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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
08-21-2013, 01:39 AM
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Yep, thats pretty much the same situation I was in - I wanted something that I could take when I knew I wouldn't have room for anything else. It may not be the fastest, or be the sharpest at 250mm, but its a darned-sight better than a point-n-shoot. And for family trips I figured it's better to have a slightly 'sub-par' photo than no photo at all!
The only reason I'm selling it is that I was lucky enough to acquire a K5II & 18-135mm kit on a recent trip to the USA. While the 18-135mm is pretty similar IQ wise, I really liked the idea of WR as I can now take it skiing :)
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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
08-17-2013, 10:22 PM
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Forum: Sold Items
02-27-2013, 11:34 PM
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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
11-28-2011, 03:10 PM
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Can't say I've ever tried to look at the stars during the day! I can imagine finding it would be nigh on impossible without precise equipment.
On another note, I think I've caught LBA again :( I seem to get this any time a holiday approaches. I'm still trying to get my hands on a superzoom, preferably the Tamron/Pentax 18-250, but as you all know its once a blue moon that they come up for sale. I put up a wanted ad, which people are giving reasonble offers for, but once you factor in shipping/fees/customs?, things get pricey :(
Have had the odd urge to settle for an 18-200 tamron, or perhaps the 18-125 sigma (as these are avaiable new for reasonable prices), but everyone is saying the 18-250 is far superior.
Ultimately I want something that can be the only lens I take on a short holiday (or perhaps those small day trips within holidays).
Any kiwis here have experience with superzooms? Is comparing IQ between these superzooms actually missing the point?
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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
11-27-2011, 04:21 PM
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Thanks! Sent them in to space.com, might be a bit late, but better late than never ;)
A while ago I bought a pentax T mount adaptor, which I planned on using with my 6" newtonian telescope. However, I've always been a pretty terrible astronomer, and can never navigate my way around the stars. I did get pretty good at finding M42, and it is quite impressive on a good night. But I was never able to take any decent photos through it, the long exposure times required that I attempt to 'track' the scope with the earths rotation - which inevitably led to a shaky apparatus. Will try to dig it up the best result and post it here. It certainly sheds light on the precision and accuracy needed to get sharp, clear space shots.
I think I may try to get some shots of the moon on this lunar eclipse you talk of - hopefully the exposure time will be short enough to not need tracking. Fingers crossed for good weather :)
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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
11-26-2011, 10:37 PM
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Yes, thanks for the heads up indeed! Managed to run out at about 8:25 or so and take a few snaps.
But as I'm in chch it setting out over houses etc. Managed to come away with this:
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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
05-17-2011, 04:12 PM
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Spotted a Sigma 120-400mm at photo & video Chch in their 2nd hand section. Thought it would be at least worth going and trying it out, despite their price being a bit on the high side for a 2nd hand lens.
However, I was pleasantly surprised by it. It was even the OS model, which I was quite keen for given the lack of 'panning' stabilisation on the K20D (are all in-body IS cameras missing this?). Not pin-sharp by any means at 400mm, but still very acceptable, and it does improve as you stop down. Far, far better than the 200mm sigma kit lens I had :P Although alot bigger. HSM is very nice too.
So anyway, I decided to get it as I figured it would be a long time before anything similar pops up.
The next day I had a track-day at Ruapuna (drive your car on the track - whether it's a nice classic, an old beater, or your daily driver), so I figured it would be a good place to test it and get some practice panning & sports shooting.
I didn't get that much time to take photos - most of the day was driving/yarning, but I was able to get a few decent keepers. I certainly learnt that alot of technique is needed for focusing, something I will have to work on. The ratio of binners to keepers was rather high XD, mostly due to focus issues. Positioning on the track is also a big factor, but can be an issue when it's difficult to walk around due to cars whizzing past at 200kph :P
Given what Arpe said above, it would be interesting to try out systems with world-class focusing systems. The K5 has a new AF system, is it a step in the right direction regarding sports shooting?
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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
05-01-2011, 08:40 PM
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Last weekend I had a friend ask for a reccomendation as to what DSLR he should get. As much as I wanted to say 'get a pentax' (he's starting out, so was thinking K-x or K-r, or 2nd hand 20d or k7), and as much as I knew he would be getting exceptional value for money, I simply couldn't. The reason I said this was from my experience in building up my lens kit - the lack of 2nd hand mid-range modern lenses makes buying both a slow and often pricier affair than it needs to be.
So before I go and tell him to go canon or nikon, I figured I should ask here -
Firstly, are 2nd hand pentax mount lenses (talking about modern, mid-range ones here, say $400+ 2nd hand priced lenses) more than their canikon equivalents? At least, when they do pop-up on trademe.
Secondly, can buying from overseas bring competitive pricing? - factoring in shipping etc. Getting 2nd hand stuff overseas isn't usually my cup of tea, but it's something I'd consider at this point.
My recent holiday in Perth/WA made me realise I need to change/remove/add a few lenses in my kit, and I've also been wondering where I should be looking these days. Perhaps some of you here could enlighten me with your preferred LBA destinations :P
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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
11-29-2010, 08:38 PM
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Just got back from a short camping trip to Mt Cook.
Did most of the walks around there, passing a number of tourists with SLRs.
Before this trip I'd never seen (in person) someone else with a Pentax DSLR. But over a few days I saw as many, if not more, Pentaxes than Canons and Nikons combined! (Specifically talking about DSLRs here).
Though to be fair, the guys with the Nikons and Canons had the serious lenses.
Many of the tourists with the Pentaxes were Japanese, which makes sense as obviously Pentax has a stronger presence there than in NZ. But still, I expected to see far more of the Canikon crowd.
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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
08-31-2010, 06:55 PM
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Congrats on the PoTW - nice timing :)
Dell must have terrible communication between some of their departments, especially for it to happen twice. Hopefully they'll sort it out, otherwise ask for a refurbished or new U2410 :)
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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
08-25-2010, 07:32 PM
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Hmm the serial number... I believe it was this: CN-0DP029-74261-81L-2PPS
As for what was wrong with it - it was the first revision, so had the very laggy firmware on it. If it has been refurbished it should have the new firmware - I believe you can tell by checking how the sharpness increments - steps of 25 is the old Firmware, steps of 10 is the new firmware.
It also had a noticably brighter right hand side (or was it left?) when viewing a black screen. I reckon it had a very minor pink tinge, but I wouldn't have cared for that.
It was primarily the input lag - I recently started playing first person shooters again, and the extra 60ms of delay was pretty awful. I asked for them to just reprogram it with the newer firmware, but I guess I got lucky and they sent me a refurbished U2410.
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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
08-24-2010, 12:29 AM
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It was replaced under warranty - I too had the 3 year warranty, and I probably still have around a year left on it. It took a number of emails before anyone actually got back to me, but once I was put in touch with someone they replaced it pretty quickly.
The new one is great, the main thing I was after was a low input lag, which it is massively improved over the 2408. The colour is better, but only just. Perhaps after a proper calibration it would shine :)
It is a REV A01 model.
I'll have a read of that review, it sounds rather in depth so it may take a while :P
Hmm I didn't realize you needed to re-calibrate so often. I guess for my needs a once off might do, but you're probably right in saying I could achieve the same by spending some time with gamma test charts etc.
I've suggested to the boss that our marketing department should get such a device, maybe I'll bring it up again. :D
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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
08-23-2010, 07:56 PM
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Hello Everyone!
I recently got a new replacement monitor from Dell (old one was a 2408WFP, they sent me a U2410), however for the first minute of using it there is a noticable green tint (but it is still within factory specs). After a little while you don't notice it anymore.
It appears it is a calibration issue and it should be possible to correct with a colour calibration device.
However, I can't exactly justify getting a $300 device just to use it once. So does anyone here know where one can rent/hire/borrow one of these devices for a day or so?
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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
05-30-2010, 09:32 PM
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I asked a question about what happens if customs asks for fees, but they didn't give me a straight answer. However, their feedback seems to be positive in the sense that everyone gets what they wanted with no extra fees, all the negative stuff seems to be people complaining about the fact the goods arrived from overseas.
I tried reporting a few of their auctions to trademe, as the official trademe rules state the goods must be in the sellers possession (i.e. no dropshipping). But nothing seems to have happened, I guess trademe doesn't really care as long as the success fees are paid.
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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
03-31-2010, 04:34 PM
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Yeah we get that magazine here at work. They've done a number of so called 'comprehensive camera tests', and each time they somehow manage to summarise a camera in half a paragraph, tick a few boxes and assign an arbitrary number to pretty arbitrary categories.
Looking at some other 'tests' or 'comparisons' they do, it really shows they are jack (maybe thats too kind?) of all trades and master of none. Yet, as you said, the unfunny thing is that people do listen to them. Some of my colleagues consider their so-called conclusions the gospel, and theres no arguing with them after that.
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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
01-31-2010, 04:54 PM
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I got a 3 on my dell 24" at home, but I did spend a long time on it. It's a good test for testing you & your monitors colour range, but useless for actual colour accuracy. Still, I'm going to send it round work to see if our 'colour committee' can get a decent score (and see if its their eyes or their monitor!).
Edit: Guy at work just got a zero (perfect) on his work monitor (Viewsonic VA2026w, I believe it's a TN panel). Either he got lucky or the monitor isn't a limiting factor in this test. Another fella got a zero on a pretty terrible monitor, so it's evidently our eyes :(
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-27-2010, 08:14 PM
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I recently cleaned out an old Tokina 28-200 manual focus lens. It was my first time pulling lenses apart, and it turned out pretty well.
I suggest using disposable rubber gloves (like the surgical ones). Hands are very greasy, and will get grease everywhere!
Some kind of soft rubber device (perhaps an eraser?) makes unscrewing lenses and inner rings easy.
Before you pull a lens out, mark with a pencil where it lined up with the outer casing, and be sure to realign when re-assembling.
Best of luck!
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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
01-26-2010, 01:32 PM
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Indeed, I saw that this morning too (I tend to substitute the news with trademe emails :lol:). Sadly at this stage I can't quite justify that much on a prime (hence the cautious approach about the other one).
Thanks for those varying aperture shots, they were quite useful. To me anyway, it seems you get a fairly linear increase in 'bokeh niceness' (creamyness?) with each half-stop. But the price increases somewhat exponentially as max aperture size increases! So, with that in mind, a 1.7 does seem like a fairly good deal.
I'm still unsure about the Tamron 28-75, I'm waiting for a sunny day so I can take some outdoor shots and see whether I can live with the not-so-wide side of it. But sunny days seem to be few and far between this January :mad:
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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
01-25-2010, 02:32 PM
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Exactly, there was the Sigma 18-50mm 3.5-5.6 and a 55-200mm 4-5.6. Both seem pretty awful. The tele zoom especially at 200mm, where it is terribly soft. Sadly I was in a rush to make the purchase before I went on holiday so I could allow time for it to ship to where I was staying. I think the fact that they were offering BOTH kit lenses at no extra price should have rung some bells! Still, it was a bargain compared to what shops in NZ ask for the K20D - I take it that pentax doesn't have any distributors here?
Indeed, I did a comparison last night to see how wide 18mm is compared to 28mm, and you're dead right, I will be wanting to go wider than 28mm at times. I'll have to decide if I will be able to accept that or not. The price for the Tamron still seems pretty good, especially given the rather limited availablility for decent second hand auto focus pentax mount lenses. I'm a big fan of second hand goods, and until bitten I don't tend to buy new!
I'll do some more thinking, looking around and so on, but I do plan to go back there and bring it up.
Given that it is a full-frame lens, surely the edge sharpness should be good? I've noticed it gets soft at the edge (almost as much as the sigma kit lens) at F2.8, F4 - though it definitely gets better above that. On a FF camera I can imagine it would be rather bad. I might make a seperate thread once I get home, as I've read reviews that state it's edge sharpness is good.
It seems as though the manual 1.4's generally go for over $100. Haven't seen an auto 1.4 yet. I could be waiting a while! But the whole reason I would be wanting it would be for low light shooting and the nice bokeh, so perhaps I should wait.
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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
01-24-2010, 08:45 PM
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Hey fellas.
My first post here, thought I'd start off in the local forum :)
I've purchased a K20D + two sigma lenses while on holiday in aussie a few months ago and brought it back with me (getting the nice 10% tourist refund too!).
The sigma lenses are a bit on the crap side (to put it lightly!), and so I've been looking around for something a bit better.
I spotted a Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 AF XR Di (etc etc) second hand in christchurch (Photo & Video International - New & Used Photographic Equipment & Digital Printing) for $495, which seemed pretty reasonable given it got favourable reviews. So I've picked it up, and have a few days to try it out and make sure it performs OK.
I've done some comparison shots (I won't post them, as I'm at work atm), seems to perform alot better compared to the sigma (18-50mm f3.5-5.6 DC). BUT!! I notice there is a very thin (hairline) scratch on the rear element (on the outside, closest to the sensor). It appears to be just in the coating, and you do have to look for it, but it is definitely there. I will do some tests later on to see if it can affect the image in any way. Anyway, given the IQ seems fine so far, I am more concerned about the resale value - which I doubt I could get anything more than $300-400 for a lens with a scratch. Would you reccomend I bring it up with the shop, and see what they can do about it? (It has a 3 month warranty, and given it is the rear element, replacement must be fairly simple).
On another note (a very long first post!), this has been floating around on trademe for a bit:
!!!! SMC Pentax - A f1.7 50mm Lens !!!! for sale - TradeMe.co.nz - New Zealand
A 50mm prime seems like a good lens to force a beginner to learn with, and their reputation for sharpness and speed an added bonus. Now, the one listed there is the Pentax-A (auto aperture, which I would like). It has been listed twice, with an asking price of $160, including postage, which seems OK to me. I'm a bit cautious now that no-one has bought it yet, as another auto aperture one (it may have been a F/1.4) sold like a hot-cake. No doubt some of you here have seen the auction, and can anyone offer any insight as to it's estimated value? As a 50mm prime is it in line with Pentax's excellent reputation?
Whew, long first post!. Cheers, and looking forward to spending more time on this forum :)
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