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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
03-30-2011, 12:25 PM
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I bought my first DSLR around 2 years ago now. When I started out I didn't have any preconceived notion of what brand I wanted. I looked around some stores, read some reviews, tried out the Nikon and Canons. However, when I picked up the K200D, it was the first camera in my price range that impressed me.
The build quality was significantly better than the similarly priced Canons and Nikons. It had a top LCD, which I thought was important -- and two years later, I'm very glad I did. The weather-sealing was a nice feature, and was a convincing argument towards overall build quality for me.
I read some reviews about image quality, and it seemed the K200D held up well enough -- maybe the JPEG processing was a little weaker than some, but it was certainly a good modern camera.
After rechecking all the other cameras, the K200D was still the only camera in the entry-ish level range that really stood out from the Nikons and Canons -- not because of swivel LCDs, or megapixel count, or HighDynaTechnoMagicalBurst Image Processing, or whatever -- but because it felt like a quality, well made instrument.
I'm disapointed that Pentax hasn't continued that tradition -- the Kx and Kr sound like great cameras, but I'm not sure they really stand out against entry level competitors from other brands. Add a simple top LCD (thats gotta be cheap) and some weather sealing (a little pricier) and build quality, and I think they'd stand out a lot more. Like someone else mentioned here, it seems like a niche they could have developed.
But hey, sounds like the K200D didn't sell very well, so what do I know. Maybe the ecomo
ics or marketing just don't work out.
Just a few days ago I posted some K200D images from Japan here: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/post-your-photos/138272-travel-some-shots...ep-2010-a.html They were taken with my K200D, paired with an FA50 F1.4 and an FA35 F2. Two years on, and I've been extremely happy with my camera -- K200D made me a Pentax 'fan'.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
03-27-2011, 01:33 PM
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Thanks very much for these -- fascinating pictures. Seems like a very strange, intruiging place. The last 3 pictures in particular, focusing on people.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
03-27-2011, 01:28 PM
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[6] Tokyo Tower
[7]A Different Tower
[8] Bamboo Forest
[9] Incense
[10] Wishes
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
03-27-2011, 01:14 PM
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Some photos from my trip to Japan last year, around September. Had my K200D (second year now!). I'd picked up an FA50 1.4 about 8 months ago, and was so happy with it that I picked up an FA35 F2 for ~200 in Osaka's electronic district during the trip. (So maybe I overdid the bokeh a little during this trip...)
Had my 18-55mm, which I used very occasionally, and my 50-200mm, which I don't think I used once.
Comments and critiques welcome!
[1] Hanging dolls in Nara
[2] Temple Bell
[3] Street in Okinawa
[4] Okinawa Miniatures on Sale
[5] Streets of Nara
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
08-05-2010, 04:02 PM
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Some edits, been thinking about the good suggestions in the post regarding colour balance and glare.
Colour correction on the tamper picture, a big improvement I think:
Likewise on the tools picture. Not sure if this is an improvement or not...
Trying to remove some of the glare in the espresso machine picture as SanMat noted, but I'm not sure I'll be able to do it. I tried selecting the glarey region and lowering the levels just a little... not sure if it helps at all, or if it makes the image artificial.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
08-05-2010, 10:58 AM
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Thanks all! I'm glad some of the photos came out, it was fairly dim. Like Ash mentioned, I had trouble with the colours, out of of camera they came out looking reddish. I corrected them in post, but left more of it in #1 and #3. I kinda like the red-ness in #1 due to the contrast with the blue background, but I'll try correcting #3 more. Thanks for the advice!
The FA50 is a cool lens, I'm enjoying it! I was looking into buying it earlier, but for $400CAN I couldn't justify it. Wandered into a used camera store, and it was there in perfect condition for an even $200.
I don't work in the cafe, but my wife does. So I get 'free access' to wander around when they're closing :-)
Next time I'll try setting up the white balance in camera, and see how that turns out. I've only had my K200D under a year, and am still getting this figured out. Amazing how much digital editing can rescue an image. Exif tags are hugely educational too -- even though 90% of the shots that day were at f1.4-1.7, a high rate of the keepers were above 2.4.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
08-04-2010, 08:57 AM
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What happens when you let a brand new (used) FA50 F1.4 loose in a coffee shop? Way too much big aperture shooting! Lots of cropping, some colour correction, and a little sharpening (I think) was done in digikam.
Not shown are the many, many photos I missed due to misfocus while trying to figure out how to shoot at 1.4. (They all looked sharp on the lcd!)
Tools: 
F1.4 1/60 ISO200
Pouring: 
F2.4 1/30 ISO 400
Dual tampers: 
F1.7 ISO 400
Machine: 
F2 1/30 ISO 800
Espresso: 
F1.7 1/125 ISO 400
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-11-2010, 10:39 PM
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Glad to hear it doesn't seem like a fungus, I'll rest easier using this lens now. Really appreciate the advice from some more experienced folk, I'm really new to SLRs and lenses.
Thanks!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-08-2010, 06:42 PM
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A while ago my wife and I were browsing around a camera store, and an old Pentax M 50mm f1.7 caught her eye. We checked it out, asked the salesguy if it was in ok condition, and he said yes. Checked it out a little, seemd ok to us - our first time buying a used lens, didn't really know what to look for. Price was ~$60CAN, which seemed pretty good.
Been a great lens! Really enjoyed using it, takes very nice sharp pictures. Has been a real joy learning to use a low aperature, manual lens. But a while after I bought it I noticed that there are some 'clouds' on one of the interior lenses. Hard to notice when both caps are off, but easy enough to see it with the front cap off, and tilted at just the right angle. It looks to my primitive eye to be one glass layer below the front glass. From reading, I guess that there is (or was) some fungus, whose acid scratched the lens a little.
I'm not really concerned with image degregation, I haven't noticed it in any of my pictures. (Maybe my photo skills are the limiting factor :-). ) However, I've heard that any lens with fungus should be maybe gotten rid of, or kept away from all other lenses since the fungus can spread. I don't have any very valuable lenses, the DA18-55 II and a DA50-200, but nowadays whenever I put the M-50mm on I get a little twinge... is a fungus spreading to my other lenses? to the camera body?
I'm wondering what, if anything I should do about it... Is that really a fungus? Images of fungified lenses I've seen online look more like a spider's web than mine does. Even if it is a fungus, the lens has had a long lifetime. My fungal friend may have came and went 10 years ago...
Should I relax and keep using it? Irradiate it? Boil it in oil? Toss it, using fungus to explain to the wife why I need to buy a FA-43 Limited?
Attached a picture of the lens, and a recent picture taken with it.
Any advice much appreciated,
David
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