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Forum: Pentax Full Frame
03-11-2024, 05:00 AM
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I have always wanted a digital version of the K1000 that was really basic. Manual everything and a nice focus.
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Back in ca 2000 a US Co came up with a film spool shaped digital adapter that just dropped into any 35mm camera that sold for a year or two, but back then pixel counts were pretty low and the device was not cutting edge even then (800x600?). Modern electronics/sensors could improve on that I am sure.
OR
I also walk around with my old Fujifilm HS30 EXR (24-720 zoom) bridge camera that ticks the boxes of many other comments in terms of weight (687g inc battery) single card slot, flip up (only) rear screen etc. Unfortunately only 16Mp but mirrorless with a digital viewfinder (only 46kb). If this had removable lenses and all the fancy modes removed + 30Mp and "normal" Pentax pentaprism/DSLR shutter mech and optical VF there could be a cracking little camera. Could be down at the old MX size.
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Forum: Vintage Cameras and Equipment
02-27-2024, 09:41 AM
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Back in 1984 as a starter SLR I bought a Zenith TTL (M42) with a 58mm prime for very little money - I think it cost about £20 new. I got a 28mm and 135mm Sirius dual lens pack deal at Argos - another ca £25 the pair - and was away! I took these on an Egyptian sojourn and it was amazingly good. I spent a day in the Egyptian Museum getting great indoor shots including King Tut's treasures in rather dull lighting (photos no longer allowed last time I visited), another day at the Giza Pyramids, then down to Memphis and Saqqarah before heading down the Nile to the Karnak and Luxor temples, the Ramasseum, Queen Hapshetsut's Temple and Deir el Medina village, then the Valley of the Kings as well as down the Nile on a feluca to Crocodile Island and the banana plantations. That cheapo Zenith, crude as it was, had amazingly accurate match needle metering and even the cheap Sirius lenses gave great images way beyond my expectations. Obviously based on the Pentax Spotmatic, it lasted until quite recently when I took it out of the cupboard and the shutter screen had detached itself from the mech. Also some Meade binoculars were in the same cupboard. Tinkering around, I found a Sigma 135mm lens AND the quite new Meade binocular rubber coatings had both gone very sticky. The damned cupboard looked like solid wood but was actually veneered MDF and I believe the solvents in the MDF had gassed-off and was destroying any synthetic rubber it found. At the same time it had dissolved the adhesive on the Zenith shutter. The later 12TL that I got as a second SLR body was never as good a camera so when I was given a Minolta X300 I just swapped over to this brand, getting an X700 and Tamron 28-200 and M42 to Minolta adapters. Meanwhile I bought my partner (who was studying photography) a Pentax MX which was a fantastic and tiny camera body. After "borrowing" the MX I was converted to Pentax so when I saw a "last delivery" of K1000s to the UK I had to buy one, though it languished in a cupboard most of the time. Guess which cupboard ! Yes, the new K1000 seals ALSO melted and junked the brand new body. So when it came to getting a DSLR I had to buy a new Pentax K10d - and via a s/h K5 now have a K1. NOT kept in that cupboard! A word of warning to all: Smash up and junk any MDF furniture and keep any away from your cherished camera gear or any other tech devices!
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Forum: Vintage Cameras and Equipment
02-27-2024, 08:49 AM
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What a lovely camera. A mate had one of these (the silver variant) in the early 1960s and was very jealous.
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Forum: General Photography
02-26-2024, 05:27 AM
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I bought a K1-1 at the same time as PPPPPP42 and have not regretted it. Pulled out my old 35mm FF lenses and acquired a few more after checking reviews on this forum. When I think of the money I had to spend processing & printing colour in my 35mm SLR days (kept a b&w darkroom going for a few more years) I can only be thankful for the digital revolution.I bought a new k10d when they were being obsoleted and started my DSLR journey and still occasionally pull it out for fun - a nice camera to use with great colours from the CCD , but doesn't seem to like any glare or the metering goes wild (had a new processor under warranty but no real change), so then acquired a K5 and really thrashed that - still my goto walk around camera with a Tamron 18-200mm that is surprisingly competent, but the K1 is a monster (not only in size/weight). Still learning new ways of using this. The cheap plastic SMC DA 35 and DA 50 bought new for the K5 are great cheap FF auto primes when used on the K1 while the older 35mm glass is also great (though often manual) and very cheap to acquire - bought a broken K1000 with a perfect 50mm/f1.4 for £2 at a car boot a couple of years ago, similar with the SMC 28mm lenses on market stalls.On the K1 I usually use a Sigma 28-200 f/3.5-5 Aspherical IF as a walkaround lens. It works pretty well with a home designed/3D printed zoom bar that makes FAST zoom easy for grab shots, though can show some fringing towards the 200mm end. All in all, older Pentax digital cameras can be acquired pretty cheaply and when they were top of range in their day are still very functional, so never sell as they do get whisked out for an airing for specific purposes: K10d for colours and a "vintage feel" lots of adjustability and smooth action. K5 for a small bodied light camera for easy walkaround use and have a lot of low to midrange APSC lenses bought for this and the k10d. The K1 is also a good but bulky and very heavy walkaround camera but is SO capable it is worth lugging around and trying out with everything from fisheyes to big zooms, with quite a few old 35mm Pentax primes adn Pentax + Sigma short zooms . Better s/h lenses are just rocketing in price but do promise myself one of the upmarket (probably) Sigma primes at some point. Photography can transport you away from day to day troubles and allow you to be creative at just the click of a button. Once you have some basic digital kit the rest is free.
Main cameras
Canon G9 with lens kits, crisp images and a lovely build quality
Fuji XP200 - used for everything from snaps to underwater vids with stereo sound
Fuji HS 30 24-720 - brilliant camera for ultra zoom shots of the moon etc. Image quality OK if sunny - very light to carry and no lens/sensor dust issues
Pentax K10d - rather heavy, nice image quality and great CCD colours - needs good light but no glare for slow enough ISO to give best results
Pentax K5 - small body, light, versatile, metering very good - long battery life/frames per charge - a fine APSC camera still
Pentax K1-1- large, heavy, big pixel count, very versatile - lovely FF camera, good ergonomics - still learning best techniques with this - gives very nice colours with older lenses.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
01-19-2024, 06:40 AM
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Picking up on this old thread, I am tinkering with my old k10d as I (like others) like the old CCD sensor colours. I bought this as one of the last batch made but after about a year found I was getting a lot of "wash-out" with skies almost white and seemingly a lot of excess glare. Darker subject matter was OK. I talked with Pentax about this and they said it probably needed a new processor and/or sensor and as it was still under warranty sent this back and when received after the repair it seemed a lot better. Using it again around 9 years later it does seem to be doing the same again. Reading the old posts gave me some pointers at tweaking the settings to improve, but it does seem to generically suffer from this problem. My K5 and K1 do not. Is this a sensor/exposure issue? If not why did Pentax replace the processor (as they stated when repairing)? Would be good to get some better images again so any comments after around 10 years of usage by other Pentaxians welcome.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-16-2024, 07:38 AM
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Was reminded of the update for my K1-1 by a friend so went to the site and did the update - seamless. Not tried the new Astro tracker functions yet but well pleased that this has been improved over straight GPS. Still a brilliant stills camera!
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-19-2022, 05:27 AM
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Some storm! Great B&W shot
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-19-2022, 05:26 AM
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One of the best I have seen this year - lovely ethereal image
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-19-2022, 05:25 AM
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Shades of blue are lovely
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-19-2022, 05:25 AM
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Definitely conveys the bitterly cold scene
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-19-2022, 05:24 AM
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Still waters - nice reflections = winter on it's way
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-19-2022, 05:23 AM
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-19-2022, 05:22 AM
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Great wide angled shot. Is this a crop?
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-19-2022, 05:21 AM
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Wow, what a scene! Nicely caught and presented
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-19-2022, 05:20 AM
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Nice settings to enhance the image impact
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-19-2022, 05:20 AM
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Lovely range of tones in the image
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-19-2022, 05:18 AM
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Nice use of blurred water flow and colour in contrast to very B&W water falls
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-19-2022, 05:17 AM
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A real contrast of content
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-19-2022, 05:17 AM
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Brilliant view of morning mists very wintry
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-24-2022, 03:00 AM
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New (clone) 2200mAh battery on new charger (after a few charge cycles) is showing 8.32v. Older batteries are showing ca 8.2v after similar charge cycles and a few days on the shelf using the new charger. All batteries are now showing OK 100% charge in the K1. Without building load test circuits and monitoring discharge rates and onload terminal volts, off-load terminal voltages are the only metrics simply available. Although older batteries may not provide the max No of image captures due to loss of capacity, these seem fine for day to day use where I do not need to change them for ~1 month or more. When expecting to do a specific shoot I would take a few fully charged spares anyway. As per my OP - the issue I had was the lower status shown on the K1 compared to the K5 with the batteries charged to whatever max volts they could retain and this still seems to be the issue. The K5 will show 100% with battery volts (off load) down to ca 8v or less while the K1 seems to need ca 8.2v to show 100%. Possibly, this reflects a higher operating current on the K1, so Pentax set the last segment to trigger at a higher voltage so show that this was needed for max target frame count? Meanwhile, I do suspect my old K5 charger may not be delivering the top-off charge required to achieve this (although the same model No). may tinker with a few wires and monitor actual charge voltages on both when I get the time.
BTW I was involved in some early FMCG built in battery charging investigations using coulomb counter circuits and when set-up properly these know the LiIon battery status through actual discharge and charge current measurements. However, as replaceable batteries all undergo different conditions this makes "normal" chargers incapable of accurate charging - the only way these can work properly is to have short disconnections and load application to determine where on the charge curve the cells have got-to. A tricky problem requiring much more sophisticated charging methods than in the std Pentax charger.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-21-2022, 03:26 AM
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AFIK the K1 II is little changed to the K1-1 although some physical hardware differences as you have to return your -1 body to Pentax if you want to upgrade - so more than just firmware.
Pundits suggested the K1-1 was better at some tasks than other so after some consideration of what I really wanted to achieve with a modern FF went for this (at much reduced cost as well compared to the II)) and until now not disappointed.
V.old K5 batteries now showing 8.25v after a day on the new charger as opposed to ~7.2v after several days on the old one and indicating 100% in the K1 body, so old battery chemistry and maybe not so great old charger????? New battery still "on it's way" so hope to nail this soon. Good to take the K1 out yesterday for 30 odd frames on a quick walk and battery still OK, so all improving now. Not noticed a big difference with in-camera self discharge between the K1-1 and the old K5 , but not really thought about it before. So long as I can leave a week or two and still not see a drop from a nominal 100% all quite good enough for my usage.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-20-2022, 06:58 AM
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Hi Uncle Vanya, a useful charger with real indicated voltages rather than just the charger cut-out. Will double check the batteries after a few charge cycles on my new K1 charger and see if they pop up to that 8.4v as shown
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-20-2022, 06:56 AM
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Re Yoda boy: Same here, until now never had a problem with battery self discharge over several months - maybe I have not been using my Pentaxes enough recently :-)
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-20-2022, 06:54 AM
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I swapped for the new K1 charger rather than my old K5 unit (same model charger) and the genuine original battery now shows full charge again in the K1. Is this repeated charge (this is the 4th time I have recharged in the last few days) that has caused the battery chemistry to pick up, or is the old charger perhaps not so quite pokey enough? Even my older batteries now seem to be over 8.2v (and increasing) so maybe all just a matter of low usage and sluggish battery chemistry? New battery not yet here but will post results with a brand new unit charged in a brand new charger. Good to have at least 2 batteries with a full charge status so I can wander off and use the camera without cut-out worries.
As the K5 showed 100% charge even with depressed battery voltages it seems that this camera has a different (lower) reference comparator voltage for the status indicator 100% status.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-18-2022, 03:59 AM
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Thanks to all for the quick and interesting replies to this post.
All battery terminals were cleaned and were fully recharged in a genuine Pentax charger. The K1 terminals were also cleaned before refitting and checking and there was no difference in the indicator response - still < full charge status . Also, as mentioned, all batteries DO show full charge when put in my K5.
It would be interesting to know the official expected full charge new battery terminal voltage offload. I will of course check this when my new 2200 mAh "test" battery arrives.
I see that Uncle Vanya suggests that even 8.23v is a low off-load terminal voltage and the much lower values seen on older batteries show severe ageing -in which case, why would my K5 battery indicator show these as in a "Full Charge" state? I accept that most of these batteries ARE old and do show lower terminal voltages, but still seem to give good service in the K5 and show "Full Charge" when fitted and remain so for extended use.
The issue really is the inconsistency of measurements shown in the K1 status indicator that even a month or so ago showed full charge on ALL (5) of these batteries including the new one that came with the camera body last year and are all still showing full charge in the K5.
I assume that the K1 draws a higher current than the K5 and thus depresses the terminal voltage more as it turns on so may show-up the slightly degraded aged batteries.
Of course the charger may not be great and "could" be turning off too early so have just swapped for a new one and will monitor results using this on the older batteries and the new one when it arrives - new battery + new charger SHOULD at least guarantee the battery status and will see how the K1 responds.
Thanks for the detailed advice and comments, will post again when I see what happens with the new battery.
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