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Forum: Pentax Q
04-01-2018, 10:59 PM
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The WR 55-300 was a great lens for what it cost me. I would totally go that way. The screw drive can be loud though, so that might be a consideration. It didn't bother me much though. Only when trying to shoot birds was it ever really a noticeable issue. In that case I just prefocused and tapped the AF to lock it in. The speed on that lens on screw drive and a K-3 easily crushes my 60-250 into the dust. The 60-250 is painfully slow at times. I gotta be honest. I don't think you will get super great results from the 55-300 and the Q. The 55-300 is pretty sharp, but not really on the level of the 60-250 which, wide open is also not ultra sharp, but very, very usable for portraits. I liked the 60-250 wide open more than the 55-300 which will run into diffraction at the long end on the Q wide open. I know this muddies the water but it seems that only the best primes really are passable on the Q adapter. The results I have seen from zooms were generally less than stellar.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-03-2018, 08:56 AM
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But there are lots of situations where ISO 12,800 would be useful to have. I shoot a K-3 and 6400 is pretty much my absolute limit. I'll push the K-5 IIs into 8000 or more if I have to. The mark II is obviously not desaturating the image as much at high isos. That tells me the signal to noise ratio is higher because the desaturation is generally an effect of chroma noise reduction. I'm actually really interested in seeing what this brings to the new K-1 because the KP seems to have some fairly significant improvement over the K-70 at higher ISOs.
---------- Post added 03-03-18 at 10:58 AM ----------
Pentax is often very coy about when things are released. We likely won't know for sure its about to drop until a week or a few days before and the official "leaks" start trickling.
---------- Post added 03-03-18 at 10:58 AM ----------
Pentax is often very coy about when things are released. We likely won't know for sure its about to drop until a week or a few days before and the official "leaks" start trickling.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-03-2018, 08:07 AM
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The new images are more usable IMO. Better color, better edge definition. That's just my opinion of course. The differences are admittedly small.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
10-03-2017, 09:23 AM
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Get a k-5 IIs. The autofocus is much better than the k5. It also doesn't front focus in tungsten. I hated the k5 because of that.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
04-30-2017, 07:16 AM
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The 60-250 is just too slow to really track well. it does ok at distances and with panning shots but it is a slow focusing lens.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
04-30-2017, 07:08 AM
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The tamron is full frame and according to pentax forums nearly as good as the DA 1.4x. I think it loses a bit in the corners over the DA, so that might be worse on a full frame camera. That said corners might not matter in most cases you would be using a TC anyways. edit: I don't know if the tamron has the powerzoom/AF pins. Something to possibly consider.
edit: Looks like the MC4 has the connectors. I wonder if it passes lens information correctly and would support electronic aperture since the pins are all simple pass through.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
04-30-2017, 07:02 AM
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That's normal. If you select a tiff in lightroom and click on the corrections it only lists those manufacturers. You need to use it with a supported camera to get the pentax profiles. If I try the same menu on a DNG that the TIF was created from it gives me a much larger list that has the Pentax profiles. I never could figure out why Lightroom doesn't just give you all the profiles when you click on it no matter what. I find it frustrating that I cannot apply corrections on a TIF after the fact. I have no idea why the KS-1 would not show profiles. Are you saving in DNG? I'm fairly sure that camera would be supported by now.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-06-2017, 04:43 PM
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I think that is exactly how it is done with the rom supplying a table of values that correspond to focal length. There are definite discrete steps.
---------- Post added 02-06-17 at 06:46 PM ----------
If you could hack enough of the lens rom up you could really change the lens to read as anything. I see no reason why the camera would know that sdm exists if it no longer thinks the lens is a 60-250. All you need to do is preserve the focal length so that SR and any focus corrections embedded in the rom still work.
---------- Post added 02-06-17 at 06:48 PM ----------
I would think that just fixing the SDM would be a lot cheaper than the cost of the 70-200 but you did at least upgrade there. :)
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-06-2017, 04:35 PM
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The last thread on this was apparently 2013, so I'm not resurrecting it. After attempting this myself I found the hack that is being applied to the 16-50/50-135 obviously does not work on the 60-250 as everyone else has found. Replacing all the values of C8 or whatever it was, does actually make the screw drive work *briefly* as the camera starts up. This is really encouraging and means the hack half works. Something in the camera's firmware recognizes the 60-250 and reverts back to SDM. You can test this yourself by changing all the values laid out in the original hack, though I think there are more to replace on the 60-250 rom. So you hack the rom and put the camera on. As soon as your turn the power on and start jamming the AF button the screw drive will briefly turn. Then it seems that the camera's OS boots and it checks the lens ID and reverts back to SDM. I think if you can hack the lens to read out as another lens or an unknown lens id to the camera the screw drive should kick back in. I don't know how the camera gets information on the focal length, but it clearly passes that through the contacts somehow. I get the feeling that is a separate piece of circuitry from the actual rom itself and that a few pins along the mount are dedicated to reading out some kind of value. Speaking of which, does anyone have a pinout??
The rom may supply the camera with conversion tables so it knows the actual focal length. Just a theory. There is another reason it would be extremely useful to break apart these roms and figure out their contents: you could create new AF adjustment tables for different focal lengths. I certainly have had at least one pentax lens where the values were not correct and that stopping it down would create a focus shift that the camera adjusted poorly for. Actually flashing a rom I found here on PF out of desperation fixed my problem or at least made it somewhat more manageable. At certain fstops it would reliably misfocus every single time. This is precisely one of the reasons sigma released the USB dock and let users make adjustments to AF in different ways. Imagine if you could tweak your pentax lens rom. The data structure has to be consistent for the camera to read it, so obviously there is a table of values in the rom. There was a german pentax forum where someone had made a comment where they had largely decoded the rom. I don't speak german, but I understood the gist of what the translation read. I'm actually really curious to see how the camera reads the rom off the lens and can write it back to the lens. There is likely just a simple serial connection between the camera and the lens and someone with good sniffing gear could probably make out some of the protocol that's involved. At any rate with the modset files on a card its pretty easy to engage debug mode every time you turn the camera on. I'm thinking about making another go at this because it would A) make a perfectly good lens with dying SDM less failure prone and B) also help out a bunch of people in the same situation. I eventually need to send this lens in for service anyways but if it has to take two trips to japan like the last lens I would probably rather just have the screw drive. I tested the speed on the mz-s and its about the same on screw drive in terms of turning speed. I would imagine this is quite a bit better on the k-3 so there is possibly a performance gain to be had there if you can live with the noise.
If anything it would be useful to at least decode the pentax rom some more I think. I know there are a few people trying to hack their way into the camera's firmware. It would seem like the lens rom would be a pretty simple task in comparison. Yeah shodan, looking at you. Anyone with much better hex reading skills than me want to help? Best I can think of doing is mapping out a table of values and randomly changing them. Wash, rinse, repeat. Then you would have to look at the exif etc, to see what actually changed. There's not a tremendous amount of data really to break down. Obviously looking for values like a lens id number (what does EXIF record on the camera?), focal length values, etc.
I bought the 60-250 from KEH and brought up that the AF was sticky the day I received it. I told them that I would use it for a while since it had a 6 month warranty. At the time when I had gotten it the AF wouldn't move at all. I didn't know if it had jammed in the clutch or not. I should have just sent it right back, but then it started working and seemed ok. It then worked reliably for the most part for months. Of course it started to really fail after the warranty expired. Go figure. Lesson learned really. At any rate I am going to e-mail them and see if they can give me any kind of break on repairs since I was really doing them a favor by keeping it at that point.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-25-2017, 12:44 PM
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:)
I haven't updated my gear list here in a long time. The kp looks nice, but is no k-3 replacement. Hopefully one will come this year.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
01-21-2017, 09:19 AM
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I have the same exact problem. Argh. Compatibility mode does nothing to fix it. It just loads the splash screen and then freezes. I just finally dug out my CD and installed it today and then updated to the newest version. If anyone finds a solution, ping back here please.
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Forum: Pentax K-70 & KF
01-17-2017, 06:43 PM
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First of all that's beautiful. That color shift. Lovely. Was SR on? It doesn't seem to jello that much. Yeah if you set it to 30p instead of 60i your video will look a lot smoother online because it won't be interlaced. That said for action 60i can look better visually if played on a device that supports interlacing but for best results on the web you still have to interpolate it down to 30p in software, which has its own set of issues.
Sidenote: does anyone know if they bumped the bitrate on k-70 video or is it still 20mbps like its 2009?
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-10-2017, 05:51 PM
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Thank you. I see it is a long line currently. :)
I will wait a couple weeks and donate when I don't have money going in 5 directions. There doesn't seem t be any big rush.
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Forum: Pentax Q
01-10-2017, 01:37 PM
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Not really. without a lens the Q is roughly the same size as the RX100. With a lens it is larger depth wise at least.
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Forum: Pentax Q
01-09-2017, 06:54 PM
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They are correct. Every sensor has a cover glass, AA filter or not. The glass at the very least typically filters IR and UV. The glass may be treated with other coatings as well like anti-reflective coatings. Beyond the glass you have the microlenses and CFA, so yet another layer over the actual sensor.
If you can clean a lens without scratching it you can clean a sensor.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-09-2017, 06:37 PM
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How can I get in on this? I'm assuming just a regular donation to PF would be adequate?
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Forum: Pentax Q
01-09-2017, 06:29 PM
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It seems the north american website no longer lists the Q-S1 as a product. It is no longer available at B&H except by special order for a couple of limited colors. The japanese website still lists it and has it for sale, but they also list the GXR as a current product as well. My hunch is at the very least they have aborted the Q in the North American market and intend to continue with marketing it to the east. Or they have just cancelled the line entirely and are selling off old stock. I think that it probably ran its course to be honest. The small sensor compact market is pretty much zero these days and an RX100 can do much more than the Q in technically smaller package. I was hoping they might continue this system for a bit longer, but I would hardly be surprised to see them give up on it. It really doesn't look like the macro lens will ever see the light of day and that is too bad. That would be a neat lens to have on a Q, especially if it went 1:1. Oh well. Time to start looking for cheap Q7 or Q-S1 kits now. :)
---------- Post added 01-09-17 at 08:48 PM ----------
Well heck now that you moved it I see a competing thread here. I saw an earlier thread in the rumors section and thought that appropriate. Sorry for what amounts to a duplicate thread now. :/
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
09-19-2016, 01:43 PM
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OK.....I will give it another day. :)
Usually they tease with "leaks" before something big is released and its been very very quiet. No rumors to report from any of my sources. I was hoping they have some lenses in the pipeline for the k1. Also they really need to get on with the apsc wide angle zoom that's been promised forever. My 12-24 is showing its age on the k3 these days. I think Sony and the earthquake is affecting new announcements.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
09-19-2016, 12:53 PM
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What the heck, Pentax??
Fuji gets a new MF camera and *SIX* new G mount lenses!
New A99!
New EM-1 Mark II
Prototype digital Hasselblad V
3 new sigma lenses including the long awaited 85mm.
New panasonic cameras including the GH5.
New nikon action video cameras (lol)
New Canon M5 and lenses. 5dmk4, etc.
Not a single new announcement? I know its only press preview day, but this is disappointing so far.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
06-17-2016, 09:22 PM
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You save these to your local camera raw folder. Not the main lightroom folder. You will see the folder for camera profiles. They should work on either system.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
06-17-2016, 08:47 PM
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Here are the K-3 II profiles that have made it into lightroom which I have adapted for use with the K-3. This gives you the Bright, Landscape, Portrait, Vibrant, and Natural profiles. In develop if you go to the color calibration area at the bottom of the panel you will find them. You have to install these in your local user folder for them to appear. On windows it is in the appdata/roaming/adobe/camera raw/camera profiles/ directory. I'm sure it is similar on the Mac side. Since the sensor and imaging pipeline are nearly identical I would imagine that these profiles are accurate on the K-3. Close enough at any rate. These should give you the same color shifts that the various jpeg profiles give you. I have tested these and they all open fine. I have not compared with actual jpegs yet to verify their accuracy but they look fairly accurate from a couple of files I played with.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
06-17-2016, 08:29 PM
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Hah i just posted the same thing. I see someone else converted them. Good job. :)
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
06-12-2016, 01:24 PM
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Following.........
---------- Post added 06-12-16 at 04:36 PM ----------
The last proposed set of changes do nothing. Nothing I have tried works so far.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-15-2016, 04:14 PM
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Yes. I am local to you. You should send me a friend request. I have a pentaxian group on fb called pentaxians too. Feel free to join. I'm actually thinking about starting a Pittsburgh Pentax User Group. I could use a few more members....just saying! :)
PS Thank you for the kind words.
---------- Post added 02-15-16 at 06:16 PM ----------
I actually started that group. :)
It just seemed like something that needed done. I have bright plans for the future as long as Pentax sticks around. Feel free to join or friend me and thanks for carrying the torch. :)
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
01-28-2016, 05:10 PM
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If your camera works still it is fine. If it doesn't work then it is not fine. Simple right? :)
---------- Post added 01-28-16 at 07:16 PM ----------
PS save yourself all the headache and just pony up for a used 540 mk1. They are pretty cheap these days because people are selling them and they are discontinued. Its a good torch. A very good torch sometimes. Get yourself some super cheap radio poppers too ($20) and throw that thing on a tripod. On camera it works well but you have to typically take a test exposure if you bounce and compensate. I've used autothyristors a lot and they can actually be more accurate with avoiding overexposure, but I find you still have to compensate on those too.
On the K-3 they fixed all the exposure issues mostly. Still the autoexposure is nice sometimes. Lately I've been using it more manually than anything. In that case you could just get a cheap yongnuo. I have an AF280. They are kind of useless with only 2 auto settings and a low mode. No zoom though they do cover a mostly wide area but you lose a lot of light with longer focal lengths. I've used one for a while and it was serviceable but for a couple bucks more a cheap manual flash would have been a lot more useful.
Hope that helps.
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