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Forum: Pentax K-01
11-01-2022, 11:29 AM
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I have used my K-01 since it had its first price drop.
Recently, following Mike Johnston's Online Photographer, I did a comparison to the Sigma fp series.
It may be "fish and fowl" but a full frame Pentax would surely look competitive.
Sure, I could adapt my K-mount lenses to the cavernous L-mount, but I like auto focus.
Now there is little (absolutely no) hope of Pentax again trying mirrorless, but I wistfully wish they would
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Forum: Pentax K-01
11-08-2023, 02:13 AM
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For myself ... the good old-fashioned 18-55mm "kit" lens is about as good as a "general purpose" lens as I'm ever likely to need for my K-01.
I acquired my K-01 with the 40mm XS lens, but I quickly replaced that with a DAL 18-55mm AL for a bit more flexibility and am quite satisfied with that combination.
I chose the DAL version for a couple of reasons :-
i) It was cheap!
ii) The grey colour ring matched my camera ... the green ring on the "usual" DA version looked "out of place".
iii) I decided I probably didn't need the Quick Shift Focus System, available on the DA lens, when using this camera.
As with all the 18-55mm lenses, it does benefit from a lens hood, which is different to that used on the "normal" 18-55mm, so make sure you get the correct item, PH-RBA52 ... fortunately "economically priced" third-party hoods are available ;)
An alternative, which may have some attractions, might be one of the 18-50mm RE lenses ... slightly less bulky and virtually silent, with it's internal focussing motor, but inevitably, usually more expensive.
Do note, this camera doesn't report the RE lens as not being extended, it just refuses to take a picture until the lens is set!
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
12-06-2023, 06:20 PM
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
09-07-2023, 06:49 PM
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Good morning all. I have to tell you, I'm not impressed with Velcro.
I think it's a ripoff.
As well as that, my eldest daughter's going through a Goth stage.
She asked me if I minded if she were to date an emo boy.
I said, 'Fine, just not a tennis player. Love means nothing to them.'
Last week we looked at using a single flash off camera. You get great directional light, but the shadows can be sharp.
This is where a second flash linked to the same radio trigger comes in. In the photo below, I think this was my K-S2 with the DA18-55 kit lens, that second flash to the left means the shadows get fill light. Exactly how many stops difference there are between the two flashes is up to you, we're now into the realm of aesthetics, not technique.
I got for very little money a Yongnuo radio trigger with LCD screen and four Yongnuo flashes. You can set the power of the flashes from the trigger, so you don't have to climb a ladder and reach inside your softboxes to adjust them, you can trial and error to your heart's content the exact balance between key, highlight, fill and background illumination.
To finish with, there's the story about the long line of the recently deceased waiting to get into heaven.
Things are starting to get crowded, so St Peter decides he'll only accept people with a sufficiently good story for how they died.
The first guy in line says: "I lived on the 30th floor of a high rise. I was out on the balcony smoking a cigarette when a freak gust of wind knocked me over the edge. I managed to catch onto the edge of the 28th floor balcony with the tips of my fingers. As I tried to pull myself up, a man came out and started stomping on my hands. Then he left, and a minute later he came back and dropped a refrigerator on me. I died either by hitting the ground or getting crushed."
St Peter is interested by his story, so he gets admitted. Then he asks the second guy in line, who says:
"I had been suspecting my wife of cheating on me for a couple of months. I came home to my apartment during the lunch break, and I heard unmistakable sex sounds up until I started to unlock the door. I came in to find my wife naked alone on the bed. In a rage, I started looking for the guy everywhere. Eventually I went out to the balcony and saw there was someone clinging to the edge with the tips of his fingers. So I decided to bash them to get him to fall. But the guy was tough. So I went and got the refrigerator and dropped it on him. In my exertion I had a heart attack and died quickly."
Another impressive story, St Peter waves him in.
The third guy says, "Picture this. I was hiding, naked, in a refrigerator...."
Find the rest of the series here: Clackers' Beginners Tips (Collected) - PentaxForums.com
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Forum: Pentax Mirrorless Cameras
10-28-2019, 05:00 PM
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Let's try to keep it civilizated, i'm just a car mechanic that is passionate about computers, and happens to know how to use a camera, but zero idea about building them.
But who knows how to properly create a camera is Pentax, or let's say Ricoh, and we can see it either with big bodies like the 645 or the K1, or either with tiny bodies like the Ricoh GR III.
My question is, what does it really take to create a mirrorless camera?
There are actual differences between a ML sensor and a DSLR sensor?
If not, how hard should be for Pentax to optimize development costs to slap like, whatever they have? Let's say, a KP/K1 sensor, the Q mount (probably impossible on an APS-C or FF sensor) or even a full K mount (i know that would add some thickness to the camera as we saw on the K-01), and combine what they already have to create something competitive on the mirrorless market? The Pentax user, i think, is more rationale when compromises come to mind, for example, i put the example sometimes that i prefer the weather sealing on my camera than some fancy WiFi connectivity.
I know this isn't that easy, but for example, on my car perspective, isn't that crazy to take a shell, pick whatever engine you like, craft some bits, and end with a pretty dope car which can, or can't, be street legal. I want to believe this can be done by Ricoh if there was some kind of market for mirrorless on the Pentax buyer standpoint.
What do you think?
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-15-2021, 11:04 AM
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Is there anything besides a person walking fast? BIF in there?
TBH I think the current K-3 can handle people walking fast in AF-C or slower subjects like a dog trotting, it's pretty tough though with really fast-moving objects to get consistent hits with shallow DOF. Like a motorcycle coming in through a corner fast, dogs at full sprint at shallow DOF, Birds in flight. You get some hits but it's like half what I get with my D-750 or Z-5. If they can get the K33 to D-750 standards or higher I'd be perfectly happy, that's good enough for my needs. If they can get it to D-500/850 or beyond that to Canon R5/6 standards or better that would be amazing and a huge leap forward. It would tie up the only weak spot for me in Pentax camera body's. I haven't tried the newer lenses but I assume they have motors similar to all the other modern glass out there, very fast to make use of fast AF-C systems.
All I'm looking for in this one is on par AF-C with camera's that get the job done consistently. It doesn't need to beat everything, just get back up with the pack if that makes sense.
---------- Post added 01-15-2021 at 12:07 PM ----------
Thanks, I'll sneak a look here in a bit. As mentioned I don't think Pentax needs to crush the Canon R5/6 to keep everyone happy. If they can match the D-750 or later camera's that's good enough IMO with that fast framerate it would be a superior camera for action in that case.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
08-29-2020, 03:30 AM
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It's not an issue for digitals either - it's just much more convenient for some things. If I'm taking photos of small things on the forest floor or upward angles of buildings, it's easier to have a tilt screen and just kneel for the shot instead of sitting or dropping on your back in the middle of the street :lol:
That said, the day we get an ME-sized OVF in a DSLR is the day I do an impulse buy in photography for the first time, flippy screen or not :D
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
07-16-2020, 05:34 AM
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While I am quite happy with my K-1 I would like to see Pentax offer a mirrorless option.
After all, if I remember correctly the main reason Pentax are such a small player in the market these days is due to the fact they dismissed digital as a passing fad that would never overtake traditional film in the world of photography and refused to embrace the technology until it was nearly too late.
Deja-vu anyone?
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
08-21-2017, 07:53 PM
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Sony A7 series are the best digital back for MF lenses. I really love the EVF when MF. I set one of the button for magnifying the image, and set focusing peaking at high (you need "high" to use peaking when image is enlarged in EVF). Very accurate and effective. Much better than split focusing screens. I installed all kinds of focusing screens on my DSLRs, including EE-S, EC-B and kateye. None can complete with A7.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
06-13-2019, 03:36 AM
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A7 II, Rubinar 1000mm.
Two 2x Soviet M42 teleconverters.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
03-16-2019, 12:02 AM
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I'm still on the original Sony a7r. With all its limitations around slow auto focus & shutter shock it still meets my needs so no plans to upgrade. This was shot in the v&a museum in London. A7r + Zeiss Loxia 21mm.
 Reflected by Illogical., on Flickr
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-20-2020, 12:10 AM
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Some more shots of the DA 12-24 on the K-1 in FF mode;
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
06-11-2016, 05:03 PM
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I would like to thank @npc, @Gutta Perka, @Fenwoodian and the others in this thread that figured out this mod and how to do it. I am just going to lay out in detail the instructions with pictures for what they figured out.
NOTE: Do this at your own risk. You are working on a 'DA*' lens worth maybe $1,000. Think carefully if you want to take the chance of ruining your lens!!!!!!!!!
Here are some detailed instructions:
- First, there is no need to remove the bayonet. Just the smaller plastic ring that holds the SDM contacts.
- Locate the SDM contacts and remove the two small black screws there.
- Gently pry out the black plastic SDM mount with the two gold contacts. These are slip fit connectors, like electrical connectors, so just gently pry on each side back and forth until it lifts out.
- Locate the three silver screws holding the black ring in place. There are four screws in the ring. Three located at 120 degrees from each other and a fourth just to the right of one of the others. Of the pair you want the left one. Remove these three screws. I used a rear lens cap to put the pieces in to keep them safe. These are very small screws. They are also JIS so make sure you do not strip them.
- Now with the screws out the black SDM ring and the baffle will just pull out in one piece.
- The baffle is glued with something like rubber cement to the SDM ring. I used an Exacto razor knife to cut the glue away, but it was soft enough I think you could just break it. Note the scratches on the black baffle, these were present on the baffle when I removed it and were not caused by anything I did. Not sure if they are from manufacturing or if something was rubbing on it inside.
- Now the baffle and the SDM ring are seperated, clean up any glue residue on the ring. I just used the razor knife.
- Now we need to remount the SDM ring. Place the ring back in position, aligning the two rectangular holes with the two gold female SDM contacts. Replace the three silver screws.
- Now gently replace the SDM contacts by pressing them slowly back into the female connectors. Replace the two black screws that hold the SDM contact plate in place.
- Now insert the cardboard replacement baffle. Dimensions of the original are roughly 30mm wide so you need a cardboard strip a bit smaller than that and long enough to wrap around itself. I just rolled it up slightly tighter than needed, inserted it and let it unroll in place.
- The project is done, put the lens on the camera and test. I gave myself nearly a heart attack as mine would no longer auto-focus. I forgot I had the camera in manual focus. :)
After brief testing I can say that most, but not all of the, vignette has been removed. Unfortunately it is dark and overcast today so difficult to do good testing. From what I see there is no vignette below 85mm and only a slight darkening in the corners above that. This is at f/4. The sharp circular vignette is completely gone and I do not think the lens is much worse in the corners now on FF than it was on APS-C.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
06-19-2018, 07:03 AM
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Very good, and the B/W with deep blacks feels very appropriate.
Perhaps a slight rotation clockwise?
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Forum: Giveaway Archives
02-28-2018, 07:10 PM
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Then why is there no option to nominate the K-01 in the list of cameras?
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
11-17-2017, 11:15 PM
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The DA* 200 is f/2.8 which matters to some uses. The DA* 60-250 f/4 is also heavier. However the most important factor is that even at 250mm the DA* 60-250 produces a smaller image than the DA* 200 at short distances (under 10 meters). The closer you are the more focus breathing you notice and the DA* 60-250 can be effectively not longer than a 135mm in image magnification when very close to minimum focus distances. This is not true of the DA* 200 - so for closer shooting the DA* 200 is a much "longer" lens. That can be very important or not at all important depending on your intended use. (I own both).
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
11-11-2016, 07:39 AM
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While I moved from the K3II to the K1 and love it, if your lenses are for APSC the K3II is a mini K1 and has great IQ and the same features (except swivel screen) as the K1. If you don't need to print large, the K3II will do fine.
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
11-11-2016, 06:45 AM
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Morning, I also shoot with the K5IIs primarily in low light and have considered upgrading. I came across this Sensor Noise DataBase a few months ago, that has been keeping pace with recent camera announcements, and the K5IIs performs at a really exceptional level. Now, to be fair - they measure and compare everything at ISO 3200 +5ev, across 1, 30 and 300 seconds all NR disabled, in order to set up an extreme situation to bring out the worst in the sensors. It also includes the K1, K3 and K5 - so you can compare apples to apples, for all of your options.Bottom line, and this is just a single point of comparison, however - you are going to really be unable to beat the K5IIs. The K1 lags behind some, and the K3 is even farther behind. The K5 blows the socks off the rest of the bodies. Some folks will point out that even with NR fully disabled, Pentax is still doing a bit of NR in the RAW in camera pre-processing. No matter, as there is nothing users can do about it, except live with the results. The K5 has pretty spectacular results across the board at 1, 30 and 300 seconds compared to all other sensor/bodies.
So - back to upgrading. There are a number of creature comforts that I would really enjoy, like - the articulated rear monitor, having GPS built in and available all the time, focus peaking along with Pixel Shift for some situations. But, I just don't feel the overwhelming urge to upgrade. Half of my lenses would support full frame. The one glaring need would be the 15-30 for wide angle - going out to 111 degrees wide - pretty much equaling the Sigma 8-16 in width and being faster (f2.8) to boot. I would need to spend $3,300 for the K1 and the wide angle lens. If I had the overwhelming urge to - I would upgrade. And by all accounts, the 15-30 is a spectacular lens. It has been in the back of my mind, but you would really need to go with the K1 and with the full frame lenses, in order to get the full benefit of the larger sensor and capture the additional 1+ stop of low light capability. The database reflects the full size of each sensor (with no lens dependencies) and the K1 was not able to surpass the K5 there. So, my urge to upgrade, just evaporates every time I think about it.
I have a pretty extensive set of crop wide angle lenses so the potential of the K3II replacement body does have some allure if it is discernibly better than the K5/K5II/K5IIs. So, for me - there is hope with the new unknown body. In my mind it is a cropped version of the K1 - with all the bells and whistles - with a new very low noise sensor probably out in mid 2017. How it would compare with the K1 and K5 - I don't have the foggiest idea. I did consider the K3 when I was thinking about the K5IIs, but under ISO 1600 - the K5 wins, and with this Sensor Noise DB it shows that the longer the exposure, the better the K5 sensor is.
Bottom line is that, I am happy with what I currently have and just go out and shoot.
:cool:
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
02-14-2014, 12:27 AM
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I made a concerning post recently regarding water that got into my Pentax K3 when exposed to light rain. This happened on Sunday - 5 days ago.
On Monday I contacted the camera dealer "Camera House" in Noosaville, Queensland, Australia. (The salesman was Ian Hodgkinson. He has an excellent knowledge of photographic equipment and an encyclopaedic knowledge of Mac computers). I emailed Ian and sent photos of the water ingress on the Sunday. I spoke to him on Monday and he said he'd get right onto it. I expected it would take weeks to get this problem sorted out. - Worse, (and irrationally) I entertained paranoid thoughts of warranty issues.
I needn't have worried. On Wednesday morning, there was a new camera waiting for me. The faulty one had been picked up by C.R. Kennedy (The importers of Pentax) and a new one dropped off. How good is that?
Any camera Leica, Nikon, Canon etc can develop a fault. A professional needs to know that their down time is at a minimum. An amateur isn't going to lose income but there is a frustration factor with a camera being away repaired. - But 48 hours. That's got to be some sort of record.
So there you have it. I had a problem. Camera House and C.R. Kennedy sorted it out immediately. One can ask for no more. I doubt if there would have been as excellent a response from any other manufacturer's dealer.
Before you buy your grey import or try and save a few dollars by buying on eBay, think about this. Sometimes the more expensive option is, by far, the less expensive option.
Can a professional now buy Pentax and earn a living from this equipment? If my experiences are anything to go by, the answer is an unequivocal yes.
Can a professional save money, without compromising quality, by purchasing Pentax? - Again, the answer is unequivocally yes.
Kudos to C.R. Kennedy.
Kudos to Camera House. To purchase anywhere else would appear to be illogical.
Ian Rivlin
PS. I have no professional association whatsoever with Camera House. I am a family physician and am purely an amateur. I have always believed credit where it is due.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
02-14-2014, 12:15 AM
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I know most everyone wants ISO sensitivities that will let us shoot a black cat in a coal mine using a birthday candle 100 yards away as our light source.
However I wonder if there has been any movement to replicate the slower films, ASA 25 and such.
I have at times encountered a moving water scene in bright light and tried to get that milky flow look. Or a dreamy motion blur of a pretty girl wandering on a beach.
I know that I can use a neutral density filter to drop my shutter speed and allow some control over DOF, but I would prefer to just drop the ISO, and shoot, than to dig through a bag to discover that the ND I have does not fit the lens I am using.
Anyone else out there who might agree that having a low ISO is as good of a thing when needed as a high ISO???
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-02-2014, 03:10 AM
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Thanks for your opinion, but I decided to apply a different perspective. I don't speculate about individual manager's options. Because as a customer, I really should NOT care.
I just analyze performance.
There was a time where many used Pentax as their only system. A time where Pentax, Oly and Minolta/Sony owned 5-6% of the market. A time where Pentax made big waves with the K10D and were gaining market share. A time where Pentax actually innovated and where it would have been logical and about right in timing to add an FF body. If only to keep K mount users happy.
Now, only few Pentaxians remain with Pentax as their only system. The majority left, many use it as a second system now because cameras like the K-5 are very nice. But market share dropped to 1.5% (my best estimate), almost extinct outside Japan.
For me, FF is just my reality check if anybody out there is actually investing what it needs to bring Pentax back. And the interview tells me: not yet. They still try to run Pentax in the blacks which is only possible in a way slowly loosing further market share.
To be clear here: FF is no holy grail. It will be a minor implementation detail used by ALL remaining SLR bodies very soon. Paired with f/4 zooms and f/2 primes, won't be more expensive or bulkier than APSC today and nobody will actually speak about sensor size then. APSC would be very similiar if it continued to exist which I doubt will (because of cameras like the RX100m2 when becoming cheap). My problem is the time Pentax goes FF everybody else will already be at the next party. And missing that next party is what Pentax will most likely not be able to absorb in loosing just another percent market share ...
So, in summary: the interview makes me worry because nobody currently seems to want to invest and there is a clear lack of vision what to do next.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
12-30-2013, 01:34 PM
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I'm not sure it is irrelevant: the 645D vs FF vs APS-C vs M43 is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The article is about the view which comes from stepping back from that. I suppose the argument is that the camera companies have simply pushed out what suits them, convinced that an ever-expanding digital market entitled them to set the terms. Going for the 645D rather than FF suited Pentax but it's an open question whether it suited their customers. At a guess, nearly all the customers for whom APS-C isn't enough haven't moved on to a 645D, they've sold up and left the brand for FF elsewhere. Now the remaining ones are being tempted by near-parity pricing on some off-brand FF cameras and quite a lot more are sure to have moved on by the time a Pentax FF appears, if ever it does. That's your high-spenders gone. Suddenly, the choice of the 645D starts to look like a very, very expensive choice for Pentax even though it suited them at the time. I'm sure the same could be said of other forays by other manufacturers, the Nikon 1 line for example. They thought they could make customers pay huge sums of money not to use a DSLR: what could possibly go wrong?
On the other hand, consumers have voted with their pocketbooks by showing that they want connectivity and convenience, and if the camera companies won't provide it then they ain't buying but will happily use their smartphones instead. I suspect the next thing that consumers are going to turn down flat is any more lens lock-in, a mainstay of the K-mount concept. The interest in the A7 series must come from "use any lens + adapter" as much as from the series' form factor and sensors. This might not translate into sales, of course, but once consumers have smelled this particular coffee there will be no turning back.
So you see if there is a substantial shake-out in the camera market, which many say is now happening, companies really need to start with a clean sheet of paper. Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Panasonic, Olympus et al have spend the past few years selling what suits them with a hefty does of lock-in and that approach has landed a whole lot of them in the soup. Someone wants lens A on camera B in format C (with connectivity a given) or they ain't buying. They don't want "You will take lens A on camera A in format A and buy a separate wifi dongle for nearly the cost of a mobile phone - or hit the highway". That's the challenge over the next few years.
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Forum: Pentax K-01
05-04-2013, 06:53 AM
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Loving the IQ of my new K-01, loving the features, basically loving everything done on the inside of the camera by the Pentax engineers, and 2 minutes away from adding the new firmware.
As for Marc Newson, he should never, ever be allowed to design a camera again.
In a comfortable classic grip, the shutter release button is not under my index finger, and the red button is under the second part of my thumb, not the tip.
( I do more video then photography, pro-video camera guys are used to hitting record with the thumb on the right hand, holding the lens grip.)
The 'chunky' bottom edges dig in to the right palm and thumb muscles, and in to the left palm with the classic under-lens SLR grip.
I have pretty average sized hands,..
Frankly the look of the camera has more to do with the sales failure then anything else, so Mr Newson should be squarely blamed for that, because what is inside the camera is pretty darn good.
Now, if only this thing had clean HDMI out during recording, it would make a perfect short-film maker camera, ditto if the data rate in video could be doubled. The manual level control for on-board and external audio input already puts it leaps and bounds ahead of most DSLR's.
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Forum: Pentax K-01
05-03-2013, 11:56 AM
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I am happy to see another positive thread about the K-01 but quite surprised to see the camera's looks, design, and build quality being lauded. Those are the weak spots (imo of course). The camera is not exactly a pleasure to look at or feel (tactile). Even the control dial is also chunky and doesn't sport a nice finish. Finally though the pictures produced by the K-01 are indeed excellent. So I give full marks to the technical guys, not so much to the industrial design.
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Forum: Product Suggestions and Feedback
12-07-2012, 11:23 AM
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Please Pentax, ditch this PEF's. I got home with my new K-5 II yesterday and because I forgot to set the camera to DNG I have to wait for software updates from Adobe. Stop the nonsens and make it DNG-only!
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