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Forum: General Talk
03-14-2024, 08:13 PM
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He will be missed. A unique person.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-17-2024, 06:55 PM
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Another source of weird lens yuckiness is that lubricants as they age can give off fumes that can produce a haze. Often this appears to be a uniform film, but it doesn't have to be. Lenses that have been exposed to heat are most likely to show this, but that is not a necessary condition. If there is also some faint fungus or coating decay, the haze can amplify the pattern of the underlying problem. Another problem I ran into with a Minolta MC 58mm f/1.4 (vintage c. 1970) that showed up as the lens aged was that the coating on one of the elements seemed to be breaking down. I did not have the tools to see whether there was fungus or oil involved as well, but it did look a bit like there was an oily film, which however proved to be impossible to remove with solvents. When I had my SRT-101, that was my least favorite lens (compared to the MC 100f/2 and 35 f/1.8), so it is possible that the coating was defective from day 1, but if so, it got much worse with time.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-30-2024, 03:36 PM
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I have both the 16-50 SDM (screw-drive converted just a few months ago after 10 years of service) and the 20-40. I bought the latter because as I age I needed something lighter to travel with than the 16-50. The 16-50 has a problem with internal reflections and flare particularly around the 16-18 mm range and looses a bit of contrast above 45 mm. It also is prone to producing blue (not purple) edges on tree branches against the sky, but Lightroom can take care of most (not all) of that. Nonetheless I am glad I have the 16-50 as I have taken some gorgeous photos with it. Colors are never "over the top" and rendering (transitions) especially above f/4 is lovely. I bought the 20-40 for travel and grandkid photography (the 16-50 was too slow focusing for that) and it is a pleasure to use. I take it and the 70 limited as a minimal travel kit and rarely miss having something longer (my 55-300 WR is too heavy for me and my arthritis to travel with these days). The 20-40 produces wonderful photos, although maybe sometimes a bit too colorful, and performs quite well wide open. I especially like it as my 20-30 mm lens. In 35mm days my most frequently used focal length was 35 mm so having great performance at 20-25 mm is really important and the 20-40 delivers arguably even better than the 16-50, mostly because of better flare resistance although the 20-40 is sharper wide open too. If flare really bothers you, definitely go for the 20-40 but if you need 16 or 50, you won't regret having a (good) copy of the 16-50, which by the way is also a nice portrait lens at 50 mm.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
01-02-2024, 02:55 PM
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Polaroid had more problems than just forcing Land out of the company, although that was the first of many stupid moves that the company board and/or management made. Fuji probably could create a Polaroid-compatible pack film now but I can't imagine why a company that big and so committed to digital would bother. Polaroid-compatible pack film today would be a very niche market best served by a smaller company if they could figure out how to produce it at a cost that would both be profitable and reasonable for the users. Unfortunately I think that is extremely unlikely. I would be delighted if someone would take the last statement as a challenge and prove me wrong.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
12-31-2023, 09:35 PM
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If it was easy, there are ex-Polaroid folks who would have done it already. Unfortunately, a lot of the equipment to form and load the packs was custom, as were the dyes in the color films, and the cost of recreating those is almost certainly prohibitive.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
12-24-2023, 04:57 PM
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If someone still made pack film for my Polaroid 180 folder, I think it would be fun to play around with. Having worked once at Polaroid and knowing a bit about how those packs were manufactured (custom machinery long gone), I think my 180 and other folders are just ornamental now.
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
11-26-2023, 10:45 PM
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
11-26-2023, 10:45 PM
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More flower repetition: K-5, HD 55-300 F/ 4.0-5.8, 210mm, F/8, ISO 1600, Topaz Denoise AI
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
11-26-2023, 10:23 PM
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West Concord, MA at Night 2013: 16-50 DA* SDM on K-5, 50mm, f/4.5, 1/25 sec, ISO 3200, Lightroom 5.7 monochrome conversion
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
11-26-2023, 10:07 PM
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Burlington, VT at night: 70mm SMC DA Limited, f/2.4, ISO 8000, Topaz Denoise AI
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Forum: Lens Clubs
11-26-2023, 09:48 PM
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Echo Center (science and nature museum) in Burlington, VT, 16-50mm SDM on K-5 24mm f/4.5 ISO 2000
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
11-26-2023, 07:27 PM
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Rocks and roots and moss oh my.... The "Ice Glen" Stockbridge, MA, i.e. "The Berkshires". K-5, 16-50 SDM 39mm f/4.0 ISO 1000
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
11-26-2023, 05:08 PM
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The railroad bridge that goes diagonally under the BU Bridge that connects Cambridge and Boston Massachusetts near Boston University and MIT. Because no one has figured out how to pay for it in this day and age, North Station (to Lowell MA, Portsmouth, NH and beyond) and South Station (to Worcester, MA, Providence, RI, and New York City) remain unconnected. The only way train operators can move engines around from one side of the Charles River to the other side anywhere near Boston is to send them over this little bridge and across some main city streets in Cambridge. K-5 with 16-50 SDM @ 50mm, f/6.3, ISO 1600.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
11-26-2023, 04:45 PM
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Our neighbors' mega-hydrangea. The prior owners of that house apologized for planting it not realizing how big it would get but neither they nor their successors could bring themselves to remove it. We just hack away at it from our side of the wall.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
11-26-2023, 04:24 PM
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My turn: not enough depth of field or slight misfocus or a bit too much handheld camera motion or all of the above??
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Forum: General Photography
11-26-2023, 04:14 PM
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Mentioned earlier were floppy flash modifiers. I have a not so floppy Demb that I like, but 45 years or so after I bought it, I have yet to find a use for the original model Lumiquest Softbox, the one that came with glue-on Velcro to stick on my Vivitar 283 flash (RIP). It might have had some value in "not-quite macro" shooting but was completely useless even for casual portrait work even on the relatively powerful for its time 283. I've tried to figure out how to get it onto my Metz 50 AF-1 without buying more sticky Velcro to disfigure that flash, but decided after fiddling for a few minutes that I was wasting my time and I should just reconcile myself to having made a mistake to buy it. At least the ones they sell now don't require gluing Velcro to your flash but it is hard to imagine a softbox that small being useful for anything except maybe small product photography and there are undoubtedly better ways to do that.
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Forum: Photo Critique
11-21-2023, 05:57 PM
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It's not what I think of as a portrait, more of a candid, but a very good one judged that way.
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Forum: Lens Sample Photo Archive
11-11-2023, 09:26 PM
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When I had my Minolta SRT-101, the 35mm HH was the lens I used most out of 35, 58 f/1.4, 100 f/2, 135/2.8, and 200 f/3.5. I do love my 100 f/2.0 for what it is (not as sharp as the 35 and 135, but incredible bokeh and general rendering) and, in spite of what KEH says was a few (nearly microscopic) spots of fungus, I have kept it. All I have to use it on now is my K-5 with adapter (both glass and glassless). Of course the glass K adapter doesn't do it justice. The 35 however was unquestionably the sharpest and most useful out of this set of lenses and I thought it was always underrated. I would have kept it if I thought there was every a chance I would shoot film again. If Pepperberry got his from KEH, it might have been mine and I highly recommend he keep it.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III Monochrome
09-22-2023, 01:06 PM
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Sounds very reasonable. I don't have the monochrome so can't confirm it though. The key is the post-processing adjustment. It also matters whether you are processing for printing or viewing on a screen. More generally, the Zone system is a process for mapping the dynamic range of the recording medium (film, sensor) to the output medium (print, monitor, transparency) so you need to determine the dynamic ranges of both your camera sensor and the output medium. For Ansel Adams, the dynamic ranges of both film and photo paper were relatively restricted and there wasn't that much dynamic range variation between different films so it became an issue of using the variety of silver halide paper contrast ranges to fit the film exposure range to the paper grade that would give the blackest blacks and whitest whites. All a bit more complicated no with high dynamic range sensors and post-processing taking the place of boxes of different grades of photo paper.
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Forum: Photo Critique
09-14-2023, 06:52 PM
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#1, 2, and 4 look a bit too dark on my screen and even 3 and 5 might benefit from being a drop brighter, but I think you are well on your way to something really good.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
09-14-2023, 03:54 PM
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The original K5 definitely has a problem with focus accuracy under certain illuminations(some tungsten sources supposedly) but I think most of that was fixed as early as the K5 II. Essentially monochromatic light such as sodium vapor lamps might throw a focus sensor for a loop depending on the design of the sensor. Definitely have a look at the Bob Atkins link above. Low-pressure sodium vapor lamps (i.e. the yellow kind) put out a tiny bit of red light but almost no near-IR.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
08-21-2023, 10:45 AM
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I think that this is a great interview. The bad/sad news is that at this point Pentax is a tiny camera company that is trying to figure out how to survive as a niche player with very limited resources. I think they are doing the best they can given under their present circumstances, but it is hard enough for a large, well-funded and highly successful company to set and make new product introduction deadlines and a company as lean as Pentax just doesn't have the extra resources to throw at a new product that isn't otherwise going to meet its announced introduction date. Given that, Pentax cannot be faulted for refusing to give even rough dates for new models to hit the market. We and they just have to hope that development moves along smoothly with no unexpected setbacks (there always are!) so that neither customers or management gets too frustrated. My former business partner's view of product development milestones was to take your best shot how long it would take to get there and then multiply by 3.1416 (pi). Unfortunately, he was sometimes right through no fault of anyone. I expect this is why Pentax management seems so closed-mouthed about new products. It really is unfortunate that they are so short on English language speakers and travel money that they can't send someone to North America to hear what we have to say, but I think that is a measure of how small the operation really is.
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Forum: Lens Sample Photo Archive
08-13-2023, 09:00 PM
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They look more like colchicum than crocus, but I'm no expert. Nice shot though.
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Forum: Film Processing, Scanning, and Darkroom
08-07-2023, 08:36 AM
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I'll second the D-23 recommendation. After some mis-spent youthful days in the darkroom in the 1970s trying too many different developer formulations, my advice is what I was told then and ignored, which is to pick one developer, any one, and learn what you can do with it before trying others: the differences aren't going to make or break most shots.
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Forum: General Talk
08-01-2023, 05:35 PM
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Michael,
I did not know about your condition, but now that I do, I will always take that in account if your comments seem a little off sometimes, and look forward to you continuing to be here. Best of luck with your health issues!
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