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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
07-16-2020, 12:34 PM
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I'm looking to add to my collection of one with a nice open aperture metered m42 body. I thought I was dead set on a Spotmatic F, but I find myself reconsidering the ES and ES II. My concerns over the two automatic bodies lie mostly in reliability of the electronics. With the F, I at least know that if the meter goes on it, I'll have a nice mechanical and manual body to use. The other two, while partially mechanical, do have the limited number of shutter speeds to choose from. Are my concerns warranted? Is there anyone with both an F and one of the ES models that can give me a comparison of their use and reliability? Is there anything else I should be paying attention to when it comes to these cameras? I do shoot mostly Av on my digital bodies, so the non-manual mode probably wouldn't bother me on the ES. Are there any other quirks to pay attention to?
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
07-11-2020, 07:24 AM
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Wow. Thanks for all the detailed info, everyone. I’ll check mine out once I finish the roll of film in it. This is great.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
07-10-2020, 06:20 PM
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I have read some about the compatibility issues. This one has the green R. I am planning to keep the questionable lenses away. What can you tell from a pic of the inside? I could take one later.
---------- Post added 07-10-20 at 09:23 PM ----------
Maybe I will look for the macro. I haven’t used one very much, but why not start? I also think I want to look for the Helios. I’ve seen a lot of good shots from them.
The 50 is a Super-Tak 1.4. Haven’t used it yet. Looking forward to trying it out some.
---------- Post added 07-10-20 at 09:26 PM ----------
Somehow I have managed not to buy a single 35mm lens, in K mount nor m42. I’ve heard the takumar 35 3.5 is nice, but I think I really want a faster one. The f2 might be the ticket.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
07-10-2020, 04:44 PM
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Nice shot! I like the blues in that. I was planning to try some Portra next, but maybe I’ll give Ektar a shot. I don’t know where I come down on the color/b&w divide yet.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
07-10-2020, 03:48 PM
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I just took my first 35mm picture in many years, and my first on an SLR this afternoon. I received my new-to-me SV in the mail from MightyMike, and I’m in love with this thing. I have a couple of cheap rolls of Kodak ultramax to run through it. What advice would you give me, a new film shooter? I have a 28, 50, and 200mm lens for the camera, plus a gorgeous 17mm fisheye that I just bought. Film? Should I think about developing myself? What lenses are must haves in m42?
I’m excited about this.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
05-27-2019, 11:30 AM
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DA 70mm limited and K-5. 1/60, f3,5, ISO 2200. Admittedly not a stellar shot, but one of the first I captured with (both new to me) my DA 70 and my K-5.
Piper:
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Forum: Sold Items
05-20-2019, 06:54 AM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-11-2015, 06:45 PM
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Mine worked with firmware 1.3. I think that there was a version 1.31 that broke the menus. Anyone have better info?
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
03-10-2015, 01:29 PM
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Last Friday, I was sitting at the local dance studio waiting for my little girl to finish up her ballet class, when I noticed that a gentleman and his wife who were there to visit their granddaughter were each carrying a K-5IIs (though they appeared to both have a cheap Sigma kit zoom attached). I had to control myself to not be creepy and ask to play with their cameras. :)
I typically watch, and I rarely even see Pentax gear at Disney. Sometimes, but not often.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-25-2015, 08:45 PM
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May I ask why you are attacking me? All I did was post my own experience on a thread asking for such so that someone could distill the collected knowledge down to a usable format. Also, where did I say anything about sticky? I just said that the thread in question is a maze at best, and a giant pile of confusion at worst. Someone with less of a technical background than me might never have figured out why the process as spelled out was not working.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-25-2015, 06:34 PM
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I thought the idea was to collect data and make it easier to follow. I didn't know what the issue was until I figured it out and didn't even know enough about why it might not be working to search. That thread is a mess, and I'm not sure it should require combing through it with a fine-toothed comb to uncover all the gotchas and potential problems one might find.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-25-2015, 08:48 AM
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I can confirm that the text-file-on-the-SD-card method worked for me:
- K10D
- Firmware version 1.30
- DA* 16-50
- Hold down menu (I think... whatever button the instructions said) when turning the camera on.
Pretty boring combination (probably the most common one?), but I did have a problem to overcome that I didn't see mentioned anywhere else. The camera firmware expects the files on the card to be DOS/Windows formatted, and I had to insert a new blank line after the commands in square brackets []. What was tripping me up, and causing the camera to ignore the MODSET files was that I was doing the file edits on a Mac, which has a BSD (Unix) underpinning. I had to convert my Unix text file to a DOS file before the camera would recognize the commands and comply.
I'll give a bit of technical background on the issue. All plain text files use unprintable characters to signify the end of a line. The two that are typically used are the newline character (usually represented by the two characters \n whenever the writer wants to be clear that a newline is to be used) and the carriage return character (typically represented by \r when it needs to be shown). DOS uses a combination of newline and carriage return to indicate that the line is to end and a new one is to begin (\n\r). Unix systems use only a newline (\n) for the same thing. Whenever I created a MODSET file with a set of commands in it on my Mac, it used only the newline. The camera, not seeing the \n\r set just assumed that the file was malformed and ignored it. One I fixed this issue, everything went as expected.
If you are using Windows to follow the process, you should never run into this problem. To fix it, I opened the file in vim (MacVim to be exact) and just set the fileformat variable to dos (use the command :set ff=dos), then saved the file. Problem solved.
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Forum: Sold Items
02-23-2015, 08:27 PM
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
02-23-2015, 09:33 AM
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I think the list in my signature is accurate with regards to lenses. I use the 43 ltd and the 16-50 for probably 99% of my shots (no exaggeration), so I have some good glass. I am simultaneously considering shuffling some of those around, too, so I'm really making a bigger decision on how to best use a limited budget to add to my capabilities. Upgrade the body, add to my lens collection, or maybe a little of both?
I honestly wasn't planning to make the body purchase just yet, but seeing the seemly fire sale price on the K-50 made me think I might want to make a quicker decision on what to do. The third option that I didn't mention in the original post is that I might just keep on shooting with my K10D and just make some lens additions. Other than being frustrated at the low ISO performance, I don't have any huge need to upgrade the body today. I might just ultimately take that same money and buy either a DA 21 or DA70 second hand.
My ultimate wish list is to procure the following kit:
- A new(ish) body that gives me at least 2-3 stops better ISO performance than the 400 I am comfortable with now, plus some improved AF performance. Compactness and some form of WIFI compatibility are also highly desired.
- A mostly prime lens kit: (DA21 or FA*24) / FA 43 / DA 70 / DFA 100WR / 50-200WR
I just have to decide when the time is right to spend the money on a body upgrade and when it's better to just add to the lens stable.
Edit: I just realized that I didn't have the M150 listed in my signature. Not sure why I left that one off.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
02-23-2015, 08:11 AM
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I think this might be the sense I needed injected into my thought process. Thank you.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
02-23-2015, 06:32 AM
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Great discussion. Thank you to everyone who has replied. For clarification, is there a noticeable difference in video capabilities between the two bodies? I might like to start playing with that to capture events with my kids, and extra flexibility and usability for shooting video might help sway me one way or the other.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
02-22-2015, 09:28 PM
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Is the image quality noticeably better, then? Remember I'm stepping up from a camera I've had for about 9 years. Either will be such a huge step up that I won't know what to do with myself.
I forgot to mention that the K-50 that I can get is white. Not sure how I'd get along with that color scheme on an SLR.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
02-22-2015, 09:00 PM
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I know. These threads are done to death. I wouldn't bother, but this might be a sort of unique proposition. I want to upgrade my body to get better high ISO performance and better autofocus. A little more consistent metering and better general performance would be nice, too. I had just about decided to get the K IIs, which looks like the best deal on the planet right now.
But I saw a local clearance on the K-50 with the 18-55 kit for $310. Knowing that A) size is important, since I was recently considering replacing my whole kit with mirrorless; and B) budget is tight and the difference between 310 and 500 is not a tiny one, would it make sense to go with the K-50, or should I try to stretch to the 5IIs?
My uses? I shoot mostly in Av, a lot of available light indoors stuff, but with the K10D's sensor I can't really go much above ISO 400 comfortably. I've started experimenting a little with flash to try to get better results, but I'm not sure that is much of a difference between the 50 and the 5IIs. Has anyone made the jump from a previous flagship body to a lower specified one? Will I miss the top LCD? I do sometimes use the external metering mode and autofocus mode switches. Is it a pain to use the menu system for those settings? Is there anything else I'll not like that I'm not thinking of? I wish the K-S2 was at this point in its life, because I would love the articulating LCD and the built-in WIFI, but that isn't going to happen for a while.
Any opinions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. ;)
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-10-2015, 07:54 AM
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You would be surprised at how bad my family snapshots can be, even with good glass. :p I'm not trying to please myself, but rather my wife, who is unfortunately a harsh critic of kid pics. I've been trying to practice manual focus, but the lighting can sometimes be bad enough that I either have to crank my ISO way up, or I can't budge from f2.8, which just makes it that much harder. Posed shots are usually ok, but I like to catch them doing things a little kid does, which implies seemingly randomized motion. Semi-reliable autofocus would at least take that off my hands. Plus there's the whole 5-pound brick that I get to tote around (exaggeration, but it seems like it sometimes).
I've been staring longingly at the Fuji X cameras for a little while, and I'd love to take that plunge. It would require me to get decent money in exchange for some (or all? yikes) of my Pentax gear first, though. The budget is effectively zero for photography equipment at present. I'm sure I'd have to either step way back in lens quality (though the Fuji kit lenses get a good rap) or down to probably just one lens for the time being. Problem is that I have competing needs of fastish wide for inside and because I just happen to like it and longer for my son's soccer games. Hard to get a fast 24mm and 150-200mm in one lens.
---------- Post added 02-10-15 at 09:58 AM ----------
I figured out the issue with the process, and I think you're right about being able to activate debug without PKTether. The camera's firmware is very particular about the stream of characters it reads, and it seems like that (for mine, at least) if there isn't a DOS carriage-return/line-feed pair at the end of the line, it ignores the MODSET.XXX file. Once I figured that out and converted the (Mac OS X-created) file to DOS, it worked like a charm.
I'm now happily screw-driving to my heart's content. Now I get to be reminded of just how mediocre the K10D's low-light autofocus really is. ;)
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-10-2015, 05:24 AM
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I have, but I find that when I'm trying to get a shot of my kids in the house, say in the wee hours of the morning on Christmas, I'm not good enough with manual focus to get any keepers. The 35 is an option that I've considered, but I do find that, for me, somewhere around a 35mm FF equivalent FOV is where I'm most comfortable. The 40 is only a tiny bit wider than my 43, which is what I default to but have trouble with framing (too tight) when I'm indoors. I guess if I'm looking to spend upwards of 6-700 on a single lens, I could always consider something like a second hand Fuji X100s, but I'm not sure I'm a two-brand kind of guy. :D
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-10-2015, 05:04 AM
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I'm not complaining about image quality. I have a K10D, so high ISO starts at 400 and quickly degrades from there, so that WOULD be a consideration. I acknowledge that I could use a body update to get the most out of my lenses, but the main complaint that I was making is that the 16-50 is way too bulky when packaged with the K10D, and I just don't take it with me very often. For me, more portability would equate to using the equipment much more often.
The lenses I'm looking at (if I stay with Pentax, which I still love in so many ways) are the 21 and 20-40mm limiteds. I still wish there was a faster (at the expense of some size) prime in the vicinity of 24mm. That would fill a big hole for my use. I was thinking of selling off the DA* to help finance whatever it is I choose to buy.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-07-2015, 10:21 PM
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Quick update, in case anyone is curious: I was able to successfully disable the SDM on my lens. The issue was that since I'm editing the MODSET files on a Mac, the line terminator didn't match what the camera expected. I just had to use VIM to convert the file to an MSDOS text file and everything worked as the instructions said. Autofocus for everyone!
Thanks for the help and the ideas. I think I'll still consider selling the lenses off in favor of something else.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-07-2015, 08:24 AM
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Wow, I hadn't seen the price increases. I'm going to give the screw drive hack another go this weekend, then if it works I might be posting it on the forum for sale.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-06-2015, 05:24 AM
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The 43 is on my camera 75% of the time. Partially because it's the only lens I currently have that will autofocus, but mostly because I love the output I get from it. If it was wider, I could use it for almost all my pictures.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-06-2015, 05:14 AM
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Actually, it was abortive before it even got started. I couldn't get my camera body into debug mode. I don't have a Windows PC, so I can't use PKTether. I sort of half tried, so I'll just have to go give it a real attempt. Is it possible to do this without PKTether?
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