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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
04-01-2014, 10:06 PM
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I would suggest the combo of the 18-135, your 12-24 for the wide shots and a fast prime for indoor.
I was on a 19 day China trip in October 2012 and took my K5, 18-135 and 50 F1.4 Most shots were taken with the 18-135 and is seemed to be a good range. I took a Panasonic superzoom "point and shoot" as a spare and used it when I needed more reach on the Yangtze. Wish I had had the 55-300 for that part of the trip but would not have used it elsewhere. I ended up with over 4000 shots.
As others have mentioned, pollution is your enemy there and you can forget any long range landscapes if the pollution is high as it is right now.
Enjoy your trip and I hope you get good weather.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
10-03-2013, 06:51 PM
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Here is a photo taken by my father of the family boat the Kitnayakwa. It was an ex rum runner on the British Columbia coast and was purchased and converted into a family boat. This photo was taken about 1939 or 40. When it was used for rum running it just had a windshield and engines with the rest of the hull devoted to rum and whiskey. The last time I heard of it was someone in the Seattle area had it for sale. That was about 5 years ago. She was 41 feet long and had twin 500 HP fire engine motors in her. They were taken out and replaced as no one could afford to run them during the war years. Even with the smaller engines the log book shows they went out quite often with only one engine running to save fuel. (No idea who the lady was)
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
09-06-2013, 07:42 PM
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You got some great shots and had very good weather by the look of how clear most of them were. I was there last October and there was a lot of smog most days. On the Great Wall we got a nice clear day.
Looks like you enjoyed your trip. It is quite an eye-opener to visit for the first time and have your expectations totally changed by the reality of the country. I did not expect everything to be quite so modern. There are still areas that are unchanged but it was a photo opportunity at every turn.
Thanks for sharing your photos.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
07-05-2013, 09:34 AM
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Here is the image cropped to 100% or as close to it as I can get with Lightroom. When I click on the image created by the crop tool it does not magnify or shrink anymore so it must be close. You can see some blurring starting to appear but not bad for the long end of the Sigma 18-250 lens. Several reviews mentioned that it was not sharp at 250, I think I have a good copy! The OS is nice as you get to see a stabilized image in the viewfinder.
Maybe owners of the K5 IIs should run through all of their older lenses and re-test them if they have been reluctant to use some of them because they did not appear sharp. I am very sure that I could not do this type of crop from any images I have taken with the K5.
I will have to try to compare the Sigma 18-250 with the Pentax 55-300. I usually take the 18-135 and the 55-300 on outings but from now on if I think I won't have time to change lenses the 18-250 will be on the camera. I used it on a recent trip to Hawaii and it worked well there. I had just purchased the K5 IIs a couple of days before leaving. It was nice to have a new body with the same familiar control layout, just a sharper image.
Same image 100% crop
Cropped in Raw in Lightroom 5 then exported without resizing to JPG.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
07-04-2013, 06:20 PM
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I found myself going through some images from our local Canada Day celebrations in Lightroom and thought I would see what cropping this image would do. I am very happy with the image quality from this new body. The image itself is nothing special as I could not take it from any angle that would not have the cars in the background. The girl sang Oh Canada for the opening ceremonies on the beach.
The original image was taken with the K5 IIS and the Sigma 18-250 OS lens. Shot in Raw with no processing in Lightroom other than conversion to Jpg to output at 1024 resolution for the web. The more I use the Sigma 18-250, the better I like it.
The second image is a crop from the original. I printed the cropped version and it is very sharp.
Original Image
Cropped Image
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
06-15-2013, 03:47 PM
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Photo from top of Diamond Head taken with K5 IIs and DA -18-135 Lens.
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Forum: Lens Sample Photo Archive
11-26-2012, 11:09 PM
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I just came back from a 19 day trip to China. I took the K5 and the 18-135 lens as my main camera combo. I also had a long zoom Panasonic point and shoot. I shot over 4500 images and some video with the two cameras and almost 3/4 were shot with the K5 and the 18-135. I had taken a couple of limiteds with me but found that we were on the move most of the time (organized tour), so it was not very easy to change lenses.
The 18-135 was a very useful lens for this type of trip. A couple of times I wished I had the 55-300 but, because of the haze in the air in China, the longer lens would not have been useful. Most shooting was done well within the range of this lens and it performed very well with the K5 at high ISO with night shots on the Yangtze and other locations. I am very pleased with this lens on the K5.
I would have taken the K30 and this lens but had not determined the battery life with that combination. With the K5 and the 18-135 I got close to 900 shots on the first battery and only changed it out because I did not want to risk missing any shots.
I would recommend that you look at this lens as a walk around lens.
Image one is of the Great Wall and Image two is an example of fashion in China today.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
08-24-2012, 01:25 PM
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I am still testing with the K30 and the 18-135 as that is the combination that I am thinking of for China.
Also testing my Canon T3i and Tamron 18-270 for the same thing, battery life.
I would prefer to take the Pentax combo for the water resistance and I am more used to the controls. Plus I could throw in a couple of limited lenses. The K30 is a slight bit heavier but more compact than the T3i.
I seem to remember one of the previous Pentax digitals had a similar problem and a firmware update fixed it. I can't remember which model.
It is difficult to work a shoot , wedding, travel or just a local event with no idea of how many shots you will get and when the batteries will run out. I don't do any professional work but it still drives me nuts not to be able to rely on the battery indicator. I guess some cameras in all makes just have the indicator for decoration!!!
I will be doing some more formal testing this weekend and start with a fully charged battery in the K30 and see how many shots I can get without the battery going totally dead. Have started with the Canon the same way. I don't want to go out and just shoot like mad because that is not a normal situation.
Most of my shooting is at an event or two where I might shoot 100 - 300 images, then the camera goes back in the car for a couple of hours till I reach my next destination. I might go a day or two without using it and so I want to try to track the number of shots during this "normal" shooting. I have till October to decide which equipment I will take.
Glad to see that I am not the only one that has noticed this.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
08-21-2012, 11:58 AM
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Just discovered that the battery life on the K30 is highly dependent on the lens type in use. I was out testing to see what kit to take to China later this fall and was favouring the DA 18-135 with the DC focus
motor. I noticed that the battery in my K30 was at aprx. 3/4 full with the kit lens DA 18-55 WR.
After changing to the DA 18-135 and taking 2 shots the battery indicator was in the yellow at less than 1/4. It stayed at yellow even when the camera was not focusing on anything.
I changed back to the 18-55 (Screw Drive) and the battery was up to 3/4 again. Took six or seven shots with the camera on between locations and the battery indicator was still green at 3/4 charge.
I have not noticed this behaviour with the K5 and the 18-135 lens, has anyone else come across this battery behaviour?? I suspect that there is a current drain on the battery for the circuits in the lens. I think the same would apply to the newer Sigma and Tamron lenses, I will check out the Sigma 17-70 OS later today.
If I can't find a solution for it, or a firmware update before the trip, I will take the K30, the 18-55, 50-200 50mm 1.4 and a limited lens or two as it is a lighter kit than the K5. That should give me longer battery life and the ability to change to AA batteries if the Li-109s run out during a day's shooting.
Any other suggestions, other than take the K5, I am trying to keep the weight down. Wish I had not sold my older Sigma 17-70 with screw drive focus!
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
07-21-2012, 03:43 PM
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Just had a short while at the Vancouver Zoo. I found that, for my preference, I am going to up the exposure a little and the sharpness a notch or 2. Working with Raw and Lightroom 4 the images seem to be a little dark if you just use the default conversions. I did not get a chance to shoot the same shot in Raw and Jpg to see what the camera alone did to them. (forgot to do it)
Focus is much faster and more accurate from what I could tell in that short time.
Here is one from today with a slight increase in exposure and sharpness in Lightroom. Exported as 1400 wide jpg.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
07-19-2012, 03:24 PM
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Picked mine up from London Drugs in Surrey, BC yesterday. They were the first I could find to have it locally. Opted for the body only in black as I have lots of lenses. Might look at another 18-135 for it but for now will work with what I have. Ran it through focus tests with most of my lenses and found very little front and back focus. It sure locks focus solidly with very little searching. Even worked well with my 50-135 that is quite sluggish when first used.
So far so good and I will post some images as soon as I can.
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Forum: Pentax K-01
04-04-2012, 10:06 AM
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I got a chance to test the K-01 and the DA 15mm at the Vancouver Auto Show yesterday. All shots focused fast except one or two car interior shots where there was not enough light and had to turn on the AF light.
I had the Sigma 30 and the DA40 with me but found them both to tight a field of view for the conditions so I have no real world info on them yet.
The Da 15mm combination with the K-01 is a nice one for this type of shoot and lets you get up close but still get the whole car in the image. Lighting was varied with harsh spots, halogen and mixed lighting yet the lens focused well on 84 of 94 shots. The OOF shots seemed to depend on the colors and reflections off the cars. Pale green and orange were the problem colors. Red and Orange under some lighting seemed to throw off the AWB. Tried other settings but they would fail with other colors so stuck to AWB and it did quite well compared to my friends Nikon 3100.
It is nice to use this combo as I did not have to take off my glasses and put them back on after every shot to see if I got the photo I wanted.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
04-03-2012, 10:00 AM
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I have the same combination of the K5 and the 18-135 and I find it does creep slowly in the Cotton. It also creeps with the Rapid strap or any holder that points the lens straight down. I had the same problem with the Pentax Da 18-250 and solved it with a wrist strap around the lens. I am looking around the house for another one to try on the 18-135 as I sold the 18-250.
The kind that worked on it were the type you get a concerts etc. to prove you paid admission. I am not giving up the 18-135 even if it does creep!
Hope you have success finding a solution that works for you.
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Forum: Pentax K-01
03-28-2012, 09:23 AM
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JinDesu:
The version of the Sigma 30 1.4 that I have does not have HSM but the 70-200 and 18-250 do. They both tried to focus at the wider end but I would not try to use them for anything important in low light. I also have the 17-70 HSM OS Sigma and it seemed to work well as did the 18-50 2.8 Sigma.
I am going to try to go through them all again and do a more organized approach to testing.
sunny16:
I also found that the 18-55 and 50-200 WR kit lenses worked reasonably well if the lighting was better. I also tried my strange combination of a 2x Teleconverter and Sigma 70-300 (non everything version) and it worked with the K-01. I would not want to use it for birds etc. but for zooming in on non moving objects it focused well and the quality of the image was about that of my K-5 with the same combination.
From my totally unscientific tests I have come to the conclusion that lenses with a larger rear element will function better with this camera than ones with a small rear element.
Same conclusion I came to when testing the 2X Teleconverter and my lenses. The best combination for me is my cheapest zoom (Sigma 70-300) and the 2X.
It will be interesting to see what other users have to say when they get a chance to test the K-01 in real world shooting.
I hope to keep the K-01 paired up with my Ltd and wider lenses and use the K-5 for longer lenses and rainy days.
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Forum: Pentax K-01
03-27-2012, 07:42 PM
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Just got my K-01 yesterday in Vancouver/Surrey BC area. The weather is not giving us a break around here so have been trying out the new addition around the house. Went through all my lenses last night and with one or two exceptions was pleasantly surprised at the performance.
All the Ltds 15, 21, 35 Macro, 40, and 70mm seem to work well considering the poor lighting in the house. The most responsive lenses seem to be the Sigma 30 F1.4 and the Pentax 50 F1.4, I suppose that is to be expected by the faster speed of the lenses and the 35 mm 2.4 works very well also. My general conclusion, until I get a chance to try them outside, is that lenses 100mm or less seem to work well. Over that they are a little slow to focus. The Pentax 18-138 worked well and was fast to focus with the DC motor.
The only two that did not want to focus were the Sigma 70-200 2.8 and the Sigma 18-250 OS HSM.
My reason for this post is to ask other K-01 owners what they have found to be the best lenses for this new family member. I know it is early in the life of this camera but it seems that there are more and more people adding this unit to their collections.
I hope to go to the Vancouver Car Show next week and I think I will take this unit along with the 15mm ltd and the Sigma 30. Hope to have some images to post from the show.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
03-24-2011, 01:06 PM
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Tried mine and it works fine. The AF function remains set at 2 (off). I switched to and from Green mode and other modes with no affect.
I thought it might be controlled by the Memory function but could not see any mention of it there.
Are you using a different lens on each body? I noticed in another posting that someone had problems that went away after removing the lens and doing a reset of the custom function menus.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-19-2011, 02:29 PM
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Your selection in the last post is what I would suggest. I went on the Alaska cruise in 2009 and attended a wedding on board. Most of my shots were with the Sigma 18-50 2.8 and the Da 55-300.
I did have the Bigma with me as we sailed from Vancouver, BC and I did not have to worry about any flight restrictions. The Bigma did come in handy at the glacier but I could have obtained most of the shots with the 55-300. The DAL 25 2.4 would have been nice to have on that trip for a light compact system. Most of the shore excursions I took the 18-50 and the 55-300 for longer shots. You want to enjoy the trip as well as get some great photos.
I am going to Hawaii later this year and plan on taking the K5 with the 18-135 the 55-300 and the 35 2.4 On another cruise I would take my Sigma 18-50 2.8 again for a faster lens for on board shots in addition to the three mentioned.
Have a great cruise.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
12-19-2010, 08:41 PM
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Use caution when testing the tethering software. I tested it on my K5 and lost my Green Mode. Is seems you can accidentally customize some of the modes.
See this post |
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
12-19-2010, 08:36 PM
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I was thinking about why my K5 would have lost the Green mode and remembered that I had tested the tethering software with it the night before.
Hooked it up to the laptop again and set the camera to Green Mode, the selection box in the tethering software was set to AV (aperture priority) I set it to Green Mode in the software selection box then disconnected the camera from the laptop.
Green Mode is now restored!!
I will post a link to this message on the tethering thread in case someone else does the same as I did.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
12-19-2010, 12:43 PM
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Having a similar problem with my K5. Think that I have missed the sensor stain but I seem to have lost Green Mode in the last day or two.
Just noticed it last night as I usually shoot in P mode. Set the camera to green mode and noticed that it says Aperture Priority. Tried it several times and cycled through all the other modes and everything is correct except I no longer have the Green Mode. When it is set to green mode it does behave as if it is Aperture Priority, the only difference I can see is the iight in the top LCD turns on and most of the settings on the menus are disabled as they are in Green Mode. Part of the system thinks it is Green mode and part does not.
I guess I will have to take it in to the dealer and have them send it back.
I am trying the battery method to do a full reset but do not have much hope that it will work. I have removed the battery and left the camera turned on. I don't know if that will drain the internals faster of not but I thought I would try it.
I am not sure how long you have to leave the battery out as I tested my K7 to make sure I was not seeing the wrong thing missing in green mode. The K7 has been in storage with no battery for about an month and I figured it would need date and time etc all set again but it powered up instantly.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
12-06-2010, 10:54 AM
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Serial 3820688
Mine has two spots close together just left of center and below the middle line and one smaller spot above them. They do not appear in normal images but do show in sky shots. First noticed them in shot of snow geese flying overhead. Thought they were dust on sensor or spots on the Bigma lens.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
11-19-2010, 11:18 AM
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I have the Sigma 17-70 HSM lens and have no FF or BF problems on my K5. I have not run tests on it but have shot with it quite a bit since I got the K5 with no apparent problems.
I found that all of my lenses that required adjustments on the K7 require no adjustments on the K5 body. Sigma 50-500 had a -8 adjustment on the K7 and needs nothing on the K5 and is in perfect focus. It is like having new lenses with this body.
Hope you can solve your problem with the 17-70 as it is a real nice range for walk around.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
11-15-2010, 03:04 PM
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Someone else came up with the idea to slow the creeping rate on this and other similar lenses. Use a wrist band, like the ones from concerts and special events. Place the band around the lens close to the camera body and it will tend to bind on the lens a bit and slow or stop the creep.
This is an example from my lens. Wish I had a plain color band.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
11-13-2010, 01:29 PM
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Surrey BC, Have had the camera since Oct 30. Loving it and getting far more keepers than I ever did with the K-7.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
10-25-2010, 11:34 PM
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I picked up one from the store in Richmond on Thursday. I think it was the only one they had.
Have not had much time to test it out but it seems very sharp and the focus is quick and accurate on both my K7 and Kx.
I wanted this one as the Da 35 2.8 macro hunts a lot in auto focus on my cameras. Used in manual mode it is great and also good if you are focusing at the constant distances. (close then long distances causes it to search for focus)
The new DA 35 2.4 does not behave this way and locks focus very fast. Anyone that has the DA 40 ltd or has tried it will appreciate the new DA 35.
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