
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 07-29-2020, 06:41 AM  
Post your K-1 pictures!
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 38,019
Views: 3,733,409
I popped to Ullswater the other night because I thought the light was nice, and I had my new 70-200 f2.8 lens and I wanted to check its sharpness. I exposed for the highlights using the histogram and then a friend tinkered with it a bit in Photoshop. I'm happy with it seeing as it was a 20 min ride out to test the lens. Please remember I only bought the camera for work purposes and some astrophotgraphy stuff, so anything else is a bonus!
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 07-27-2020, 08:38 AM  
Hiking with a K-1ii
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 74
Views: 8,465
It's going to be a fantastic lens for astrophotography, even if I need to go back to a tracking mount to use it to its full potential. There are also countless places around here with stunning views within a mile or so of any car parking space, so it might not be a walkabout lens but it will (I think) get very well used. I might even scout some routes and, if everything's looking good, make a beeline for that location early one morning or late one evening.

I used to have a Canon 70-200 f4 and got some great shots with that...and this should blow that away.

I'm trying to convince myselt!
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 07-27-2020, 05:10 AM  
Post your K-1 pictures!
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 38,019
Views: 3,733,409
That's lovely. That's the sort of shot I want to get. I want to go out on lovely walks and if a shot is there, capture it.
Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II 07-26-2020, 12:12 PM  
Hiking with a K-1ii
Posted By osbourne one-nil
Replies: 74
Views: 8,465
A near mint 70-200 f2.8 lens became available last night at (what I though) was a great price and I quickly convinced myself to grab it while I could. So from worrying about whether my kit is too heavy, I've gone and bought a lens that weighs as much as a blue whale. Perhaps I'll reserve it for short walks with views I've scouted and astro stuff!
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