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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-23-2016, 10:06 AM
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Forum: Lens Clubs
11-11-2014, 09:50 PM
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Thanks guys, I thought the same and processed it to bring out that look even more. I love it when the snow sticks like that! It all fell off by 10am.
My wife texted me this afternoon asking if I'd seen the cool clouds. I hadn't, but with that reminder and a look for myself I managed to slip out a few minutes early from work to ride to this nearby pond.
 IMGP5208-Edit by MattB.net, on Flickr
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
10-28-2014, 07:57 PM
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Thanks for the advice Kerrowdown. XD I shall try with all my might!
---------- Post added 10-28-14 at 08:22 PM ----------
Thanks for all the warm welcomes! I went ahead and got the k5iis (a few minutes ago <3!) due to the irresistible deal of $597 for the body, 64g memory, and battery grip. Though it may not be as stylish as the pentax K-01 I somewhat have an idea of what i wanna take pictures of and am hoping that I can explore more with MY! K5iis! <3<3!
Hope to post some shots soon Jean!
Thank you all! ^-^
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Forum: Lens Clubs
06-21-2013, 07:04 AM
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~ The moment two planes meet ~ |
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
05-22-2013, 11:56 PM
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Wow! Makes me want to shoot slide film!
Pentax 67, 105/2.4, Portra 160. Accidentally shot the leader but it came out kind of cool.
Basin Mountain by ktakashismith, on Flickr
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
05-14-2013, 07:28 PM
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Hey there, new to the forum, and also new to photography in general. Have had a 6x7 for a few months now, but haven't had much chance to take it out. Looking forward to learning to really put it to use.
Storm on 395 by ktakashismith, on Flickr
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Forum: Pentax Price Watch
05-04-2013, 08:12 PM
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I bought an optical drive hard disk drive thingamajob on that auction site for about $8. I replaced my laptop hard drive with an SSD. Then I took that hard drive and put it in that thing, and replaced the DVD burner with that. So I boot off the SSD and have 500mb internal storage so I'm not tied to external drives all the time.
This similar to what I bought:
Add a 2nd HDD using the CD/DVD Optical Drive Bay : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks
But this seller is 5x the auction price
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Forum: Pentax K-01
04-22-2013, 12:26 AM
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Got a chance to shoot a lovely lady during a cosplay shoot. She loves swimming :)
K-01 + 70mm
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
03-19-2013, 05:34 AM
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You also need to have a look around at the the going rates are for your local area, as they do vary. :)
Then you can pitch yourself right in there amongst it. :D
At the end of the day you must deliver, failure is not an option, word of mouth and local reputation can you your biggest friend or your worst nightmare, good luck. :cool:
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
04-02-2013, 02:02 AM
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Try the old fashioned, "I need to test this new 'lens, set-up, flash, technique, whatever', and I can use you for the test if you don't mind. Just pay me for what you want from the shoot so I'm not out of pocket."
It works on the mindset that they are helping you and doing you a favor and not that you are doing them one. Everyone likes a bargain unless they think it's charity.
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Forum: Pentax Full Frame
03-25-2013, 12:36 AM
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All I want to say with every thread lik this:
You Tube
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src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/31g0YE61PLQ?controls=1" allowfullscreen>
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Forum: General Talk
03-07-2013, 09:15 AM
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I believe it is grammatically correct, but functionally inelegant - bring "out" contrasts better with "in", than "of".
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Forum: General Talk
03-07-2013, 02:31 AM
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"Bring out your wild side."
All are clumsy and cringe-worthy but I hate my phrasing the least :). And I wouldn't call any of them "incorrect".
If you really must make a technical argument-- the indirect form "the wild side of you" is equivalent to the possessive "your wild side". Usually in English we tend prefer that possessive pronoun when it exists, and avoiding it makes it sound as if it's coming from someone whose native language tends towards the "of you" form. On the other hand, perhaps the writer is trying to appeal to people with a suppressed sense of self, by drawing prominence to the existence of a "you". Or just otherwise stand out by sounding odd. A few years back there was a hit TV series here called The Secret Life of Us. Our Secret Life doesn't have quite the same ring to it...
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
02-26-2013, 03:29 PM
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Hello, however well meant, I believe your test should not be taken into consideration by those pondering whether to upgrade to the K5IIs from the K5.
I waited fairly long myself, so read about everything there was written about the pros and cons of the filterless design of the k5IIs, and many (who did not own the camera or use it from day to day) had a lot to say about the danger of false color detail, as well as about the possibility to get the K5IIs output with merely some deblurring/ deconvolution/ capture sharpening of the K5 output. I even read elaborate (pseudo) scientific posts, on basis of which people (again without having used the camera themselves) claimed that the enhanced detail of the K5IIs was not real, but a result of false (contrast enhancing) detail and color.
You díd use and test the camera alongside the regular k5, but I can only state, that in real use, with four Zeiss primes in pentax mount, the difference in IQ is nothing short of impressive. I had to add 720,- euros to what I got for my k5, to buy the K5IIs, and I think the upgrade was worth it, and even more.
Perhaps it takes really good lenses to get a jump in IQ like I got, but the fine detail, also color wise, I get from the K5IIs (without any capture sharpening whatsoever) I was never able to get with the K5, even after a year of photoshop and plugin use.
On top of that, the sharpness from the K5IIs is in its rendering of real detail, and that is quite different from the sharpness you get through sharpening routines. I read at least one official review, that mentioned that in the exact same words.
A better camera needs better lenses, but also a proper (high quality) calibrated screen, and proper (high quality) calibrated printing. I use an 700,- euros Eizo screen and a HP B9180 printer, both properly calibrated. In everyday use, getting to know the K5IIs by viewing many different images from different lenses, I can not conclude other than that Pentax with the K5IIs, delivered a masterpiece IQ wise, significantly better than the K5.
Chris
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
02-23-2013, 11:43 AM
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Well there is a bit to consider here and lots of helpful information so far. I must admit I have been building my own systems since my early undergraduate days ( about 13 years ago) primarily out of "bang for the buck" necessity with limited budgets but over the years it has become a hobby of its own not only with my own builds but those I do for family and friends.There is such a range of possibilities here and I usually stay somewhere in the middle for mine (system building can definitely be taken to an extreme). For your situation since you have an older system I will assume your budget implies that you will be reusing your current monitor although it was mentioned that you might want to consider getting one that is suited for image processing. Monitors are made using different types of panel technology for different things for example my monitors use IPS panels and typically have a higher % color gamut and come calibrated with adobe profiles vs TN panels which are primarily useful for gaming or watching movies and other general usage. If you have been using your current model just fine then stick with it and save some $. You definitely don't need an uber powerful machine to have a good experience with LR4 and photoshop so I have put together a quick list of some recommended components that you can use as a reference point in deciding what you want to do.
CPU: Current AMD offerings are both powerful and inexpensive, based on your stated needs I would recommend the FX 4170 its a quad core, quite powerful especially with multi-threaded applications, runs at 4.2GHz and is very reasonbly priced
Amazon.com: AMD FX-4170 4.2GHz Quad-Core Socket AM3+ CPU with AMD Virtualization Technology - FD4170FRGUBOX: Computers & Accessories
Amazon.com: AMD FX-8320 Eight-Core Processor Black Edition AM3+ FD8320FRHKBOX: Computers & Accessories
Motherboard: Both of these boards have 990fx chipsets which take full advantage of the newer AMD fx cpus, I would recommend the ASUS since in general they are very solid performers and very stable boards...costs a little more but not by much. The onboard audio on these is more than adequate for your needs as well.
Amazon.com: MSI 990XA-GD55 AM3+ DDR3 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard: Computers & Accessories
Amazon.com: ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard: Computers & Accessories
Memory: These days the price to quality ratio is very good and corsair makes excellent modules as do other brands, but I have yet to have any issues with corsair sticks. The 8gb set should be sufficient and has tighter timings so better performance. Also most motherboards have 4 memory slots so you can always add another pair later if needed.
Amazon.com: Corsair Vengeance 8 GB ( 2 x 4 GB ) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) 240-Pin DDR3 Memory Kit for Core i3, i5, i7 and Platforms SDRAM CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9: Electronics
Amazon.com: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10): Computers & Accessories
Power Supply: A good solid efficient power supply is something that often some over look. Good powersupply components provide clean stable voltage to your motherboard, cpu and other components. Depending on your needs either the 500W, 600W or 750W would work fine. You should probably be fine with 500W. I built a mid-level gaming rig for my brother-in-law with a 550W silverstone powersupply and with all the juice he's sucking for his stuff its still going strong.
Amazon.com: Corsair Builder Series CX 500 Watt ATX/EPS
Graphics: There are many good reasons to run a dedicated GPU, you can get a very decent one such as linked below for relatively cheap. More and more software are designed to take advantage of the specific type of processing that dedicated GPUs excell at. Your overall user experience will be much better as well and if you do video decoding/encoding/processing you will also benefit here as well. Also makes running a dual monitor setup very easy. I would opt for the second one for a little bit more $ you get twice the number of graphic cores.
Amazon.com: EVGA GeForce GTX 650 1024MB GDDR5 DVI mHDMI Graphics Card 01G-P4-2650-KR: Electronics
Amazon.com: EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti SSC 1024MB GDDR5 128bit, Dual Dual-Link DVI, Mini HDMI, Graphics Card (01G-P4-3652-KR) Graphics Cards 01G-P4-3652-KR: Electronics
So as a preliminary estimate to give you something to go by... so far with the components I would consider, you are looking at around $505 with a couple of small rebates...so effectively a bit under $500. So that gives you $300 left over for whatever hard drive set up you decide on, a case, optical drive (I decided for my rig not to incorporate an internal OD but instead have one of those portable USB powered plugin types for the few times I need to use one) and an operating system. Very do-able.
Ultimately you have to decide for yourself but I just wanted to give you an idea on what you could reasonably get. There is also the matter of the laptop possibility as well and indeed that can prove useful so long as you get one with a good screen for photo editing, mine has a 1900x1200 screen and after calibrating works quite well although I would only use this for photo editing when I am traveling. Though when at home you could always connect it to an external display and use a wireless keyboard and mouse to function as a desktop.
Again there are so many ways to approach this so good luck with your decision and take a look at my most recent build. The specs and a picture are as follows and keep in mind by many standards this is a fairly moderate build...
AMD FX-8350 8-core processor
GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 motherboard
Corsair H100 200mm radiator closed loop water cooler for cpu ( I custom painted the radiator frame white )
NZXT HALE90 80 Plus Gold 750 Watt Power Supply
Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty
Nvidia GTX 560ti graphics card (pretty much most of my gaming days are behind me so I didn't see any need to upgrade this to a more recent model...and still works excellently. I also custom painted the fan/heatsink assembly white and the heatpipes black )
Crucial M4 256GB SSD for OS and some applications such as LR4 and CS5
Seagate 1.5GB and 3.0GB barracuda 7200rpm harddrives for storage and other applications ( I will be setting up the 3.0GB drive in a NAS system for convenience but have yet to do so)
16GB Corsair Vengence low profile DDR3 1600 MHz
Corsair Graphite series 600T case special edition white
Various custom cables, sleeves, fans and lighting.
Edit: I should also quickly mention that good cable management is more than for looks. Good unrestricted airflow helps to keep the cpu, gpu, and internal ambient air temperature cooler.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
02-23-2013, 01:01 AM
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Dang man. You can build a behemoth with $1k! You could get a multi-core barebones kit and build it yourself. It seems a little daunting at first if you've never done it before, but if you can read directions it really isn't that hard. I suggest going with AMD because their multi-core processors are far cheaper than the Intel chipsets. Intel's architecture is quite a bit better than AMD, but, you're looking at getting a hexacore processor for $120+ out of AMD or dropping $350+ for an intel copy. If you're doing mostly PP, I doubt the performance bump would be worth it. Newegg has a lot of decent deals on kits and Tigerdirect sends out emails practically every day with kits.
If you aren't gaming or doing anything like that, I suggest going with the FM2 chipsets. The new line of A10 processors out of AMD have really nice onboard GPUs built into their processors and you get a 3.8ghz quadcore to boot. Right now, I'm using a Phenom II X4 960t black edition that's a quadcore AM3 processor. I run Lightroom, Photoshop and Pandora while I PP and it runs fairly well. I got my brother to get an AM3+ chipset bundle for doing audio engineering and recording.
If you're wondering what the dif is between AM3 and FM2, the AM3 chipset focuses more on pure CPU processing power and lacks the GPU that the FM2 chipsets do. The FM2 has a very decent onboard GPU that sucks up some of the processing power of the processor, so, raw CPU power isn't as good as an AM3. A 3.8ghz FM2 will be outperformed by, say, a 3.2ghz AM3+ in that regard. For your uses though, I highly suggest the FM2 chipsets. Even if you plan on slapping a dedicated video card into your computer and gaming, you'll still be plenty pleased with the power. The only problem with buying a bundle is that the power supply that comes with it is usually JUST enough to run everything you got in it. Anything you decide to add in will probably need a newer power supply.
Sorry for the computer rant... guess what my second hobby is?
Here's one from tigerdirect. It looks like the best deal right now. It takes a $50 mail in rebate though. It's an AM3+ chipset and it has a pretty decent power supply. The FX processors aren't that snazzy but it'll be good for your uses regardless.
This is a bundle with the FM2 chipset I mentioned earlier. You just need a hard drive to go with it and you're golden.
This is another solid AM3+ bundle. My brother got something similar except he didn't get the 1tb hard drive... too bad.
Just poke around in their deals and see what they got to suit your needs. If you have other questions, feel free to drop a line.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-22-2013, 12:05 PM
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I can't speak for the DA 50mm f/1.8 but my smc 50mm f1.4 is pretty nice. Its definitely more of single subject portrait lens but I still find it a bit wide for head and shoulders. I prefer my Sigma 85mm f/1.4 for single person portraiture. Again, no experience with the DA 50 but I hear the auto focus is kind of shoddy. The Sigma 30mm f/1.4 can be used for portraits, especially multi-person shots. It also works good for wider environmental portraits. That being said, The 30mm lacks HSM and quickshift focus which I really miss. The build quality seems good enough and the glass is very sharp in the center. I'd say it was a good deal for $290 but I don't know how much higher I would go.
These are both taken using the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 with my K-5.
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Forum: Lens Sample Photo Archive
02-21-2013, 08:04 AM
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Nice shots showing the versatility of this lens, tech1881!
Here's a recent favorite of mine.... taken at f/2
Spike by loco's photos, on Flickr
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Forum: Lens Clubs
02-20-2013, 02:40 AM
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Forum: Photo Critique
12-17-2012, 09:59 AM
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Awesome shot.
I love the way you treated this portrait. Its definitely very portrait...not glamour.
I would take care of the colour of the right hand to match skin - so it doesnt look waxy, I would also take care of the deep shadow on the right side of his face (corner of mouth)..its so deep it looks like an actual hole.
Other than that...awesome.
here is another person who would probably agree :
Dan Winters Photography |
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Forum: Pentax K-01
11-18-2012, 02:23 AM
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Forum: Photographic Technique
11-06-2012, 08:04 PM
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Forum: Sold Items
10-21-2012, 07:28 AM
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Another friendly bump.
I have all these nice lenses, except for the M85. Good quality glass and fun to use.
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Forum: Sold Items
10-21-2012, 06:55 AM
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Bump for a nice intro to the M series lenses.
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