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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help 03-24-2015, 11:37 PM  
Af160fc problem
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 107
Views: 15,243
Excellent.
I have also had a chance to test the flash some more, and I found it rather good for general shooting of people at out to very roughly 5m, but as soon as I tried to shoot individual portraits off a school yearbook page the flash would overexpose in the extreme, making it impossible to do. I'm sure there are various factors involved that make my observations far less than a valid test, but it's apparent that exposure is an issue at distances the flash is supposed to operate at. (ie: 0.1m).
Also rare, but I noticed once or twice the flash would grossly overexpose on a generic people-at-a-couple-of-metres-posing type photo. For no apparent reason.

I am also wondering if the physical length of various lenses is a factor.
The flash's range guide no doubt quotes distance from the flash strobe itself, which classically is on top of the camera at the same subject/flash distance regardless of lens, but with the ring flash being attached to the end of the lens then this is very likely to be a highly variable factor. Particualrly as we get closer to the subject and the actual distance from strobe to subject and back to sensor plane will be proportionally very different on different lenses.

All observations in *this* post based on several days of recent use: K-3, AF160FC, SMC Pentax-FA 50mm/2.8 macro at a reunion party.
Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help 02-04-2015, 11:15 PM  
Af160fc problem
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 107
Views: 15,243
Ok, third flash from japan, all 3 have been made in china, i have finally managed to get one that will cycle more than once.
Faulty: 0005191
Faulty: forgot to record the serial number.
Functional: 0005641

So some quick tests:
AF160FC on K3 and K5 Comparisons

Processed in RawTherapee with 'neutral' settings and *everything* set to zero or off.
Both cameras set to matrix metering and X mode, exposure and shadow compensation off. Raw mode.
Same lens, SMC Pentax-F 50mm/2.8 Macro, manually set to minimum focus at 0.195m
Semi-supported-hand-held because I'm lazy
Flash modelling light set to on prior to all shots
Ambient light a lot lower than ISO100 and f/16 would be significantly influenced by.
The AF160FC range guide (images in previous post) specifies: ISO100 and f/16 is good for 0.1-1.0m
On-flash EV adjustment are AUTO, then AUTO-0.5, and then AUTO-1.0 EV

First image is K5 - seems to over expose on AUTO, fine on -0.5 and -1.0
Second image is K3 - seems accurate
Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help 01-09-2015, 03:12 AM  
Af160fc problem
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 107
Views: 15,243
My normally excellent experiences with buying lenses from japanese ebay sellers is waning after buying and returning *two* of these "new" flash units with identical issues.
Observe:















You Tube



Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help 12-12-2014, 01:02 AM  
Af160fc problem
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 107
Views: 15,243
Not really related, but pertinent none the less: I made a phone-screen friendly form or the exposure guides.. becasue it's been so long since I used a flash I figure it'll be useful to have on hand for a while, and the converted PDF versions never display well on small screens.
Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help 12-12-2014, 12:56 AM  
Af160fc problem
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 107
Views: 15,243
I think I was just exercising my right to be stupid, and thought the last posters join date was the thread start date. *shrug* :) My bad.

I have the AF160FC made in china, which I recently got second hand from a japanese ebay seller.
It's been decades since I have used a flash at all, and I have not tested this one in the field at all yet, but I am noticing that it does seem to have exposure issues.
After reading that (iirc) the K3 has more exposure issues I have so far only had the flash on a K5 with FA 50mm/2.8 macro, but could test on K3 or K5 if becomes known as more reliable or has firmware fixes.

More pressing for me however is the way when I turn the flash on, it may not begin charging. SOmeonetimes I have to turn it off and on again at least once. Also it will often audibly begin charging, but the ready light won't come on, and modeling lights cant be used... as if the flash was off. However it seems to always work after cycling power the second time.
I'm guessing this is one of the reasons the seller was selling it. I guess I could return it, but that's always annoying....and not what this thread is about :)
Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help 12-10-2014, 10:19 PM  
Af160fc problem
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 107
Views: 15,243
Meanwhile, nearly 3 years later...
Has this progressed?
Other pertinent new threads perhaps?
Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 10-05-2014, 01:17 AM  
Autofocus Probem/Depleted Battery Error (K5)
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 12
Views: 3,608
This sounds all too familiar.

For the first time today my new K3 started showing "Battery Depleted" when the 2 new Pentax batteries were fully charged, AND when the two backups I carry were inserted.
After some fiddling I realised it's camera, not the batteries, and as stated by others above: turnjng the camera/grip off and waiting a few seconds seems to fix it.

I have a theory as to the cause, and it relates to another issue I have experienced with two K5 bodies and now this K3.
It usually appears after a short time of using older heavier lenses with AF and always those with electronic couplings:
SMC Pentax-F * 300mm 1:4.5 ED(IF)
SMC Pentax-FA star 200mm f2.8 ED IF
Tokina AT-X PRO 80-200mm 1:2.8

I believe that some lenses start to develop a small amount of rotational 'play' in their mount. What could be expected if the locking pin protruding from the camera into the lens mount socket over time made the socket enlarge. The mounts on these lenses are typically aluminium after all, and the amount of rotational play in some of my lenses is quite noticeable. However the locking socket does not appear distended or damaged, so evidently the amount of distortion is miniscule.

Somehow this rotational play seems to become worse the longer and more I use some of these larger lenses, and along with it another problem begins to surface, firstly:
The f - - problem.
Even though the lens aperture is in A mode, and the camera generally set to Av mode, I frequently notice the camera will display f - - when I wiggle the lens slightly. This is caused by the electronics between the lens and the camera becoming uncoupled... disconnected. Exactly the same as if you had switched the lens out of A and into one of the manual Apertures, or if you had pressed the release and begun to or actually removed the lens.

Now here's the clincher:
On several occasions I have been holding down the cameras release button in continuous fire mode, rattling off shots as fast as the camera can fire, and the lens has rotated slightly, the electronics uncouple, and :
-in the case of the K5:
The camera completely locks up.
The LCD is still displayed, and the shutter appears to remain stuck open exposing the sensor, but the camera is effectively dead.
The only fix I have found is to remove both batteries (grip and body) and wait a minute or two. Sometimes just popping them out and straight back in will cause the camera to immediately close it's shutter and recover.
Any images in the buffer will be gone.. kapoot, vanished.
Shutter actuation counts will be regressed somewhat, sometimes by the number of buffered shots lost, sometimes back to the last time the camera was turned on. (yeah, read that again)

If the camera shoots in f - - mode and doesn't crash/lock up, which is its typical behaviour if you aren't buffering a bunch of frames at the time, then it is shooting with the aperture wide open like Av mode when the lens set to one of its f/stops instead of A mode (expected behaviour for manual aperture in Av mode). However the exif data *may* still register the user specified aperture. The image will almost always be over-exposed.

-in the case of the K3:
The camera will often destroy the image, sometimes making a collage of several images, or sometimes simply producing a black frame, but it does not seem to hesitate or stop at all. Other times AF will fail, internal readouts turn off, and the shutter cannot be released until the lens/camera is wiggled slightly to make the lens/body connection short again.
The exif data will (afaik) always reflect the user specified Av mode setting for Aperture, but will be shooting wide open, and over-exposed.
However the camera does not lock up, and i often I won't even notice that it's happened till I find a zero byte image later.

In the K3 and K5 the AF will usually fail for as long as f - - is in effect.

I strongly suspect that the lens<->body electronics becoming decoupled, and the resulting f - - problems, and the way the K5 would simply lock up whereas the K3 seems to handle it gracefully are related to the "battery depleted" of the K3
I believe that the K5 just chokes and dies, whereas the K3 tries to deal with it but often can't, so the electronics goes into a power-problem shutdown state.




Note however, that the above has never happened on any of these 3 cameras when using (note that they are smaller & lighter):
SMC Pentax DA 10-17mm f3.5-4.5
SMC Pentax-F Zoom 1:3.5-4.5 28-80mm
And I have excluded these lenses, which have never manifested the problem, but probably becasue they are either M-series with no electronics, or A-series with no AF... AND because they are not as heavy and long and have never developed any noticeable rotational play in the mount/body connection:
SMC Pentax-M 1:2.8 28mm
SMC Pentax-A 1:2.8 28mm
SMC Pentax-M 1:1.2 50mm
SMC Pentax-A 1:1.2 50mm
SMC Pentax-M 1:1.4 50mm
SMC Pentax-A 1:1.4 50mm
SMC Pentax-A 1:1.7 50mm
Zeiss 85mm F/1.4 ZK Planar T*
... or are just light, and not seen a lot of use, much less being slung about on a monopod all day:
SMC Pentax-F 1:2.8 100mm macro
Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 04-16-2013, 08:05 PM  
MESTOS PD K5H L-Bracket
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 59
Views: 11,629
Someone somewhere is muttering "heresy!" under their breath. :)
So now all I need to do is find the person who decided to make RC2 and Arca rails completely incompatible by designing them a few millimetres differently, sit them down and give them a stern talking to.
If it weren't for that, a few lateral cuts out of an arca would make it cross-compatible with RC2 as well.

Anyone else interested asking Mestos to make an RC2 version?
I'm sure each email they got would quickly convince them.
Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 04-16-2013, 07:03 PM  
MESTOS PD K5H L-Bracket
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 59
Views: 11,629
I have an arca head, so that is an option...
However...and I'm sure this is grounds for some kind of holy war... I don't like the basic arca mechanism.

Consider the two bolt heads that lock into recesses in the mount and prevent sideways motion when the main thumbscrew is tightened. Isn't it sort of missing the whole design-point when l-brackets have these lock-bolts on their landscape mount, but rarely have them on their portrait mount?
I want this bracket specifically to shoot portrait, and usually with a fair bit of weight attached, so for that element of the locking mechanism to be absent on the side mount isn't good.

It's too easy to accidentally drop a camera if the (usually too small) arca thumbscrew isn't done up tight, or gets loosened.
Conversely: the RC2 is either attached, or it isn't.

TL;DR: personal preference.
Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 04-16-2013, 05:53 PM  
MESTOS PD K5H L-Bracket
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 59
Views: 11,629
Yes, but Arca compatible is not Manfrotto compatible.
I want one for my RC2 head. There are plenty of Arca L-brackets, but very few for RC2.

I asked fittest if they would consider making an RC2 version of their bracket...
They said they may consider this in the future (but I'm not holding my breath) and that I could add their arca-bogen adapter clamps to their K5 bracket:
Pair of Adapter Clamp Transform Arca Compatible L Plates to Bogen Manfrotto Fits | eBay
Fittest FK5L L Plate L Bracket QR for Pentax K5 Body Only Arca Compatible | eBay
$62 + $125 = $187 but doesn't fit over the DBG4, and 111g + 140g = 251g ... is getting a bit heavy.

Given that Mestos make a grip-fit bracket, perhaps a few of us should petition them to ask for a RC2 compatible mount?
Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 04-15-2013, 12:00 AM  
MESTOS PD K5H L-Bracket
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 59
Views: 11,629
YESSSS!
woot
edit: GAH.. I wooted too soon.
All I want is an L bracket like this that fits over the BDG-4 and is manfrotto RC2 compatible.
Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help 02-17-2013, 04:32 AM  
K-5 just quit taking pictures
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 5
Views: 1,155
Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help 02-17-2013, 04:29 AM  
Date folders
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 13
Views: 1,117
I have always wondered how this date/naming spec worked.
Just now I was looking at the 'other' calendars offered in my taskbar and noticed that the Taiwanese format is 102-02-17 (for 2013-02-17) and thought I had discovered the source of this grail of truth... alas, not so.
It really is just an annoying dumb old spec. Blame FAT32.
Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 01-23-2013, 08:37 PM  
K-5 Freezing up - No Biggie, just a tad annoying
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 31
Views: 8,252
Admittedly I have been shooting a lot less lately, but ever since I gave my camera the magical thump (post #28 & #29) it has not locked up once.
Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 10-13-2012, 07:03 AM  
K-5 Freezing up - No Biggie, just a tad annoying
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 31
Views: 8,252
Interestingly, since I thumped my camera I have shot ~7400 frames on that camera and not had any lockups. Not one.
Fingers crossed that's how it will stay.
Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 09-02-2012, 03:52 AM  
K-5 Freezing up - No Biggie, just a tad annoying
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 31
Views: 8,252
Well it's continued happening over the last couple of days, and it's become obvious that it's usually a mirror jam issue. The shutter is not usually left open (although I think I have seen it do that too) but the mirror stays up. It can be easily moved with fingers, but just springs back up when released.

Today I had only just begun shooting and it became obvious that removing the battery and waiting for a while wasn't going to make it work.
So I did the obvious thing: I told the camera "Work or f*****g die!" and gave it a fairly careful but firm sideways thump with the heel of my palm.
The mirror popped back down, I thanked it, and it continued shooting the rest of the day. (~1500 shots).

Knowing how to unjam it is good.
Actually unjamming it is probably a bit bad for the camera.
Being able to unjam it is great.

Given that the official repairers in Australia refused to even fix a *manufacturing defect* (sensor stains) because I had shot more than 20k actuations (or whatever it was that they prominently stipulated on the warranty return form), I wouldn't even ask if they would fix this under warranty, even if it was still inside the 12 month period.

Currently feeling vindicated about buying a second greymarket K5 via Hong-Kong for nearly half the price of the first locally purchased one.. and it's lol-warranty.
Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion 08-31-2012, 07:42 AM  
How bad if fungus on a lens? Easy to remove?
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 12
Views: 29,996
Like silver.
Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion 08-30-2012, 11:45 PM  
Unusual adaptall aperture issue
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 4
Views: 1,234
Did you get a chance to check yet?

Also; slight rotational play is an issue on my adapters, I think it's due to the latch and catch having a very small tolerance before movement occurs, and the angled design of the contact surfaces may gradually wear them. I'm planning to test this further and maybe add a sliver of solder to the catch and see if that tightens it a bit.
However when testing my original issue above i was making sure to not rotate the lens at all. So I doubt this was a factor.
Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion 08-28-2012, 05:54 AM  
Unusual adaptall aperture issue
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 4
Views: 1,234
When using viewfinder stop-down preview I see an aperture issue that does not happen when using the green button (in modes where this stops down momentarily to meter).

With lens aperture set to AE:
1) Green button works flawlessly as expected:
- Aperture constricts and then re-opens to full dilation. Every time.
2) Stop-down preview fails ~50% of the time:
- First press will usually constrict, but often not to the correct aperture, and then re-open, but often not to fully open.
- Second press usually constricts, usually to the correct aperture, and then re-open, usually to fully open.


With lens aperture set to any manual aperture (not AE):
1) Green button works flawlessly as expected:
2) Stop-down preview works flawlessly as expected:


Has this problem been seen before?
Suggestions?

K-5 v1.13
Tamron Adaptall PK/A adapters (I have 2, they were obtained separately and yet both behave the same way)
lenses tested:
Tamron 300mm/2.8 (60B)
Tamron 70-210mm/3.5 (19AH)

Both adapters and the 60B's internal springs, moving parts, rollers and contacts look to be in excellent condition with no sticking or corrosion (I have had them disassembled, yes).
Most likely to happen with apertures between f/16 and f/6.3.
Yes, I understand how to use adaptall adapters and the in AE/manual aperture modes :)
No, this is not related to the "'F--' intermittently displayed due to non-conductive screw coating next to the contacts" issue.
Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 08-26-2012, 06:26 PM  
K-5 Freezing up - No Biggie, just a tad annoying
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 31
Views: 8,252
I have it happen with original pentax batteries and a variety of others. IIRC It began happening before I had used any third party batteries.

Shutter locks : agreed. I think everyone experiences this lockup when the shutter activates. Generally I turn the camera off, and the image is never saved.

Happens during multiple shots: agreed. I mostly shoot in 2+ shot bursts, but I think it might have happened to me in the past when I had only fired a single shot. However do not recall it happening on the first shot fired after a period of several hours inactivity.

Can hear shutter releasing: maybe. Somethng does make a sound while the camera is attempting to shoot but locked. It sounds like the sensor SR is being moved a lot, or more likely that the shutter mechanism is attempting to open the curtain and failing. I say failing because my cameras make a very different sound when successfully taking photos as compared to when the camera is locked up.

Next time mine does this I will more closely inspect things like if the mirror is moving/locked,shutter curtain actuates or not, etc.
Previously I have just been concerned with making it work again immediately.
Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 07-07-2012, 08:15 PM  
K-5 Freezing up - No Biggie, just a tad annoying
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 31
Views: 8,252
Yeah, I can't be sure but I don't recall ever seeing it happen in earlier revisions.
Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 07-05-2012, 02:37 PM  
Re-numbering files?
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 18
Views: 2,344
All the relevant things have already been said, and because I have also recently had to mess with sequencing (also my brain seems to be refusing to comprehend exactly what you a asking) so I will just brainfart a bit.
body 1: filenames 0006nnnn.DNG (because it's up to around 68000 actuations)
body 2: filenames _A00nnnn.DNG (because it's up to around 2500 actuations and uses the Adobe colorspace)
The former camera went berserk with filenames a while back, incrementing them by several thousand after a weird power issue. So I tend to realign that sequence with the shutter actuations if in doubt. I guess I would do the samewith the second body too, just with the correspondingly different filename prefix.
.pp3's are a RawTherapee metadata sidecar file...because I only realised the sequencing was shot AFTER processing ~1500 images.






Code:

#!/bin/sh

origname=

newname=

ls -l | awk 'NR!=1 && !/^d/ {print $NF}' | while read name

do

ext=${name##*.}

if [ "$ext" = "pp3" ]; then

if [ $name != "${origname}.${ext}" ]; then

# echo rm $name

rm --verbose --force $name

else

# echo mv ${name} ${newname}"."${ext}

mv --verbose ${name} ${newname}"."${ext}

origname=

fi

else

shuttercount=$(exiftool -s -s -s -ShutterCount $name)

countname=$(printf "%08d" ${shuttercount})

newname=${countname}"."${ext}

origname=${name}

# echo mv ${name} ${newname}

mv --verbose ${name} ${newname}

fi

done



PS: wow, could the board smash code block whitespacing any more? far out.
Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 07-04-2012, 02:45 PM  
K-5 Freezing up - No Biggie, just a tad annoying
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 31
Views: 8,252
Same problem. You describe my experience too.
I just posted in another thread, but i'm going to bump this one too because this issue is very annoying for those of us who have it.
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-k-5/174933-k5-lock-out.html#post2011927

8Gb class10 sandisk and transcend cards
firmware v1.13
68000 actuations on one body
2400 on another
I am using a battery grip - i don't think it has ever happened when i wasn't.
Battery selection set to auto, but i have also used it set to 'grip first' for a long time too. Obviously this is preferential when using a grip.
I have a combination of aftermarket and pentax batteries, but it happens on both. I generally don't mix the two types when using the grip.
The batteries always have a charge, and iirc it's never happened on a fresh full-charged battery. I get the feeling it's mostly when the camera has almost consumed one and attempts to switch to the other, but there is always some (at least 1/3rd) charge left in both.
I feel reasonably certain that one manifestation of this problem relates to the presence of a power grip, or as someone else found: DC input.
K5 Camera Freeze?: Pentax SLR Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

Camera is usually set to AF-C or M but i am always using manual focus and usually manual aperture lenses, so the position is irrelevant to me and i therefore pay no attention to it's position. I have the focus confirmation set only when i press the AF button anyway. Which is practically never.

I never use liveview. Auto preview is disabled. I preview manually, but not very often. So the LCD gets used, but rarely.

Seems unliklely it's thermal, I have had it happen on cold days, cold camera, and only shooting infrequently, just as I have been standing in the sun in Australian summer for hours machinegunning faces as they pass. I don't think there is ever much variation in the sensor temps the exif reports, but I probably should check that.

This is not just a mild inconvenience. It's very frustrating.
There is only one or two things I find unattractive about the K-5 functionality, and this is absolutely at the top of the list. On those days when simply reinserting the battery doesnt fix the problem it's a showstopper category problem.
When it happens to two bodies from two very different batches on the same day. It's a "resist urge to smash camera on the ground" type of problem.
Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 07-04-2012, 01:30 PM  
K-5 lock-up
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 12
Views: 2,877
I just posted in another thread, but i'm going to bump this one too because this issue is very annoying for those of us who have it.
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-k-5/174933-k5-lock-out.html#post2011927
Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 07-04-2012, 01:27 PM  
K5 Lock out
Posted By BETLOG
Replies: 12
Views: 2,275
I have this freezing issue too. I am using firmware v1.13 but this is not a solution.
IIRC it happens only when the grip is on, and it happens in both an old, and a brand new K5.

It doesn't happen in any predictable way that I am able to discern. Except that it's getting more regular, and with ~4Kg of camera, grip, lens, and batteries to juggle it's always VERY annoying: To get the camera working again I have to remove the whole battery grip, and also remove the camera battery.
I think the trick then is to turn the camera on while there is no battery in it, maybe also press the shutter button, and then turn it off and reinsert the battery and grip.
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