Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
05-29-2012, 06:08 AM
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Hello there... Life's pretty busy at the moment (but I still hope to catch up with some commenting) and I think I should focus on fitness and/or some work-related learning (node.js on heroku) in the next couple of months so I'm out for now!
M 85mm f2.. What can I say? It's definitely a keeper! There's a lot of crossover between this and what I normally use my M 50 f1.4 for, but unlike the 50 there's no redundancy when carried with my DA 40 so it's likely to come with me far more often. (10-20, 40, M85, M200 is a rather good travel set especially as the M200 is cheap and can survive being in checked baggage.)
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Forum: Photographic Technique
05-27-2012, 10:25 AM
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I'm assuming this is a K-5 (as in your profile) and you're shooting raw, not JPEG..
ISO 80 and exposing for highlights (i.e. make the bright parts as bright as you can without clipping) will let you pull up a LOT of shadow detail during raw conversion later. I've made a Lightroom (3) preset here to get me most of the way, which is a combination of about 30% "fill light" and a custom tone curve. I gather fill light in LR4 works a lot better and may be enough on its own..
I've adjusted my in-camera settings to minimum contrast because I think this might get the highlight clipping warnings to more accurately represent what got recorded in the raw file - but I treat that as more forum folklore than experimentally proven fact.
(Of course, for static subjects "proper" HDR bracketing with multiple images will give you the best quality.)
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Forum: Photographic Technique
05-27-2012, 09:48 AM
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1) Figure out what your subject is. Then figure out how to take a decent photo of it. Then start using the camera.
2) Quality of light is the biggest influence on the keep/delete ratio. When the light is good, shoot lots.
3) There is no shame in post processing. We see with our minds, not our eyes. The camera and lens are only one stage in recreating that scene.
Bonus extra thing:
4) Take extra care to compose the edges of the frame right, not just the middle.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-22-2012, 09:42 AM
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I've got 9 lenses, and I tend to think more about slimming down the collection rather than growing it. From now on I'll try to ensure that each new lens supersedes (higher IQ and/or smaller and/or AF or other useful capabilities) and replaces an old one.
In an ideal world my perfect kit would be a camera (with a decent viewfinder) and 4-5 lenses that could do everything I need (which doesn't include sports or birding) and all fit easily in a small messenger bag. I almost have that now, thanks to some M series primes.
(Leica might well be the best solution to this, but even if I had that kind of money spare there's no way I'd spend it on a camera!)
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
05-12-2012, 12:49 AM
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
05-11-2012, 08:37 AM
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Unlike the Hermes thing, I see a use for this and if someone gave me one I'd definitely use it for a while before selling it for $$$$.
Especially when it's being done by a team of elderly German engineers with tiny screwdrivers and diamond-encrusted jewellers loupes, so busy scoffing free company caviar that they only have time to work for around 15 minutes every day. That's how I imagine it is, anyway..
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
05-11-2012, 08:21 AM
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I'm sure they'll still test them in the factory, just in case somehow one does eventually fall into the hands of a photographer. ;)
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
05-11-2012, 08:17 AM
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I've been following this thread with interest but not contributing because I really never did any serious photography with film at all... But I've thought before that this is what I hope for in future too. If the electronics get fast enough to draw the data down from the sensor 1000 times per second (or even, at minimum, twice for each exposure) and a raw file can contain a rate of light accumulation for each photosite as well as the end value, then I guess it's essentially impossible to overexpose.
Sorry about the digital diversion in the analogue forum. :)
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
05-11-2012, 12:40 AM
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In years to come revolutionaries will find these in the burned-out palaces of overthrown dictators, with fewer than 100 shutter actuations each.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
05-09-2012, 08:59 AM
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Have you turned off all the in-camera processing? (Highlight + shadow correction, etc.)
EDIT:
Oh, OK - if af-s works... not sure, of the top of my head. :)
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
05-09-2012, 07:24 AM
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I was opining about DPReview more than defending the D800, really... But in terms of reviewers I find Michael Reichmann pretty reliable much of the time and he loves it.
(Interesting that one of the things he's impressed about is the big DR allowing the shadows to be boosted a couple of stops at ISO 80 with no noise - we already have that with the K-5. It seems the sensor is essentially K-5 quality, but full frame hence much better in low light.)
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
05-09-2012, 07:12 AM
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You'll also get an extra 3.5 stops of dynamic range from the K-5. With all your lenses. ;)
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-09-2012, 07:08 AM
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I've got the M 200 and I really like it. IQ isn't perfect but it's better than cheap modern zooms and it's a nice satisfying lens to hold and use.
Got mine for US$65 + shipping a few months ago.
I wish manufacturers would make modern small light tele primes with high IQ - instead if I want to buy a current 200mm lens that takes better photos than a low-end zoom I have to choose between a few f2.8 monsters. That's why I ended up with the M.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-09-2012, 03:26 AM
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
05-09-2012, 03:12 AM
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I like DPReview because they show me what all the buttons do and what the menus look like. I don't think they're very good at actually testing things, I disregard their inconsistently focused sample shots and basically ignore their conclusions. :)
I think the D800 is probably a very very good camera.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
05-09-2012, 01:02 AM
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I think these are probably work safe for The Pope.
(Except 14.)
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
05-08-2012, 10:38 PM
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Great images but I feel the NSFW tag is false advertising here!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-08-2012, 12:53 AM
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Based on review charts, I don't think the DA15 is less distorted at 15mm than the 10-20 is - and from personal experience I only really have a problem with the 10-20 when going wider than 13mm.
My feeling is that you probably aren't going to get noticeably better shots by swapping out lenses when you're doing ultrawide landscape stuff on APS-C.
Some really good shots on your flickr, btw!
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
05-07-2012, 02:13 AM
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K-5, M 85mm f2
100% crop:
Seems fine to me!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-07-2012, 02:02 AM
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Ultrawide. 10-20ish zoom (or potentially the DA15, though that's not 'ultra').
Or anything very fast - f1.4ish.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
05-07-2012, 01:58 AM
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A fast 70-200 will add approx. 1kg to your kit weight (and a lot of bulk) over a slower tele zoom like the 55-300. If that's a factor, the K-5 might be a better solution.
I had to make this kind of choice myself and after I handled the Sigma 70-200 I realised that even if I bought it I'd be leaving the damn thing at home more often than not.
Great lenses for a specific use, hardly general-purpose.
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Forum: Pentax K-01
05-06-2012, 02:03 AM
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That's a great thought... Imagine if this thing out-hipsters the hipsters and becomes so popular that if effectively ends hipsterism overnight.
I think they'll sell it. Ikea is one of the smarter companies (upsides and downsides to that, I admit).
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
05-06-2012, 01:51 AM
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ND filter? Polariser? Sunglasses? Quick!
You do have less ozone cover than other areas, maybe it's brighter there?!
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
05-06-2012, 12:26 AM
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That's excellent.
Superdisappointment here, was completely overcast all afternoon and evening. It's possible tonight will be clearer.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
05-05-2012, 02:05 AM
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You're throwing away loads of image data by doing correction (especially WB and levels) after you've converted to JPEG - if you don't do this during raw conversion you might as well just shoot JPEG with sharpness on the lowest setting (so at least you don't lose data that way).
Picasa is absolutely great for cataloguing but in order to preserve image detail, don't do anything in Picasa that you could do during raw conversion.
(I used to use Photoshop + Picasa, now I have Lightroom for raw images and Picasa catalogues & shares all my (converted) JPEGs.)
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