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Forum: Pentax K-01
11-12-2013, 04:27 PM
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https://vimeo.com/79227495
Here's a montage of some timelapse stuff I've done recently with the k01.
I bough the k01 on a whim, mostly because it was cheap and came with the 40xs. I was thinking about buying the 40 Limited, but why not get the lens and a camera for just a few bucks more. And after the early reviews I didn't expect to be too impressed.
But this camera is awesome, and very likely the best ilc for timelapse currently on the market. Here's why:
1. Better metering than any other camera I've used. Unlike my dslr's the k01 uses the entire sensor to provide accurate consistent metering. This means I can get perfect unflickered exposures in Av mode. To do this with my k5,k7 or even the d600 that I bought and quickly returned, I would need an external trigger with programmable bulb ramping. Which would still require manually calculating exposure beforehand, not to mention added cost, complexity, weight, weather corncern, etc.
2.low investment, my most used timelapse setup is the k01 with Samyang 14mm lens, total cost less than $500. If this setup gets damged by rockfall, stepped on by mountain goats, stolen, rained on, or otherwise broken, I won't be too heartbroken. I won't be out a thousand dollar camera or a thousand dollar lens. This makes me feel way better about leaving the camera unattended for days at a time.
3.Great battery life, timelapse work is not very automated, manual exposure, manual focus, the only automation is the interval timer. Consequently I regularly get 800+ raw images from a single battery. I'm not sure any other mirrorless can match this, of course my dslrs can, but they cost far more and take up way more backpack space, not to mention looking very stealable.
4.looks like a cheap toy, and I don't think anyone would steal it.
5.very good internal intervalometer. I wish it had proper bulb ramping, but currently no camera has this internally, so I can't complain. Compare it to an NEX, which has no intervalometer, and no remote port.
6.build quality, for the money I paid for mine the build is stellar, despite its fisher price looks, its a brick. I wish it was sealed, but not having seals is not that big a deal, its held up to some pretty heavy abuse to this point and I'm not worried about it the way I would about an NEX or Rebel. When I'm timelapseing I typically cover the camera with a small plastic rain cover, this i has held up through severe mountain thunderstorms and -20 degree temperatures with no trouble.
7.IQ, the images this camera produces are phenomenal, better than my k5 in most cases. In this instance even the 12bit files are an advantage. The 14bit k5 dngs are slightly more workable in post, but when I'm working with a 1000 new raw files a day, that small storage savings is notable. Maximum IQ per megabyte.
Does anyone else use their k01 in a similar manner? How has your experience been?
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Forum: Pentax K-01
11-16-2013, 12:37 PM
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Forum: Pentax K-01
11-16-2013, 12:34 PM
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Barondla, bulb ramping is when you use an external trigger to control the exposure in bulb mode and the trigger is programmed to adjust the exposure over the course of the timelapse. Sunsets for example might shift quite dramatically from 1/500 all the way down to 20 or 30 seconds as it becomes completely dark.
Ron, I'm at 22,000 shots on my k01. No trouble so far, but I might buy another k01 as a backup if a deal comes along.
Thanks for the link Mamethot, somehow I missed that thread. Focus is really tricky for astrophotography. Focus peaking helps a ton, but is still difficult at night. I've also found that none of my lenses, even my limiteds are exactly accurate with their infinity mark. So in good light, I've taken my lenses and very carefully in magnified live view with FP on, focused on a distant subject and marked the lens barrel with a new infinity mark. This helped quite a bit. Another issue is keeping the camera stable, and the exposure short enough to not streak the sky too much. I don't own a super heavy tripod and probably wouldn't want to carry it anyway. I've actually had better results with the camera just sitting propped up on rocks, than using lightweight tripods. Different lenses perform very differently at night as well. If your lens suffers from coma it might be awesomely sharp in good light and weirdly terrible at night. Aperture is very important for getting the light from faint stars but I've yet to see a 1.4 lens that actually performs well at 1.4, on the other hand some slower lenses are excellent at their max aperture. Most of these shots are from the Samyang 14mm@f2.8, the Da15@f4, Sigma 30mm@f2.8,da35mm@2.8. The sigma is an interesting example in that its absolutely terrible at 1.4, and still has very visible coma at 2.8, but has a certain look that makes it seem better than it is. Rendering is just as important at night, the sigma is a flawed lens that renders beautifully, the contrast between the sharp center and soft edges makes the center appear sharper than it really is. Just something to think about.
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Forum: Pentax Mirrorless Cameras
04-06-2013, 11:51 AM
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Why ask Gopro to license the mount, when all we really need is a waterproof, shockproof, mountable housing for the Q? I would love this accessory.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
05-09-2013, 03:58 PM
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Norway, Sweden, and Denmark are all closely related cultures with closely related languages, Finland has a dramatically different language, and a separate culture. There was also a long history of wars between the Scandinavians and the Finns.
I guess worth noting is that the Lapplanders are also pretty distinct and to include them in the lump is like saying the Inuit share a lot with New Yorkers.
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