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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
06-20-2023, 01:49 PM
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Do you have a voltmeter (aka multitester/multimeter) with which you can test the voltage on the battery? Testing the voltage on the battery when it's fully charged would help determine whether it's the camera or the battery. I've got a K20D and its 'evil twin' the Samsung GX20. Both still work fine and the batteries will maintain a charge sitting in the camera, but I have a Kx that seems to have developed a short and will drain the batteries in a couple of days.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
01-02-2023, 10:28 PM
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Going back to film is not something that really appeals to me. I loved 35mm photography back in the day, but now I've moved on. It took me a long time to finally transition to digital and I don't really want to go back. Besides, If I were to do so, I've still got a half-dozen Minolta SLRs on hand, so I'm covered.
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Forum: Repairs and Warranty Service
12-04-2022, 12:29 PM
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Pleeeeeeze make sure you have a fresh set of good quality batteries in the camera when you update the firmware. You can irrevocably 'brick' the camera if it cuts out while you're upgrading. This happened to me several years ago with an *ist-DL. The experience was so traumatizing that I did not attempt a firmware upgrade again for the next three years.
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
08-29-2022, 07:36 PM
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Sorry if I mis-remembered the condition of batteries I received and tossed out more than five years ago. I'm sure the earlier post from 2017 is more accurate since it was written when I still had those batteries in my possession. They were long gone by the time I wrote the post above. The bottom line is that swollen or just stone dead, all three batteries were useless junk. The most important part of what I wrote, both in 2017 and in the post above is that using rechargeable AA cells in lieu of the D-Li109 batteries has provided a far superior user experience that I would recommend to anyone.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
08-05-2022, 07:39 PM
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I don't know if the K-r offers this option but with my K30, I ditched the D-L109 batteries and got a AA battery holder and have been using Eneloops in it without ever looking back. Although the camera is slightly heavier with the AA's, performance is much better, so the tradeoff is more than worthwhile.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-18-2022, 09:41 AM
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The only colored Pentax camera I have is a blue Kx that I bought on eBay in about 2015. I've always liked the color because it's not too garish, striking the right balance—at least for me—between sporty and sophisticated. It has a shutter count somewhere in the 2,000 range and is also free of nicks and scratches. I don't shoot with it much anymore but I guess you could say I have a bit of a sentimental attachment to it.
I also have a basic black Kx that I paid next to nothing for and occasionally let my friend's 12-year-old daughter take out shooting—under my close supervision, of course. The body is small enough for her hands and the interface is simple enough that she can get consistently good results with it. I would consider giving it to her if she took better care of her things.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
03-09-2022, 09:04 AM
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I find a little Murphy's Oil Soap on a damp paper towel usually does the trick.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
02-20-2022, 08:53 PM
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Count me a K200D fan as well. I've got two of them, both with battery grips, both from Canada and both for less than $100 each. Both work like brand new except for the flash on one doesn't like to latch back down after use and the other makes a loud mirror slap sound when first turned on. They have the same 10mp CCD sensor as the K10D in a lighter weight, more intuitive to use package. Understanding their limitations has helped me make the most of their strengths.
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
12-02-2021, 02:55 PM
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Another thing to consider is that after World War II, the best engineering minds in Japan were forbidden from developing anything military related so they turned their attention to consumer goods, including electronics, vehicles and cameras. One of the things they were exceptionally good at was production engineering; that is, taking a well-designed product and tweaking the design for more efficient manufacturing.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
08-19-2021, 08:21 PM
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I would include Albinar lenses on that list. Inexpensive and cheaply made in Korea. Lenses with the 'Ricoh pin' can also be bad news because the pin lines up with the focusing shaft on autofocus K-mount bodies and they can get stuck. I'd also be leery of anything with a plastic mount just because they can break easily. I have a couple and they function fine but they just feel so flimsy I'm always afraid I'm going to snap one off, which actually happened to me not too long ago. The camera's strap caught on something and pulled the camera out of my hand. It fell on the floor and broke the lens mount. Fortunately, the camera was otherwise undamaged.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
01-31-2021, 08:13 PM
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Removing red eye is actually one of the easiest things to do with any photo editing tool. Just place a black dot over the glowing red pupils. It works best if you zoom in first so you've got a little room to work with.
That said, I can think of one photo I took many years ago, back in my newspaper days, where I intentionally used red eye to great effect. A local equipment rental company had gotten a new security dog and I went over there at closing time, when they let the dog out of its holding pen and gave it run of the equipment yard. It immediately came over to where I was standing—on the opposite side of the fence—and started barking at me. Since it was dusk, I had the flash on my camera and intentionally aimed it straight into the dog's eyes to produce a 'hell hound' effect, which was made all the more effective by its bared teeth.
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Forum: General Photography
12-13-2020, 02:14 PM
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I have three Land's End messenger bags made of heavy canvas with leather reinforcing trim. I don't use them as camera bags but they are darn near indestructible. I prefer camera bags that are padded to protect my gear. I've had good luck finding them at thrift shops for anywhere from about $2-$7. The last brand new ones I bought were from Ritz Camera when they were going out of business about eight years ago and everything was 80-90 percent off.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
10-11-2020, 09:20 AM
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So I've been watching my friend's 10-year-old daughter a couple of days a week while her mother's at work and she's discovered my cameras. Interestingly, she has gravitated toward an old K-X that I picked up on the cheap last year. The compact design and simplified interface are great for her small hands and for learning how to use a DSLR. At first, she just liked to turn the live view on and play like she was making a movie but now, she's taking pictures and exploring more and more of its features on her own. I'm not trying to push her; I'm just answering questions as she thinks to ask them. Concepts of aperture, shutter speed and ISO are beyond her comprehension right now and she also hasn't yet grasped that the lenses are interchangeable. That said, the camera has definitely inspired her curiosity.
Her eleventh birthday is coming up in early December, followed of course by Christmas a few weeks later and I'm thinking of giving her the K-X, perhaps as a combined birthday and Christmas gift. Another option is that I have a couple of Panasonic Lumix FZ50 super zoom cameras. It has a form factor similar to a DSLR but with a fixed lens. Except for the pivoting rear screen, it might be a better choice in some ways. Most of all, I'm just wondering if she's mature enough to take proper care of it or whether I should maybe wait another year. I think a lanyard on the lens cap would be a definite 'must'.
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Forum: General Photography
10-11-2020, 08:50 AM
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Yes, and my understanding is Ricoh/Pentax stopped this practice several years ago, instead demanding payment for stock up front and thus making their products less attractive—or even feasible—for dealers to carry. Honestly, it often seems like Ricoh's interest in the Pentax brand is at best minimal.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
10-04-2020, 11:58 AM
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For now, I'm calling it K-Vapor.
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Forum: Pentax K-r
09-05-2020, 09:24 AM
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For your stated purpose of getting you feet wet with a DSLR, this is an excellent setup and at a nice price. I have a K-x (actually two). They're nice and lightweight with a fairly simple and user friendly interface. Take your time with it. Use the automatic settings to get the feel of things, then branch out into the manual ones to gain more control when you're ready. Those two lenses will cover most of your focal length needs quite nicely. You might want to invest in lens hoods for them as they tend to have flare issues in bright sunlight but that's a fairly inexpensive addition. In time, you will figure out what types of photography you enjoy most and what gear will best satisfy those needs and let this kit serve nicely as backup gear when you upgrade.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-31-2020, 11:03 AM
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As Pentax's DSLR offerings are now evolving along three separate tracks, (APS-C, full-frame, and medium format) it would make sense to evolve the model nomenclature to reflect this. Given their most recent DSLRs' names, it would make sense for them to evolve into a system where APS-C and full-frame bodies are differentiated by letters vs. numbers; that is, full frame bodies would receive a numerical model name following the 'K' (e.g., K1) while APS-C bodies will be given an alphabetical name (e.g., KP). But then again, when was making sense ever a priority?
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
07-03-2020, 02:12 PM
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Well, I have to ask the obvious. Are you sure it's an autofocus lens? Autofocus won't work if it's a manual focus lens. Older K-mount lenses will fit Pentax DSLR bodies but may function differently than digital lenses, depending on their feature set. A film era autofocus lens will generally have an 'A' lock position on the f-stop ring. Just set it to 'A' and forget it. In that mode, it will function pretty much like a lens made for a DSLR. If you want to set the aperture manually, you do it on the camera, not the lens. Your camera can also control the f-stop on a manual focus lens with an 'A' lock on the f-stop ring but you'll still have to focus manually, which can be a little challenging without the split focusing screen that most 35mm SLRs have. Fully manual lenses are far more limiting on your camera in that they can pretty much only be used with a wide open aperture.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
07-02-2020, 07:40 AM
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I have been an Apple user for almost 30 years, going back to my first Mac Classic in 1991, right up to the MacBook Pro, iPhone and somewhat outdated iPad I use today and I have to say that Photos is the single most useless piece of software the company has ever come out with. Even if I wanted to find a place for it in my workflow, I have no idea what it would be because it serves no logical purpose that I can discern. You can actually do more with photos in Preview than you can in Photos.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
06-14-2020, 11:12 AM
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A watch repair shop where I sometimes have my watch batteries replaced has a sign over the counter that reads: "Water Resistant: that which repels water for a short period of time. Waterproof: That which repels water indefinitely." That's a pretty useful distinction, if you ask me.
Recognizing the inherent potential shortcomings of weather resistant camera gear, I'd certainly rather have that feature and not need it than need it and not have it.
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Forum: General Photography
05-08-2020, 07:57 PM
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Reminds me of when I was a teenager and my dad and I found my great grandmother's steamer trunk in my grandparents' basement. Nothing in it had been disturbed for decades. It was an interesting time capsule.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
04-21-2020, 01:23 PM
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One thing. If and when you decide to upgrade the firmware, make sure you have a FRESH set of batteries in the camera. The last thing on earth you want to have happen is for the batteries to die and your camera to get bricked. The first Pentax DSLR I had was a pristine *istDL that I picked up about eight years ago. I had it for a little over a week when I tried to upgrade the firmware and that was the result. Good luck with the camera. It's a great place to start get started with digital photography.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
02-29-2020, 10:12 AM
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Wow. I think the highest shutter count on any of mine is around 30k and I have a couple with less than a tenth of that.
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Forum: General Photography
02-19-2020, 03:31 PM
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I have PS Elements 9 on my computer but as often as not, I use GIMP these days.
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Forum: General Photography
02-10-2020, 09:08 PM
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The biggie for me is it has to have an optical viewfinder. I don't use the rear screen as a viewfinder.
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