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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
08-06-2010, 03:58 PM
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I live in Ironbridge in the UK, it's a World Heritage Site and a huge tourist draw all year, in the summer it's packed out.
A few days ago I was walking through the town and there were three large coaches full of young Japanese tourists coming down the road towards me, and as the regulation for being a Japanese tourist requires they were fully loaded with the newest DSLR's money could buy.
I saw so many differently coloured KX's I lost count, and there were also a good amount of K7's.
Yes, they were seriously outnumbered by the CaNikons, but it was a significant amount of Pentax's.
Many of them were also in awe of my battered old K10 and the Industar 50-2 that was adorning it, the Pentax brand doesn't seem to be doing that badly.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
09-05-2009, 11:21 AM
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My recent bargain Tair 300 on my K10, and mounted on a vintage Linhoff tripod.
Which to be honest isn't the most stable platform for this gargantuan load in a very strong wind.
It would have been better with the centre column down or on my Gitzo, whatever, this thing demands a good support.
This is the overview, the Tair is focused on the furnace towers in the distance.
The K10 has the standard focusing screen at the moment and I was relying on the focus indicator and my not so good vision.
This is the best picture I got, shot at f16 - 1/400s - ISO 200
Overview, I focused on the church clock.
Best shot ISO 200 - f22 - 1/250s
The Tair 300
I'm going to persevere with this lens as I think it's worth the effort.
Obviously it's not easy to use, needs a SOLID tripod and the camera needs a better focusing screen.
But for £45, along with two other lenses and a Zenit camera, It's worth the effort. ;)
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
08-09-2010, 01:02 PM
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How things change, when we first went to the USA just over 30 years ago my Canon A1 was often commented on by other photographers. At that time it seemed as though Minolta and Nikon ruled the America's.
A few years later when I had an EOS 600 ( I still have it ) the Minolta ( Maxuum ? ) was certainly the must have camera.
Perhaps it the turn of Pentax ?
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-13-2014, 02:44 PM
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I've even bought lenses that I haven't got a camera for. :confused::lol:
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-05-2014, 04:20 PM
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I'm sad Rio Rico can no longer enjoy the photography he loved so much, I learned a lot from him. Not just about the lenses, mostly about looking through them.
I doubt that I'm up to his count yet, but it's heading that way with 156 35mm lenses, I think there's 6 or 7 AF lenses in there. 37 SLR camera's, one digital. 1 mirrorless camera, 3 120 film cameras and some lenses. 18 rangefinders, 5 folders and 1 underwater camera. And there's a big box of dead stuff under the spare bed that I need to sort out, some might be salvageable? I need to sell some shit!!:D
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
01-10-2014, 05:24 PM
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Good question, and the answer is, I don't know. I've just got this sheet out of the box ( and the foam I use ) and tried to shift some fibres with an old toothbrush and it's very resilient to shedding fibres, Scotch tape doesn't pull any off either.
[IMG]
foam felt par David Lloyd, on ipernity[/IMG]
I haven't pimped a camera with the red felt and foam yet, but I think it's gonna happen. :D
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
01-09-2014, 06:34 AM
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I buy sheets of sticky back 1mm foam and felt from a craft shop, cut it with rotary cutter so it doesn't drag - I can cut the foam thinner that 1mm for the light seals. I use the felt for the door ends etc.
I started to use the felt for the mirror bumper for no other reason than it's thinner than the rubber and does the job just fine, I have used the foam but it looked a bit thick for many of the cameras I've done, such as Pentax, Chinon, Canon, Olympus, Zenit, Praktica and Rollei.
Obviously buying a kit is the easy option, and I have no doubt that the John Goodman kits are excellent, his reputation is good. But I just prefer to have a few sheets of foam and felt and replace the seals as and when I get another camera, and some of my odd Russian stuff there's no kits for them anyway.
I think the first one I did was a ME Super about 5 or 6 years ago and it's fine, I haven't seen any stray fibres in the camera from the felt mirror bumper. But I am the sort of camera user that will change lenses outside in a storm and not worry unduly about crap getting in - I try to avoid it but I'll deal with crap in PP. ;)
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-22-2013, 04:38 PM
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Aperture ring and live view, a marriage made in heaven. :D
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
03-31-2013, 02:55 PM
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In the UK the Poundshop has Agfa Vista Plus, or Ferrania at, you've already guessed, £1 a roll. They sometimes have Kodacolor, it's crap! avoid it. But the Agfa and Ferrania are very good. the other place to go is Boots Chemist, they nearly always have a 3 for the price of 2 deal on film, and it you're lucky they actually might have some decent film there, I get my Ilford XP2 there and it's cheaper 3 for 2 that anywhere on the internet. Also, Boots sell expired film for stupid money, I bought 7 rolls of XP2 that was weeks out of date for £1 a roll. But they sometimes don't display it, always ask.
The other good source is 7dayshop.com, good prices and quick delivery.
I pay £1 for a 36 roll of Agfa, get it processed only at Tescos for 99 Pence, and scan the neg's. That's cheap film photography. :)
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
01-26-2013, 09:34 AM
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Tamiya model 'semi gloss black' acrylic paint is excellent - product code X-18, and the thinner is X-20A. Although there is a thinner the paint is also water soluble, and comes in tiny pots available at most hobby / model outlets.
I don't paint over normal wear and brassing, but I have tidied up some old cameras that have scratches and loss of paint on the film door hinge. I apply the paint sparingly with a fine brush, wait for it to become touch dry, then lick a finger and gently rub the new paint. This flattens any brush marks and blends the edges to the original paint, being water soluble the paint surface comes off on your finger. It also allows you to adjust the satin finish a bit. I repaired a very battered Chinon film door and the repair is just about invisible.
The paint is very durable once fully hardened.
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
12-07-2011, 03:27 PM
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I use SRB Griturn, their adapters are perfectly good and way cheaper, they ship worldwide.
M42 lenses on Pentax K
I keep pimping these as they are just as good, I have genuine and SRB adapters and I can't tell the difference.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-10-2013, 02:57 PM
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Soligor Codes
1 = Tokina
2 = Sun
3 = Sun
4 = Sun
5 = ???
6 = Komine
7 = Sun
8 = ???
9 = Kino
31 = ??? *
A = Komura #
H4 = Kawanon ? #
H5 = Komine #
H6 = Komine #
H7= Tokina #
H37 = Kawanon? #
M = ??? #
N = ??? #
R = ??? #
T = Tamron #
Y = Komura #
Code system. First number = Maker.
Second number = Decade
Third number = Year
*Six digit lens date code unknown.
# Letter code lens date code unknown.
That is pretty much the best thinking on Soligor serial number codes.
The 'CD' line of Soligors were the better ones, direct competition to the Vivitar Series 1. There are many good Soligors, and a few that are junk, but out the dozen or so I've got only one is junk and I think that is actually faulty - decentered element. A few are very average lenses, but the rest range from decent to very good.
The 35 / 2.8 that I have, in M42, is the best Soligor I have, it's actually one of the best lenses I have in that 'wide' range, and is easily comparable to the legendary Vivitar Close Focus 28 / 2.8.
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Forum: General Talk
08-08-2012, 02:40 PM
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Of the cameras I have, I've got to say my recently acquired Olympus OM1 is fabulous. I like the classic design look of older SLR's, and the OM1 fits that classic design perfectly, as indeed my Minolta XD7, Canon AE1P and my wonderful Pentax S1A do as well. But the Olympus wins for me because the classic design is also sublimely functional, and it was designed that way. For me, maybe not everyone, everything just falls into place without thinking about it. And that, with it's classic design, makes it a classic camera.
I love that Kodak Bantam though, it's fabulous as a design. I'd carry that even if it didn't work ! :cool:
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-11-2012, 10:52 AM
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Door security viewer pushed through a hole hacked in a lens cap with a penknife and then place on the front of any old lens that it'll fit ! That gets some strange looks out on the streets. :eek:
Door viewer five by Mudplugga, on Flickr
Through the door viewer. by Mudplugga, on Flickr
What would I never own ? Any lens that costs money and is marketed to make your pictures look 'funky and cool' - Lomo for instance, I can do that stuff with any lens. :rolleyes:
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
04-17-2012, 02:24 PM
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My DA*50-135 has to be my nomination. There's nothing wrong with it, in fact I rate it as a superb lens. It's certainly a lens I won't part with, I've had such good results from it.
But I went to the dark side and found old manual focus lenses, and they are slow to use, some are just a pain in the butt ( Industar 50-2 :mad: ) to fiddle with. But they slow me down and make me think about what I want from the image, and I like that. I like the challenge of the process of getting a good sharp image from a lens. With the 50-135 I just point and shoot, my hit rate of sharp well exposed images is better, but the hit rate of keepers is way lower. ( But there are occasions when I want what it delivers ;) )
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Forum: General Talk
03-09-2012, 01:42 PM
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Personally I think the best version would be Google Chrome. ;)
I used to like FF a lot, but it's turned into bloatware and want's you to update just about every time you use it. Why ?
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Forum: General Talk
12-12-2011, 05:11 PM
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I'd probably be climbing the walls of a very comfortable room, the sort with padded walls, by now. Well, maybe not quite that dramatic, but it has carried me through several bouts of depression and stress over the last few years. I retired from work early at 57 years old due to my mental health issues, and although I have been a keen photographer for over 40 years it's just been the last 3 or 4 where I've seriously focused on producing images that I like rather than pictures I have taken.
It's very therapeutic, I go for a walk every day for at least 2 hours, always with at least 1 camera and a couple of lenses, and I photograph things. Obviously over a couple of years I'm faced with the same things most days. So now I have to find new angles on the same old subjects, and what a great thing that is, it's forcing me to think about what I do and what I want to see in my end result. It's a pressure, but it's my pressure, on my terms.
If I wasn't doing it, I would be slipping back into depressions. Life's too damn short for that ! ;)
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Forum: General Talk
12-09-2011, 06:19 PM
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My barber died a few weeks ago from a heart attack at 54 years old. Way too many smokes, too much whisky and beer, a nervous breakdown and three ex wives was just too much for him. :eek:
I'm lost now, where the hell do I go for my monthly fix of racism, bigotry, sexism, anarchy, arguing about fast cars., loose women, sport and a bloody good hair cut ?
He was slow, cantankerous, the shop was a mess, but he was cheap and hugely sociable and entertaining, the walls were covered in faded certificates of competitions he'd won many years ago. He was a genuine craftsman at cutting hair, he'd once owned a hugely successful city center salon that catered for the wealthy, such as the top soccer stars of the day. But a mental breakdown saw an end to all that, despite that he never lost his skills.
If you find a good men's barber, keep him and cherish him, they are a dying breed.
RIP Ian, there's a lot of guys going to miss you. :(
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-08-2011, 05:25 PM
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
10-24-2011, 11:54 AM
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A couple of years ago a youth demanded my camera while I was walking through a fairly rough area on my own. He was about 18 and had the look of a junkie.
I carry the K10 on a home made across the shoulder strap, and I started to take it off but told the youth "If I take the camera off, I'll smash it on the ground, I get the insurance, you get **** all" He stood there for a moment then ran off. He saw that I was serious, I would have swung the camera like a medieval weapon at his head. I guess I got lucky, but I'd do it again.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
09-15-2011, 09:22 AM
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That's just wrong, she should never have touched the bag in the first place, did she think there was washing in there or something ? ;)
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Forum: General Talk
08-04-2011, 03:50 PM
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At the moment I'm rebelling against the 'Hipstamatic' movement, to the extent that I tend to ignore my Flickr contacts that have become slaves to the Iphone and it's 'apps'.
Am I wrong, am I a Luddite ?
Probably. I'm almost certainly rebelling against the unstoppable. But in the case of the Afghanistan war pictures I don't want to see manipulated images. I want reportage not art. But, was the Iphone the only way of capturing those images? If it was, then that's fine by me, bring me the images so I can decide and formulate my thoughts on the situation. But don't make them arty and pass them off as news images, that does us all a disservice. I don't want the horror dressed up as something it isn't.
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Forum: General Talk
07-27-2011, 09:36 AM
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I was right, you really have no idea about addiction have you ?
I work with the victims of childhood sexual abuse and rape, and with adults who suffered sexual violence and rape.
9% of our clients are currently in some kind of drug rehab, 20% are currently clean but have had some prior drug addiction problems, Alcohol and solvent addiction is running at 5%, dry alcoholics at 11% and solvent abuse at 1%
Now of course, if we follow your blinkered line of thinking, that means that the vast majority of our clients do not suffer from any addiction issues. ( and I won't confuse you with the rest of the statistics for eating disorders, OCD and other issues that can be closely related to 'addiction' ) which is exactly right, most survivors do not go down the line of drink or drug dependency. ( and I'm only including recreational substances here, not prescribed - that's another story altogether )
So, are these few people the ones that you would include in those that you refer to here ? "the bottom line is it is a "lack of character" or "bad morals" or "laziness" that gets you there. And we wonder why kids today don't stand up and take responsibility for anything."
Ask our clients, ask the 12 year old kids who take crack to ease the pain of the memory of being abused and raped, ask them about addiction.
Then you might learn something.
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Forum: General Talk
07-13-2011, 03:23 AM
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I live in the World Heritage Site of Ironbridge, so it's tourist hell for us locals at this time of year, but we don't complain, it brings trade.
Often there are coach tours, and earlier this spring there were three coachloads of Japanese tourists in town, nearly all with the newest and top spec cameras from the major players.
I was walking through town with my battered K10 with the tiny Industar 50-2 on it when I was besieged by young Japanese people who were fascinated with it.
Most of them didn't speak English, I certainly can't speak Japanese, but I spent nearly an hour sat on a bench taking the assorted Takumars and other old lenses out of my rucksack and mounting them on the K10 so they could take pictures of them. A few had Pentax camera's so they got to try some of the PK mount lenses I had with me, which pleased them no end.
There was much pointing and gesturing, bowing and shaking of hands, and lots of smiles and laughter. It was a wonderful meeting of people with a shared interest, it didn't matter that our languages were different, we understood each other.
I often get talking to other photographers around here because there are so many who come here, it's a photogenic place, and I always enjoy a chat with them.
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