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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
06-21-2012, 07:48 AM
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I could totally see that. I'm too cheap to buy an expensive new lens now, but years from now when my kids are all out of the house and money is (hopefully) not as tight I might be singing a different tune. Especially if I have exhausted the list of old primes I want to buy.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
06-15-2012, 01:32 PM
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I am considering purchasing some daylight balance CFLs as a cheap light source to supplement either my two flashes or window light.
I have found one good thread on these forums about daylight CFLs. It has a lot of info, but I'm having a hard time drawings conclusions. Will 5000k bulbs work to balance daylight / window light, or do I need 6500K?
And I'm also wondering: What color temperature are flashes? Are they designed to balance with daylight?
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
06-15-2012, 06:39 AM
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So what I am taking away is:
1) Autofocus isn't necessary.
2) No aperture control on the super cheap extension tubes means you'll be stuck with the smallest aperture when using new lenses.
3) It could be a big problem if the mount failed, but it doesn't happen often.
Lenses: I've got the DA L 18-55, DA L 55-300, M 50/2, and Tak 135/2.5. I think I can live without aperture control on my new lenses. From what I have heard you usually are trying to maximize DOF in macro shots. And the manual focus isn't very good on those lenses anyway. I suspect I would end up mainly using my manual focus lenses, especially the 135mm lens.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
06-15-2012, 06:23 AM
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Yeah, I would try IR film for astro. I didn't think of it at first either, I was halfway through the post before I did.
As far as K-30 vs K-5, I don't know much about either one other than what people say. But I personally wouldn't buy a DSLR without reading the review on DPReview.com. They have a K-5 review, but the K-30 is too new so they only have a preview. The opening of the preview has a lot of comparisons to the K-5, so that might be good reading for you.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
06-14-2012, 03:51 PM
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First off, I would practice. Because it is really easy to get perfectly exposed sky and underexposed birds. Just practice with shooting the leaves on trees in your backyard. If there are no birds, just pretend the leaf is a bird. :P
I agree with the center AF. I would also add to lock your auto exposure to your focus point or just cut to the chase and use spot metering.
Well, actually I'm not sure I would use an auto mode at all. I would use manual, and meter to shady grass. Open the aperture as wide as you are willing and able, set the shutter speed to as slow as you can (while still fast enough to keep out motion blur), and then crank up the ISO as far as you need to.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
06-14-2012, 03:41 PM
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If you're serious about doing astrophotography with digital I think you'll want to either modify your camera or buy one that comes with a modified IR filter out of the box (like the Canon EOS 20Da and 60Da). Of course you would have to get a K mount adapter if you want to use your old lenses. But you would have to be very careful to make sure that the adapter doesn't cause you to lose infinity focus.
On the other hand, if you don't want to remove the IR filter from a digital camera then I'm guessing you won't want to spend that much on a seperate DSLR. You could try your luck with an IR pass filter on a regular DSLR. But I think you'd be much better off getting some infrared film for your K1000. At $10-$15 a roll this is probably your cheapest option. If you shoot a few rolls and want to to more then perhaps you could get one of the point and shoot astro cameras that @RioRico mentioned.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
06-14-2012, 03:13 PM
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I'd like to get some cheap extension tubes to started doing some macro work. I believe I've seen some more expensive extension tube sets that allow you to keep autofocus, but I don't think I will need autofocus. So I was planning to just get the cheapest set of extension tubes that I can find. But is this going to come back to haunt me? For instance, do cheaper extension tubes have problems securely mounting to the camera and lens? Any recommendations for inexpensive macro ring sets would be appreciated.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-23-2012, 01:28 PM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-22-2012, 06:58 AM
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Okay, I looked at my lens again. It doesn't say "Pentax", "M" or "SMC" anywhwere on it. I don't know why I was so convinced ... I assumed it came in a kit with the SMC Pentax M 50mm and then assumed it was therefore also "SMC Pentax M". Mine is definitely the Takumar 135mm F2.5.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
05-21-2012, 01:43 PM
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Well I certainly hope they didn't stop making it. There are certainly plenty of cheap third party options, but I think this is one case where quality takes priority. The third party options don't all maintain the ability to focus at infinity. They are also known to warp. That's no surprise since they're made of thin aluminum, but it skyrockets the chances of the adapter getting stuck on the lens or camera, or just becoming unusable.
Disclaimer: I don't own any M42 adapters so all of this is strictly based on what I've read elsewhere on PentaxForums.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-21-2012, 12:58 PM
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I recently bought a K1000 SE with SMC Pentax M 50mm F2 and SMC Pentax M 135mm F2.5 lenses. I wasn't really looking for the 135mm so that was a bonus. The 135mm lens I see online only goes to f/3.5 so I triple checked to make sure that yes, my lens goes all the way to f/2.5. Unfortunately I can't find any information about my 135mm F2.5 lens. It would expect it to be identical to the SMC Pentax M 135mm F3.5 lens except for the maximum aperture, but my lens has a built in retractable lens hood and I'm not sure the 135mm F3.5 does.
Does anybody else have this lens? How much is it worth? How well regarded is it? Does it truly have the same design and optical characteristics as the 135mm F3.5?
Any info will be appreciated. :)
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
12-03-2011, 09:23 AM
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I found out recently that including lens aberration corrections in-camera severely limits the high speed continuous shutter performance of my K-x. (I'm sure this is the same with all cameras.) Usually my subjects are children, so I need the high speed continuous shutter and thus lately I've been shooting without lens corrections. But my concern is how to apply lens aberration correction to all my images in a batch process to make up for not applying it in-camera.
I've seen a few helpful threads that touch on this topic. But none of them provide a way to get good/decent lens aberration correction applied to all your images in a batch process. I understand that the parameters will change depending on the focal length and which lens you're using. Of course, it would be nice if someone knew of some (free) software that had lens profiles for Pentax (kit) lenses and an algorithm that would pull its input data from the EXIF data and automatically apply the correction to a batch of images.
I might even be willing to pay money for that. But I haven't had much luck finding it either free or not. So now I'm willing to settle:
I use Photoshop CS2. Photoshop's Filter->Distort-Lens Correction... feature can fix all the lens aberrations. But you have to choose the settings manually, or load them from a custom-made settings file. Does anyone have settings files they would be willing to share for the DA 18-55mm and DA 55-300mm lenses? (Or the DA L equivalent lenses.) If you're using a different version of Photoshop, that's fine. I suspect Adobe would have little reason to change that file format with every major release, so the file formats are probably the same.
Alternatively if someone knows a different way I can get decent/good lens aberration correction applied to a batch of images, please let me know! For instance, I've read a little about Adobe Lens Profile Creator. But it seems that you need Photoshop CS5 for the profiles to be useful.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
11-08-2011, 01:28 PM
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I've just purchased a DSLR camera. As I wait for it to arrive I'm wondering how I'm going to keep my photos organized as they start to add up. Of course I've been taking snapshots of family, etc for years. But I've never really figured out a good organizational system. I have a lot of photos taken of family around the house on any given day as well as photos from holidays, vacations and family visits. I will soon start to take more and more photos for artistic purposes that have nothing to do with my previous categories of photographs.
What are some ways that I can organize all these photos so that I know which folder houses a given photo?
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
11-04-2011, 07:53 PM
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I just did a price comparison: Adorama vs Wal-Mart. The 4x6 prints were a fraction of the price at Wal-Mart. The 5x7 prints were only a little cheaper at Wal-Mart. Everything bigger than 5x7 was actually cheaper at Adorama. So for larger prints I guess the decision makes itself.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
11-01-2011, 07:28 PM
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I don't know if it's single contact, but I'm pretty sure he said it is an Auto Thyristor
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
11-01-2011, 06:46 PM
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That sounds great! Just the kind of answers I was hoping for.
...
Okay, I'm still a newbie. Could you explain a few terms for me? (Or point me to an explanation?)
Open aperture metering
stop down metering
aperture ring
screwdrive mount vs bayonet mount
Thanks!!
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
11-01-2011, 10:06 AM
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Good point about it being just one guy at one particular camera store. Btw, I'm originally from KS so I knew about Wolfe's. When I found out there was a Wolf's down in TX (where I live now) I just assumed they were part of a chain and I put the "e" on by mistake.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
11-01-2011, 10:01 AM
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Which stores offer you the option for them to print the image as is with no additional "enhancements" done by their computers before printing?
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
11-01-2011, 09:58 AM
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After I invest in a Pentax DSLR, find a good shot, take my time to compose it, choose my settings carefully, and spend some time post-processing the RAW image ... the last think I want to do is throw that all away by printing it at Wal Mart to save a few cents and compromising the print quality in the process.
But I don't want to assume anything here: Is there any noticeable difference in print quality between places like Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreens, CVS, and Wolf's camera? I have heard that it isn't near as big a deal with digital as it would be with film. But how big an issue is it?
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
11-01-2011, 08:30 AM
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I've heard again and again that with Pentax cameras you have access to all of the old Pentax lenses. But is that just referring to the fact that the lens mount is compatible? Do any of the old lenses have autofocus that's compatible with current Pentax DSLR cameras? (I'm asking especially about compatibility with my K-x.)
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
11-01-2011, 08:26 AM
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Is a Quantaray Q15 flash compatible with a K-x? I haven't been able to find much of anything on the Q15.
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Forum: Sold Items
10-31-2011, 09:18 PM
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Would you sell the filters and remote separately?
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
10-31-2011, 09:00 PM
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So I called up Wolfe's camera the other day. (This was before I bought my camera when I was still weighing my options.) The conversation went something like this:
"So what brands do you guys carry?"
"Canon, Nikon, Sony and Olympus."
"You don't carry Pentax."
(laughter) "Absolutely not."
I was already leaning towards the K-x and was fully prepared for the reality that if I didn't buy Canon or Nikon I'd have someone looking down there nose at me. Oh well, I'd rather find a great deal on a great camera than find a good deal on a great camera. And I certainly wasn't going to choose one because it's a brand that everybody else likes. I went in and looked at his cameras just so I could get some in my hands. But I never asked him what he didn't like about Pentax. I regret that. Why don't people like Pentax? Obviously we are all partial to Pentax. But has anyone heard any actual critiques against Pentax?
I read the K-x review on dpreview.com thoroughly. They compared it to Canon 500D and Nikon D5000 saying that these were the Canikon competing models. They briefly brought up an Olympus camera and a Sony one, but said pretty bluntly that they didn't measure up with the other three so they didn't bother mentioning them for most of the review. As far as the 500D and D5000 K-x went toe to toe and (in my mind) won the day. The 500D had a little better resolution due to having more pixels crammed into a smaller sensor. But the K-x has far superior low light performance. Anything taken above 800 ISO was clearly better on the K-x. And oh by the way, I found a K-x with 18-55 mm lens and a 55-300 mm lens for the same price I found the 500D and D5000 with just a 18-55 mm lens. And oh by the way: Both of those lenses benefit from the K-x's image stabilization. I was appalled when I realized that the Canon telephoto kit lens doesn't have IS. That's the one that needs it! All that to say: dpreview.com did have two honest critiques about the K-x. First and foremost it doesn't show you the focus points in the viewfinder so you have no indication of which point(s) it uses for a given shot. Second, the highlights tend to get washed out. (The workaround for that is just to underexpose the photo or maybe use the built in HDR.)
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
10-31-2011, 08:27 PM
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Hello all,
As you might have guessed ... I'm new here! Go figure. I just bought a K-x and am anxiously awaiting its arrival. In the meantime I figured why not go ahead and join these forums so I'll be good and ready to ask questions when it gets here.
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