Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-08-2023, 04:25 PM
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These excellent images for some strange reason bring to mind "Far away places with strange sounding names" always much more interesting than your home town.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-08-2023, 04:14 PM
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Thats a very nice selection of images, the colours are beautiful, image 1 and 4 are great and the portrait in image 3 is exceptional however I particularly like photo 2 where the lady in white has a strangle hold on the young lad, mothers are the same the world over.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-08-2023, 04:05 PM
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Its a nice shot to start with but when you start really looking at it you realise that this old building has been altered quite a bit, not alone to insert the window but in previous times as well, originally there was a row of headers every 5 courses then other things happened and the lads just made good with any brick or concrete they could find.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-08-2023, 03:49 PM
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That is a really nice image, looks more like the rock formation has been carved rather than eroded.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-08-2023, 03:43 PM
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Really nice, we don't get snow except maybe one or two days in odd years so it always looks beautiful to us, just rain and storms off the Atlantic, I noticed in Siberia where they are used to the cold in some places its gone down to -58C, that's roughly -72F, I'll settle for the storms.
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Forum: Product Suggestions and Feedback
10-25-2023, 02:12 AM
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I have a Fuji E-X1 which I bought as a test bed for various lenses I have bought from time to time, I find that one of its most interesting feature is the ability to change ratios e.g. you can switch between, 1:1, 3:2 and 16:9, if nothing else it would give you the possibility to try out various composition aspects before you pulled the trigger on the shot.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
10-22-2023, 01:08 AM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
09-28-2023, 08:30 AM
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Lens reviews are one of the most useful aspects of the forum however it has some faults and I think there might be one or two ways in which it might be improved.
It has to be recognised that each review is an individual's opinion which will naturally reflect that persons ambitions for the lens in question, what might seem excellent to one, good to another and awful to yet another. There could be any number of reasons for this going from the camera used, to its sensor and what the reviewer expects to see on their computer screen and even the quality of the screen used.
Telling the difference between one generation of a lens and another is quite difficult because of the number of unknowns. If you take, for example, the standard 50mm F1.8 lens and compare the diagrams provided by Pentax Forums it becomes clear that there has been no optical change over the years, the number of elements and groups have stayed the same but have they ?
While its possible to hazard a guess that the coatings should or might have improved over time and the clarity of the image with it you have really no idea about the actual glass itself, has every element stayed the same or has some different glass been introduced to a special element without the company saying it for improvement or cost saving reasons ?
Then while the diagrams stay the same the size of the lens has differed becoming smaller, has this resulted in changes in the light path resulting in changes to the elements curvature to correct for these changes.
There is a lens diagram for almost every lens Pentax has made except of course the two, usually zooms, you are trying to compare, it would be nice if the forum could rummage around and find the missing diagrams, I would not know where to start. I have a little book somewhere or other where Meyer Optik published all their lens designs with I think the mounts available, of course they were a lens manufacturer keen to sell their wears, Pentax might have preferred to keep theirs away from the prying eyes of other makers.
Somebody may well have asked this sort of thing before if so my apologies for wasting the forums space.
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
09-28-2023, 02:20 AM
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Neat, but I could add a rather expensive sewing machine to the list plus a two oven electric eye level cooker.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
09-27-2023, 02:47 PM
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Well, well, well, my original question has brought up a lot of interesting information to me at least. If I am reading the responses correctly it seems that lenses with 2nd generation motors should on balance be more reliable than earlier models, so if buying 1st generation lenses there is a greater risk of some sort of trouble depending on the luck of the draw. With any electronic lens of any generation there is always the possibility of some other electrical failure outside of the motor.
I wonder if Ricoh retained the SDM designation as abandoning it would be an admission of failure.
Thank you all.
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
09-25-2023, 10:25 AM
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I think that the only real reason to upgrade your digital camera is to do with some spectacular enhancement of the sensor, so long as you can set shutter speed, ISO speed and aperture all the additional electronic gadgetry built into the camera's body, which apparently is absolutely essential to take a photo as set out in glowing terms in the camera manual will be read probably with some interest at first but then for the most part ignored. Just take a look at Leica, you can buy (after remortgaging the house) quite a nice rangefinder camera body with exposure meter and basically nothing else, thereby putting control of the camera back into your hands and not the camera's brain, and it sells.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
09-25-2023, 03:13 AM
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Browsing through the current lens lineup I see that almost everything is now SDM, when I first started using Pentax digital back in 2008 SDM had a very bad reputation for generating very expensive repairs to the SDM motor. Obviously this must have been cured at some point but does anybody know when ?
So how can you discover, probably through serial numbers which lenses are safe and which are not ?
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
09-24-2023, 01:32 PM
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Now I know who made the K7's sensor I had been wondering about this for a long time. I agree that over ISO 800 noise is a problem but that was very obvious to any used who experimented with ISO speeds. Using Film of course many people rarely went above 400 ISO so the digital 800 was not really a limitation. ---------- Post added 09-24-2023 at 09:39 PM ----------
I have both those lenses and have not noticed a light leak but forewarned is welcome.
At this time I seem to moving back towards the 50mm lens, the one that all SLR's seem to have arrived with since the beginning of time though on APS-C digital its more like a 75mm tele lens perhaps that's why I like it more now.
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
09-24-2023, 01:20 PM
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Unfortunately she has allies in the shape of our 5 daughters, 2 of which are accountants and they have all decided that at my age I shouldn't be doing this, that, and the other, as I blotted my copy book last year with a bad fall crossing the Main Street well where else would you do it, so I have to surreptitiously wander off when I can and ignore the lecture when I get back. Which of course gets another lecture on not listening. Apparently I am not taking the right photos which should be exclusively of family members which seems to be the sole legitimate reason for owning a camera in the first place.
By the way I wasn't really expecting an answer to the original post and I shall continue to support Pentax for as long as I can.
Many thanks.
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
09-24-2023, 06:37 AM
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Surfing the internet I notice that people are now beginning to call Pentax a Niche Camera Maker and so cannot be recommended any more, I'm not sure why but maybe because its not following the heard down the mirrorless route or the introduction of the K3 monochrome also perhaps because they were not afraid to experiment with the Q a lovely little camera one of which I carry with me almost all the time, except when its raining.
I applaud Pentax for sticking with DSLR's as I much prefer an optical based viewfinder to the EVF type and for sticking with the K mount for all their loyal supporters with existing bodies and lenses, then of course the introduction of the K3 Monochrome, may not be considered a winning option by many but Leica keeps producing monochrome versions of its cameras and also makes film cameras to boot. There is also a renewed interest in film particularly black and white so why not make a digital monochrome camera with all the convenience of digital and without the need to process film which should interest many people.
The only other Niche maker I can think of is as noted above is Leica A.G. who has survived in spite of their very high prices, their trick seems to be to make equipment up to very high standards and people will buy it and to market their products as being the highest possible quality you can get, so anything else is not really worth looking at.
I have been trying to persuade the "she who must be obeyed" that the K3 monochrome is absolutely essential but she keeps retaliating that, at 81 with one foot in the grave, I don't need it and that there are plenty of black and white films out there to go with my film cameras which will give me any effect I want and that I'm perfectly capable of developing and printing the results with all the equipment I have. duh!
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
09-24-2023, 06:00 AM
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On YouTube recently I have come across a spate of Leica users extolling the virtues of the Kodak CCD sensor used in the M8, M8.2 and M9 and how wonderful the colours are being a Pentax K200 user I would agree that the CCD bit of the sensor is probably very good but I have my doubts about Kodak's colour balance.
Living in misty Ireland in the film days I have tried several Kodak films and to my eyes their colour balance was designed for the US which appears to me has a much brighter and harsher light whereas Fugi films always returned a much more accurate colour balance for the conditions here.
Any thoughts on this:
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
09-24-2023, 05:47 AM
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I've had a K7 from about the time the tele converter was announced in 2014 but since I got a K70 a couple of years ago I rarely use it now and its been sitting in a gadget bag waiting to be taken out.
I have a small set of Takumar lenses sitting in another gadget bag and quite a few M42 mount lenses from various makers lying around the place all of which deserve much more usage.
So I have more or less decided to permanently mount an M42 to K or is it K to M42 adapter on the K7 so that both sets of orphans get much more usage.
By permanently mount I mean just put it on and leave there - not glue it.
Seams reasonable ?
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Forum: Lens Clubs
09-24-2023, 05:05 AM
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I don't have the K-1 Mk ii or unfortunately the M 100 F2.8 macro but I do know how difficult it is to get a good shot of wild flowers between the wind, stinging nettles, bites from uninvited insects, rain and so on, I think this is a very beautiful shot including the positioning in the frame, really, really nice.
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
04-17-2023, 12:54 AM
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I've been taking photos since 1958, I beginning to wonder why I bother.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
04-16-2023, 05:12 AM
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Yes, they do grow up don't they, even my granddaughters are telling me what to do
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III Monochrome
04-16-2023, 03:21 AM
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Not sure if this is in the correct space.
I grew up in a world where black and white film was King, OK colour film was lurking in the background but it was much too expensive for most of us, in a two week holiday I had to get buy with at most 3 black and white films Adox KB 15 (yes that’s ISO 15) for preference and a single roll of Perutz colour reversal, I think it was really fast at 60 ISO because I thought its colours were better than Kodak, with a 35mm Werra 1 the green one with 2.8 Tessa and top speed of 1/250th, I later acquired an EXA IIb with 2.8 Domiplan and a top shutter speed of 1/250th because I preferred the pentaprism viewfinder
Of course cameras have changed a bit since then but in the film era I acquired a Pentax S1a with several Takumar and M series lenses plus an FA F1.7, a wow of a lens.
Digital came along and while I was still working I got a Pentax K200D with in my opinion the best sensor ever and later a K7 and more recently a K70 all used with the DA 20, 40 and 70 because of the tiny profile it gives to a camera making it less noticeable and then a Pentax S10 used almost exclusively set to B & W with the 01 lens, a great camera apart from its more or less useless viewfinder in sunlight.
I looked at the K3 Mk iii when it came out and I decided that there was no reason to upgrade to it as the K70 did everything I wanted. I stayed away from the K-1 because of its size and weight.
I have noticed recently that some commentators (can’t remember who) have referred to Pentax as a niche brand which of course put me in mind of the Leica which is the ultimate niche brand, yes I do have a IIIf screw mount with a Russian 50mm F2.0 Jupiter lens being the only Leica set up I could afford. The other thing that compares Pentax and Leica is their treatment of their customers, when Leica changed from screw mount to their M mount in 1954 they made certain that their old lenses could be used on the new mount with a simple adapter as did Pentax when they changed from M42 screw to K bayonet in 1976, I don’t think anybody else did.
Now the K3 Mk iii monochrome has arrived and I can feal excitement welling up inside me for the first time in years, the Leica M11 rangefinder monochrome’s price and lenses are astronomical and definitely out of the range of many of us certainly me and I’m not that keen on rangefinders either, even the Leica Q Monochrome is very expensive and limited with only admittedly a very fine 28mm fixed lens but to have a Pentax with its vast range of modern and old lenses taking B & W which doesn’t have to be converted from colour I think is wonderful indeed.
I have two problems though firstly there is no Pentax presence where I live, no photography shop seems to even admit the presence of Pentax so I will have to go on line and figure out what German and French shops are actually saying, buying anything from outside the EU will attract both Import duties and Vat, the second problem is that after 54 years of wedded blisters I don’t know how I’m going to get it past herself, two of my daughters are also accountants and that presents a fairly formidable trio.
I expect I shall be told to stick with film don’t ya know.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
11-05-2022, 08:34 AM
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Without detracting from your image which is excellent it reminds me of a squadron of WWII fighter planes
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Forum: Vintage Cameras and Equipment
11-05-2022, 08:24 AM
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I'd forgotten about the Retinas, I had one briefly with and F2 lens, it was acquired by a then girlfriend who promptly dumped me, or in the phraseology of the time gave me the bullet, what I always wanted but never got was a Voigtlander Prominent, I must see what they're going for now.
Before I parted with the M3 I sidled into the kitchen and borrowed the scales, the M3 + Summarit lens + non working Leica Meter M weighed in at 1082g, the IIIf + 50mm F 2.0 Leonon S (made in Japan originally with Leotax Cameras) at 655g and the Canon + 35mm Canon F2.8 lens at 686g while the Werra with its built in 50mm F2.8 Tessa weighed in at a measly 497g. It seems that quality weighs on other things apart from your wallet.
I do have a 6 x 9cm Zeiss Ikonta folding camera and can say that the pop up viewfinder is truly appalling, you are working in strictly guess and fiddle territory with this one, its no wonder you see all those old family photos with parts of the heads and legs missing.
I am getting to like my IIIf more and more.
CD
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Forum: Vintage Cameras and Equipment
11-04-2022, 08:45 AM
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I started out in photography with a Werra 1B around 1958, it had and still does have a nice brightline finder with some room around the edges, it has a 50mm F2.8 Tessar lens surrounded with a 1s -250s mechanical shutter, I was perfectly happy with this for a number of years until I got really annoyed by the number of backs of heads that appeared on film but not in the viewfinder caused by the offset of the lens from the optical finder, so then naturally I bought an SLR which cured that problem and I've used SLR's and DSLR's ever since, that's about 65 years now.
Then I got the Leica bug, maybe its the advertising, I don't know, but then due to price constraints I bought a Canon Model L2, after all it had the same M39 thread mount as the Leica's, this has a nice little viewfinder adjustable for 35 and 50mm fields of view plus another for detailed focussing, I quite liked it and still do, after all it has a much simpler loading method and it wasn't too heavy.
Yes but it still wasn't a Leica and eventually I gave in and bought a 1951 IIIc model which at some point had been factory converted to a IIIf, Leica used to do factory conversions back in the day, a very nicely made camera but I never got on with the viewfinder finding it a bit squashy especially for somebody with glasses and so I tend to use this camera with a Russian turret slip on finder which I find is much brighter and clearer to my eyes.
Then the other day I was allowed to look through the finder of my daughter in laws 1957 (I think) Double Stroke M3 fitted with a 50mm F1.5 Summarit lens, the barrel of which does not intrude into the viewfinder, the lens's focal length was important as it brings up the brightline frame into the viewfinder for that lens. I was really impressed by the uncluttered clarity of the image, in my view it has the best finder of those mentioned above as it gives a 91% view of the image, and its only the brightline frame for that lens which appears, no clutter from the lens's frame lines for other focal lengths intruding into the image or meter readings or anything like that. I noticed on Analog Insights that, when choosing a second lens, quite a lot of time was spent in selecting a lens for an M6 with the minimum intrusion into the bottom right corer of the viewfinder.
I can now understand why the Leica crowd hold up the M3's camera's viewfinder as being the best against that of the M2 and subsequent models which have a 72% view of the image and those of the Leica brigade who complain about those models from, I think, the M4 onwards, just talking about film cameras here, where the finder is cluttered with frames for several lenses visible at the same time.
I thought my little IIIf was fairly heavy but this M3 is in a different league altogether and from the weight of it and Summarit lens you would not be walking around with it and a pack of other lenses for long, of course at Leica prices you probably wouldn't be doing that anyway.
Of course I had to give the M3 back and return to my trusty K70 with its very clear finder, and what I like to call my digital Leica in the shape of a Pentax Q10 with its 01 F1.9 47mm lens.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
10-22-2022, 07:24 AM
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Fortunately for Felix he died of a heart attack before uncle Joe decided he was surplus to requirements a fate which seems to have been the end of most of his successors which included airbrushing them out of photographs if they appeared anywhere near Joe.
I always liked the Tessar design as you can confuse the unwary by referring to it as a four element triplet, it is actually a very nice design which has been copied/amended by practically every manufacturer out there. I it was Dr. Paul Rudolf who actually designed it along with the Planar. He retired in 1911 quite wealthy unfortunately for him WWI and the resulting hyper inflation after it meant that he had to go back to work for many years as the inflation wiped out his savings.
The inflation must have been something else as there is a storey about a German Farmer who payed off his entire mortgage of DM25,000 by the sale of 2 pigs.
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