Forgot Password
Pentax Camera Forums Home
 
Log in or register to remove ads.

Showing results 1 to 25 of 300 Search:
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 2 Hours Ago  
The CCD Sensor Cult. I mean Club...
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 4,621
Views: 257,730
Yes, but it's still a fantastic photo because it's about something. It tells a story -- stay away from the train tracks or the gorilla will get you.

Good photos are not just photos of things. They are photos about things.:)
Forum: General Talk 14 Hours Ago  
Heads up about Ford wheel nuts.
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 37
Views: 765
A battery powered impact wrench is definitely looking tempting after this last weekend. And the prices don't seem outrageous, so it might be best to have one handy ready for next time.

In the end I reinflated the tyre with a can of Tyreweld, which amazingly actually worked and got me down to the local garage that I trust. So now the wheel is fixed and the garage manager, who is genuinely a great bloke, said that this happens all the time with Ford wheel nuts. He was probably saying it just to soothe my battered ego, but I'll take that crumb of comfort.:)
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 16 Hours Ago  
The CCD Sensor Cult. I mean Club...
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 4,621
Views: 257,730
Wonderful. That photo is completely beautiful. You've always shown that you had a real talent, but with that photo you've moved up a gear.:)
Forum: General Talk 1 Day Ago  
Heads up about Ford wheel nuts.
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 37
Views: 765
I think overtightening by whichever mechanic put the last set of tyres on might well be an additional factor, maybe even the main factor in this case. The one nut that I have managed to get off doesn't visually seem to have any corrosion at all. With one of the other nuts that's still stuck tight, the outer 19mm has now come to bits revealing an 18mm inside. Which is also jammed solid. The outer shell that came apart isn't one of those plastic cosmetic shrouds like you get with some cars -- it's definitely the metal outer part of the nut.(*) I have got a nut splitter so I suppose I could crack that outer shell off the others too, but the 18mm underneath is such soft metal that it started stripping as soon as I tried to turn it. And I'm nervous about attacking that 18mm with the nut splitter in case I damage the stud.

Thanks for the advice about trying a 20mm 6-point socket, but I'm afraid at this point my application of brute force and ignorance has stripped the nuts beyond where that will help. Tomorrow I'm going to admit my own incompetence and get the local garage to send someone out. And thanks for your explanation of why the wrench provided with the car always has such a short handle. It definitely makes sense as a way of preventing overtightening, and I'll be sure to use the manufacturer's short wrench in the future.

(*) My old Peugeot had those ridiculous plastic cosmetic shrouds on the wheel nuts. The first time I had to change a flat tyre on that car, inevitably halfway across Dartmoor in darkness and a howling storm, it took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that I had to pop the plastic bit off to get to the actual nut.
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 1 Day Ago  
I want to support Pentax, but…
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 174
Views: 5,793
Well now you've spoiled the fun. I was waiting for someone to come out with exactly that line and I had some 18-55mm snaps with the 20 megapixel K-S1 lined up ready to go. Plus some shots on 35mm film taken with the 18-55mm, because above about 24mm it actually works quite nicely with that format too.

Ah well, the excellent photos from @garywakeling with the 26 megapickler K-3III have made that unnecessary.:)
Forum: General Talk 2 Days Ago  
Heads up about Ford wheel nuts.
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 37
Views: 765
Another update on the Ford wheel nuts saga. I managed to get one of them off with the 19.5mm socket and breaker bar, but the others are now stripped. I give up. For the first time in my life, I'm going to have to pay another man to change a tyre for me and it's not a pleasant feeling.:(
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 2 Days Ago  
I want to support Pentax, but…
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 174
Views: 5,793
Are you down in Devon at the moment? I'd have offered to meet up, but my car is still stuck in the driveway with a flat tyre that I haven't been able to get off after two days of trying. Tomorrow I'm going to have to swallow my pride and get a professional out. . . who will of course get it off the car in thirty seconds flat and look at me like the idiot I am.:o
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 2 Days Ago  
I want to support Pentax, but…
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 174
Views: 5,793
Some snaps with the 18-55mm. Of course, I haven't got the sophisticated tastes and exacting demands of all the far more advanced photographers here who find the 18-55mm so hopelessly awful. But as an amateur snapper I find that it works fine when I ask it to.:)

18-55mm Sample by David Holland, on Flickr

18-55mm Sample by David Holland, on Flickr

18-55mm Sample by David Holland, on Flickr

18-55mm Sample by David Holland, on Flickr
Forum: General Talk 2 Days Ago  
Heads up about Ford wheel nuts.
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 37
Views: 765
Great stuff. There's no better place to be on a sunny June afternoon than cooling your feet off in the Dart after a nice long walk.:)
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 2 Days Ago  
The CCD Sensor Cult. I mean Club...
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 4,621
Views: 257,730
Those are wonderful. The first two in particular really show the sort of dynamic composition that you can only get with an ultrawide. Looks to me like the Tamron 10-24mm is an excellent lens and you're getting great results with it.
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 2 Days Ago  
The CCD Sensor Cult. I mean Club...
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 4,621
Views: 257,730
Wet, dismal, gloomy, horrible and altogether wretched walk down into town this morning while my car is temporarily out of action. With the Optio W30.

Wet by David Holland, on Flickr
Forum: General Talk 2 Days Ago  
Heads up about Ford wheel nuts.
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 37
Views: 765
:lol::lol::lol:

I seem to spend half my life on that flippin B3357! In fact I live alongside it just on the edge of the national park, and I swear that by now I could drive it with my eyes closed. The need to get past tour buses, caravans, mobile homes, etc, is why I got the little Fiesta instead of a big heavy 4WD. There's never more than a handful of days every year when a 4WD would really be needed, but zipping past mobile roadblocks is an everyday necessity.

But I should add that this does NOT mean dangerous driving. The roads on Dartmoor are home to ponies, sheep and cows as well as cars. My personal rule is that, if you can't see round the corner or over the next crest, you assume there will be an animal in the road. There usually is.

I walked down into town this morning -- which is three miles there and three miles back -- and picked up a set of Febi Bilstein wheel nuts from the parts place. Now I just need the Amazon guy to show up with the 19.5mm socket so I can get the damn wheel off. What a palaver!


Edit: and thanks to those who have pointed out quite rightly that rust is what has caused the swelling wheel nuts and not heat. I jumped to the wrong conclusion about the cause yesterday, but you're all absolutely right that rust is the actual culprit.:)
Forum: General Talk 3 Days Ago  
Heads up about Ford wheel nuts.
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 37
Views: 765
I'll definitely be getting a set of replacement nuts from a third party manufacturer. Should have ordered them along with the 19.5mm socket to be delivered today, but I was so furious last night that I couldn't think straight anymore. Hopefully the parts place down in town will have some.
Forum: General Talk 3 Days Ago  
Heads up about Ford wheel nuts.
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 37
Views: 765
I came very close to buying a Dacia Sandero, which probably would have been the mature and grown-up choice since they're built out of cast iron and granite. But the little three door Fiesta with the 1.6 turbo diesel goes like a leopard with a rocket up its fundament.:lol:
Forum: General Talk 3 Days Ago  
Heads up about Ford wheel nuts.
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 37
Views: 765
This is a sort of consumer advice post plus an angry rant.:lol:

This afternoon the rain stopped for long enough that I thought I could get out for a walk, so I decided to head up onto the moor -- a five minute drive -- in my little Ford Fiesta that I bought (used) back in November. Only to discover that the front driver-side tyre was flat.

Ah well, no problem. Occasional flat tyres are just a fact of life on the roads around here, and I've changed enough of them over the years. Of course the tyre wrench provided by Ford was useless, but of course I always have a breaker bar with a 19mm socket handy just in case. The only problem was that the 19mm socket wouldn't go on the nuts. Yes, the special socket for the security nut worked fine, but a normal 19mm socket wouldn't go on the other three ordinary nuts.

So, okay, it must be a 20mm. Right?

Nope. I tried a 20mm and it was too big.

Which meant that a bit of Googling was in order, at this point with steam coming out of my ears, and it turned out to be a common problem with Ford wheel nuts. Over time they swell up from the heat put through them under normal driving conditions and the 19mm nuts become 19.5mm nuts. Which is just. . . nuts. I've had to order a 19.5mm socket off Amazon to be delivered tomorrow. And yes, believe it or not, it's such a common problem that a 19.5mm socket actually exists now.

Even with that, it's likely to take the breaker bar and a whack with a mallet to loosen the damn nuts. At least I've got a full-sized spare tyre, which is a non-negotiable necessity around these parts, and at least it happened in my own driveway instead of out on the road.

But how the flipping heck can a company like Ford, a company that's been making cars for over a hundred years, be so utterly dribblingly stupid as to make wheel nuts out of an alloy that swells permanently under heat?

Anyway, here's the consumer advice bit. If you own a Ford, get hold of a 19.5mm socket just in case.

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio 4 Days Ago  
Light Meter apps
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 13
Views: 479
A phone app is never going to work very well as an incident meter as it doesn't have the all-important dome over the lens/sensor.

I've just done a quick search to see if anyone sells a clip-on incident dome to turn a phone into a real incident meter, and guess what: Luxi For All | iPhone Light Meter | Photography Apps
Forum: General Talk 5 Days Ago  
I Need A Pep Talk Or Something......
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 10
Views: 351
Looking through your profile, you've posted some really excellent photos in the past with your K-3II, so I'm sure you'll get great results with your K-3III when you eventually start using it.

One of the things I've realised over the years is that, whenever I've lost interest in any particular thing for a period of time, it was because subconsciously I felt that I'd hit a plateau and wasn't improving anymore. So I would go through a sort of fallow period when I had no interest in doing that thing at all. Sometimes I never went back to it, for example with drawing and painting, but with photography I've always gone back to it in the end.

And here's the thing: when I went back to it, I always discovered that I'd got better at it without even trying. Without even consciously doing it, throughout that period of downtime I'd been reassessing what I wanted from the craft, deciding which old habits I needed to lose and which new approaches might work for me.

So hopefully, when the urge to use that K-3III finally hits you, you'll discover that what you've actually been going through is a period of personal growth.:)
Forum: General Talk 5 Days Ago  
Forum Member Michael Piziak has passed away
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 23
Views: 1,752
Deeply saddened to read this. Michael was courageously honest and open in this forum about his struggles with Bipolar Disorder, and as someone who also lives with that merciless condition I felt a personal sympathy with him. His unique voice and his always thought provoking posts will be sadly missed.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 6 Days Ago  
Poll: Does (lens) size matter? Best of Pentax Forums Newsletter March 13 Poll
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 52
Views: 2,169
As always, it's complicated. . .

The reason why even modern prime lenses tend to be so big and heavy is that they are highly optically corrected to appeal to the sort of buyers who care mostly about MTF charts, and it takes a lot of glass to achieve that. The end result is lenses so highly corrected that the more arty-fartically minded types of photographer (like me) find them sterile and boring and characterless.

So my own preference is for smaller, lighter lenses. On the one hand that's because they're easier to carry around, but mostly it's because smaller lighter lenses tend to be less optically corrected and so they produce results with more character.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 6 Days Ago  
Film camera news
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 276
Views: 11,630
No, they aren't. Pentax is aiming at people who want to take actual photographs, while Mint is aiming at people who want a lovely shiny precious thing displayed on their shelf.




Yes, exactly. Some wrinkled old farts with a gear collector type mentality will buy the Rollei. Some young trendsters who like the lo-fi look that they consider authentic will buy the Pentax.




But how about. . . and I'm asking you to seriously consider this idea for a moment. . . but how about if there were enough buyers in both potential markets, both the older gear collector types and the young trendy types, that EACH of these cameras might sell enough to make them a viable commercial proposition?

Imagine that. Imagine that there might actually be enough people out there in the world, people who don't think the same way you do and don't want the same things that you want, to make BOTH of these cameras successful.:eek:
Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands 6 Days Ago  
Eastman Kodak is back to making cameras
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 25
Views: 965
That's put a big smile of happiness and nostalgia on my face. I learned so much of what I know about exposure, lighting and composition from shooting Super 8 back in the early 80s.:)

My guess is that we'll be seeing sequences shot in 16:9 format Super 8 cut into even mainstream Hollywood movies in a year or two, whenever a director wants an old-time feel. And the potential for a "found footage" type feature length production with this camera is obvious.

The price is irrelevant in the context of the uses that this camera will actually be put to. It will easily sell enough to more than recoup the development costs, and it puts a very useful tool into the hands of the people who make the movies and tv shows that we all watch.
Forum: Photographic Technique 03-12-2024, 02:23 AM  
Action Fast jet settings
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 21
Views: 1,010
That's a shame. I guess it's the sort of thing where you have to be there as soon as it's light in the morning and be willing to stay all day. I hope you have better luck next time. Visiting the Mach Loop is one of my dream days out and I'd have loved to see your photos.

In the meantime, have you got any tips about where to park and where to watch from based on your visit yesterday?
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 03-11-2024, 01:48 AM  
The CCD Sensor Cult. I mean Club...
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 4,621
Views: 257,730
Your photos look good. I've just been looking through Flickr and comparing photos from the D1X against the latest Nikon Z mirrorless cameras, and in most cases I prefer the look of the D1X photos by far. So much for progress.

The simple fact is that there isn't a single current generation camera from any manufacturer that appeals to me when I look at sample photos. Except maybe the original Leica Q, but that one's out of my price range. And the original Q isn't really current generation anyway -- they're now up to the Q3, with the colours having got worse with each camera in the series.
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 03-10-2024, 02:57 AM  
The CCD Sensor Cult. I mean Club...
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 4,621
Views: 257,730
You're getting beautiful results with that Tamron 10-24mm and it seems a great match with the K-7. Most importantly, it looks like you've got a natural eye for ultra-wide composition. Great stuff!:)
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 03-09-2024, 05:38 AM  
Ricoh want your feedback
Posted By Dartmoor Dave
Replies: 182
Views: 9,210
You're criticising a bicycle because it makes a lousy boat.

Pentax is very clear that the market it's aiming at is not the sort of jobbing professionals that you're invoking here. Pentax has been very clear that it sees its customers mainly as hobbyists who prefer an optical viewfinder DSLR rather than mirrorless, with younger photographers interested in film becoming a secondary market with the new half frame. Pentax has also been very clear that it has no intention of setting up the sort of support service network that would be necessary to establish itself as a major brand in the professional market.

No doubt there are some professionals who occasionally use Pentax as a second system when it's the right tool for a particular job. For example, a wedding photographer might have a K-3III Monochrome among her working tools for times when a couple asks for pure B&W (with her usual Canon on hand as a safe backup if required). But I doubt that there are any professionals out there -- professionals meaning those who make their entire income from photography -- who rely on Pentax exclusively.

I'm in no way saying that as a criticism of Pentax. The company is absolutely open and clear about the niche that it's trying to carve out for itself in the ever-shrinking camera market, and I think the decisions being made by the Pentax management at the moment are the right ones. To blame Pentax for not making cameras that you personally consider "professional" makes about as much sense as blaming Porsche for not making pickup trucks.
Search took 0.03 seconds | Showing results 1 to 25 of 300

 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 04:39 AM. | See also: NikonForums.com, CanonForums.com part of our network of photo forums!
  • Red (Default)
  • Green
  • Gray
  • Dark
  • Dark Yellow
  • Dark Blue
  • Old Red
  • Old Green
  • Old Gray
  • Dial-Up Style
Hello! It's great to see you back on the forum! Have you considered joining the community?
register
Creating a FREE ACCOUNT takes under a minute, removes ads, and lets you post! [Dismiss]
Top