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Forum: Sold Items 01-15-2010, 07:42 PM  
For Sale - Sold: Sigma KA 24mm f2.8
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 9
Views: 3,198
Lens hood/caps?
Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands 12-25-2009, 02:06 PM  
Pentax SMC Glass on Micro 4/3?
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 11
Views: 5,725
I have a GH1 that I purchased exclusively for video. I use my Pentax glass with it, my 50mm 1.7 in particular, and it's really quite a nice setup.
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 09-11-2009, 03:18 PM  
The little K100D that could.
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 9
Views: 2,113
She's supposed to be mailing it back to me...so we'll see.



My thoughts exactly! But on the other hand, since she walked right into the 2 weaker points of the camera (In my subjective opinion, of course) -- noise at high ISO and JPEG processing -- I hope it doesn't leave a bitter taste in her mouth!
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 09-11-2009, 01:11 PM  
The little K100D that could.
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 9
Views: 2,113
A little background -- I spent 2 years running around Seattle as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I'm quite fond of the place, and I'd love to move back some day. (Wikipedia Links)

(PS -- The picture of the name tags in the first article is MY picture. Nobody ever told me they were using it for a wikipedia article...imagine my surprise when I discovered one day I'd been published! I forget from time to time, and then I'm reminded when I go to that article to link it to somebody)

Anyway, onto the story. So last weekend my friend and roommate had a wedding to attend in Washington. I agreed to go up with him so I could visit people I knew from my mission. We drove up together, and then I rented a car and went my way while he went his.

I was hoping to take some video while I was up there, so I took my Panasonic GH1 -- and sent my friend with my K100D. I have a Pentax adaptor for my GH1 (Got to love that Pentax glass!) So I greedily kept my lenses and sent him with just the kit lens.


Sunday night when we reunited, he had quite the story to tell me. I'm telling you the details I know, and I'll probably never know the rest of the story -- but I guess the wedding Photographer's equipment was having some issues. The shutter was bonkers in the main camera (No clue what kind of camera it was -- sorry), and the way she had the backup camera setup it wouldn't work either. (I have no clue if she was shooting Canon and Nikon and her lenses wouldn't work on each other or what, I really have no clue...that's just what I was told). I guess before long she had abducted my K100D, and it became the wedding camera.

I do feel a little sorry for the photographer. My camera was set to ISO3200 and JPEG when I got it back -- but I guess she decided that a little noise was preferable to using the onboard flash, and that (Having only CF cards for her equipment) she'd rather take MORE pictures than RAW pictures. Good luck in post, my friend...good luck in post.

What a story though eh? I haven't really seen any of the photos yet...nor do I know if I will get to. I sent the camera out with a 4 GB card and it came back with a 2 GB card. There were a handful of wedding photos on the camera, but nothing too impressive...I hope what she got on the 4GB card is higher quality, and I really hope I get to see some of the end result.

Our cameras may have their limitations from time to time...but when push comes to shove it's good to know Pentax was there to get the job done!
Forum: Video Recording and Processing 05-25-2009, 04:11 PM  
Quality of K-7 video
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 997
Views: 164,705
...and Jello. Oh my is that Jello-y. I'm reserving final judgment!! But I do hope that better footage than this pops up.
Forum: Video Recording and Processing 05-23-2009, 05:01 PM  
Quality of K-7 video
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 997
Views: 164,705
Aperture change while recording is nice to have. If you're run-n-gun shooting, you can go from a dark spot to a light spot, and in these cases you don't want to have to stop the camera to adjust exposure. Much much easier just to keep the camera rolling while you re-adjust. Sure you may not use that actual footage, but you might use that audio or something. So what if you're recording audio with an external device? Well it's still nice to have the audio on your camera continuous, to keep sync.

So yeah, even though the situations are few where you see the aperture change during a shot, that doesn't mean it's not important to have. Quite the opposite, it is a very nice thing to have.

I thought there was a photo/leak that seemed to indicate that locking out aperture during recording was a menu option, however. So it's possible, and even plausible I'd say, that those who have used the camera thus far just have not found that option.

It they did lock it out whilst recording, it's likely for the same reason that AF isn't continuous while recording -- noise. The on-board mic...even a shotgun mic mounted on the hotshoe...is going to pick up A LOT of noise from screw-drive focusing lenses. I didn't see mention of the new WR lenses being designed with video in mind -- IE stepless aperture or silent SSM focusing. It's kind of a moot point anyway though, one of the best things you can do to improve the quality of video you take is to turn the auto-focus OFF.

The last time I used autofocus was when I was trying to achieve a special effect with a camera. The camera had a focus ring, but the ring was still "focus by wire" -- that is, the focus was still computer controlled. Without any kind of markings or consistency in the focus ring...I could actually better achieve the effect I was going for by turning the camera from manual to auto-focus at the opportune moment.

Anyway, aperture adjustment and auto-focus during recording are not necessarily deal-breakers...but if they *only* give us control over the aperture in video mode, and don't let you lock down and/or choose any of the other adjustments (Shutter speed / ISO) than, from a filmmaking standpoint, we're not much further off than we are with the D90/5dmkII.

Should still be fantastic for what the majority of consumers are looking for in a video mode, nevertheless.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 05-21-2009, 10:14 PM  
K-7 Shutter noise video
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 11
Views: 3,142
No joke. My friend and I got K100Ds at the same time. One of the first things he said was "Well I guess I won't be photographing any insects..."
Forum: Video Recording and Processing 05-20-2009, 09:34 PM  
Quality of K-7 video
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 997
Views: 164,705
The mirror is going to be locked-up during video capture, so if you want to MF, it's going to have to be on the 3" LCD screen.


This is exciting stuff.

Panasonic has a rich video heritage, they've produced a camera that takes excellent video, and the stills are pretty good too.

Pentax has a rich imaging heritage. They've produced a camera that takes excellent excellent stills and pretty good video, too.

In this generation, for me personally, it looks like I'm still looking at a 2-camera solution (One video, one stills, and you have to know I want a K-7 now!) -- but the worlds are certainly converging.

The video out of the K-7 is going to please very many people, especially in context of the camera itself just having so many other fantastic features.

I am not let down at all because my expectations are realistic, but at the same time I'm excited, and maybe a little scared to see what the next generations video-capable DSLRs holds!


Let the video pixel-peeping begin!
Forum: Video Recording and Processing 05-18-2009, 06:37 AM  
Quality of K-7 video
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 997
Views: 164,705
Yeah, you need more light. Then you can speed the shutter up. It slightly change the way motion looks. Lower shutter speeds give you a little bit of blur in motion, and sometimes that is actually desirable. Standard shutter-speed in film, for example, is 1/48 shutter for 24 FPS frame-rate.

So I mean if you need more light you only have so many options, but if you need less light there are many options to get the right shutter speed/FPS/DOF combination.
Forum: Video Recording and Processing 05-13-2009, 11:52 PM  
Quality of K-7 video
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 997
Views: 164,705
Well it only does it with the stock lens, which was designed for video. Specifically the "Video" lens features silent, SSM focusing (SSM is pretty quiet, but not always 'silent') as well as a stepless aperture.

Pentax could certainly release a new video-friendly lens with the K-7, but if they don't do that, then we'll be using the current lens lineup. Somebody else mentioned it earlier...auto focus on a screw-drive lens? That's not going to help the audio in your videos.
Forum: Video Recording and Processing 05-13-2009, 05:29 AM  
Quality of K-7 video
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 997
Views: 164,705
I forgot to attach this to my earlier posting.
Forum: Video Recording and Processing 05-13-2009, 12:10 AM  
Quality of K-7 video
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 997
Views: 164,705
Since you quoted me, I'm going to guess that was directed at me. I must have been misunderstood, I have no issues with interframe compression at all! Nevertheless, it does require more computing power to work with. You can get around that by converting to an intermediate codec for editing, and that's fine -- I think that anybody who whines about having to do that (Digitally, often faster than realtime) obviously hasn't spent much time capturing footage from tape :D

The only reason my wager is on MJPEG is because this would really be Pentax's first major entry into the world of video. I am guessing (hoping!) they are focusing more of their effort on making a stellar stills camera. So for a photo-oriented camera from a photo-oriented company, on their first entry into the market, MJPEG just seems more realistic.

As jay noted, MJPEG can be quite good. The codec is definitely a player in creating quality video, but it's just a supporting player, and many good things can make up for a slightly less good codec.

It's funny because this is exactly the debacle that's going on with the GH1 right now...if it's being let down by anything, it's that the AVCHD is locked at 17 mbps (Mbps? My capitalization is probably wrong on that, and with mbps/Mbps it matters. So sorry. ) when it would really benefit from 24 mbps.


But hey
In all this talking about Codecs, I forgot to mention something that I thought was interesting from the press info:

The K-7 is also equipped with an HDMI terminal...

Jay said it already, so I'll just repeat his words:



Whoever is first to market with a sub $3000 camera that will do uncompressed HDMI out...wins.
Forum: Video Recording and Processing 05-12-2009, 10:13 PM  
Quality of K-7 video
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 997
Views: 164,705
Let's talk about interframe vs intraframe compression for just a second here.

I just spent a week shooting with a Panasonic HVX-200. It uses DVCPro 50 and DVCPro HD codecs. 1 gig per minute! It's using an intraframe compression codec.

I've also shot some stuff with AVCHD cameras. The footage they shoot takes up at most about half the space of footage shoot in DVCPro. AVCHD is an interframe compression codec.

So what does that mean? Well intraframe means that there is compression, but each frame is individually compressed.

Interframe compression codecs are totally different beasts. The camera records frame 1, and then for frame 2 it just records everything that changed between frame 1 and frame 2. If you make big changes, then that bit of video is recorded at higher bandwidth -- but if you're shooting a mostly static scene, than the video is pretty low bandwidth.

YouTube, Vimeo, and Digital Cable all use forms of interframe compression. This is why sometimes -- let's take YouTube for example -- when I click the "HD" button, the video will switch into "HD" quality, but at first I just see a big green square, and then *the image kind of pixelates in -- it doesn't have all the information to start with, so that's what you get.

AVCHD is, as has been noted here, a lot harder to work with in editing and such. It's usually not so bad to play, but when you start jumping around...you jump to frame 13 and the computer has to look at frames 8-12 before it can build frame 13.

There is a workaround, several I am sure, but the one I am referring to is the method Apple (Among others, I'm sure) uses in iMovie and Final Cut Pro, and that is to convert the AVCHD footage into a different format if you want to edit it.

That's a lot of technical babble and speak, but I just wanted to give that background to state that, based on my understanding of how these things work, I'd be VERY surprised to see the K-7 recording uncompressed images. That just takes a lot of bandwidth and storage space.

If I had to guess, I'd say they're going to do MJPEG, or maybe AVCHD. MJPEG is my first guess though.
Forum: Video Recording and Processing 05-11-2009, 07:48 AM  
Quality of K-7 video
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 997
Views: 164,705
My bad...yeah that's just 720p. Well...if you read the vimeo description it was mostly shot 1080p, but then he dropped it in a 720p timeline. There is some 1080p stuff. The bad news is that this camera (Because of the compression you mentioned) falls apart. 24 mbps AVCHD would probably fix it. Will they give us that in a firmware update? It's possible but not totally likely. Panasonic will not disappoint, and the 720p footage is anything but disappointing -- we just might have to wait until next year and the GH2. Anyway that's all I'm going to say here because this is suppoed to be about the K-7 right? (You can catch up on the whole GH1 thing here)



No I'm sorry, it's fantastic. Not to be critical, demeaning, or insulting -- especially if you are a filmmaker -- but are you looking at it with the eyes of a photographer or a filmmaker? Because they have a lot in common, but they're different beasts...and if you're looking at that video from a photographic standpoint, than yeah it falls short in a few spots. Maybe if I put it in context it will help a little -- that quality of video from a camera as small and cheap as the GH1 is just mind-blowing. That was not controlled circumstances either...it was just a talented person playing around. The GH1 hasn't even hit American shores yet -- he's got a Japanese model, complete with menus in a language he doesn't even understand. Those clips are untouched in post as well...no grading, etc.

Anyway, sorry to pull off topic, I guess what I was trying to say in the first place is that, as a Pentaxian, I'm thrilled that the K-7 is coming. An excellent video mode would have been icing on the cake, but judging from this thread, I am thinking Panasonic will have Pentax beat. That's ok though, I'd expect a Pentax camera to be first and foremost an excellent stills camera, and if it takes Pentax some time to get up to speed on the video thing, no sweat...
Forum: Video Recording and Processing 05-10-2009, 10:59 PM  
Quality of K-7 video
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 997
Views: 164,705
I got on a tangent there going on and on about the GH1 that I forgot to mention this...


...15 fps is too slow. 24 fps is just fine, and the holy grail for filmmakers. 24 fps is what film cameras normally run at. Don't ask why, it's probably like somebody else mentioned in here...that's what they could make 'back in the day' and it just kind of stuck. So 24 fps 'looks like film' and that's what people shooting video that they want to look like film shoot.

60 frames looks more like TV and video because, well, TV and Video (in the USA, sorry European folk...but yours is close) are 60 frames per second.

So what about movies you watch on TV? Well they were shot 24 frames per second, and then dumped into a 60 frames per-second video environment. There are even video cameras specifically deigned to mimick this look, most notably the DVX-100 and it's successors.
Forum: Video Recording and Processing 05-10-2009, 10:44 PM  
Quality of K-7 video
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 997
Views: 164,705
Yeah, another Panasonic video user/lover here.

I have been neglecting the Pentax forums for the past few weeks -- ever since the GH1 came out -- because I've been hanging out at a Panasonic forum.

I am about 90% sure that I will be buying a GH1 this summer. If Pentax comes out with something as good as/better than the GH1, in terms of video, than I'd do it instead...but from the vibes I'm getting in this thread, it just doesn't seem like that's going to be the case. I'll be getting the GH1 for it's video capacities and it's video capacities alone, though I suppose I may do some stills with it from time to time too.

The 2 big players currently in the vDSLR market are the D90 and the 5dmkii. They are both a bit finicky to work with though, they don't give you much control over the video and such.

The other problem (as some have noted here) is the way CMOS sensors sample, the D90 and 5dMKII both suffer from "jello" effect where, when panning, your whole image can look like it's in Jello.

The killer features of the GH1 are that the lens it comes with has *silent* auto-focus, for use while rolling video, and the GH1 gives the user full manual control over the aperture and such, even while recording video.

On top of that, they also seem to have gotten the Jello effect under control.

They've done a really smashing job with it and, judging from Panasonic's extensive background in video, that's not surprising.

While I'd love to see Pentax come out with something with killer video capacities...I'm just not holding my breath. Pentax doesn't have video background, and creating a high quality video recording requires a whole chain of things to work together.

They'll get it eventually though, and be excited for that day. Check this sample of video from the GH1. Simply stunning stuff, at a simply stunning price point. (I'm shooting video right now with a Panasonic HVX-2000. $6000 video camera, and video from this little $1500 GH1 rivals it)


(If you've got a vimeo account...and since this is a photo forum I'm guessing you're more likely to have a flickr account...make sure you login and download the full resolution version of that video. A. Maz. Ing.)
Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups 04-29-2009, 05:57 PM  
Flying with K100D
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 8
Views: 2,355
Oh hey -- in my slightly frenzied state (More background: I just moved home for the summer last week. "My Life" -- or in other words -- almost everything I own, is still spread across the floor of my room, haven't had time to unpack. I didn't have a final departure time until 5 this afternoon and I still don't know my entire travel itinerary.) I totally forgot that I can take 1 larger and 1 smaller bag on board.

I'll probably try to pack as light as I can. I'll have to see what kind of Bag the Panasonic comes in, but I'll probably just carry it on, plus a backpack. Either my giant JanSport bag with my laptop and K100D in it, or my LowePro SlingShot.

Even if I could technically have 3 carry-on bags, that's just a hassle.

If I don't take the LowePro on board, I'll probably pack socks in it and stuff it in a suitcase...when I'm not flying, it's much nicer to carry my Camera in, than my giant JanSport Bag (Which stores my laptop+necessities nicely)

Thanks for the info.
Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups 04-29-2009, 02:02 PM  
Flying with K100D
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 8
Views: 2,355
Hey all,

Quick Background on me:
I am an Engineering student, but I have an artistic side too. I have worked previously in film & video.

Ok...I am an Engineering Student and have been working with a team who is going next week to be part of a competition. They were supposed to have a professional (I guess I'm professional too, but I mean somebody who does this full time) videographer go with them, but at the last second he was too expensive or something.

I got a phone call from the team captain inviting me to come with them, all expenses paid, if I'd be the documentarian.

Needless to say I'm having a good week :D

Here's what I'm wondering about...

I'll be flying across the country. I need to take my friend K100D with me. If it was just that it would be no problem, I'd throw it in my carry-on and be done. The problem is I will be taking a Panasonic HVX-200 as well.

Any travel tips?

I'm guessing the safest thing to do is to forgoe taking any personal items in my carry-on and reserve the space for my MacBook Pro, K100D, and the HVX. Do you think my lenses would be safe in my check-on luggage though? I would keep the kit lens on the camera and in the carry-on would be OLD, manual focus Pentax 50mm lens and a Sears 80-200. I'm not super worried about those lenses...both of them together cost me less than the Kit lens, but I am worried that somebody would think they looked interesting and keep them for themself.


Suggestions?

It's Wednesday afternoon...I'll likely be flying out some time Friday.
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 04-13-2009, 08:33 PM  
SD Card will not stay in
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 7
Views: 9,117
Well if you already realize this I apologize, but you may not realize that the SD slot has a built in ejector. The way you make the card eject is to push it further into the slot, and then it pops out.

It works like a mechanical pencil.

So if that got pushed to the eject position, and you then just put the card in, put not enough to switch it out of the eject position, it could pop right back out.

So try pushing it far in and see if it clicks into place.
Forum: Film Processing, Scanning, and Darkroom 04-03-2009, 04:23 PM  
Opinion; Optex 35mm Film & Slide Scanner
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 6
Views: 19,311
In about 40 seconds of searching I found just 1 comment, on another forum...I found out that it's not so much a proper film scanner, as it is a 5 MP digital camera with a flash behind the slides...not a scanner.

I'd stay stick with what you got. Sorry it's slow.
Forum: Photographic Technique 04-02-2009, 09:38 PM  
Advice on "Product" shooting
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 17
Views: 4,840
I spent $9 on FoamCore today to make a Light Box following the directions there. I'll be using it to do some shots on Monday, maybe Tuesday. I'll let you go.

(I'm actually using it to shoot video, but I'll probably do some stills too, though)
Forum: General Talk 04-02-2009, 08:18 PM  
Do you request Pentax lenses for your eyeglasses?
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 32
Views: 37,885
My grandma sells frames and lenses. She mainly uses Hoya...which is the parent company to Pentax. My frames have an oddly-shaped lens though (I should post a pic since we're all lens snobs, right?), and so they had to go to her other lab, and they came back with Zeiss glass in them.

The lenses have an amazing coating on them. I ranted about it in another thread, but basically it's called Crizal and it's the best anti-glare coating I've had on glasses. (I'm a young chap, so some of you may have been wearing glasses longer in years than me, but I've worn corrective lenses for about 65% of my life). The website is a lot of marketing, but it's all true. The lenses stay clean, and when they get a little dirty, they clean up easy. I want Crizal on my lenses!
Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help 03-23-2009, 12:56 PM  
Changing Lenses
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 32
Views: 7,000
This sounds like really similar to what everybody else is saying.

I'm not super anal about dust either. Here is my sequence:

1 - Find the lens I want and get it read in my bag. That means loosen the back-cap, keeping it on the lens.

2 - Cap the front of the lens on the camera. Remove from camera and place face-down in bag.

3 - Transfer cap from new lens to old lens.

4 - Attach new lens to body.

I don't rush it, but once I have the old lens ready, the actual changing procedure can't take me longer than 10 or 15 seconds. The camera is open to the world for just a few seconds, maybe 4 or 5...

The main thing for me is that before I go to stick the lens on, I make sure I know where the witness mark is so that I can stick it straight on the body, and have it go straight into the Bayonet slot. No fiddling around.
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 03-19-2009, 06:46 PM  
Leaving pentax? eek.
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 148
Views: 22,094
Aaand...6 pages later and no peep from the OP.
Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories 03-19-2009, 06:46 PM  
Memory storage- what do you recommend ?
Posted By Saaby
Replies: 20
Views: 4,055
That would be online storage.

(Your friendly terminology czar)
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