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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
10-18-2012, 04:40 AM
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I haven't used the 28mm for astrophotography yet. I'd like to get a wide angle with a slightly larger aperture, and one that's a bit sharper wide open. I do love the Pentax-M 28mm F2.8, I used it almost exclusively on holiday in New Zealand.
As for software, the main ones I use are Star Trails (for making star trails, obviously), DeepSkyStacker which has a really good range of stacking techniques, and also GRIP which is really good at rotating and warping the images. So for the below image, which was taken with the 18-55mm kit lens, I found that DeepSkyStacker did not rotate and align the images well due to the bad distortion at wide angle on this lens. However, GRIP has a "warp" mode which doesn't just rotate the images but applies a warp which ensures each star is aligned across the entire the frame. So I used GRIP to warp the images and save them, then DeepSkyStacker to stack the images (without rotating them).
I wish I'd used a higher ISO in this shot. It's about 100 exposures, F3.5 and ISO1600 with the 18-55mm kit lens @ 18mm
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
10-17-2012, 04:22 AM
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Took this in the New Forest last week, it's a fairly small portion of the milky way. It's not centred on any particular constellation or other feature, I just wanted to see how many stars I could pick up!
It's a stack of about 85 exposures, each is 10 seconds @ ISO3200. Pentax-M 50mm F1.7 @ F2.8. Used DeepSkyStacker to rotate and stack the images. It was a moonless night, which helped, although there was some high cloud drifting across the frames. That all gets cancelled out in the stacking process though. I tried using DeepSkyStacker to count the stars but it topped out at about 20,000 without getting even close to all of them. I'd estimate there's maybe somewhere in the region of 100,000 or more stars.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
10-06-2012, 05:54 AM
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Bit late but I just wanted to add, I went to several of the London Olympics events and I didn't see a single fellow pentaxian. I went to the equestrian cross country, basically wondering around a park filled with 50,000 other people, every other person has a DSLR. Loads of canikons, a few Olympus's, a couple of Sonys but not a single Pentax apart from the one around my neck.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
10-06-2012, 04:34 AM
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Just took a 915 second exposure (~15 minutes) with no DFS!! Well happy.
Here's the result, it's taken with the lens cap on. Now I see why DFS is so essential for very long exposures! There is probably some light leakage in this shot too.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
10-06-2012, 03:52 AM
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Just thought I'd post a reply here because there arn't many (any?) success stories with this hack.
I got it working, slightly different technique to OP. Instead of the [OPEN_DEBUG_MENU] command, I had to use the [DEBUG_MODE EN] command to enable debug mode. I'm going to try and detail exactly what I did.
I first tried OPs technique, however after testing an exposure of over 30 seconds, DFS still occurred. I then changed the command to [DEBUG_MODE EN] and loaded it up (holding down +/- whilst turning on). This time the screen was black and flashed on and off a couple of times, at first I thought I'd done something wrong but after a few seconds the camera returned to normal function. Now, after testing, DFS does not occur after an exposure of ~40 seconds.
So to recap the files I eventually used were
There is a carriage return after [DEBUG_MODE EN] but not after [DISABLE_BULB_ALG] 1@.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
01-04-2012, 06:21 AM
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I am having troubles using the app with my current phone, a samsung galaxy S2. It works fine on my older HTC Magic. I'm not sure why this is.
Billium28, would you be able to send me the .apk that are using? I'd like to test it to check I havn't mixed up the versions at some point... :hmm:
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Forum: Pentax Q
10-23-2011, 05:07 AM
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
08-30-2011, 02:05 AM
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Yeah I agree, it looks like a warm filter could be the only way to get rid of this entirely.
I've fiddled with lightroom and the effect can be reduced in three ways that I've found; warm the image (fairly successful - but image is very warm!!), cool the image and then reduce the blue channel considerably (pretty good), or black and white the image (best if you don't mind b&w).
original (auto WB in lightroom);
Attachment 101916
warmified (~10,000k)
Attachment 101917
cool, then blue channel reduced.
Attachment 101918 |
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
08-25-2011, 05:09 AM
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I don't believe this has anything to do with WB. Those wedding photos were taken from RAW and changing WB doesn't help the problem. I haven't done a side-by-side comparison with a UV filter yet - I don't even know if there is a filter that cuts out enough of the low end UV to make a difference. I could try though.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
08-24-2011, 02:35 AM
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Apologies for digging up this old thread, but I just looked properly at some photos I took at a wedding reception. This issue is all over them! Take a look.
So these were taken with a K-x, with a M 28mm F2.8. These are direct from RAW with nothing done except resizing.
Now, normally I wouldn't say this is a big issue. But a large proportion of my photos from the reception show this issue, and those that are affected are ruined. It's incredibly unsightly. I think it's halogen lighting again. I suggest the UV filter on the sensor is not cutting out enough of the UV light in this situation. Note that both photos (the original snowy photo and these) are taken in low ambient light conditions where the halogen lighting is prominent. When shooting in these conditions I would strongly suggest using a UV filter on your lens, and look for one which is particularly harsh with cutting out as close to blue as possible. Maybe that will help...
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-21-2011, 03:23 AM
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I can only suggest there is something wrong with your dongle then :(
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-21-2011, 03:22 AM
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Link updated. I've used this "multi-upload" site which puts the file on various different hosting sites so the link should work for a lot longer.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-06-2011, 04:05 AM
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Nice creation!!
Don't forget you can use a pair of stereo speakers to verify that the code is being played.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
04-11-2011, 03:35 AM
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The K-x is a sturdy beast. On holiday I was holding my camera whilst walking in a forest, I slipped on a rock and went over like a sack of bricks. Since my camera was in my hand and the instinct is to put your hand down to break the fall, I hit the K-x against the rock VERY hard. You heard the sound as a loud CRACK!! I was dismayed - something must be wrong, right? There was a small crack on the inside left corner where the camera made contact with the rock, and with that sick feeling in my stomach I turned the K-x on and took a photo. Perfect photo. The rest of the holiday, no problems.
I don't know if I was just lucky but the force of that hit would have smashed lesser cameras I'm sure. The k-x is remarkable.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
03-23-2011, 01:11 AM
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Glad people are having success with this! I've been on holiday the past 2 weeks so I'll try and find a better hosting solution now and repost the files ASAP.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
03-02-2011, 06:25 PM
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Yeah that's what I thought he said.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
03-02-2011, 04:59 PM
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Hang on, so you needed to upgrade a separate piece of software in order to delete another file from your computer?
What if you created a new file and named it "newfile.PEF". Would you need the updated version of iPhoto to delete it?
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
03-02-2011, 01:16 PM
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Personally I would compress the pentax file using DivX or similar first. Those files are huuuuggeee and you can often reduce them to better than 50% of their original size without any noticable loss.
Then I guess they would be able to be imported into Lightworks.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-02-2011, 09:30 AM
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Oh god the suspense when will it end!
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
03-01-2011, 09:14 PM
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:)
I should add, Murphy made it through the winter :)
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
03-01-2011, 08:54 PM
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Okay this was rain a few moments before... :)
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
03-01-2011, 08:27 PM
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Taken last summer. Murphy (the pony) is very old and we were anticipating a hard winter, so we took the opportunity to get some good photos of him and the owner together. She's had him since she was 9, now 24, so there's a lot of emotion.
Probably my favourite M 50mm f/1.7 photo.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
03-01-2011, 07:54 PM
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Funny how Pentax (any model) so often get complaints of under-exposure.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-01-2011, 11:41 AM
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I hope it isn't this! :lol:
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-01-2011, 10:44 AM
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It'd be like walking around with one of those old movie cameras with multiple lenses on the front.
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