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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
12-20-2022, 11:56 AM
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For me, the most interesting thing about this is the viewfinder of the fully mechanical SLR. When the mirror doesn't have to divert some the light toward sensors, the image in the viewfinder can become even clearer. Pair the large viewfinder of MX with the bright glass of K3iii, and the clarity should be astounding.
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Forum: Photo Critique
04-01-2019, 05:10 AM
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I feel that for an abstract shot the scene is too recognisable. The centre of the image is visibly a plain old CD. If you have a macro lens or an extension tube, try getting closer.
Another good thing about getting closer is that composing the image becomes easier. Currently you have about 40 droplets in in the image, mostly random and 2 of them are not in a conventional droplet shape. If your image has 4-8 visible droplets, it's easier to arrearage them in a composition.
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Forum: Pentax Full Frame
07-23-2018, 10:51 PM
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Tell that to my DA 50mm F/1.8. Even DA 40mm F2.8 Ltd. holds well on FF. My guess is that full frame is considered a thing for professionals, where demands on build and image quality are greater, which is is achieved by sacrificing weight.
Another reason for perceived weight increase is unfair comparisons for equivalent lenses. E.g. 70-200mm on FF is roughly equivalent to 50-135mm on APS-C. But F/2.8 on FF is about F/2 on APS-C and zooms tend to not have F/2. Pentax DA* 60-250mm F4 is full frame glass, and it is not that heavy, thanks to F/4. On APS-C, equivalent would be about 40-170mm F/2.8, which I doubt would be much lighter.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
08-14-2018, 04:39 AM
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If you want to establish relationships with “the next guy”, it would be nice if you wouldn't have to overcome not being taken seriously.
This is News and Rumours section. There are plenty of sections with super positive and helpful posts.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
08-10-2018, 12:17 PM
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For a comparison, amazon.de sells FA 77mm at €923 and D-FA 50mm at €1200. That most legendary of the legendary trio suffers form LCA. To quote opticallimits:
Those extra €300 and added weight buys you what? Quick and silent AF, weather sealing, wide-open corner sharpness etc. I'm not sure it's correct to say that the D-FA lens is unreasonably expensive.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-05-2018, 11:38 PM
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Youtube channel “the CameraVille” has made some videos comparing FA 50mm and D-FA★ 50mm. And a quick comparison with Sigma ART.
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src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JTq2bKK2AXU?controls=1" allowfullscreen>
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There is quite a bit pixel peeping. Quick summary, D-FA★ 50mm is noticeably better.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
08-04-2018, 10:47 AM
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THIS. I had “sharpen” auto-applied to all my images (seems like default Darktable behavior). When I removed it, suddenly all suggested denoising strategies became usable. Thank you for restoring my sanity.
This IS good. I guess I'll lose a couple of hours trying stuff out.
I plan to look into it. Darktable has tethering (and I hope it will support K-1), but RawTerapee is written in C++ and gtkmm, which I prefer over C and GTK+ (if I ever get to contribute to any of those projects, that might become relevant).
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Forum: Pentax Full Frame
06-27-2018, 07:53 AM
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Well, full-frame camera allows me to stand closer to the subject, which makes conversations with them less awkward. You heard it here first, folks: FF cameras improve your social life. :lol:
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
07-16-2018, 11:34 PM
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Not sure if it is a paid commercial, but what I find interesting that the reviewer says the focusing is on par (at least with appropriate glass), but he is not thrilled about focus points being clustered in the centre. For some reason the host spend a lot of time talking about studio work and sports. Overall positive view of the camera. Although DFA 50 did not appear in the review.
All in all, nothing that a rabid Pentax Forums reader wouldn't know already.
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Forum: General Photography
06-29-2018, 05:13 AM
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Americans tend to overuse “X is dead”. And I wouldn't predict future by looking at preferences of teens. Even Northrups made fun of 80's glamour shots.
It seems like new techniques of artistic expression start out as art subjects themselves, e.g.
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People paid actual money to watch that! Then novelty wore off, but movies are still with us, it's just not the selling point. For a more recent examples, early 3D movies and animations tended to include shots that were just showing off the 3D effects. It doesn't mean that art elements can't be subjects themselves. Just look at paintings by Mark Rothko, it's just that you have to be really good at it to pull it off.
Bokeh won't go away solely because it's just so darn useful. It gives subject separation, hides ugly background etc. It has been with us for ages. Even HRD hasn't gone anywhere. Sure, you don't see those crazy tone mappings anymore, but raise shadows / lower highlights is HDR.
As for social media is killing photography, I'm not touching that subject with a ten-foot-pole.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
04-17-2018, 03:17 AM
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Algorithms run on hardware. If the hardware is not powerful enough, it might not be able to complete the algorithm in time, especially since focusing has to be calculated in real-time. Notice that the K-1ii has shorter battery life, which hints that the hardware is more powerful.
Also, at least in the field of general computing, “accelerator” means that some specific algorithms are implemented in hardware itself. For example, in most music players, MP3 decoding is done in a dedicated decoder chip. If focusing algorithms are implemented in a specialized circuitry, upgrading algorithm means upgrading hardware.
On a personal note, if they released the source code to their firmware, maybe someone from community could improve the focusing, but I doubt they could improve it by much.
Disclaimer: I have NO programming experience with computing accelerators, but I have read some literature on it and can testify form personal experience, that encoding H.264 video on CPU without accelerators is painfully slow. I have no idea how Pentax focusing is actually implemented.
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Forum: Photo Critique
01-25-2017, 04:30 AM
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Right part of the image is not doing anything. I would crop it out.
I feel the image is lacking a distinct subject. Sunset is providing a great atmosphere, but the rocks beneath are not doing too much. If there are no natural subjects, like a sailboat, put a person there, or put your camera on a tripod and make yourself the subject.
Subject will help you make a “story”, not just state a fact. In the original, the picture says “There is a beautiful sunset over the water”, with subject you can have “A businessman appreciates everyday beauty.” It also gives the viewer to ability to expand the story in their own minds.
Thanks tuggie76 for the image.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-07-2016, 06:50 AM
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Of course “worth it” is subjective, but I am trying to understand what are the considerations when taking portrait shots.
It seems that consensus about what is a portrait lens, most agree that something like 85mm 1.4 (long and fast) is the right way to go. I understand that fast lens helps to blur out background (and ears, and the other eye) so if I have smooth background, shooting at F/8 should be enough. Also if I want to get rid of unwanted skin characteristics, post-processing can handle that.
Right now I have 50mm 1.4 lens and 18-135mm kit lens and I am wondering, if there is a good reason to upgrade.
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Forum: Pentax Q
06-23-2011, 07:39 AM
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I like this camera (from what I can tell), because:
1) Best camera is the one you have with you. My K-x is small, but still usually stays home.
2) Having nice bokeh is nice, but actually having subject in focus is much better.
3) Easy to play with different concepts. Want to try out ultra wide fisheye on your P&S? Well, now you can and you don't have to pay through your nose.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
10-10-2010, 12:16 PM
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I really don't get the crippling of the K mount. The mechanism of opening and closing diaphragm is there, I don't know how they read the value in film cameras, but it shouldn't be hard to figure out how to make it again. Anyway, this is why it rocks:
* automatic metering is faster and more up-to-date (fast changing lighting);
* stop down is inaccurate in dark, at least on my K100D in dark room at f/22 it gives 1,5 sec., when 20 sec. would be correct;
* changing the aperture ring is faster than the wheel in aperture priority mode.
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