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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-24-2022, 04:55 AM
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The cold of February isn’t picture tanking weather like April will be.
I’ve erased over ninety per cent of the thousand some shots I’ve made on one set of Energizer Lithiums and the same percentage of the hundred or so I’ve made on the new generic rechargeable lithium batteries.
If I had it all to do again I’d bought eight of the same brand. That way is only have to carry one charger.
One great advantage of the new type, is that the camera handles the same as if there was a dedicated li-ion battery. Review is instant. Autofocus and inputs seem instantaneous. A Li-ion camera battery has a meter, but when they decide to die they die right then. Constant discharge is a great advantage, no denying it.
But if stay home because of the snow and not go through McDonald’s I’ll save enough to buy a set of Energizer Lithium batteries rated at 1,900 shots.
In my lifetime toy box stash in the attic is a battery charger I bought over fifty years ago. It worked but that generation of rechargeable batteries really, really sucked.
Most of this, is playing with new technology.
LITTLE TOY TRAINS
Roger Miller 1967
Youtu.be
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src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-I2KeRtvJ-A?controls=1" allowfullscreen>
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-23-2022, 06:55 AM
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My K-x is my first Pentax digital and it cost the measly sum of $100 together with 18-55 L kit lens. I’m in love with it.
I’ve found a program that determine shutter count, and it was under 3,000 when I got it.
I’ve had other digital cameras, bigger point and shoots and bridge cameras, that used four AA batteries and those worked fine. My K-x would not even power up with generic NmHd batteries. It ate Eeneloops quickly, it lasted only a bit longer on alkaline. On the expensive lithium batteries it did work.
A K-x is supposed to have three updates and mine has never been updated. The first update more or less fixed the battery life problem. The last two were other minor improvements including using SDXC cards.
When I use 1.5 volt lithium batteries the camera operates snappily and with instant review, and seem to last forever. Using any 1.2 volt rechargeable batteries means it works, but not as fast and especially not quick photo review.
I’ve not tested how long the new 1.5 rechargeable lithium batteries last, but they seem identical to the disposable lithium batteries in performance so far.
Some more observations:
1. The new batteries are light, like the disposable lithiums. Four black Eeneloop batteries are weighty.
2. If you lose your specific charger (especially true for the USB-C port EBL batteries) you have disposable $7.50 each lithium batteries again.
3. They will give no warning (or very little) before they discharge.
4. Neither charger has any provisions for direct 110 volt AC charging. Not a problem these days when there are phone chargers all over every house and plugged in every car, but evidently the chargers want a constant 5 volts or less to charge. The generic set I bought were almost fully charged, and the EBL took an hour and a half on a phone charger to turn the orange lights to blue, then they shut off automatically.
The battery life of the old style disposable lithium batteries in my K-x was almost 2,000 shots. The set I had in there had been used over a thousand times and still registered full charge.
I’m going to shoot these new batteries until they drain, unless I get tired of waiting for them and recharge them. In reading the online reviews, the new type recharge quickly, and are rated over 1.200 cycles.
If you can call EBL a name brand, it seems it’s the only name brand producing these. My others were generic but the charger and little script reads Kratex. Here’s what’s in my Pentax now.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Double-AA-1-5V-USB-Rechargeable-Lithium-Ion-Batteri...-127632-2357-0
Here’s a link to the EBL batteries that dangle and show lights while they charge:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/EBL-Lot-USB-Rechargeable-Lithium-AAA-AA-Batteries-1...-127632-2357-0
There has to be a reason. If these are good they’ll quit making the others the same as NmHd drove those old ni cads off the market.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-23-2022, 12:11 AM
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A couple of weeks ago, when I got my K-x it was really unusable with any kind of rechargeable nickel metal hydride batteries except the the top of the line Eeneloops. An update on camera made a night and day improvement as to battery life from all batteries, and so far I’ve gotten a thousand shots from the best Energizer lithiums.
I’ve been fooling with rechargeable batteries for fifty years. The NiMh rechargeable ones are good, but only output 1.2 volts.
I didn’t know, they made constant 1.5 volt discharge, lithium high voltage rechargeable batteries. They did not a few years ago when I was trying to find the best solution for rechargeable AA batteries.
I ordered two sets, different brands, both $25 for four and both with rechargers.
The literature says you must use the specified charger. One was conventional, but the EBL brand uses a USB-C port in each individual battery.
These are “smart” batteries, in that each has when fully charged 3.7 volts, then a tiny voltage regulator reduces the output to a constant 1.5 bolts until they suddenly die.
Both types recharged quickly and the conventional ones are in my K-x right now and working the best.
One set was rated 3,500 milliamperes and the other 3,300, and I see where they go up to a rated 5,000.
If you’re looking to avoid replacing expensive lithium batteries I hope these prove out as well as their reviews online.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-20-2022, 11:12 PM
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The long lens does work, and I’m more than pleased with it.
The entire cost of this kit was about $50 for the body and $25 for the lens.
And the lens will fit the next Pentax body I buy.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-19-2022, 05:45 AM
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Once upon a time not really so long ago, when a young person graduated high school or college, or for a birthday or Christmas, a traditional gift, was a good 35mm camera kit.
Unlike today, that camera was considered a lifetime gift.
I still own my 1983 Canon AE-1 Program I was gifted from my father and mother in law. It still works.
But I use my ME Super when I shoot film because it’s a much better toy. It’s sort of like an Olympus PL-1 that still shoots film. It’s small, handy, hefty, and wouldn’t intimidate subjects.
Pentax needs a new, small, neat, desirable full frame camera to start young people out on photography.
My 2009 K-x checks about all the blanks for a new camera Pentax could never keep up with demand.
It needs to have a silver edition.
It absolutely must be full frame.
And the last lithium batteries I put in my K-x are still going strong after over a thousand shots. Make it USB-C charging.
I own an Olympus 75-300 lens and a Mark 5.2 OMD I thought was the bee’s knees for wildlife.
And while I’ll still use my MFT gear for documenting life in the Ozarks, I’m totally a Pentaxian now about long lenses, and incredibly good autofocus.
My K-x will stabilize that 300mm lens to over four stops.
My Pentax uses an optical viewfinder with zero lag.
And somehow it looks like what I think a camera should.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-18-2022, 09:11 PM
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My cheap 100-300 autofocus lens came today and I couldn’t be more pleased.
It’s ugly, light, plasticky and cheap, and focuses fast and accurately, and the pictures look sharp to me.
When it warms up I’m taking this to Bagnell Dam at Lake of the Ozarks and shooting birds feeding below the dam.
Pentax should make an affordable entry level full frame camera, that all this old glass would shoot.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-17-2022, 08:42 AM
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I’m taking apart an old Vivitar 70-300 PK-A/R and I’ve removed the Ricoh pin.
But looking at the complexity of the gadgetry associated with the Infamous Ricoh pin, that was intentionally put on there for a reason, back in the day.
What was the original purpose of the Ricoh pin?
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-16-2022, 06:12 PM
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One advantage of buying lenses for the sake average price as a McDonald’s drive through is you cry less when you break them.
Today I got a $20 Vivitar 70-300 PK/AR in the mail and in my excitement it rolled off the table and clunk, hit the floor.
A little chip is gone from the front ring, and the aperture is stuck open now.
I’ll either have to shoot it wide open or try fixing it.
That all of life’s little mistakes only cost $20.)
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-16-2022, 11:57 AM
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Actually I’ve fallen head over heels in love with Pentax, because I bought a used $100 camera and kit lens that only cost $500 new.
On this day, I can buy a spanking brand new K-70 with kit lens for under $650 from Focus Camera, Brooklyn New York, USA.
Pentax K-70 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AL WR Lens (Black) 27075297418 | eBay
But that K-70 is just a fancier version of my $100 K-x. It’s not full frame.
The engineering was done years ago on the K-1.
Full frame sensors are cheaper today, than they were a few years ago.
Making a cheap kit full frame lens wouldn’t cost much.
Someday Nikon or Canon will make a full frame starter mirrorless camera at the same price point as their starter APC DSLR cameras they sell today.
A Pentax starter full frame camera, even at $650, even with a standard Pentax battery, would shoot untold millions of old 35mm Pentax lenses and Canon and Nikon’s offerings never will.
What Pentax needs, is more Pentaxians.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-16-2022, 10:01 AM
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I have never had a class in photography.
There weren’t many photography classes close to Humansville, Missouri to take.:)
Where I think Pentax is leaving a niche market segment unsold is making a cheap, simple, full frame digital camera with a cheap, aperture adjustable on the lens, kit lens. When there were photography classes the K1000 was usually the recommended camera.
For example, I’m teaching myself how to shoot a 1958 Zeiss Contaflex. Top shutter speed is 1/500. There’s a gadget on the camera where you input ISO (max 800) and open a door for a light meter. The result I got was 13EV. Set the coupled aperture and shutter speed to 13EV, aperture to f8, focus to 20 feet and all photos from 12 feet to infinity at f8 are focused. The shutter speed on the Contaflex was 1/125.
I set my K-x to f8, ISO 200, and used autofocus.
Pretty close.
Pentax will never sell the most cameras. They need to sell full frame DSLRs to hobbyist photographers, and by the millions.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-16-2022, 08:59 AM
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Pentax gets $1,800 for the top of the line full frame.
Stick the same battery in the $500 model and you cannibalize sales of the big one.
My K-x was $500 with the kit lens in 2009.
Us shutterbugs get so jaded we forget $500 is a lot of money for somebody who doesn’t own a good, interchangeable lens camera and wants one, to shell out.
It’s a selling point for starter camera to take four AA batteries, and provide it with the best lithium rechargeable ones and a charger.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-16-2022, 07:26 AM
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Last night I played around with a Zeiss Contaflex IV, a state of the art full frame camera from 1958, the year I was born.
It’s an ingenious gadget; where you set a dial to the EV scale you get from the meter, focus and shoot.
Only a K-1 with a 50mm lens could duplicate it’s performance.
Let’s not forget the advantage of the shallow depth of field a full frame provides.
All those old Pentax lenses were full frame.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-15-2022, 06:37 AM
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The obvious move, is to upgrade the sensor in the K1.2 and use the old one in a stripped down $500 starter camera.
Nikon and Canon’s $500 APC DSLRs will be the last to die.
That should give them a push.:)
And the $500 full frame starter camera should take four AA batteries, and come with a cheap kit lens.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-15-2022, 03:32 AM
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What fascinates me is that forty or fifty years ago Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus and Minolta all battled each other for consumer dollars, and each had different lens mounts, but the sensor (35mm film) was shared by all players.
Even then a fast fifty was the mainstay of the market. The common primes were 12, 24, 28, 35, of course the 50, 85, 135, and 200.
It’s always been true, that when you buy new you get what you pay for.
My mainstay camera and lens is an Olympus M5.2 with a 12-40 f2.8 Pro lens that when new cost a thousand for the camera and a thousand for the lens.
I also own an Olympus P-5 with an f1.8 17mm prime and VF-4 viewfinder that cost $1,500 new as a package.
Neither of those cameras are worth a hoot tracking a moving subject.
I also own a Canon T5i with STM kit lens, a 24mm STM prime, and 55-250 STM telephoto. It has excellent tracking autofocus for the few times I want that.
But I’ve had an epiphany recently about Pentax, and because of this:
Olympus is releasing a $2,000 new camera that I can use all my MFT lenses on plus adapt all my legacy glass to.
And if I give my current MFT cameras good light I’d not be able to tell much difference.
But if I spend $1,800 new (or $1,000 used) for a Pentax K1.2 body and another thousand for a new high end Pentax Fast Fifty the only step above that in image quality,,,
Is a Pentax medium frame digital.
And every medium frame Pentax lens on the market adapts to the K-x I now own or the K1.2 I will own.
MFT has advantages over APC and full frame. They are light, and I can spend $3,000 on an Olympus f4 300mm and get the same reach as a 600mm full frame lens. And there are advantages to mirrorless cameras. The live view is extremely good. Video is awesome, if I shot much video.
But for about the price of 27 spools of barbed wire ($2,300) I can and will own a Pentax K1.2 with a top end Pentax fast fifty prime.
The advantages of a K1 are they’ll shoot every lens Pentax ever made for an ILC camera, with infinity focus, and you get an optical viewfinder.
What Pentax really needs, is a $500 full frame starter camera, I think.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-14-2022, 07:25 PM
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My wife and I enjoyed a $25 take home meal while shopped for old Pentax glass on eBay.
My Amish renter from the Amish Community called and his brother found good, heavy steel six foot T posts for $5.50 each, but I had to buy a full pallet of 600. I’ve bought the wire, now the T posts, and I have to still buy corners and heavy line posts.
When I get this mile plus some fence put up, I’m going to splurge on a Pentax K1.
A camera is a fun plaything, not as much fun as playing farmer, but certainly a whole lot cheaper.
When I get my K1 (or K1.2) I’m going to buy the latest, sharpest, best 50mm fast prime for it Pentax makes.
Yesterday I bought the 100-300 tele that will work, for $25, and tonight I just bought a 28-80 FA AL kit lens for it.
Since it’s a Pentax it will also work on my K-x, such a deal, such a deal.:)
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-14-2022, 04:44 PM
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What I’ve learned in accumulating about $200 worth of K mount glass that fills a large camera bag is this:
1. If it reads Ashai SMC M Pentax, oh my goodness, it’s a top of the line, jewel like lens. I want more of these.
2. If it’s Sears but made by Ricoh it’s a well built, good lens, just not to Ashai Pentax standards of finish.
3. Third party lenses generally decline in build quality as they get newer. A Vivitar or Focal isn’t junk, but they had to be cheaper than a real Pentax.
4. When digital very nearly killed off 35mm SLRs the old lenses were wonderful.
5. That Pentax should be the only DSLR any amateur photographer should consider, because image quality is equal or better than the same quality of Nikon or Canon, but only a Pentax can ALWAYS shoot any old K mount or earlier Pentax M42 mount lens.
If my $100 K-x can mount and shoot all that old glass, just think what more fun could be had with a new K-1!
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-14-2022, 09:10 AM
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The first set were opened all the way up to f3.5 with the A set to A, but not locked.
At 210mm the max aperture is supposed to be f5.6.
It seeks to get full program you must lock the A over to the left all the way, which is past a lock pin.
I noticed some spots on the background, which might be a dirty sensor or spots inside the lens.
I checked the dust using my kit lens and Dust Check, and there were little spots all over. I cleaned it twenty times using Dust Removal and then there’s just a trace in the top left, that was stubborn to further shaking.
But it seems to take decent photos with the kit lens.
The K-x was an advanced camera for 2009, with Shake Reduction, Sensor Cleaning, Lens Correction, all kinds of toys to explore.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-14-2022, 08:42 AM
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I looked at my Tamron and I had it on A but not locked over full to the left in A.
Whether that makes any difference I don’t know.
I went back outside and the chicken hawk flew away, and this time I backed off a little from infinity.
Honestly, I cannot even begin to do this with contrast detect autofocus MFT lenses.
I noticed the Program mode lowered the shutter to 1/250 and closed the aperture to f6.3 and f5.6 at the last.
Was that because I had it locked over full left, locked in Program?
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-14-2022, 08:24 AM
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Outside my home there was a chicken hawk in a tree (no doubt checking out our chickens).
He might not quite have been far enough away for infinity focus.
But I had my K-x set to High drive, and on Program using my Tamron I got about twenty shots of him as he flew in a big circle and landed on another tree 60 yards away.
These cheap lenses are a whole lot of fun. Notice how the white balance changes. All I did was point and shoot. I’m learning all this as I go along.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-14-2022, 08:01 AM
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:):)
I’m going to be taking my $25 Tamron 70-210 Auto apart to clean off some haze and spots of dirt inside.
I’m surprised it works as well as it does.
You’ve heard of lens creep, this one has lens PLOP back and forth. :)
When I have this apart, is there any way to realign it at home?
What I like about it is, the Auto feature still works. I can shoot Program, Tv, Av, and even Scene modes with it.
Plus on my K-x it seems to focus to infinity at full stop. I shoot lots of MFT with adapted lenses and there, if you get infinity focus at all it’s never at full stop. This is an overwhelming advantage an old Pentax DSLR has shooting legacy glass over using adapters for MFT.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-14-2022, 07:26 AM
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I’d like to point out a carton of good cigarettes is worth about two cheap Pentax lenses.
For my ME Super away at Rich Henderson being rebuilt, I own a Pentax 50mm M f1.7 and Pentax M 80-200, together worth $50.
For my $100 K-x with 18-55 kit lens I own a $25 Focus f2.8 24mm, a $25 Sears f1.7 50mm, a $25 Sears 135mm, a free old 70-210 Vivitar, my $25 Tamron 70-219 Auto, a $25 70-300 Vivitar (in the mail), the $25 Pentax FA 100-300 in the mail, and a $25 generic long focus f6.3 400mm.
My f2.8 Focal 28mm needs repaired, and my Tamron 79-210 and Vivitar 70-210 Auto need cleaned. I have a lens service kit in the mail, and I’m going to learn how to fix those old lenses. It should be fun.
To my great surprise, the worst lens I have, the $25 long focal 400mm, isn’t too bad.
I’m learning that Ricoh and Pentax made lenses were better.
Also, that autofocus is wonderful for closer subjects.
And, that a used Pentax DSLR, the newer the better, is a deluxe toy that’s a barrel of fun.
What I want is a thousand dollar used K-1. Until then I’ll have a ball playing with my K-x.
I know there are professionals that shoot Pentax, but I do this just for the joy of it.
Those crows were about 400 yards away past that shack along a tree line.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-13-2022, 07:30 PM
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Last week I received my Pentax K-x and I was able to shoot every old K and M mount lens I owned. I had to either use stepped down green button metering, or shot Av wide open, but a happy man was me!
Then a $25 Tamron 28-210 Auto KP/AR lens arrived, I removed the Ricoh pin, and now my K-x shoots that lens set on Auto with full connection for Program, Tv, Av, even the Scene modes. What a wonderful lens! All I do is focus and shoot!
Now I’ve won an FA 100-300 lens for $ 24.40 in an auction with four other bidders.
As I understand old Pentax lenses, a few FA lenses are still being made and they are full frame autofocus lenses that are current for the K-1 and work on all other modern Pentax APC DSLRs, including my K-x.
An FA isn’t optimized for digital, but why are they and other old Pentax lenses so cheap?
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-12-2022, 02:53 PM
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Thanks for the advice!
Removing Ricoh pin was easy.
Now I have a working Auto lens that communicates with my Kx and works in Manual, Av, Tv, and Program.
The Macro even works.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
02-12-2022, 01:30 PM
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Today I dug out a Ricoh pin equipped Tamron 28-210 PK/AR Auto lens (not autofocus) and in five minutes time (thanks to help from a forum member) removed the evil Ricoh pin. It was easy. I took out four little cross point screws from the back ring , bent up a plate, removed the Ricoh pin, saved it for whatever reason) and reattached the back ring exactly as it was, and done.
Now, for only $25, I have a lens I must autofocus, but this lens communicates with my K-x and I can shoot Manual, and Aperture priority and Speed Priority and even Program if I set the lens to A.
I’ll need to clean this lens on the inside when I get a kit to work on lenses, but it’s not too shabby as found.
I found I need to add about .7 EV to get exposure right. No need to green button meter. Point, focus, and shoot.
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