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Forum: Ricoh GR
07-19-2022, 11:11 AM
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Iīve been buying stuff that I donīt really need all of my life. Mostly technical stuff. Lots of Hifi stereo parts. Motorcycles, cameras....
Starting with Praktikas, Zenza Bronica, then when I started making money Leica and Contax in the 80s. Now mostly Pentax as far as cameras are concerned.
What made me turn a corner was when my old friend Dave died just being 50. He was a hardcore motorcycle rider as hardcore as you get them.
And he had barely ridden during his last years since he was so busy maintaining his 23 motorcycles.
His widows sold it all off in the spring following his untimely death. She had to. All their money went into that barely ridden bikes.
The moral: I set up some rules for myself and stick to it: No more than 5 bikes. Nobody needs more than 5 bikes. You can make the number 3 or 7. It doesnīt matter. Just draw a line and donīt change it.
Then: Donīt buy stuff that you already have. I just gave away a sportsbike. Now I can buy a new one.
That also means: Does it serve a purpose or am I just attracted? This one is hard to follow. 2 years ago I bought a Schneider Kreuznach T/S for the K1. Letīs just say I liked the blue rings.
This is by far the most expensive lens I ever bought talking Euros/shot.....
A lot better investment: The GRIII I bought last year. (The one with the orange ring.... Street Edition? The leather case that came with it ainīt bad.)
When I leave house I have it with me. I use it and thereby I get used to it. I know the buttons and know how to get the AF to do what I want.
Itīs becoming part of me.
Just like the touring bike that I spend about 200k miles on over the years. (OK, three identical bikes after another.)
Thinking of it: I gave away the sportsbike since I didnīt use it. Maybe I wonīt buy a newer one. I wonīt use it just the same.
This is not just about "can I afford it". Maybe the money doesnīt matter to you.
It is about "Does it really do something for you or do you just admire it?"
With the Schneider Kreuznach T/S for me it was the latter.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
06-14-2022, 10:35 AM
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Hopefully not beating a dead horse:
Autofocus especially on zoom lenses gives the developer some challenges that most customers arenīt aware off.
Notably and perhaps in this case the momentum of the turning and moving masses in relation to the mechanic friction and dampening, mostly by the grease.
The camera developer really needs to know how far the lense will go further on itīs own when he turns off the motor or it will overshoot position every time.
Do this for a 100 different lenses? Guesswork. Not pretty.
And simply turning back the lens to the wanted position doesnīt work either.
a) You risk getting into pumping.
b) the mechanics have a minimum movement that gets bigger when the number of the elements are rising. (Zoom)
c) too slow!
A lot of things can be influential: Viscosity of the grease, (Aging and dust) different friction caused by wear/bending/100 things.
Temperature, even a a different battery voltage. And of course if you put the camera up or down.
So, itīs not very surprising that a new camera has problems with 11 year old third party lenses. Chances are, Pentax didnīt even test them.
Thatīs not very good news of course, but one of the things that I as a technical developer _love_ about my Pentax cameras is:
They continue pumping out firmware updates, especially to support more lenses.
So, perhaps making some (friendly) noise to Pentax Japan canīt hurt. Mention the forum.
(I wouldnīt even bother calling the Aussie guys. My experience with Japanese companies is that they are interested more in the opinion of their own garbagecan than that of the gaijins working for them in foreign countries.)
Chances are, some 2023 firmware update may bring pleasant surprises.
You may be surprised. Earlier in the year I got Honda Japan and Bridgestone Japan to correcting some 25 year old compatibility table which results in me being able to run brand new T32 tires on my 30 year Honda ST 1100 ABS bike.
This is not about money for them. There are probably like 500 of the bikes left in Germany. But being told by a German engineer that their numbers where incorrect all the ime and they didnīt had their act together? Thatīs about pride.
The guys in European headquarters? Useless. They had all the data for more than a year. After Honda and Bridgestone brought out new specs the Europeans started calling me and asked how I had done that for Christs sake?
My answer: "I didnīt call marketing. I called development. And told them Iīm a German developer."
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-24-2022, 09:37 AM
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On the other hand I admit I was trying to avoid some post production by using f 22. I understand it was a mistake because of the diffraction. I do use most of the techniques related above:
It is tempting. And gives inferior results. Been there. Done that.:)
1. the image above is focus stacked from 2 images - one focus on top, one focus on paper's surface.
Try focus stacking from 20 images. Youīll be surprised.
Generally speaking: The easiest way to get basically infinite resolution is to take a ton of detail pictures and stitch them together digitally.
2. I do use high pass to sharpen my images
Phew. It does not really sharpen. It enhances edges mostly. That would be the last step I think.
3. I am not using flat lighting. This light creates almost no shadow. I know the sidelight creates shadows and texture.
4. For some reasons, I thought pixel shift can not be used with flash, but flash is 100% my lighting source. I searched the manual - ... can not be used with X and B modes... Hm... I am always using M mode.
Frankly: Not much point in flash with macro for me. Not if it doesnīt move.
Other things to consider: Avoid vibration as good as possible. Stable tripod, stable table. Stable everything. Donīt even think about pushing the shutter release manually or trigger the shutter when the mirror is not switched up.
And donīt forget to switch off shake control. If you want to squeeze out the last bit of sharpness it wonīt help.
(Sorry if this is silly advice for beginners. Itīs just mistakes I made myself.)
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
05-17-2022, 10:26 AM
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The chart of aperture and itīs relation sqrt(2) has been dealt with. Thatīs great.
What I like about your original post is the description of the relations of tradeoffs.
With a modern digital camera you donīt really need to care about proper exposure.
But you need to know about the tradeoffs!
I met somebody on the Newcastle-Amsterdam ferry just yesterday.
We were both shooting the sunset. (I know)
And then I found out he always shoots ISO 25600. "That way I donīt have to care."
Yeah, right.
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