|
Forum: Post Your Photos!
10-22-2023, 11:40 PM
|
| |
Wow! That's really nice. I could see using that for my computer's wallpaper. :)
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
10-18-2023, 10:18 PM
|
| |
That's true about the USB soldering needle. I keep forgetting about those, even though I have two. They *are* temperature controlled, too. Cheapest I've seen them is the Pine-cil, from pine64. 25 bucks 'community price.' I have an old school Metcal curie-point/RF soldering station, so that's what I used.
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
10-13-2023, 06:33 PM
|
| |
It's not really that bad. I used a binocular microscope because I have one for doing surface-mount electronics. A good head-mounted magnifier would be sufficient. The neat thing about optical magnification is that with magnified feedback, your hands can get steadier. (Video magnification does the opposite, due to the slight lag inherent in digital video). Also, I've watched a bunch of wristwatch repair videos (those folks are something else) and there are techniques for steadying one hand with the other. So far as I can tell, the critical thing is to have a fine, temperature controlled soldering iron. There are a lot of precision plastic parts right around the solenoid, and you don't want to use more heat than the job needs. Also soldering flux helps. It lets you make multiple attempts to get the solder right without having to shorten the wires.
If you've ever opened up a modern laptop, done something to it (installed a new wifi card, for example) and then gotten it back together in working order, that's about the level of manual dexterity required. It's not (quite) neurosurgery.
PS: I'm 56, and recently had to sell my Pentax-A f1.2 prime because my eyes aren't good enough to nail the focus anymore. Definitely not a teenager. :)
|
|
Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-12-2023, 09:11 PM
|
| |
I know with my k30 I had to enable non-automatic lenses in the menu to work at all. Perhaps it's the same problem?
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
10-04-2023, 07:04 PM
|
| |
For me, the "exercise it" repair lasted about a week. I successfully transplanted a "white" solenoid into my k30 and it functions normally.
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-01
08-02-2023, 03:04 PM
|
| |
Yikes. I hadn't even considered that. I don't think I even got my k30 out during the pandemic proper. Which might explain when I *did* get it out last Christmas, the aperture solenoid was stuck. (long story. Replaced it with a used one off ebay, now works fine.) It also might explain why I can find so few of my lens hoods. :P
-JRS
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-01
08-01-2023, 05:39 PM
|
| |
No offense intended. That was my *first* impression of the camera when I first saw one. It seems quite handy now that my wife has one, and I've warmed to the design.
Like the others, the widow's peak on the k30 hasn't gotten in my way yet, even with my 500mm Cambron catadioptric, the largest diameter lens I own.
|
|
Forum: General Talk
08-01-2023, 05:08 PM
|
| |
Wikipedia says the origin of the term "Lazy Susan" is probably lost to history.
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-01
07-31-2023, 01:42 PM
|
| |
My wife certainly loves hers. She finds viewfinders impossible to use with her corrective lenses. We can also share camera lenses, as I have a k30. I really think it was the look of the camera more than anything else. Whereas my first impression of the k30 was "this thing *clings* to my hand, my first impression of the K-01 was "This is a dumb looking camera that looks like it will be easy to drop." It grows on you. My wife has a better eye for photography than I do, so she consistently gets better photos. :)
|
|
Forum: General Talk
07-31-2023, 01:34 PM
|
| |
It's a turntable. The ones I've seen are plastic. Typically you find them in kitchen cabinets, for bringing things in the back of the cabinet to the front.
|
|
Forum: Site Suggestions and Help
07-31-2023, 01:17 PM
|
| |
Firefox on PopOS Linux and on MacOS Ventura. No problems.
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
07-08-2023, 06:34 PM
|
| |
Just replaced the solenoid on my k30 with one of the ebay ones harvested from earlier pentax bodies where the solenoids still had the teflon plastic housing. The detailed instructions here are great. I used a pair of Mr. Clean magic erasers with diagrams of the camera and holes punched in them to hold the screws, a pair of SMD tweezers (they're designed for handling the kind of chips you need a microscope to solder), a very fine point soldering tip (designed for the same purpose), a microscope (also for doing SMD. Not really necessary, but having the realtime magnified feedback helps my hands be steadier.) and flux.
I really thought I'd forgotten everything I knew about photography when I took my beloved k30 out to Zoo lights last Christmas and my exposures were all too dark. Thanks for the instructions on how to do this repair. I'm pleased to say my K30 not only survived (after a reset from the menu—apparently it got confused while I had its guts open), but that auto-aperture works properly again. I think the weather seal gaskets fell out, and I need to go find them before the cat does, but my lenses aren't weather sealed, so I don't operate in that environment anyway.
Also, I re-used the Mr. Clean magic-erasers. They work fine despite pencil drawings and holes.
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
07-08-2023, 06:13 PM
|
| |
I notice some melting of the plastic to the right of the solenoid. I sincerely hope that's not part of the shutter mechanism.
The other thing I'll mention is that I just did this surgery to my own camera, and it was beeping every time I took a picture until I reset it. Now everything works fine. Seems like there's nothing to lose, so try resetting it?
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
05-21-2023, 04:00 PM
|
| |
So my K-30 (bought when they first came out) was showing all the symptoms of the jammed aperture solenoid. I was slowly resigning myself to replacing the body (or at least doing major surgery on it, and *then* probably replacing it) when I stumbled across this in DP Review: my fix of the K-30 aperture problem without disassembly: Pentax SLR Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review.
Short version: following that person's instructions, I defined a button to optical preview, pressed it about 50 times. Just when I was reaching the point of saying "yeah, I didn't think this would work," lo and behold, auto-aperture started working again. I'm astonished. Has anyone else tried this? The poster of that article said the problem never came back. Any experience anyone else has had with this quick and dirty fix would be very welcome.
-JRS
On further reading on that site, apparently the fix doesn't last well. Ordered the correct solenoid on ebay. :P
|
|
Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-17-2016, 02:13 PM
|
| |
Your gear should reflect your needs. Don't buy new lenses until you've mastered the ones you have (or discovered that they aren't worth the trouble.) Being overwhelmed with expensive glass isn't fun.
Your gear should evolve with you. Your interests change. Your subject matter changes. Don't be afraid or ashamed to sell old lenses, flash guns, or even camera bodies to get gear that better suits you. Your gear is there for you, not the other way around.
Know your eyes. They'll tell you when it's time to go autofocus. For me, it's that time.
-JRS
|
|
Forum: Sold Items
04-16-2012, 02:49 PM
|
| |
This is an astonishing lens. Wide open, it is absolutely unforgiving with focus, but once you learn to nail the focus by hand, you can do incredible things with it. Stopped down a little it's an excellent walking around lens, although it weighs as much as some teles. If you like to play with DOF and bokkeh, and you want a 50mm that can do all that /and/ give you wonderously sharp, colorful images, this is a great lens to get. As I said, I have one. It's one of the two most expensive lenses in my kit. No regrets.
-JRS
|
|
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
04-16-2012, 02:35 PM
|
| |
Just got off the phone with what used to be the last Pentax dealer I knew of in Colorado. (Cameraworks in Colorado Springs) They do not currently stock new Pentax gear because of problems with distribution. (The fellow I talked to seemed to suggest this might be temporary, but did not say so directly.) Calling PentaxUSA, the fellow on the phone could not tell me /anywhere/ in the Denver Metro area that carries Pentax in brick and mortar stores where I can get my hands on one and try it. He gave vague suggestions of what has been hypothesized here, that Pentax would like to be in B&M stores but didn't have a timeframe for doing so. He suggested that in order to try the K-01, I buy one on their web store and return it if I don't like it in their mighty 30 day return policy. He further confirmed that Pentax's big focus of late has been online sales.
The punchline? PentaxUSA's headquarters is /in/ Denver.
So. What does this tell us? Pentax/Ricoh is changing their U.S. distribution model. The new pricing model seems to make Pentax much less attractive for online sales and much more attractive to brick and mortar stores.
It has been hypothesized in this thread that the current prices are to slow demand for the products while new products are designed/released, and this may be so, but I would hypothesize that it /also/ keeps their existing distribution model from running out of product, even though it's no longer being fed, while the new model is put into place. I would go further and hypothesize that it allows them to shake out their existing online distributors to discern between those who will obey the new pricing model, and those who won't. Those who won't aren't going to get new products, I wouldn't imagine.
I've hypothesized before that they're going to a more Apple-like model of distribution, where brick and mortar and online operate on parity for price, save that camera stores replace the company-owned Apple Stores, but provide similar service. I stand by this hypothesis even more now.
In the short term, it's a pain in the butt, because I still can't get my hands on a K-01 to test it with my manual focus lenses and my eyeballs. (If you know of a place in the Denver Metro area - anyplace between Ft. Collins and Colorado Springs is close enough - that has these cameras in stock, can you please PM me about it? Thanks.)
-JRS
|
|
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
04-14-2012, 01:34 PM
|
| |
Perhaps Pentax has seen what happens when Amazon, Walmart, and Costco are your biggest customers: these megacustomers dictate prices to the company without regard for the company's survival.
-JRS
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-01
02-08-2012, 04:48 PM
|
| |
Thanks very much for the hands-on info on the K-01. I'm curious if anyone had a chance to mount a MF lens on it and try to focus manually with very shallow DOF? (I'm thinking wide open 50mm F1.2.). I'm wondering if the screen is sharp enough to really nail the focus? I can do it on my *istDL - barely - with the Katzeye screen, but my eyes aren't getting any better as time goes by, and I haven't tried it since I got progressive lenses (in my glasses). I'm considering a K-01, and if it makes focusing the 50/1.2 easier by making the viewfinder bigger, I may well be sold.
-JRS
|
|
Forum: General Talk
05-20-2011, 08:01 PM
|
| |
Tokina 28mm F2.8 P/KA R/PK mount. Took out the Rokinon pin and ground the shade down to fit. It now mounts and (more importantly) dismounts perfectly and the A functionality seems to work well. The lack of sharpness is a little disappointing, though. OTOH, it only set me back $32(U.S.) plus shipping. :)
The pic of the lens was shot with my Pentax-A 50mm f1.2, whose sharpness is probably spoiling me. The landscape was with the Tokina.
-JRS
|
|
Forum: General Talk
05-04-2011, 09:35 AM
|
| |
| |
|
Forum: Sold Items
12-14-2010, 03:03 PM
|
| |
Awesome lens. I have one. Highly recommended. Bump.
-JRS
|
|
Forum: Sold Items
11-23-2010, 08:55 AM
|
| |
| |
|
Forum: Sold Items
11-20-2010, 09:00 PM
|
| |
Offer sent on the SMCP-A 50mm f/1.2
|
|
Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
11-18-2010, 12:49 AM
|
| |
A little googling suggests that wshi is indeed correct about the Vivitar DF283. They're not the same animal at all as the 1970s 283s I had with their hundred-plus volt trigger voltages.
-JRS
|
