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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
06-29-2012, 09:56 AM
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Hehe, yes, I'm a closet Grammar Nazi.
I wouldn't say I disagree with how you think things should be, but I work for a company that does things the right way and really treats its customers right. . . we're getting our butts kicked in some areas by our ruthless competitors.
So I guess my sentiment about whether Pentax should go for the money grab on WR lenses is tainted. And it's not aimed at wanting Pentax to be ruthless in its competition with Canikon. I just want Pentax to continue its success and stick around and give us many years of awesome cameras.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
06-26-2012, 01:53 PM
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Well, as it turns out, when Carman's/prodigital2000 puts something in their ebay listing, you should believe it. See post #28
Just a heads up for anyone else considering this - prodigital2000 on eBay (an authorized Pentax Dealer from what i understand), and they have a factory-refurbished K-5 for $799, with free shipping to the US.
WAIT! Don't open that tab!
According to the listing, it has a "FULL PENTAX WARRANTY", then later it says "1 Year Limited International Warranty". I called Pentax to make sure I could apply a US extended warranty to this camera, and the guy flat-out said no.
According to Pentax USA, any factory refurb cameras have a red dot on the bottom of the box, and carry a 90 day warranty. According to him, it would also not be eligible for the extended warranty either. I've contacted the seller, and I've read on here anecdotally that refurbs are eligible for the extended warranty, but I got it directly from the horse's mouth.
So, if you want to go for it, go ahead, but be aware that you could be facing a fight for any warranty needs you might have down the road. |
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
06-20-2012, 07:02 AM
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When we saw the first images of the K-30, that forward-leaning lip on the camera made me think that maybe they had moved the pop-up flash upward so as not to have the shadowing issue with long lenses. I would have liked this for the occasional fill flash I use with my 16-45, but it appears it's not happening. If you look at a picture of the K-30 with the flash up, it has some nice dead empty plastic above the actual flash bulb. I mocked up a quick comparison in MS Paint.
Since the K-30 and K-5 are 1mm different in width, and these two shots are taken from the same angle, I cropped both images exactly to the body width, and resized to the same pixel size. Then I lined up the top of their hot shoes . . . et voila!
It's not a dealbreaker, but it would have been nice, considering how much further the plastic goes beyond the flash.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
07-27-2011, 01:09 PM
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I think you may be generalizing a bit with the part about auto exposure and auto focus. Not everyone uses either all the time in the digital world.
The problem with autofocus is that a prism focusing screen can screw up your metering. I would love to have a good focusing screen on my K-x but I can't afford a screen that won't screw up the metering. If I had a good split prism I could do without AF.
And I don't have a problem with exposure. On my last vacation, it took me about 4 hours to organize, grade, and do all post processing on 1700+ photos. I did it on the plane ride home and had a slideshow ready to go by the time we landed.
Part of that is shooting RAW as mentioned above, but another big part is shooting in M mode. When you shoot in M mode, you get the same control that the MX gave you, with a big difference. Your thumb index finger do the work while your eye never leaves the cup, you can change iso without changing rolls, and at the end of the day, you do get more flexibility and control with digital.
Most of the time, a shutter, aperture, or sensitivity priority mode will give you the wrong exposure because it's trying to make a dark scene light, or a light scene dark. With manual mode you get to pick how much over or under you want it to be. Once you get acquainted with how your camera's meter works, you start using the EV dial a lot and then finally you just graduate to M mode.
Here's a picture that I think came out really well, reflects the reality of how the scene looked when I was there, and which required (as I recall) no post processing at all.
I think there's been a democratizing and commoditizing of photography. The fact that the number one camera in use on flickr is the iPhone 4 should tell you something - the fact that professional tools are in the hands of more and more unskilled and/or dispassionate people. So yeah you get a lot of spray and pray out of folks, but modern cameras haven't made it impossible to take pictures like you used to. Has it advanced photography?
I guess my point is, the advances that we've made sometimes fail (AF in low light, program exposure etc), but they don't often. When they do, a skilled photographer can still use his eyes and fingers to take a good photograph.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-18-2011, 07:07 AM
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Heck, if I don't like it I could flip it, especially with the box.
But yeah, I think it would be great to have on my trip. From what I understand color rendition isn't great, but I'll be shooting mostly black and white. Might turn my ME into a pocketable SLR! :)
Edit: :( :( :( It's sold already. Oh well. At least I don't have to drive down to Miami and explain an unplanned lens purchase to my wife!
I talked to the guy a little bit and he has no idea what he has. he's buying from pawn shops and re-selling on craigslist. I told him he could've gotten a lot more for the 40 (because it was new in the box), and he was shocked. I ran a search for his phone number and he's got an AE-1 with a 50 1.8 on there for $50, which seems a little low. So now he's going to call me when he gets anything like that Pentax again. Of course, now he's going to want more than $25. :p
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