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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-02-2010, 07:33 PM
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Hey everyone,
Thanks for your comments...all good suggestions.
Oh, and uh, thanks Telfish. For a second there I thought I was on Craigs List, but I should've known this was a classier place. Congrats on your gear. :D
Still trying to work it out, not sure what my final decision will be at this point. Cost wise it's a wash unless I just go the "shut up and change lenses and share a camera route."
Hmmm....
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-02-2010, 02:58 AM
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I should have mentioned that I'm not considering fixed fast lenses since my main aim is to not change lenses that often, and we're both the type of photographers that zoom in and out from picture to picture...I'm just not at that stage in my photography yet that I can make myself happy with a fixed lens.
I should also mention that we take everything from landscape to macro, and on a recent trip to Alaska we found we really enjoyed taking two cameras (a point and shoot and an SLR-type digital).
I'm really leaning towards the two-SLR scenario, but it just seems so...decadent. ;) I'm not too concerned about the inconvenience of trading cameras to get a different lens. It would be ideal if we could get a more professional camera as the second body, but unfortunately that's out of our price range.
Thanks again for your comments.
Aspiring Amateur
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-02-2010, 02:48 AM
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Okay, here's the deal: My boyfriend and I are both camera hogs (okay, I'm the camera hog and he goes along with it and tries to smile) and we're about to go on vacation in Europe. We've found out through various museum, street photos, indoor photos, etc. with our new K-x that we're constantly wanting to switch lenses (we have both the 18-55 and the 55-300).
We were initially thinking of a small handheld point & shoot as a 2nd camera option, but frankly with the quality of the K-x photos we just don't think we can go back to our old point & shoot days.
So, our option is to buy another lens for the camera (the Tamron 18-250 at roughly $530 insured and compromise a bit more on quality) or pick up ANOTHER K-x body (can't afford the K-7 or anything more expensive) for $600 (insured), mount the other lens on it and then we'd both be able to take pictures. Not that big of a price difference and we're both in photo heaven.
BACKGROUND
Our relationship is going on nearly 9 years (solid) and we are almost always with each other when we want to take pictures, so spreading two lenses across two different bodies isn't necessarily isn't necessarily *that* inconvenient.
What's your take on it? Buy the K-x body, stay with what we've got and switch the lenses and quit whining, or get the all-in-one lens and just live with a slightly diminished photo quality?
Any comments from people who carry two camera bodies with them would be much appreciated.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-16-2010, 02:17 PM
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Hey Rahulz,
You're right about the messenger bouncing around a lot more than a backpack. Everything's a trade-off. For me the messenger will be my camera bag for the airplane and for city walking. I do hike a bit with my camera, but on my full day hikes I typically have a full size backpack with water, food, emergency gear, etc. For hiking I will probably buy a more standard camera bag that is smaller than the messenger so that I can wear it at the same time as my bigger backpack.
Tenba has some great camera backpacks I will probably consider as well for shorter hikes.
If the safety thing appeals to you, there is a line of bags (with only one or two camera bags) that has steel reinforced straps and webbing hidden under the material to make it harder for thieves to cut the bag off your shoulder. They're not camera focused, though they do have some decent options for camera bags. The company is called Pacsafe ( Pacsafe Anti-Theft Bags & Travel Security Products ).
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-15-2010, 11:40 PM
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Hi Rahulz,
I just bought a bag from ebags ( eBags - Largest Selection Of Handbags, Backpacks, Luggage & More - eBags ) which is a great low cost place to buy camera bags. They're always running sales and they have great video demonstrations of the product.
The one I bought for myself (through ebags) was the Tenba Messenger, which allows top access to the camera via zipper, without the need to open the bag wide so that everyone can clearly see that you have expensive camera gear inside. If you're wanting to be discreet that's a good way to go.
Lots of good camera bags, backpacks, etc. are demonstrated by video at the Tenba web site ( Tenba: Professional Bags for Photography, Computers, Shipping, Portfolios and Grip ) if you're interested, and they're pretty much all available on ebags, or Amazon, or whatever your preferred store is.
Everyone has their own preference as to a camera bag. My own is to have it slung over my shoulder to one side (not in a backpack) so I can see where it is at all times for safety reasons. I also don't want the bag to *look* like a camera bag, so that it doesn't become an easy target for thieves.
I also won't buy a bag online that I can't see demonstrated in a video. Buying/trying in person is best, of course, so that you can feel the weight of the bag, get a true idea of its size and figure out if it would be comfortable to carry. And of course it's always a good idea to patronize local camera shops, since the Internet is taking such a big bite out of their sales.
For the K-x and standard lenses any bag that can comfortably fit a DSLR camera body and an extra lens or two should work. Many bags allow you to store the camera and telephoto lens as a single piece (for easy retrieval and fast picture taking) and that has always been my preference.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
02-14-2010, 09:40 PM
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Well, here's the update, my boyfriend and I just took the plunge and ordered the K-x for Valentine's Day. Happy day to us.
For those out there maybe considering either the Nikon D5000 or the Pentax K-x here was my rationale: we take a lot of low-light hand held photos so the ability to create sharp pictures at any ISO without much noise was very important to us.
As far as the image comparisons on Imaging Resource Comparometer goes, the K-x only blew the socks off the D5000 in the first image tests with the mannequin. Once I saw the direct comparison for the Nikon D5000 at 1600 ISO against the Pentax K-x at 6400 ISO (nearly identical) we took the plunge.
I still wonder about the still life photos at the bottom of the page, and why the K-x seemed more or less equal to the D5000 in the still life tests near the bottom, when it was clearly superior in most of the earlier tests. I've written it off to changing camera settings between the two tests (JPG vs. RAW or different noise reduction levels) because I haven't found any plausible explanation on the site itself.
For me, at least, I was confident that I would achive the image results I was looking for, and the possibility of being wowed every time I took a handheld low-light shot was too much to resist.
Thanks for everyone who responded to my thread.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
02-09-2010, 02:43 PM
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Jeff-
Awesome! That one's going on my favorites right away...
Plugging in values now...
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
02-09-2010, 02:35 PM
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Thanks Gerry,
I'm willing to make sacrifices in cost & availability of new lenses as long as I get the detail, noise reduction/high ISO performance I'm looking for. The difference between the two setups I'm looking at is about $350, with the k-x being the less expensive of the two (I've priced out maintenance/insurance, Raynox lens, remote, etc.).
An extra $350 will hurt, but only for a little bit, and I'm willing to make the sacrifice if it means I'll be happier with my pictures.
Your lens comment made me think of something, though. The dpreview site tests with prime lenses so their results are more repeatable. I believe the Imaging Resource Comparometer uses kit lenses.
Could lens difference account for the loss in detail when comaring results from the two sites? And if so, why would the results for the K-x be so strong in the first indoor/outdoor test and yet falter in the still life test (both of these tests would be using the kit lenses since they're both on the Imaging Resource site)?
For me, the kit lens test would probably accurately reflect my real-world results since after my research I've decided to go with the kit 18-55mm (Pentax or Nikon) and branded tele (55-300 Pentax or 70-300 Nikon stabilized, autofocus).
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
02-09-2010, 02:03 PM
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Greetings all,
Shameless plea for help in explaining test results:
Losing a lot of sleep (literally) doing research on photo quality between the Nikon D5000 and K-x (and browsing this forum). :) I'm going to be buying my first DSLR soon, and the most important thing to me is noise reduction, both for ISO 200 (daylight mountain scenery, street scenes) and ISO 1600 and above (interiors, wildlife). Here's why: I've given up trying to shoot *way* too many shots with my Panasonic FZ-50 because of camera shake/not being able to freeze the action in low-light conditions. I'm thinking about holiday pictures, pictures in your local Starbucks, museum pictures, interior pictures in general.
Just when I thought that the fantastic dpreview tests made going with the k-x a no brainer ( Pentax K-x Review: 15. Photographic tests (Noise): Digital Photography Review ), I discover (because of this forum) the Comparometer at Imaging resource ( Imaging Resource "Comparometer" ™ Digital Camera Image Comparison Page ) which seemed to produce mixed results.
Looking at the first images the K-x is the clear winner (outdoor, indoor, house poster). I absolutely love how the K-x retains more detail than the D5000 even in low ISOs (this seems to match the dpreview results).
HOWEVER, in the later pictures, starting with the Macro shot things start to go downhill pretty quickly for the K-x. I can appreciate the difference in the Macro functions, but what is really troubling me is that the Still Life photos seem heavily weighted in the D5000's favor. With the D5000 more detail is visible, with less noise even at higher ISOs than the K-x. The tests also seem to indicate a tendency for the K-x to lose detail in bright colors.
These results seem totally out of line with the dpreview results, as well as with Imaging Resource's results above in the Interior shots.
Can anyone explain these results to me (keeping in mind that I'm a total noob to the DSLR world and have a limited vocabulary--try to keep the words small)? :D Is there maybe another good site where I can compare full-size images between the two cameras?
I was all set to buy the K-x, darnit, but these tests are making me reconsider.
Thanks!
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