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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
09-07-2016, 10:06 AM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-23-2012, 10:00 AM
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No, those are all cave formations (calcite and aragonite mostly); the curly ones are a rarer formation known as "helictites".
Re: the lens, the biggest drawback is that there is definitely nontrivial distortion; however, I *always* shoot in RAW and then PP in Lightroom, which allows to partially correct for this aberration so the results are reasonable. It's still not a "pro-caliber" lens, but then I'm not a pro, I'm not shooting architecture, and it only cost a few hundred bucks rather than a few thousand, so I think it's a fair tradeoff.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-22-2012, 10:25 PM
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I took this lens on vacation to New Zealand, along with a DA21mm prime... but this one literally didn't leave the camera the entire time, it's so versatile (and WR is a big bonus in NZ). Some photos from caves on the South Island:
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Forum: Lens Sample Photo Archive
02-12-2012, 11:44 PM
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Forum: Lens Sample Photo Archive
02-12-2012, 11:36 PM
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No space for the Pentax 18-135 f/3.5-56 WR zoom?
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-22-2012, 02:20 PM
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It's apparently a known property of this lens -- it requires Lens Correction (either in-camera or via postprocessing) to avoid this. Try setting that and let us know if it makes any difference. (I've been interested in acquiring this lens but this issue has given me pause, and I haven't yet been able to borrow or rent the lens to try it out myself, so I'm keenly curious to hear...)
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-22-2012, 02:17 PM
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The 18-55 kit lens isn't awesome, but it's perfectly serviceable, and you can probably pick up a good used copy for US$100 or so -- which makes it a no-brainer as a "just-in-case" lens. (If you're gonna be doing a lot of shooting where you know ahead of time the conditions will be crappy, well, that changes the calculations a bit, but $100 is cheap insurance for bad weather.)
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-06-2012, 11:30 PM
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I've been pretty curious about the 18-135mm lens, but none of the Pentax lens-rental places seem to have it.
I don't think I've seen a single one come up for sale in the Marketplace on this board, either... so either people are really happy with theirs, or not very many people have one :-)
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-04-2012, 06:12 PM
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I'd really like to rent this lens before committing to buy it, but the only two USA sites that I know of that rent K-mount (borrowlenses.com and cameralensrental.com) don't have this lens. Anyone know of any other source?
(I supposed I could just buy one and return it if I don't like it, but that feels kinda sleazy...)
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
12-31-2011, 11:59 AM
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If you're concerned about maximum sharpness at high(er) ISO, post-processing is probably the way to go, based on my limited time with this camera. (In-camera NR is pretty decent but you'll get happier results with PP.) As far as Linux processing options, good luck -- frankly, you might be better off setting up a Windows double-boot system just to run LR (or something similar).
Threadjacking a little, but is there a best-practices guide somewhere for how to do this?
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
12-31-2011, 11:46 AM
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Yeah, nice work -- in my defense, I didn't bother trying to optimize this photo past this point (I had properly-done exposures with compositions I liked better), but I was astonished there was enough data to make a decent image from. Thanks for cleaning it further!
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
12-31-2011, 12:44 AM
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Was doing some cave photography this weekend with my K-5, and mistakenly took the following shot without re-adjusting the manual settings:
Oh well, wasted shot, right? Well, later, at home, I opened the RAW file in Lightroom, but before I deleted it, I thought, "Hmm, I wonder..."
Two tweaks later (Exposure +3.5, Luminance NR + 40), I came up with this suboptimal-but-actually-legible version:
I am pretty stunned, to say the least. That's more "leftover" dynamic range than my previous point-n-shoot camera had at its best...
(BTW: original shot was DA35MacroLtd, f/14, ISO400, 1/30 sec... I meant to open the aperture to f/2.8 or so.)
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-24-2011, 11:11 PM
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First picture for this forum. Please, be gentle :-)
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-06-2011, 12:20 PM
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Dave Bunnell is going on the same trip -- but alas, a different week from when I'll be there.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
11-28-2011, 11:24 AM
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Want to give a BIG thumbs-up to B&H customer service: I used the live-online-text-chat at explained the situation, and within 2 minutes they promised to refund the price difference. I thought for sure it would be a huge hassle, but it was incredibly painless and easy. B&H definitely will be getting future business from me!
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
11-27-2011, 08:39 PM
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Yeah, but hopefully they'll just match the price and save us both the hassle...
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
11-26-2011, 10:58 AM
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Yeah, I'm gonna call B&H on Monday and see if they'll price match -- I'm guessing that neither they nor I want to go thru the hassle of me returning it :-)
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
11-25-2011, 11:08 AM
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Well... poop. I thought I had waited long enough to hear the discounts, didn't hear of any, and ordered one this past Monday from B&H at $1199...
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
11-24-2011, 12:44 PM
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I'll have at least 2-3 hours each in several sections of pretties, and I'm gonna bring at least one slave (Sunpak 383 + Firefly3); I might acquire additional slaves, not sure yet. (Probably not going to bring a tripod, not sure yet.) The good part is that the caving isn't too extreme (it's a fair distance but nothing too technical). I've heard from another Pentax caver that the DA21mm is his favorite for cave shots; I'm guessing that either that or the DA15mm would be a good wide-angle. The DA35 macro gets high praise, if I can find one at a reasonable price I may pick one up, but the obvious gotcha is I don't want to spend $$$ on lenses I know I'm gonna abuse. I probably should just rent several for a weekend and try 'em out in local low-stress caves to see how they do... (I'm buying a used 18-55WR from a friend, which I may or may not take, but given that it's reasonably small/light/flexible *and* WR it may be worth bringing as an emergency backup lens...)
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
11-24-2011, 10:31 AM
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Yeah, I actually agree that smaller is better for caving gear -- I expect I'll continue to use my S90 for general trips -- but for trips where photography is the focus (no pun intended) I'm finding that its small sensor is finally a limiting point for good photos, and I'm willing to try schlepping the extra size/weight around... I'm planning a trip to Bohemia & Bulmer caves in New Zealand next year and want better gear to maximize the images I can get from places like this:
)
And if it turns out to be too much to deal with, well, I still have a great camera for non-caving activities :-)
(I live in California and didn't really discover caving till I moved here, which is sad since I grew up in Birmingham... it's kinda like saying "I grew up in Germany but didn't discover beer till I moved to Utah")
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
11-23-2011, 12:35 PM
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From the lens reviews here, they appear to be comparable in size/weight, but I haven't seen either one in person.
Well, I already have the jugs, may as well try 'em and see how they work :-)
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
11-23-2011, 10:53 AM
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Cool, I may well go Pelican. Dave Bunnell recommended just using watertight barrels (Inner Mountain Outfitters lined with foam rubber, which I may try as well as they would fit inside a cave pack more easily.
Agreed, it works well, though I have only one; if I want to add multiple slaves I might switch to wireless, but we'll see.
Good thought. With a P&S I usually just have to spend the effort to get any sort of reasonably useful shot; maximizing DOF is a luxury I haven't been concerned with till now :-)
Have you used the 18-135WR lens? It's getting very mixed reviews, but might be another candidate for a flexible lens of not-unreasonable size and weight.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
11-22-2011, 06:35 PM
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Yeah -- I have a slave flash (Sunpak 383) that I've used with my P&S (controlled by a Firefly 3), which is invaluable in larger rooms; I'm just hoping to maximize the quality of what I can do without having to resort to the slave. (Can you really get all that stuff in a Pelican 1300?)
Anyway... thanks to everyone for the advice; at this point I think I'm going to just start with the kit lens, since it's (1) cheap (2) WR (3) reasonably flexible, and see what focal lengths I end up using; it sounds like there are are other zooms with similar ranges but better optics (eg the DA17-70, DA*16-50) that I'll probably want to consider once I get more comfy.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
11-21-2011, 11:33 PM
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That's kinda like saying "If the room has at least one light, of any sort, then lens speed is not a real factor" -- we all know that ain't true :-)
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
11-21-2011, 06:53 PM
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"Available light" in a cave -- BAHAHAHAHA, yer killin' me :-)
Typically, multiple strong lights (usually LEDs these days) can be used for closer work, but flashes are a necessity for larger stuff. But once you start carrying multiple slave flashes and a tripod, you need sherpas...
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