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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
10-10-2016, 09:17 PM
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This would be extremely disappointing for me. I'll be picking up the KeyMission 360.
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
05-13-2016, 11:08 PM
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K1 or not, that's a great photo!
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
09-07-2015, 09:59 PM
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I'm torn. I thought the original Theta was overpriced and couldn't find a reason to buy and use one. I recently came across some of the 360 degree videos from the Theta where the user can pan around the video and look at what they want. I now have an application in mind for this! The problem is that the video quality while you pan around is terrible. This does not seem to have changed much with the Theta S but it may be YouTube's fault since it uses some unknown zoom level for posted videos.
Anyways, now Kodak has a 360 degree video camera that does 4k resolution. I don't know if a user will be able to pan around in these 4k videos but, if so, that is a MUCH more desirable product for my needs. I hope Ricoh can upgrade the Theta to 4k.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
04-29-2015, 01:32 PM
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Yeah, I find the article to be a bit of a back handed compliment towards Pentax. Such is life
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
11-24-2014, 08:36 PM
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For folks not wanting to wait, Adorama will have a Black Friday deal on the K-3: $796 |
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
09-28-2014, 12:20 AM
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I bought my copy a month or two ago and, with regards to posting my observations, I found it a little hard to pick a thread to post my remarks in. There aren't dozens of threads about this lens but there are several and they are littered across the News & Rumors board, the K-3 camera board, and this one as well. I posted my initial remarks in this thread. My primary reason for purchasing this lens was for astrophotography/night landscape applications. Since my original post, I can share a couple new photos:
f1.8 @ 20s, 18mm, ISO400
Here's a 100% crop of the center & upper left corner:
The photo does have some slight sharpening in Photoshop (Filters->Sharpening->Smart Sharpening). I have also used it taking photos of our new puppy as well. :lol:
f1.8 @ 1/500, ISO400, 35mm
And a 100% crop from near the right-center:
This last photo is actually an export from the unprocessed RAW file.
I really like this lens.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
09-13-2014, 03:06 PM
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Nice find on that article. Hope they succeed!
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
09-07-2014, 11:38 AM
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I believe, like Pentax, the bodies have image stabilization so there is no need for it on the actual lens.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
08-30-2014, 01:07 PM
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I pre-ordered mine so I've had one since it came out. I'm happy- but not enthused. I upgraded from the K-5 so, while the K-3 has many enhancements that are great (such as focus peaking, more focus points, etc), I was disappointed that the high ISO performance above 1600 wasn't markedly better than the K-5. I know there's been a ton of discussion about that with the megapixel resolution difference but it still leaves me a bit....meh.
It's a solid camera, though, and I don't regret purchasing it.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
08-23-2014, 06:04 PM
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
08-10-2014, 02:24 PM
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So I got my copy on Friday and Saturday took it out for my first use. I bought the lens pretty much for night landscape/astrophotography and it's going to replace my older Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 in those situations. A few thoughts-
- Like others have mentioned, it's heavy
- Focus motor is QUIET. You won't hear much to verify focus so keep that in mind.
- The focus ring is firm with just enough resistance. In other words, it's not sloppy & excessively free turning. This was great since there's a narrow range for focusing wide open.
- The f1.9 really lets in the light so even it you're stopped down to f2.8, using Live View to focus at night was MUCH easier than with my Sigma 17-70 at the same f2.8
I've seen some other observations of lens flare when wide open. I experienced this as well. Here are a couple shots:
6s @ f2.8, ISO800, 18mm
This is a huge improvement over my Sigma 17-70. Due to the "supermoon", I wasn't able to take any good shots of the night sky & stars so that will have to wait for the near future. All in all, I'm really impressed with the lens so far.
8s @ f4, ISO800, 28mm
Neither image has been processed. Both are just "save as" straight from the RAW DNGs. I'm a little bummed about the lens flare but oh well. If I recomposed, minus the actual moon, the flare disappeared. The last thing I'll note is how sharp it is! This is a 100% crop from the right center edge of one of the previous photos:
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
08-02-2014, 10:39 PM
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I think Ricoh could back themselves into an emerging niche with the Q if they just put a little work in. The Q is so small and light (even with lens), it's light enough to stay under the payload capability of the DJI Phantom series quadcopters. This *could* really find it's home as a RAW capable camera for use with quad/hexcopters for aerial work. That's my plan and why I picked up the original Q from the PF marketplace awhile back. If they were able to improve the sensor and possibly add weather sealing/resistance, this would be hard to beat for that line of work.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
07-31-2014, 09:10 PM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
06-05-2014, 09:37 PM
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Get a Hood Hat from OP/Tech. I have these now for all my lenses except the 55-300 (I still use the wrap pouch that it came with).
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-27-2014, 09:39 PM
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Is there any other reason outside of price that you're focused on the 18-55? Is it the WR status? The F3.5 at the wide end won't do you many favors for astrophotography. I might consider something like the Sigma 17-70 which at least gives you F2.8 at the wide and still F4 at the tele end of the range. Mine does have some coma in the corners but I think it would be a better overall lens than any of the entry Pentax 18-55 lenses.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-26-2014, 10:04 AM
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Hmm. That seems contratory to the purpose of home owners insurance but you learn something new everyday. I know any claim on HO insurance is basically a "hit" against you so I'm far more likely to just take the hit rather than screw myself later down the line when something REALLY bad happens like a tree crashing down into my house.
I think I'm going to just replace the DA55-300 instead of repair it. In the photos of it that I've posted, it appears to me that there's some sort of coating that has "eroded" in the center of the lens and I'm not sure that's something that the repair place can actually fix. In that case, a used copy of the DA55-300 can be had for not a whole lot more than the "worse case" repair quote I was given.
And yeah, I realize I just screwed myself in terms of the body's warranty. Even worse, I paid for the extra 2 year Pentax extended warranty when I bought the body. Oh well. I don't plan on doing this again and will be buying a dry bag to keep my stuff in when I'm around water.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-25-2014, 08:02 PM
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No- the accident happened while out hiking so I can't claim it on home insurance (and I don't have my camera gear insured either). To update how things are going-
Today is day 8 and I pretty much have a handle on what was salvageable and what will need to be repaired. The DA12-24 was mounted on the body when my accident happened and had the least "visible" damage out of all the equipment. From my last post, you could still see some visible condensation inside on day #5. It seemingly all clear away on day #6 so I decided to try it out on my backup body (K-5). This is what it produced:
As you can see, there was some sort of haze or fog effect. I didn't see any issues with my naked eye but there was still something going on. I decided to leave it out and "air dry" for another day. Last night (day #7) I tried the lens again and had MUCH different results:
That's basically straight out of the camera. I was really relieved to see this! My Sigma 17-70mm was pretty much dried out but not without leaving water stains / streaks inside the elements:
That will have to be sent in for professional disassembly and cleaning. My third and final lens is my DA55-300 telephoto. As of tonight, this is how it looks:
That's also going to have to get repaired. I had pretty much ignored my K-3 body thinking that it would be fine due to weather seals. Apparently this was not the case. It never really displayed any real signs of condensation like on the LCD screen or the back of the display but did have just a touch of condensation would the viewfinder prism. So after 6 days in rice, I put a battery back in the body and turned the switch. Nothing. Oh dear..
Like the DA12-24, I decided to let it air dry. Yesterday it still wasn't powering up so I was resigning myself to the fact that I would have to also send in my body. I was getting ready to pack it up tonight and decided to try it one last time. Success!
I'm Sooooooo relieved to see the body come to life! Now, instead of sending 3 lenses and a body in for repairs, I'm only sending 2 lenses in. Finally some good luck!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-22-2014, 10:52 PM
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Thanks, Dan. I did do a little bit of that while examining them tonight. They did seem to zoom normally so that was a good sign.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-22-2014, 10:16 PM
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Thanks. It's a bummer for sure. Today is day #5 using the rice method and here's how things are going so far:
DA12-24:
Sigma 17-70. This one actually had water sloshing around immediately after my incident:
DA55-300:
Up until now, I've left the rear lens cap on over the lens mount for the Sigma & the 55-300 but tonight I decided to cover it with a paper towel and tape it in place. I'm hoping that encourages more moisture extraction.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-22-2014, 07:56 PM
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I realize that this is NOT a Tamron lens but I broke the zoom ring on my older Sigma 17-70mm lens earlier this year. The repair through Sigma took about 3 weeks and cost me about $100 USD. I would hope that your Tamron repair would be in the same range.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-22-2014, 07:17 PM
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So it finally happened to me and I dunked all my camera gear into a river. My K-3, DA12-24 (attached to the body), DA55-300, and Sigma 17-70mm were all in my backpack when they went in to the water for about 3-4 seconds. When I got home that day, I went to the store and bought a bunch of rice and then put each lens (and body) in its own bag with rice. Today is day 5 and while I do see progress, I am expecting that not all the lenses will come out of this unscathed. I'm guessing that this kind of repair will run me about $150-200 per lens.
Does anyone have a similar experience and can shed some light on the repair cost?
Thanks!
Steve
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Forum: Pentax Full Frame
04-15-2014, 07:48 PM
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The only feature that would really sway me towards FF is high ISO performance and Pentax's FF camera better have a significant improvement over their APS-C offerings, and at least comparable performance compared to the D610, D800, and 5dMk3. I was disappointed in the high ISO quality when I upgraded to the K-3 from my K-5.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
02-28-2014, 11:05 PM
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I'm surprised no one has brought up the UI and/or menu system and all the extra button clicks they introduced with the K-3 (compared with the same operation on the K-5). I'm always grumbling when I switch modes from bracketing back to 2 second timer or cycling through the various review modes during image playback.
All that is relatively minor- they could fix all that with a firmware update but probably won't. As for a "real" improvement, I want cleaner high ISO. I know it's been explained many times that the higher MP count eventually provides slightly cleaner high ISO compared with the K5 but I want cleaner RAWs to begin with. These are the only disappointments on my end.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
01-05-2014, 10:26 PM
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This would be my impression as well. The high ISO comparison is pretty dramatic but, if you're not pixel peeping, the K3 seems to hold its own fairly well. Makes me kinda wonder what Pentax will eventually have for us when they do release a FF camera.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-05-2014, 02:36 PM
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I've been using an older copy of the Sigma 17-70mm since 2010 (bought it used off another PF member). Generally, I like it a lot & it's the third lens that's always in my bag (DA12-24 my primary & then DA55-300mm for tele). Is it soft in the corners? It took me a while to realize it but now I will say yes. Because it is F2.8 at the wide end, I've been using it for night sky landscapes and that's what finally made me realize it.
It is a zoom so there will always be trade offs. I'm looking to retire it from night shots whenever Sigma releases that 18-35 F1.8 lens but this lens will still be a mainstay in my bag for all other work. Living in the Pacific Northwest, I've used it constantly in rain & snow without any issues. Painfully, on New Years Day, the zoom ring broke so it's currently on its way back to Sigma for repair.
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