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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
09-11-2009, 04:34 PM
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Wow, some great replies so far.
Costco refused my rolls of film the other day. They won't even send them out.
Anybody ever use the snapfish thing at Publix?
I did some more reading on this and other boards and it seems like a viable film strategy lots of people do is to get the rolls developed at a minilab without getting prints or even a contact sheet prints then preview/scan at home. From there, its be the same as a digital workflow (lightzone -> upload to Costco for prints in an hour, that kind of thing).
Without calling each minilab near my house, do they typically offer a bare-bones processing of my roll of film without prints for a few bucks less than the price of 4x6 singles?
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
09-09-2009, 11:36 AM
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Hi folks,
I'd like to start a thread on grassroots film photography. What are some good strategies for getting things in film done cheaper, quicker, or better without necessarily sacrificing too much of the other two?
I'm wondering about this because after a renewed interest in film and acquiring a couple of older cameras (MX and an ME super) to goof around with I'm finding that the film photography process is much more frustrating than it used to be, particularly from a cost and convenience point of view. I really like using film and film cameras. Almost nobody seems to develop film anymore, and those that do use crummy, poorly maintained machines. Getting from the moment of the shot to the printed photo on the wall is feeling too difficult to be worth it to a casual film shooter.
Not to dismiss suffering for ones art, but there has to be happy medium between developing and printing my own BW film at home in the bathroom, v. sending out every roll to a pro lab, waiting two weeks to get a contact sheet, then send the negative back out for a $$$ print.
To start the ball rolling, here's some things I've learned in the last couple of weeks:
1. All mini labs scan your film and make digital prints from the scans, the quality of the prints has been horrible every time I tried it. The negatives seem fine but I don't have a scanner and the in-store scans are not very high res, ~2Mpix.
2. KEH "bgn' cameras are in *way* better shape than I expected.
3. You can get a pack of 8 A76 compatible batteries at a store called "Dollar Tree" for $1. The brand name is Sunbeam.
4. You don't really need a light meter if you can about 5 conditions/numbers from the rule of sunny 16
5. Store brand film (Kroger, CVS, Walgreens, etc.) is actually a big name film with a different package since so few companies make film anymore. Very cheap.
Any other tips or thought for the grassroots film photographer?
--Steve
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
05-10-2009, 09:11 PM
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FAT32 has an 8TB maximum volume size. The artificial 32GB limit was enforced by Microsoft's formatting tools as a means to force people to upgrade to NTFS. You can make FAT32 volumes on Linux that are over 32GB.
The individual file size limit is still 4GB no matter what the volume size is, so its not like I'm winning any arguments here :)
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
04-24-2009, 05:41 PM
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Agreed. I got a little giggle today as I read the latest Engadget blurb about the K7, not so much the article but the comments posted. It seems that "those in the know" seem to always respect Pentax as an enthusiast's brand, so when they do something a little outside the box people show a bit of respect without dismissing it outright. Most ~1000 dslrs are there to fill a gap in the company's product line between low end plastic dslr toys and pro gear. The stuff from pentax isnt on the market to just fill a gap between p&s and pro DSLRs. I think this new camera will be a very nice one.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
05-16-2008, 08:09 PM
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Pentaxists for LightZone! Yay!
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
05-16-2008, 08:06 PM
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Hmmm... I do not notice any difference in the thumbnails but it would not surprise me if they punched up the color in the preview thumbnail.
Once good thing about most postprocessing software is that you can tweak a filter chain to a single photo and get it nice and good, then just apply that chain to any number of photos. I do this when the lighting conditions are similar across lots of photos.
Hang in there with LightZone, once you get going it will reward you in spades. I highly recommend the LZ tutorials here.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
05-16-2008, 08:00 PM
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I don't see anyone coming close to the simplicity and functionality of LZ any time soon. I still laugh a bit inside when I hear Photoshoppers talk about things like adjustment layers and color levels. Those concepts have almost nothing to do with light and photography. The new lightzone 3.0 is very very good. Even if lightcrafts dropped off the planet tomorrow I'd still use LZ almost exclusively.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
05-11-2008, 09:29 AM
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This was part of it!
I gave her the quick tip on "waiting for the beep" and she seemed to do great with that. My next effort will be to use spot focus and get her to point at what she wants to be in focus, then press the button. After that we can work on recomposing while half pressed to get a good shot.
Thanks for the tips!!!
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
05-10-2008, 07:31 PM
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Thanks for the help all, I think in the future I'll try her on Tv at 1/500. If that doesn't give good results I'll have to set my own user program or just buy a bridge camera for her.
Not to be a jerk to my wife (I love her to death, honest) but having her learn the bells and whistles of my camera is not going to happen. She NEEDS to have autofocus-point since she won't focus/meter/recompose any shots, and she will not bother to mave any dials to get the best shots. That's not to say she can't learn, she just wont take any pictures with it if the thing is too complicated. She normally won't fool with the camera at all, but if I tell her "Its on full auto, just point and shoot" then she'll actually take pictures :D
I think its a bit of a mis-nomer to call it Hi-Speed if that really only means a stop of shutter... that's not hi speed in my book. Shrug. I want shots with high shutter speed and narrow DOF, so if there was a mode that honored my auto ISO bounds and could let me set some bounds on aperture that would be great. Does Sv honor the auto ISO bounds?
True, I got the camera for me to take candid portraits not sports, but I'd like to think that with a bit of tweaking she could get good results if I set it up like the dreaded "Man jumping hurdle" mode on so many Canikons out there.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
05-10-2008, 10:53 AM
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Thanks Matt, I have a theory but maybe you can see if it holds water...
I think she may have inadvertently moved the dials because she sometimes zooms in on a shot in playback mode so she's moving the rear dial at times. If she moved them after clearing the preview ii may have gone into a hyperprogram setting fixing the shutter speed or aperture (I can't remember which is rear dial). This would also explain the 100 ISO since isn't that a known issue with auto ISO and hyperprogram?
The green button may be in need of pressing :) Sound like a good explanation to you?
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
05-10-2008, 10:24 AM
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OK, I coach my son's soccer team so my wife takes pictures during the games. I set the camera up for her and she just frames and shoots. Almost all of the shots are too slow shutter speed. Settings are:
Kit lens or DA 50-200 depending on our field location
Camera set to P
Program line set to Hi-Speed (important point here)
Lock AE to focus point
ISO set to auto 100-400
Single shot mode
AF.S
Firmware 1.00 never touched it out of the box
Full auto focus points
Spot meter today due to heavy overcast sky and low horizon
Sometimes center weight exposure if clear skies
The camera is making absurd choices. Nearly all of the shots my wife took today were ISO 100 and 1/160 shutter speed, f/8.0 or f/7.1. Way too slow. Blurry blurry blurry, huge DOF, they look like point and shoot pics. Shouldn't Hi-Speed program line choose settings closer to ISO 400 and maybe 1/2000 and f/3.5-f/5.6? You know, HI SPEED settings to freeze action? I can't wrap my brain around why the camera is choosing the settings such a way.
Exposure is good, a bit underexposed but that's fine, I can get them spot on but I have to use center point focus and lock AE to focus point, half press, then recompose each time. Too much for wifey to keep up with but the other settings the camera should know better.
Every year I prepare a photo CD for the parents and I'm embarrassed to hand these shots out lest any of them are photogs. HELP!!!!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
04-16-2008, 10:22 PM
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Maybe I have a good copy, but my DA 50-200 is very good, I rarely leave home without it. I keep the program line on MTF or whatever and it seems to like 5.6-7.1 depending on the short or long end. The bokeh is not as vague and the details are not quite as sharp as my Vivitar 70-200 f/2.8-4 but it autofocuses and its very compact. The color rendition is really good, but my K10 tends to underexpose with it a bit.
If you need a moderate zoom (not too long, not too short) that wont break the bank or your heart if you damage it then this is a no-brainer.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
02-21-2008, 05:22 PM
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Freaks of the world unite!
Since this is shaping up to be a canonical Linux photo tools thread I better post to be in the cool crowd.
I've been using Linux for over 10 years and as an experiment my wife and I use it at home exclusively for the last year. *We will never go back*. I rarely wax poetic about software but the open source GNU movement has done soooo much for us and comparitively few people in the US use it and even fewer appreciate what it really means. Open source programs will never go away, they are here forever. With open source tools you will *never* be beholden to a corporation for your data. They are *our* pictures and we like to keep it that way.
I'm just waiting for someone to re-implement the Ansel Adams zone system in open source and I can quit using Lightzone. This technique IMHO is the best way to get above average quality out of your shots for the least amount of technical knowledge. Best bang for the "brain-buck" so to speak.
Of course, GIMP development is in such sad shape right now, I don't think they have many resources to do this and I've heard the bar for entry is pretty high and thorny over there. In time this will pass, or the community will take another direction... like ufraw.
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
01-13-2008, 03:59 PM
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Vivitar 285HV maybe?? Pretty basic, not as strong as the 540 but a decent price and a good reputation.
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
01-13-2008, 03:56 PM
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Thanks mprince, after hearing form Codiac 2600 here, Ive almost decided to just get the pentax 360 and call it a day. Using wireless triggering or with a cable one could bounce the flash shooting portrait and its probably good enough. :shrug:
Too bad the pentax 540 is so much more $$$, its double the price of the 360 :eek:
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
01-12-2008, 09:37 PM
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The specs for the 7500edf flash look pretty good and the price is attractive. I have read reports on other forums that the promaster line of flashes can be quite good, other folks relegate this brand to the junk pile immediately. I am interested in
- Bounce / Tilt
- Quality of construction
- HSS capability
- Wireless slave mode
- Short flash duration (full pulse width)
Since these features as a whole seem to be hard to get in a single inexpensive flash, maybe this can fit the bill. If anyone has this flash and can comment on these features please post your experiences.
Also, please post a pic of the back of the flash if you can. Why don't flash manufacturers/retailers put a picture of the back of a flash on their websites??!! :hmm::mad::mad: Even google image searches come up empty for lots of flash interfaces. As a photog I need to *use* the flash, so a picture of its interface might be in order!!!!
Check out the Promaster 7500EDF website. No back pics. Now look at Canon's Speedlite site and see that all 3 speedlites are shown fron and back. Hmmm... maybe seeing the flash interface is important ;)
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
01-12-2008, 09:11 PM
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Chris,
Great shots! Also, thank you for your videos on club photography!
How is the 7500EDF? I am very interested in this flash but only if it does wireless and HSS. There is a good bit of interest in this new flash on the forum but no one seems to have posted good first-hand experience yet...
Steve-O
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-11-2008, 02:20 AM
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Are you willing to put your name by this claim? I only ask because I agree with
So unless the official word comes from pentax I am not inclined to believe the sensor is 16:9. Ultimately it would be a very strange engineering decision, and if it happens to be true I will gladly eat crow in front of you (will you offer the same if the tables are turned?). It just does no make sense to waste that much of the image circle. Then again, maybe the likes of us forum geeks know more than dozens of gainfully employed engineers at pentax ;)
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-11-2008, 01:52 AM
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I think you should revise your mathematics. 12 MPix on an APS-C is a pixel density that would yield almost 19MP on an APS-H size wafer according to this link unless Pentax is redefining APS-H. The pixel density for mid 14Mpix on APS-H is almost exactly that of our infamous 10MP K10D. Add to that the fact that it is now CMOS and you should get a nice improvement over the K10D if the rumours of this larger sensor are true.
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Forum: General Talk
01-03-2008, 12:45 PM
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Hmmm... a quick napkin calculation shows that if you use the same pixel pitch as the sony sensor in the K10 (3872:2592 into 23.5:15.7 ~= 165pix/mm) to make a sensor in APS-H size you'd get... a ~14-15 Mpix APS-H sensor.
Of course, there's nothing that says the pix density would remain the same on the new sensor. Unless you wanted to increase dynamic range by incorporating new wafer process techniques while keeping the photo sites the same size. This would probably mean increased DR and less noise.
Oh, and DA* lenses still cover ~1.3 crop, yes? Although I don't think 2 DA* lenses which are on the market would make or break a change in sensor size for pentax bodies. Who is to say the new long primes would not cover a larger sensor anyway? Has anyone actually held the new 200 and 300mm primes? If they knew a new larger sensor size was coming, I don't think pentax would have filled the market with digital crop pro DA* lenses. Oh wait, they havent :)
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Forum: Photographic Technique
07-14-2007, 11:13 AM
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Schmikey, does the screen you got look like the one pictured? I really want one with the composition lines as well as the quad-split prism. :hmm:
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Forum: Photographic Technique
07-13-2007, 02:54 PM
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Attack11, if you look at the photos and sum up (integrate) the area over which the sky is present, you'll find that a difference is there. As a test, on a clear day take your camera out and point it at the horizon and take a meter reading. Then shift the angle of the camera up by just a single degree above the horizon and take another reading. A single degree is actaully quite far above the horizon, being that there are only 180 degrees from the horizon in front of you to the horizon behind you. Now do the same but in the other direction, i.e. below the horizon. I have not tried this with the k10's light meter, but I have done this with a canon AE-1. You should see a difference in the light reading.
The point is, there is an incredible amount of ambient light bouncing off the Earth's atmosphere and if you point the camera even slightly toward the sky you will let in more light. That is the main difference I see between thos shots you posted. This may also affect the rendered color of the sky.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
06-25-2007, 11:01 PM
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Long story about why I chose pentax -->
My dad shot film for years and years. He and my mom rolled and developed their own slides and B&W film at the military base photo labs where he was stationed. Even to this day his main camera is a Canon AE-1 from the 1970's with some fantastic lenses. These lenses are not compatible with any DSLR, which is quite sad given the quality of the lenses.
I learned to shoot on his camera by using the manual mode and the built-in analog light meter (it has a needle on the side of the viewfinder like VU meter from a old hifi stereo, very cool). The AE-1 is an amazing camera and it was popular at an amazing time for amateur photography. Japan was cranking out great cameras and the average joe could get his hands on *serious* photographic hardware. The K-1000 from pentax is another good example. If you want a good read just do some googling on the k-1000 35mm slr from pentax. It is rugged and basic, which is why many students sill use it. Seriously, I can go *tomorrow* to a local camera store in town and get a k-1000 with a fantastic prime lens for about the cost of a couple of textbooks. Photography students do this every semester. These lenses will work on any pentax DSLR.
When it came time to buy a digital camera I really wanted one that would let me use Dad's AE-1 lenses, since they are quite nice. This, however, is not practical. There are some adapter rings for his lenses to mount to Canon's new bodies but to preserve infinity focus (the focus of things far away) a corrective piece of glass or plastic is used in the adapter. Nothing ruins the picture quality of a 50mm f/1.4 lens better than running it through an el-cheapo Chinese adapter lens. High quality adapters from Canon are out of production and sell for close to $1000 USD on ebay on the rare occasion they pop up.
So there I was, looking at camera reviews and lurking on forums to find which camera to buy. When I found out that pentax supports all the old lenses (physically by not altering the k-mount, and the camera has features to use the old lenses) it made me think this was a special camera.
Half of the fun of photography for me is experimenting and enjoying taking pictures. I can walk into an antique store or pawnbroker in Anytown, USA and have a good chance of finding a lens that will work on my camera. The old lenses are built like tanks compared to modern ones. Aluminum and steel construction, fluid damped focus rings and zooms, stuff that just *feels* good in your hands. If you are careful and know what to look for some of these old lenses are gems. The owner of the store doesn't kow the good from the bad, so you can usually get a good deal on a good lens if you find one.
The first time I put an old lens on my new camera it reminded me of that feeling of my dad's camera. It felt so right. The pentax is a perfect camera for this feeling because of the old lens compatibilty, and adding the battery grip "promotes" this feeling to professional status without a doubt.
So my advice for you, Seafood, is this:
First... relax; you are in good company. You are probably used to learning things firsthand from someone (like fishing) or perhaps by experimentation as you get more familiar with the basics and since so few people have pentax compared to the other brands you may find it hard to talk to others about your camera. In my experience, as the photographers get better their views about camera brands get more open. All SLR cameras work in the same basic manner. They are more alike than different. Its just a tool, the pictures are whats important.
Second... go to your local library and check out a book called "How to take good pictures," a book by the Eastman Kodak company. This book came out in like 1943 so get a later edition proferably one from the 1970's or 1980's. Dont be fooled by the age of this book, the basics of photography have not changed. Here is where you will learn what focal length, f-stop, shutter speed, and ISO mean in photography. Seriously, once you know the relationships of the 4 basic components of a SLR camera (lens, aperture, shutter, film) you'll know more than 90% of the people who own a Canon DSLR (zing!).
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Forum: Photographic Technique
06-24-2007, 09:08 PM
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Yeah, you can look at pawn shops as well. I was in a local pawn shop the other day and picked up the following lenses all at the same shop
Pentax SMC-M 28mm f/2.8
Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm f/2.8-4 (3rd version, I got lucky) in PK/A mount
Vivitar 28-135mm close focus macro also in PK/A mount
It was all the pentax lenses he had and I bought the whole lot for $100 USD. Not too shabby.
Here's the interesting part: these lenses are like 20-30 years old, yet they still work in pentax's DSLRs. Pentax is the *only* brand to cater to users with old yet perfectly usable glass. For crying out loud the green metering button is right by the shutter!!! This is no accident or fluke that these old lenses still work, the camera is designed to work with all the pentax lenses...
To answer another question, you can tell immediately if a lens will fit pentax because they are usually all stamped with the letters for the mount type (PK, PK/A, etc.) right on the base plate of the lens. Heck, most pawn shops don't have a clue as to what they have, which is another draw for me -- its like a treasure hunt out there :)
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
06-22-2007, 10:22 AM
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Hey Paul,
If it were me I would only buy the kit lens if all your existing lenses were manual focus. Having autofocus is nice and without a split prism focus screen manual focusing can be frustrating. The autofocus is very precise, much more precise than I can reliably attain using the standard focusing screen and a manual lens.
Steve
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