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Forum: General Talk
09-09-2023, 02:17 AM
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2015 Brompton S2L
Bought it second hand last month and like it very much.
But it needs still some tuning in the meaning of improving: installing dynamo light and the switching from two-speed to three-speed are the next two big changes, other like better tires, grips and bar ends are also on the way.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
08-28-2023, 08:51 AM
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A short cycle ride during the lunch break with a surprise: the DA L 18-55 kit lens is much, much better than I expected.
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Forum: General Talk
08-20-2023, 03:27 AM
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Finally I've got an 18-135 again - and on the first glance it seems to be a fairly sharp copy.
The 1.8/50 was part of the mispurchase KP.
Mispurchase because - despite I only took a few test image with it - the KP already makes me want a K-3III as it's bigger sibling.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
08-15-2023, 12:53 PM
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The little guy checked everything including that camera guy.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
07-30-2023, 09:45 AM
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Probably you are using RAW files. As far as I know these muted colours are intentionally. The reason is to have a "linear" image to start with.
Imho the new "sigmoid" module can be a reasonable start to get popping colours.
Try to delete the database lock file manually.
I don't use darktable on Windows, so please take my statement cum grano salis.
According to this post: Darktable doesn't start on Windows 10 - Darktable Forum you'll find the lock file in the directory C:\Users\\AppData\Local\darktable with the file name "data.db.lock".
Please make sure that no darktable process is running which can lock the lock file.
Hope this helps,
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
07-09-2023, 06:15 AM
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Both RawTherapee (RT) and darktable (dt) are very capable tools for developing RAW files.
I'd like to add ART as a fork of RT somewhere between dt and RT. ART has got the perspective correction from dt, improvements compared to RT and some RT tools removed.
ART and RT can handle Pixel Shift images from Pentax cameras and at the moment they can remove dead and hot pixels in monochrome images, which dt probably will get in the next version at christmas 2023.
At least on Linux dt can use the power of the graphics card for calculations which can boost the performance remarkably with iterative algorithms such as in the module "diffuse or sharpen".
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
06-24-2023, 05:49 AM
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That's the most important part in my opinion.
My main system is Pentax APS-C and the other system is m43 (I prefer the 3:4 aspect ratio for portrait mode, m43 is smaller and lighter in the (long) telephoto range, and video capabilities are undoubtedly better than on Pentax).
Recently I decided that the Panasonic GX8 has to go and I'll keep only the Olympus. I don't get used to the Panasonic user interface, the ergonomics of the Olympus is better and the ergonomics of the Pentax cameras are far better for me.
And to be honest: in my case the limiting element isn't the camera. I can take poor images with any system, even with a smartphone.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
06-23-2023, 11:37 PM
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Perhaps it is at least a workaround if you switch to a more modern piece of software (as far as I can see on the Ricoh download page for the SILKYPIX updater the latest version is from 2012) than SILKYPIX.
There are at least two very capable open source RAW developers available: RawTherapee (or the slightly different variant ART) and of course darktable.
According to the specifications of the Q10 it can save the images in the DNG format. So probably all of these programs should be able to handle the files from the Q10.
Hope this helps,
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Forum: General Photography
06-20-2023, 02:37 PM
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In the British series "Agatha Raisin" in the episode "The Wellspring of Death" (season 1, episode 4) there is a Pentax K-01.
This post contains hidden content
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
06-08-2023, 01:49 PM
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Lucky you. ;)
I have to post process my images (beside that I'm taking images in RAW) to reduce the amount of botching...
Seriously: the RAW files are fairly "flat" and need some tuning to reduce technical flaws like CA or distortion, bring out the details, saturate colours, enhancing the local contrast and sharpness of the subject, crop out distracting elements or to improve the composition, emphasising the subject and deemphasise the background.
For the latter the parametric masks in ART and darktable are revelations...
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
06-07-2023, 02:16 PM
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Here too - with one exception: I use 1.20 for a week already. ;)
Meanwhile ART became my preferred software for the monochrome images of the converted K-5II (I call it "K-5IIm"), because ART has all the tools I need to post process the images. Currently it has the advantage over darktable that ART is capable to remove hot pixels from monochrome images.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
05-22-2023, 11:37 PM
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Assuming that you are on a BSD or Linux computer (due to your mention of "dual boot"): Did you try "lensfun-update-data"?
Please keep in mind that certain Linux distributions (eg. Ubuntu and derivates) may use "snap" or similar installation methods beside the native package management which can affect the installation of darktable and other software. Calm down, Ecky.
On my Linux installation (Garuda Linux, a fairly user friendly Arch Linux derivate) the E-M1II is in /usr/share/lensfun/version_1/mil-olympus.xml which was installed via the package manager, so no manual customisation. I just verified that the "lens correction" module works properly on a photograph taken with the E-M1II. But I have darktable 4.2.1 here, not 4.2 like you.
Lensfun has a suggestion for a workaround (just edit mil-olympus.xml): Lensfun
Hope that helps.
Yesterday I tried to activate the "hot pixels" module for RAW files from my K-5IIm. darktable doesn't "recognise" neither a DNG nor a PEF as a RAW file and refuses the hot pixels correction.
The search on discuss.pixls.us - Free Software Photography and Issues · darktable-org/darktable · GitHub didn't help.
The closest match seems to be that one: sRaws / DNG LinearRaws get assigned JPEG (non-raw) workflow · Issue #14558 · darktable-org/darktable · GitHub
Have you experienced such behaviour of darktable?
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
06-01-2023, 02:20 AM
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Pleasing news: the developers plan to add the "hot pixels" functionality of monochrome images for darktable 4.6.
I suggested to add more matching criteria like the camera serial number for automatic application of presets (eg. for demosaicing or white balance). Reason for that is: If you've got a K-5II with CFA and one without ("K-5IIm") then currently darktable can match only the camera model correctly.
There is a "detect monochrome previews" in the darktable settings but that helps not much because there is all the colour information still in the RAW file from the unmodified K-5II. The files from the K-5II need demosaicing and not just "passthrough" as the K-5IIm, even if the image tone is set in camera to "Monochrome".
Perhaps the effort for that isn't that much and they will implement it soon. That would be great. But they're working on darktable in their spare time and don't get paid for that. So my part is at least to be patient.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
04-24-2023, 04:46 AM
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Thanks to the user medex here in the forum I'm a happy owner of a K-5II monochrome.
His - absolutely professional - service was in the same price range.
But with the K-3III Monochrome you get a warranty and the camera has some features which my converted K5II doesn't have.
So from my perspective the additional 500 bucks for a niche product within our niche are not neglectable but not beyond good and evil.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
04-21-2023, 04:19 AM
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Phew. Saved by the bell.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
04-07-2023, 04:10 AM
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Sorry, my fault - but there are so many numbers between 1 and 3 on that 21/3.2 Limited lens. So the wish was the father of the thought.
It won't be happen until next time. I promise!
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
04-06-2023, 02:55 PM
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At the moment a 55mm f/2 Macro would come in handy here.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
04-01-2023, 12:20 AM
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...and the elephant in the room is: Why did they change the green button into a red one?
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
11-05-2022, 04:09 AM
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The other day there was a lucky correlation...
K10D with FA 35/2.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
10-07-2022, 07:45 AM
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"Diagonal Tasha" with the FA 35/2.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
12-30-2022, 02:25 AM
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One thing to mention: the camera firmware doesn't know that there is no CFA any more, the RAW files still contain the meta data information like from an image with colours.
Without help post processing software tries to interpret the images as coloured due to the mentioned meta data and tries to demosaic the images.
There is a Windows tool ("Monochrome2DNG" iirc) to "convert" theses images to monochrome images and saves them as DNG files. I don't have Windows on my computer,
so I had to find another way to prevent the automatic but counterproductive demosaicing.
My first approach was to mimicry the behaviour of Monochrome2DNG with exiftool but that doesn't work - probably because some entries in the meta data are read only and
exiftool respects that. In that investigation I looked through the source code of darktable and found out with some help from the friendly people at pixls.us that there is no way
to force a post processing tool to treat an image as monochrome via the metadata.
My way now is to take pictures in "B/W" mode to have the preview in darktable as a "real" monochrome thumbnail. The "demosaic" module in darktable has an option
"passthrough" which can applied automatically on matching images with criteria like "maker" and "model" of the camera.
So in the end it's fairly easy - it's just a preset in a module and no need for preparing the RAW files with an external application.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
11-27-2022, 12:20 AM
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I don't own the K-3III, but a K-3II and a K-5IIs.
In regards to resolution and low light capabilities I do like the K-5IIs a bit more than the K-3II. On the other hand the K-5IIs is prone to produce moiré.
If I'd purchase a K-3III, I'd probably sell the K3II, because the features (eg. resolution and more selectable AF points) I like the K-3II for are covered in the K3III.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
11-09-2022, 05:48 AM
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The camera arrived here.
At the first glance it's in overall very good condition, except the solenoid: ABF
The seller didn't mention it at all.
Daisy without aggressions.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
11-07-2022, 05:45 AM
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The colour doesn't matter for me - as long as it is black. :D
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
11-05-2022, 01:01 AM
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Sometimes it's just to recognise the right moment.
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