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Forum: Post Your Photos!
11-12-2011, 07:08 AM
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Harris, Cee Cee, thanks for your kind words, glad you enjoyed them.
I don't know, i'm not really happy with the general sharpness of the shots, I have to do some focus testing with a friend's K5 soon....in December i'm leaving for an 8 months travel and I need to be confident about my whole system, otherwise I'll just sell it and buy a GH2 and go all-in video instead :)
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
11-05-2011, 09:42 AM
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Hi all,
well I spent ten days in Morroco a few weeks ago and decided to share with you my photographic souvenirs...
Morroco is a marvelous country for landscapes, the soils, rocks and mountains change hues every few kilometers, the air is clean and everything gives a sense of power, of grandeur, WA to UWA is essential to capture this feeling...I didn't shoot portraits because I didn't feel like interacting with people, i'm still kinda photo-shy when I go to foreign cultures...
Almost all pics were took using the Vintage in-camera creative filter (by the way does anyone know if it is possible to set Photshop or another soft up so that it can apply an identical-looking effect to non-treated RAWs?). I actually didn't like the Polaroid/Instagram look but thought "what the heck why not, it is kinda appealing to the eyes!" and to be honest the setting as well lended itself pretty well to this type of render...Blues, browns, yellows, oranges, beige etc...
I have more pics that i would like to post-process in order to erase powerlines, cables and such as well as adding a vintage filter, if anyone can point me to vintage guide that give results that blend with the K7's in-camera one I'd be very grateful.
Only desert/camel night and early morning were shot with the siggy 30mm 1.4, 85% was with the 17-70. Also note that most of the mountains / landscapes were taken on the road from the moving 4x4.
If anyone plans to go do a trek to the Sahara leaving from Marrakech, looking back I would have paid more in order to go at a slower pace, especially for photography. My tour was 3 days and 2 nights, it should really be 4 nights and 5 days. The last day we spent it entirely driving the 600km back to Marrakech from the desert, stoping only for lunch and pee breaks. Granted it was cheap, 150€, but you don't go to the Sahara every other day, might as well spend more money to really enjoy the views and have the time to allow time and space for the Unexpected to manifest itself...
Anyhow on to the show...The full album (about 80 pics) :
Morocco 2011 pictures by b0bk - Photobucket
And here are 3 I particularly like.
Thanks for looking & a jolly day to you all. :rolleyes:
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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
11-03-2011, 09:36 AM
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Hi fellow Indian pentaxers!
I'll be spending a few months in Kerala beggining in february 2012 and I'd love to meet up for a chat or a photo raid with some pentaxing Keralians! :)
Anyone here from Kochi or Thiruvananthapuram? I am coming to Kerala primarily to learn Massage and Oil Therapy, sadly there seem to be many scammers in this sector and the reputable places do not have websites or simply do not respond to emails, therefore I'm feeling more and more that I will have to find the appropriate learning place having already set foot in Kerala, not by looking on the web. So I don't know yet in which town I'll be, but lets not let that be an issue right now...
So, who's living in Kerala these days?
Thanks!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
10-06-2011, 04:58 AM
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Hi all,
thanks a lot for your feedback, I don't think I'll bother leaving Singapore airport for the city just to buy a slightly cheaper lens, I guess i'll just have to buy it in europe then.
Help much appreciated guys!
Happy shooting,
s0l
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
10-06-2011, 04:55 AM
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Smeggypants, thanks, care to point me to some samples you may have online? I'd really appreciate it... :)
Comparing with mine what do you think could be the cause? Front/back focus issues or something deeper?
Thanks man!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
10-05-2011, 08:14 AM
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Hey all,
in december i'm leaving for a long trip in Asia and India and I need to prepare myself photo-wise.I enjoy shooting wide landscapes, wide streets/people, night photos and portraits. I currently have two sigmas, the 30mm 1.4 and the 17-70mm 2.8/4.5. I feel I need something wider, so i'm thinking of buying a 10-20, 12-24 or similar ; i'd buy the 15 Limited if i was rich though! :) By the way i'm open to propositions if anyone has any of those wide zooms to sell...
Anyhow, since i'll be landing in Bangkok I was wondering wether any Pentaxers here know if it is a good place to buy lenses? Also i'll be transfering in Singapore International for 5 hours, has the airport got duty-free photo stuff shops? Better to buy in BK or at Singapore Airport? Are the Sigma prices significantely cheaper than in Europe, enough to justify ditching the EU warranty for the Asian one?
Thanks in advance for your suggestions!
s0l
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
10-05-2011, 07:24 AM
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JinDesu, thanks a lot for clearing that up, clearly in these tests this is a non-issue seeing the timer was used in all pictures. Thanks for your opinion!
Arv : yeah there seems to be some distortion, is that fixable in-cam or do I have to post-process them? Anyhow you join Jin in your opinion about the lenses : i can keep them!
Parallax : thanks for jumping in, as you can see in my previous reply i upped 4 more inside pics without SR : what do you think about the lenses? Keeper?
I'm beggining to think the original doubt about the 17-70 may have been caused by the CPL filter I used, a Starblitz one, now that I think of it when I removed it to shoot those test pics I went through a great deal of effort twisting it off and now i'm suspecting it wasn't properly screwed in : I think one section of the filter got onto the wrong lens thread resulting in the filter not being parallel to the front glass. Could this misalignement cause gross image aberrations such as CA, fringing and blur?
Thanks again guys & gals! :)
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
10-04-2011, 08:20 AM
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Hi,
a big thanks to all of you for your replies, here come the answers.
icywindow : no i didnt use the hoods, the overhead bright spot was a sun ray shining off cd's onto the wall.
hcc & jin: good question, i did not disable the SR nor did i know you had to switch it off when you use a tripod : why is that? The cropped images are only crops, no resize so if you maximize them you'll have 100% zoom. I've also uped the original jpegs on photobucket as mentioned in the original post.
calsan : totally agree, the problem is the light/air has been this way for at least 10 days, today it is even worst...i guess it's the heatwave going on through Spain causing a lot of land/moisture evaporation. Seeing as i dont have a polarizer i can't do anything about it.
Special & arv : thanks for input, concerning the focus plane the 17 70 is hard to adjust in order to get to exactly 30mm as the value isnt printed on the lens barrel : only 24 and 35, in between it's all a guess, the K7 isn't precise enough to give me the exact focal lenght : either 28 or 31mm...
bdery : thanks, it really is beautiful & magic here in Granada...great cheap friendly beautiful place to chill out for a few months...a good get away from the big cities...beaches & ski slopes both only 45 minutes away...:) shared flats starting at 120-140€/month for a room... :) Thanks for your feedback, i definately do not want to start peeping, i know exactly what you mean.
Anyway in order to be sure I just took 2 more inside pics with each lens, scene about 2,5m away, the first one in AF and second in MF (used the camera's focus confirmation viewfinder flash & sound beep in MF). All are shot using A mode, no hood, SR off (jin is right, 2s timer switches it off automatically) ; . I've uped the four pics there, look at the file name for description :
Lens Tests - Raw jpegs pictures by s0lspot - Photobucket
Aperture was 5.6, Auto speed : 1/6 for the 30mm and 1/8 for the 17-70mm (don't know why the camera chose to slow it down for the brighter 1.4 30mm?) and 200 iso.
Please check those out, let me know your gut feeling and that will be it with these questionings... :)
Thanks a lot in advance to all the community! :cool:
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
10-03-2011, 04:00 PM
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Hi all,
i'm having doubts lately about my K7 + sigma 17-70mm, i'm not sure it is properly focused. Been very disappointed by CA, fringing and general (lack of) sharpness of the images the last two times I relied on it (music fest & mountain trek)
So i get out the tripod and my trusty sigma 30mm/1.4 , of which i'm very fond and satisfied quality-wise, in order to shoot some comparison shots.
Doing so has been a big mistake because my doubts have decoupled ; i now have doubts about the 30 too, and i'm afraid i'm catching pixelpeeping fever...
Here goes :
INSIDE :
Vs
OUTSIDE 1 :
Vs
OUTSIDE 2 :
Vs
I would like to have your opinion concerning the sharpness of each lens at 100% zoom ; I don't have much references to judge myself since i've never been a peeper up to now, that's why i'm asking you guys : what do you think? I have also uploaded all the raw jpegs there :
Lens Tests - Raw jpegs pictures by s0lspot - Photobucket
I'd really appreciate it if anyone could enlighten me...those kind of doubts are really bothersome since they affect trust in the lenses you use and restrain your photography in general...
Thanks a lot! :)
PS: Admins please move the thread if i posted it in the wrong section.
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
06-04-2011, 04:39 AM
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Cool! Thanks for sharing!
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
06-04-2011, 04:23 AM
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Thanks a lot Jeremy, just want to make sure i get the metal version... :)
Happy shooting!
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
06-03-2011, 05:23 AM
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So can anyone recommend an ebay seller for the Type 2 metal grip? Not amazon.com because marketplace sellers can't send overseas (europe).
Thanks for your help!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-14-2011, 09:16 AM
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Hi all,
thanks a lot for your suggestions, i hadn't thought about the very relative necessity for AF on wide angle lenses! This is very good news for me, i am going to buy the sigma 30mm 1.4, that's for sure, then probably try to find an old manual 20 or 24mm for landscapes.
NaClH2O, thanks for the advice, I searched for the 20-35 but it is a bit over budget since i'll be getting the sigma. The 50mm are not what i'm looking for for low-light situations, tried the classic Canon 50mm 1.8 recently and though cheaper it is too narrow for my needs, hence the move to 30mm.
Timh : one question, hyperfocal distance means infinity right?
Gnatzee : thanks for the recommendations, did you personally play with each of the A 24mm, M 20mm, K 20 and 24mm? Any favourites? M stands for what? I looked on the wikipedia page for pentax mount but didn't find it in the list?
Paleo Pete: how did you find the performance of camera AF on 1.4 lenses? Do you need to go manual everytime? For instance shooting a night party or a concert at 1.4, which are quite dynamic scenes, require MF?
Has any one got experience with the K7's AF system & very fast lenses?
Thanks again for all your feedback i was right to start this thread! :)
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
01-11-2011, 11:25 AM
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Hello Pentaxers,
a quick introduction, basically i'm only just beggining in the big wide world of Pentax, hoping to be able to breath new life into old lenses with my K7 & a lot of practice!
I will certainly be bothering some of you with newbie questions this is why i was wondering if there are any concise (less than 300 pages) resources about Pentax lenses?
What else, i'm living in Granada, a multi-secular city in the south of Spain for those who don't know it and this city is on the verge of a big wide plain, backed by 3000+meters mountains covered in snow, this position makes it an amazing spot to photograph complex, ever-changing atmospheric dynamics. It also is the only city in Spain where you get free food, the famed Tapas, when you order something to drink in bars.
That helps a lot. :p
Photograpy-wise i don't have much experience, having played with my dad's canon SLR in the late 90's, then a digi compact, then a D70 two years ago when DSLR became kinda affordable. Always used zooms, never primes and the K7 will be used to experiment with those. So expect loads of questions about old primers...
Currently i'm looking to ditch the classic 18-55 and buy a fast 30/35mm primer for concert/party/night photo as well as a wide-angle lens to capture the amazing earth-air-sun dynamics that go on everyday over here. All this with about 500 euros of budget.
Hence my need to learn more about old lenses because buying new digital-ready ones will double or maybe triple my budget. And that is not an option for now.
Thats about it really, i hope to share the beauty of the place i live in with all you guys and hope to learn a lot from your individual and collective experiences!
Hasta pronto!
s0l.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-11-2011, 08:55 AM
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Hi all,
this is my first post here, bought myself a K7 for Xmas, moving to pentax after playing around with a D70 for two years...Very glad i made it!
I got my K7 used with the kit 18-55 lens which i need to replace asap in order to make full use of the body. I must have spent at least 10h on this forum, reading comparing and then reading some more and the only conclusion i came to is the title of this post. I want 2 lenses, one for nightime shooting and DoF messing around and the other for landscapes.
Intially i was thinking of only buying one 28, 30 or 35mm lens to do everything but i realized that such a choice will restrict me when it comes to landscapes. So i was wondering if you people could help me choose : concerning f1.4 or 1.2 for lowlight is it possible to find old lenses equivalent to a 50mm film that open as wide and which have autofocus? I saw Cosinas but they're 55mm... On the 1.2 thread it seems most of the users use the 1.2 for close up, can someone tell me why?
The dilemma is either i spend my 500-600 euros (600-700$ US) budget on a sigma 30mm 1.4 either i manage to find a used K mount equivalent for 100-200 and buy a 10-20 or 12-4 for landscapes.
I went pentax for the wide variety of old lenses available but i didn't imagine, at the time of buying, how wide the choice was ; sorting and filtering all the lenses available, with adapter, without adapter, AF, non-AF, all the different series etc etc is truly disconcerting for a begginer... :o
I'm sure all of you have at some been in my shoes and i'm sure as well i'm not the first to ask for help. Sorry if this is a double post, couldn't find decisive answers with the search engine. To sum up :
- Any recommendations on a fast 50mm-equivalent oldschool lens with AF?
- For landscapes is zoom fundamental (10-20, 12-24) or should i just get a prime around 15/20 and deal with it ?
- Whats a good book to learn about lenses?
Here in Andalucia, Spain we have amazing landscapes & skies, it is the primary reason i upgraded to the K7 and up to now i never considered investing in primes, hence my lens newbieness... let me be forgiven! :cool:
Thank you all in advance for your time.
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