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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
09-25-2009, 04:34 PM
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Details of Service:
ESTIMATE TO REPAIR AND REALIGN FOCUS HELICAL
ADJUST TO MANUFACTURERS SPECIFICATIONS
GENERAL CHECK AND CLEAN
Seems like purely labor to me.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
09-25-2009, 03:58 PM
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Yeah it looks like finding someone else is the answer. The waiting for them to lose the thing was a joke. The shipping is gonna start adding up real fast.
I wouldn't mind the $180 price tag for repairs if they were replacing a part or something. If it were a more expensive lens, then it wouldn't like so much to me like I could just buy a new one for the same cost. The DA 40 price did creep up a bunch.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
09-25-2009, 02:22 PM
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I know it can be fixed, the whole rant started when I got the quote to fix it. $180 to fix a lens I got for $200. That's my main problem.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
09-25-2009, 01:41 PM
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Okay here's my update. It took me a while to send the thing off for service. I'm not quite sure if I should be angry or just laugh at the stupidity of it all.
Total $180 00 to get it repaired. I paid $200 for the lens. I do love the thing, but really the thing has 2 moving parts. I saw the insides of it because it fell into two peices. How about they screw it back together leave all the dust inside and I'll take my chances on it being aligned.
"The high-grade aluminum construction of the DA Limited series provides the utmost durability and elegant design."
If this is their utmost reliability I think I'll just get $5 old lenses, or just go to a P&S and live with images that aren't sharp. My new plan is to ignore them until they lose the lens, and then send them the money to send it back unfixed. At that point they will have to replace it.
I'm done buying decent lenses for sure. $50 max.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
08-25-2009, 08:40 AM
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Wow I am a bit shocked that purple one might be edible. Not that I am going to test that. I only used that thread title because it sounded fun. I didn't even want to touch most of the mushrooms.
Anyway, here is the out of camera picture for the B&W one. I was undecided about the B&W for it and still am. It forces a little more focus on the cool texture, but the color is so nice too.
I tried some lower angle shots, but didn't have to time for all the setup that would be needed to make them work with a hyper dog with me. Most of the shots I barely stopped for.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
08-24-2009, 03:34 PM
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I was wandering with the dog today and was surprised by all the mushrooms everywhere. It's been raining for the past few weeks, so it's been perfect growing season for them. I had to crop all of them because I lack skill.
I just couldn't find a way to make this last one work. It's such a shame with three wildly different color mushrooms so close to each other. With that little acorn too.
I added a few more for anyone who really loves their mushrooms in my gallery.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-11-2009, 10:53 AM
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I was on a trip carrying just my K100D and DA40 to minimize weight. I noticed something wrong with the auto focus beyond short range shots. After playing with manual focusing, making sure my diopter adjustment didn't get bumped, and reconnecting the lens, I noticed that the focus ring wouldn't turn past the 0.6m marking. At some point I noticed the whole glass section of the lens that that should move back after forth with the focus ring was just completely loose.
Am I right in seeing that all Pentax lenses even the Limited series ones have only a 1 year warranty? It looks like I'll have to find a place to repair or I could have some fun dissecting it. I don't think I could keep dust away enough for it to be worth taking it apart. Is there some price I should be expecting to pay for a repair?
I'll end with one of the last couple pictures I took to make this a little less depressing. It came out pretty nicely for taking it while on a moving bike.
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Forum: Photo Critique
08-10-2008, 10:25 AM
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This photo is pretty far from what it originally was. I was trying to use a doorway/opening as a frame. That ended up not working at all for various reasons. I think this might be just a small bit better if it was shot at ISO 200, and with at maybe F8 instead of the F5.6 it was shot at. The lightning is all natural, and my PP stuff was as far as I can remember just changing levels and cropping.
I would have liked to crop it with a little more on the right side, but a switch and some distracting lines made that just not quite work for me. The other option I see is keep the right side where it's cropped now, and stop the left to include the post which leaves just enough staircase to see where it ends. This to me draws a little more attention to the light switch though. The more I look at it the more I am liking this idea.
I feel like I could go on forever changing things with this. Is this normal?
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
08-07-2008, 07:22 AM
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This was my second day of trying to get some shots on a mountain bike group ride. Most of the shots came during a break where we played around on a "skinny" which is nothing more than a tree/log that is narrow enough to be a challenge to ride the length of. This was around 6:45 in the evening in a wooded area so lighting was interesting. I used my only fast auto focus lens a DA40.
My first time trying this I used Av and the shutter speed was too slow with the camera choosing. This time I shot in shutter priority mode at 1/180s. I also had in my mind I needed to do a better job showing the obstacles. Specifically the scale of them.
These three as a series really do something none of my individual shots showed.
The one that really stands out though is this
I am disappointed I didn't get more in the frame at the bottom. I'm not sure if I would not have cropped it to the same spot if I did. It's one of those things I will never know. So do you think this one works without seeing what lies ahead?
I took a pretty good spill after taking this group of shots. I landed pretty hard with my camera in my backpack, then my bike landed on me. I bet that would have made for an interesting picture. I ended up with some cuts and scrapes and the camera didn't seem to be affected.
Next time I will experiment with a lower perspective to see how that works, focus on keeping where people are going in frame, and I might even try not to get hurt.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
08-05-2008, 03:25 PM
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The one problem I see in this one is if you zoom way in on her eyes, you can see my reflection.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
08-05-2008, 08:54 AM
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Ok how about someone doing nothing next.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
08-03-2008, 04:27 PM
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These are my results from a few hours wandering Ricketts Glen State Park in northeast Pennsylvania. I used my K100D and DA 40 Limited for everything. I got a few waterfall shots that came out well. And surprisingly to me a few people shots which really caught my eye. There were just so many waterfalls I think it skewed my image choices for this post to things other than waterfall shots. You can can't another half a dozen waterfall shots in my gallery.
The water was just very active and powerful in this one. I can't decide between the black and white version and the color though.
Staring at the falls. I am thinking now it could have been better with a different shutter speed.
This one sticks out for the colors. Far more red than just about every other area.
The bubbles moving across the flat rock in the foreground really added something to this.
One more waterfall shot.
This portrait with a goofy face looks great cropped.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-31-2008, 01:18 PM
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The stove would easily melt that popsicle, and it could even use the sticks for fuel. It also obviously hates children to begin with as you can see it has eaten a whiffle ball already. Can it ever be stopped?
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-28-2008, 05:11 PM
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Hey it's a puppy!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-27-2008, 08:48 AM
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I'd add something either wide or odd. Sigma 10-20, the Pentax 10-17 fisheye, maybe something faster in the telephoto range. That just seems like a lot of lenses that do very similar things. I'd also make sure I had some low drain AA's as well as one more cheap memory card when I saw one for $15 or something. Also some kind of $5 remote, you never know when one would be handy and they take up no space.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-27-2008, 08:39 AM
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I'm not a real expert at anything, but I'll add in what I know. All the K number D (K10D, K100D, K200D...) bodies all use SD cards. And all should work perfectly well with all your lenses. Obviously they won't makes manual focus lenses autofocus, and if the lens doesn't have an A mode you'll have to set the aperture on the lens itself. In the Aperture priority mode, the old lens/modern body works as would be expected.
The biggest change is that the lenses will all act like you have a 1.5X teleconvertor on all the time. This is because the sensor of all the Pentax DSLRs is smaller than film. Instead of 50mm lens being very close to normal, it would be closer to 35 or so. This is why the modern kit lenses start at 18mm to get a similar perspective to the 28mm wide end of similar older lenses.
Some newer and usually fairly expensive lenses now have SDM motors built in. Without going in to any details which I don't know anyway, these focus faster, and quiter than the old autofocus lenses. The K100D and the K110D cannot use this feature. The K100D super, K200, K10, K20, all can use these lenses. In the interest of not limiting future options I'd suggest getting a body that has this feature.
The other things that distinguish the models are less deal beaking in my mind. Slightly more megapixels for K10D, K20D, and K200D, over the K100D super for more ability to blow up pictures to giant sized prints. Those same three over the K100D super also have weather sealing. K200/K100 all use AA batteries, the K10/K20 use lithium batteries. So the lower end models might be a bit simpler to get spares in the field.
So in my mind throw out the K20D as being expensive, the K100/110D for not supported SDM lenses. If you have a big preference over battery type, make your decision based on that. Otherwise in my mind the K200D has more of a dumbed down control setup, with automatic type stuff. Where the K10D has nice additions for someone who knows what they are doing with an extra dial for easier aperture/shutter speed changes in manual modes. You will probably want the 18-55 kit lens with whichever camera you get. It's likely wider than anything made for film, and is a very cheap addition when getting a camera body with it.
Hopefully someone will come along and point out where I've said something completly wrong here too.
Good luck.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-24-2008, 02:18 PM
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This is Samantha. She isn't the most cooperative, but I ended up getting a good one here. I'm fairly sure I used my $8 135mm prime for this. I'm not quite sure I've cropped it to the best it could be.
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