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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
10-03-2016, 02:39 AM
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One quick question, it ays Pentax or Ricoh camera, how do I stand with a Samsung GX20 ??
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
09-03-2013, 11:29 AM
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Oh dear, I have let the side down.
I have just come back from a 6 night break in Barcelona and walking around I spotted 5 different Pentax users in just two of those 6 days.
I could hardly race up to them and shake their hands for two reasons.
1, I have a Sumsung GX20
2. I have leaft it at home and was using my Lumix TZ 6 travel light compact.
they would yelled really loud and called the Guardia Civil (cops).
So you lot feel left and alone, with Samsung GX20 even Billy Nomates doesnt return my calls.
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
08-10-2013, 05:33 AM
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Hey all,
I don't post here very often but I am looking for ideas
I do paid online surveys, I shalll not advertise the companies here, but you can find many on a google search.
This year has been very good so far I have made £250 in amazon vouchers ( about $ 380 USD) in 7 months.
How would you spend these on photography or what kit would you put money to to aquire?
Camera Samsung GX20 ( clone of K20D)
Lens, kit 18-55 Schneider, 50-200 Schneider and Pentax DA SMC 55-300
Tripod Sunpak 423pro (carbonfibre and pistrol grip head bought at Costco in USA on vacation)
Flashgun, Samsung clone of the Pentax AF360.
Generic cable realease, generic off camera flash hot shoe sync cable
Compact, Panasonic Lumix TZ6
Would you get a better short zoom than the kit lens that I have or would you put the money towards a compact with a larger sensor or save up to get a compact with a huge APSC sensor.
I work about 65 hours per week and only get to take images one day per week and on vacations. I enjoy landscape, family and candid portraits.
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Forum: General Talk
12-04-2012, 11:17 AM
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Pentax SMC DA 55-300mm just ordered from Amazon UK for £235. Arrives in 5 days
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
12-03-2012, 01:54 PM
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Well now the follow up
I used a 25% solution of vinegar based window cleaner on a cloth. I followed this up with clean water on another cloth. I allowed the rubber to dry and then gave it 3 coatings with 303 Aerospace protectant on another cloth, allowing a couple of hours between wipe overs.
I have since used the 303 protectant on my lens that have not gone white and it works a treat at keeping them looking new.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
12-02-2012, 06:17 AM
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You think you are rare?
try shooting with a Samsung GX20 and you will know what it is like to be Billy No Mates:fedup:
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Forum: General Talk
12-02-2012, 05:45 AM
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I have to tell you that us northern brits read the name as Chick Filler and make an association with the male reproductive appendage, as in
Hey girl, come her and get a look at my chick filler.
It make my boys and me laugh all the time.
The other one that gets us cracked up is Darby's as we think their sign looks a like a full set, you know, a cock and balls.
Not taking the mickey here, we love the USA
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Forum: General Talk
12-02-2012, 05:36 AM
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May I join in this discussion,even tho' I am not form North America?
1. I am from the UK
2. I drive around 30,000 miles per year and have done so for the past 31 years, before that only 2,000 miles per year. I put around 60 to 70,000 miles on a car before I change it.
3. I have a vacation in the USA twice a year if I can afford it and I always rent a car, always an American brand.
The guys ar Alamo or Dollar always try and get me to upgrade to an SUV, which I point out is not usually an upgade to us brits or a BMW.
I come to the USA to drive a US car.
In britain I have owned Fords (never again) GM ( had 7 and all were solid reliable cars) Audi ( shocking) BMW ( expensive and clutch problems on the 2.0l D variants, Toyota ( solid workhorse lacking refinment and average build) andf lastly Citroen ( nice to drive but very poor quality control and start to rattle within 10,000 miles)
For the last 10 years I have drived diesels exclusively for the torque, grunt and fuel economy. I average around 50mpg but the BMW did almost 60 mpg
I tend to look out for my following favourites at the rental booth and go for the leather and big engine options. I generally get a renatl with less than 6,000 miles on the odometer but sometines have had them with just 3,000 miles on at pickup.
Buick Lacrosse
Chrysler 300c
Lincoln MKS
The best one to drive has been the Lacrosse with 6 or 7 speed sequential gearbox and 4 wheel powertrain but I have enjoyed them all.
Build quality has been improving over the last 14 years but I would say it is about the level of Toyota, but not BMW
I am luckiy to get 25 mpg in the USA, but I do like to make swift progress.
Edit to add, the Dodge Charger is the one car that I would like to rent , but they are never on the lot or within my budget of 'Luxury' car
Also edited to add that in the UK, the premium brands for car enthusiasts are BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar and Audi. Lexus although a premium brand is not driven by car enthusiasts and usually drivers tend to be older, ethnic and have a lower level of road awareness.
Honda are driven by coffin dodgers, and Korean brands are considered to be driven by people not interested in cars, the exception being the Subaru Imprezza.
The fatest growing marques form lesser stables are the VAG brands Skoda and Seat and Hyundai and personally I would consider both Skoda and Saet for my next car.
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
11-07-2011, 02:32 PM
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There is a very good review of flash i this thread here
Digital SLR and P-TTL flash guide
I think that any manual flashgun with auto settings could work. Say your manual flashgun will auto at F4, F8 and F11. You would need to pick one, say F8 and set its iso setting, say iso200 and the set the K20 D to manual and match up the F8 and iso200 and set the shutter speed within the flash sync range...hmm 125th of second? (guessing here)
I have used a Samsung flashgun which is an exact copy of the Pentax and unless I turn them on in the right order the camera doesnt recognise that there is flashgun attached and the flash doesnt set to P-TTL which I suspect is either Pentax TTL or Programmed TTL
Hopefully someone more helpful than me will be along quite soon to really help you out. Cheers Varkie
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Forum: General Talk
10-23-2011, 02:09 AM
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I had my Samsung GX20 at a do for work. I am a technical salesman. I am known for liking my toys and that I spend many hours of research and comparison before buying what I consider to be the best option and not the biggest brand
Mp3 player, a 60gb Zen Vision M which at the time outperfomed ipod for SQ, VQ, and had fm radio
Headphones by Grado, Beyerdynamic and Sennheiser and not a Beats by Dr Dre, Skullcandy or Bose in sight
Laptop by Hewlett Packard
Hifi by Linn (handbuilt in Scoltand) or my second system Cambride Audio with Mordaunt Short speakers and not a Techniks, Sony or Bose or even Bang and Olufsen in sight
so when my coworker came up to me to look at my camera and the shots that I was doing she said wow and then apologised and said ' I wanted a camera and know nothing about photography so I bought a Nikon SLR....are they any good? I wish I had spoken with you first.....'
Eat your heart out Nikon......'are they any good' :D
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
10-23-2011, 01:45 AM
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Heh, yeah I understand your pleasure.....many years back I was placed in some big competitions ( 3rd) and I did quite a few weddings for friends as the back up guy that gets all the candids and personal moments, crowd reactions etc whilst the pros are doing the set piece stuff.
I used to get more people using my negatives for reprints and blow ups that the pros did, and I was there with my trusty Yashica FXD bodies, tamron sp lenses and Vivitar 285 flash and the pros all had canikon
Tha is why when I went digital, I went to scope out the K20D and was shown the GX20 side by side for less money, a two year warranty and a cash back via cheque in the post after purchase......otherwise I would have a K20D now
Oh and my son went Olympus and has a range of fine Olympus zuikon lenses and a very versatile flash. Only 8meg body but at the time it outperfoemed consumer level 10meg Canons. The other reason he went Olympus was the international warranty, we bought it on vacation in the USA at the excellent Ritz Camera store on the main road outside of the Florida Mall in Orlando. Neither Canon nor Nikon at that time in the UK would honour the warrenty on a camera purchased in the USA.
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
10-23-2011, 01:35 AM
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Oh dear, I fear that if this was undertaken in the UK, that it would be the photographer that would be at risk of arrest and prosecution under several grounds.
1 infringing civil and personal liberty of other individuals
2 incitement to break the law (urinating in public is illegal unless you are pregnant and using a policeman's helmet)
3 Capturing of obscene or pervers images for commercial gain
and probaly many more.
We cant even take photo's of our grandkids playing in swings in the park and I belive that several first schools now have a ban on parents taking photos and video at school sports days and swimming galas.
Anyhow back on topic....has anyone ever taken along some muscle when they went shooting in dodgy areas, you know, a mate who can handle himself or a bouncer etc.
I never even thought about this, years ago the good Mrs Varkie and I had many good holidays to the far east , Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand Bankok, and most nights I was out taking street scenes with tripod and we were never bothered....I know MRs Varkie is scary to me but in those days a petite 5ft 2 blonde weighing 110lbs would not appear to scare anyone else.......
Ilike the idea of having one of those extendable batton truncheon things for personal protection but I suspect that I would be arrested again for having one of these in the UK.
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
10-21-2011, 09:04 AM
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Hello again, I am from Britlandcestershire :D and we arent allowed to carry anything bigger than a hobby swiss army knife such as a Victorinox or Wengen.
What does it mean when a person in the USA talks about a concealed weapon?
I know that you have the right to bear arms ( a bit more sinsible than arm bears) but does this mean a gun must be in a holster and on full view etc.
Please help me understand
Why do I get searched on my way into Disney, Universl Studios and Kennedy Space Centre...I suspect that weapons are a no no
I have seen tazer type things on sale in regular stores like Walmart in the USA, what is the rule with these things which would get you arrested again in England.
We now need a full firearms certificate for airguns with more power than 11 footpounds including .177 and .22 and all .36 airguns need a full FAC irrespective of footpounds of spring power or pneumatic power.
Thanks
Varkie
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Forum: General Talk
10-21-2011, 06:25 AM
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This just goes to show what I know. I though that Minolta were bought out by Sony?
I used to share a subscription to the Minolta magazine, Minolta Mirror with a pal many yars ago. I thought that this had the best images of any camera type publication and I do miss it.
I used to hanker after a Minolta camera but never had the funds to ditch my Yashica kit
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Forum: General Talk
10-21-2011, 06:09 AM
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Hi all,
I travel a lot and I often enjoy visting different camera stores.
If you are ever in West Yorkshire, Janet Green Photogaphic in Halifax and Bradford Camera Exchange in Bradford stock Pentax and a reasonable range of lenses and accessories. I have bought with them for 25 years. Service is first class.
Can anyone give me any pointers as to a good Pentax stockist in the Orlando or Kissimmee ares of central Florida
If you are interested in guitars, I can recommend Georges Music at the top of I drive near Wet and Wild. Over the years we have bought 3 guitars and many many extras and we always get a 1st class service.
I hope that this type of thread is allowed
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-20-2011, 04:07 PM
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The rubber coating on my GX20 body is becoming very white and grubby
I am looking for real solutions to restore my camera back to its clean black glory
Dont tell me isopropyl alcohol (propan-2-ol) i have tried it and it doesnt work
Dont tell me Armour All or some random silicone based cleaner from a car spares shop unless you have tried it and it is satisfactory.
What do they use at the factory?
Any ideas that you have tried and proven to be effective with no after effects
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Forum: General Talk
10-19-2011, 03:46 PM
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I have been using my Panasonic lumix TZ6 for a cople of years now and it is almost faultless using ambient light. I use in a variety of modes and have a handle on how to push and pull the exposures when needed.
I get great shots hand held at slow shuuter speeds and even better shots on a tripod. Great from about 25mm to 300mm lens and no vignetting.
Worse point, poor skin tone rendition and bad shadowing using flash indoors unless you back it up with an off camera slave bounced of a white wall
Second downside, no matter how fast they quote the shutter responce, there is always a lag compared with an SLR and it can seem like years when it is ony 0.2 of a second ( not sure of real lag, just for illustrative purposes)
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Forum: General Talk
10-19-2011, 03:31 PM
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You Tube
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src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vq1nU-fA9sk?controls=1" allowfullscreen>
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Mine is black and lifetime mpg is showing as 58.9mpg with mixed city and highway over the last 34,000 miles. On a motorway it regulary tells me I have a range of 900 miles on one tank of diesel and it returns about 71mpg at 70mph steady. Round cities it brings my average down a bit. Mine has less toys than the one in the video and cost quite a bit less than the price quoted.
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Forum: General Talk
10-19-2011, 12:25 PM
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Meh, I pay around $9 USD equivalent for an imperial gallon (4.54L and not 3.8L US) but my car does 60mpg lifetime and almost 70mpg highway.
What]s that you say.....60mpg?!!! what is it...a plastic car with three wheels.......actually no.......its a 2.0l diesel BMW capable of 130 mph and 0 to 60mph in under 9 seconds.
I dont see many oil burners when I come to the US and A on vacation and 30mpg highway seems to be a target for car sales.
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
10-19-2011, 08:50 AM
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Hello right back at ya.
I do shoot as if I was 35mm, because that is how I learned. I also do no post processing but I do bracket shoot from time to time. I learned on Kodachrome 64 tranparency film which has a narrow exposure latitude and so metering was very important. I have never used preview and shoot using the pentaprism view only
And We had a vacation to San Diego last year and it has to be the most beautiful city in the USA.
We did all the museums, Gaslamp Quarter, Seaport Village, Zoo, Wild Animal Park, Historic Old Town....Seaworld, USS Midway etc etc...Del Coronado......
We ate a lot of burgers at the San Diego Bay Burger Company at Seaport and my son ate his way around the animal kingdom.
My other son is Fishtarian and he ate at the Greek place at Seaport.
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
10-19-2011, 08:41 AM
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Hmm, never shoot alone, always go with a buddy
Get a buddy with Nikon or Canon gear and you should be safe:p
I often go shooting with my son, he uses Olympus and I have my GX20, we have been offered 'better' cameras by muggers :D......yes that was a joke
Seriously tho' work in pairs and take turns on watch. and it helps if you are 6ft tall and buit like a brick sh1thouse
I can offer you some Samsung stickers to glue over the Pentax bit.....should have the same effect as herpes......:fedup:
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
10-19-2011, 08:33 AM
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I would love to own the DA 55-300 and it is on my wish list but at the moment the only ones I can find affordable are the ex kit DAL versions with a plastic mount and no bayonet hood. The DA seems to be priced over £300 when I look
I have the two kit lenses that came with the GX20 and on both I have Hoya skylight 1B filters to protect my front elements. This is a hangover from my 35mm days when I never left the shop with a new lens until it had a 1B to protect it.
I do have second hand circular polariser that fits both my kit lenses and have not had any vignetting when adding this on top of the 1B
I do get vignetting tho' when using flash and my wide zoom when it has its hood on, well not real vignetting but shadow casting from the hood and I have to remove the hood for flash work beyound say 28mm equivalent
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
10-19-2011, 07:47 AM
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Aye up Lancashire lad, and its another welcome from me tha nos.
I have family in Rochdale and Blackburn areas.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-19-2011, 07:43 AM
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Thanks both, no when it refuses to fire it refuses to fire. I can get it to test fire onlyby pushing the lit button on the flash.
I think that what I need to do is to follow the synchronisation advice.....I have never done this as I usually have the camera on and then I fire up the flash as I pull it out of my bag before sliding onto the camera.
My guess is that Canada Rockies has hit the nail on the head.....I came to the GX20 from a manual 35mm background and have never had program flash before.
Having tried a couple of times in the last hour, following this routine, it always works first time.........lets see if it works when I am under pressure again
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-16-2011, 03:54 AM
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Well I have an intermiitend problem with my GX20 and external flash. I have the Samsung 360 flash but there are times that when I attach it to the GX20 that they dont seem to know that each other are there, ie the flash doesnt switch to P-TTL and the shutter doesnt set to the flash sync and when I shoot, there is no flash firing. It can happen in any shooting mode, I usually shoot in apperture priority and have the iso set to my rear thumb wheel but even switching to P mode doesn't seem to help.
As you would expect, this usually happens when I am under pressure to get a group shot at a community meeting or convention and people are starting to think that I cant use my gear....:o
Any ideas or advice....and all kit is about 3 years old with minimal use
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