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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion 04-02-2022, 09:47 AM  
First good prime to get? For K-1M2, K-70, and also film
Posted By TheLastMan
Replies: 113
Views: 4,453
As a K-70 owner myself (along with a K3 III), there is something to be said for buying specialist APS-C lenses for it, mainly because of the size and weight advantage.

I love my trio of little Limited primes, the DA 21mm f/3.2, DA 35mm f/2.8 Macro and DA 70mm f/2.4 which have a total combined weight of 480g (1 pound 1 ounce). And they all fit with the camera in a Lowepro Toploader Zoom 50 shoulder bag. The light weight makes one-handed use easy and all have "quick shift" full time manual focussing which the FA lenses lack.

The DA 35mm is a total gem as a walkaround lens, tack sharp, amazing colours and contrast, normal FOV on APS-C and great macro capability. However, if you did not need that and got the 40mm f/2.8 instead, the total weight would be 353g (12.5 oz), which is only about 10g more than the FA 31mm on its own!

The FA Limited primes are gorgeous items, so I was tempted into buying the HD FA 31mm when my local camera shop offered it at a small discount. However I quickly realised that was a mistake. I really missed the quick shift focussing, never used the aperture ring, found the lens hood / cap aggravating and the AF was slow on the K-70. It also duplicated the function of my DA 35mm, so it went back to the shop and I used the money towards the K3 III

The great thing was I bought all three DA lenses via ebay, boxed and barely used, for a total of £920 ($1,200), which is around half their new price. With APS-C and DSLRs falling out of fashion there are some bargain lenses to be had!
Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion 04-02-2022, 08:47 AM  
First good prime to get? For K-1M2, K-70, and also film
Posted By TheLastMan
Replies: 113
Views: 4,453
As a K1000 owner myself, I do like the look of the 43mm f/1.9 on it. I wonder how it would compare with my M 50mm f/1.7 ?
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 01-21-2022, 06:12 PM  
Ricoh/Pentax new strategy: Shift to e-Commerce and "studio-style" manufacturing
Posted By TheLastMan
Replies: 549
Views: 33,349
Well PetaPixel seem to agree with me in their article. Selected quotes:

"In 2020, BCN reckoned Pentax had about 3% of the DSLR market in Japan which may equate to about 100,000 units globally (compared to possibly around 1.2 million in 2012)."
If those figures are even close to correct, then it is inevitable that sales will fall further into niche territory, which will require build to order and batch production. "Mass production" only works if you are selling masses of units.

In terms of digital camera sales as a whole:
" the 2011 high in the industry when the number of units shipped peaked at 120 million before imploding back to a new low in 2021 of 8.3 million."
...and that is not just DSLRs, that includes mirrorless, bridge and point-and-shoot cameras as well. That is a 93% drop in digital camera sales across the industry!!
Interestingly no sub-sector of the market increased in the numbers of units sold. MILC sale numbers are no higher in 2021 than they were in 2012. However, the value of sales has risen x3, meaning that mirrorless has moved from "cheap and beginner" to "expensive and enthusiast", and is on the verge of moving to "very expensive and professional" as well.

Their conclusion (and I agree) is that this is probably a trial run in Japan towards a workshop based batch production model globally. It is difficult to produce as many as 100,000 cameras a year with a workshop model but also, with a product as sophisticated as a DSLR, it is difficult to make mass production profitable producing so few cameras. If sales continue to fall then it is inevitable that mass production will be pointless.

I don't see any conclusion from this announcement, and from the crash in camera sales generally, other than that Pentax will be scaling down production - they just want to do it in an orderly way, planning for an inevitable future and making sure they can continue making cameras and stay profitable.

"Income from the sales of GR and Pentax models is falling off a cliff, so the key question is whether it can bolster those sales in order to build a profit-neutral business. Is the shift to “workshop-like” manufacturing a sound business solution that could eventually be implemented to save Pentax as a brand, or does this mark beginning of the end?"

I know that the demise of Pentax has been foretold many times in the past, but with camera sales crashing so disastrously it will become increasingly difficult to keep this great little business viable. I am so glad they managed to get the K-3 III out the door. It is a truly innovative camera and is a total joy to use. I suspect, however, that it is the last time we will see such an entirely new product from Pentax
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 01-21-2022, 02:18 PM  
Ricoh/Pentax new strategy: Shift to e-Commerce and "studio-style" manufacturing
Posted By TheLastMan
Replies: 549
Views: 33,349
I think people are getting over excited by the idea of customers speccing their cameras from some kind of menu. This isn't going to happen folks!

All that this announcement is telling us is that manufacturing is going to be scaled back to much lower volumes, and largely to order or in small batches.

It no longer makes sense for them to have a production line going - they simply don't sell enough product. The cameras will be the same, maybe some colour variations or engraving etc, but nothing that involves significant design changes. Imagine the challenge and cost of redesigning the K-3 III so that you could decide whether or not to have a flippy screen - while still retaining full physical integrity, including weather sealing!

You could design a completely new camera that did have the modularity to enable swapping components, but that is huge challenge and if sales are as low as is implied in this announcement then I doubt they will want to invest. They would have to be totally convinced that the camera would have a market, and it would inevitably be incredibly expensive!

Part of the reason Leicas are so expensive is that they have to spread development costs over a much smaller production run. If it costs you $50 million to design and tool up for a completely new model like the K-3 III, and you only sell 100,000, then that is $500 per camera in development costs alone! It is also why new versions of the Leica rangefinder M series are just minor tweaks to the existing design.

I am sure it is also why the K-3 III is so expensive compared to the Nikon D500 to which it is often compared. The Nikon was released in 2016, six years ago. It will have sold in much higher volumes than Pentax could ever imagine and has long since recouped its development costs. It was the last APS-C camera that Nikon produced that could compete in the same market segment as the Pentax. The last competitive APS-C DSLR Canon produced was the 90D released in 2019, however that was an upgraded version of the 80D that was released in 2016 that shared virtually the same body, AF system, viewfinder and controls with just a new sensor and better live view - so much less of an upgrade than K-3 II to K-3 III.

I bet if either company were to release a completely new APS-C DSLR model into the current market, particularly if they add IBIS to try and match the K3 specs, it would cost at least as much, and probably more! But they are not stupid, the market is not there any longer.

I am beginning to wonder if Pentax / Ricoh will ever make enough profits from ILC sales to justify developing a new model, or even a significant upgrade to the existing ones. I think Pentax's future is the same as Leicas; a niche brand producing minor upgrades to old designs.

I do hope I am wrong!
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 01-20-2022, 06:12 PM  
Ricoh/Pentax new strategy: Shift to e-Commerce and "studio-style" manufacturing
Posted By TheLastMan
Replies: 549
Views: 33,349
No pro, or semi-pro should touch Pentax gear, regardless of how good the cameras are. Accessible well stocked stores and rapid reliable service and repairs are essential for professional photographers. I love my Pentax gear, but if I ever went professional then it would have to be Canon or Nikon.
Forum: Pentax K-3 III 10-11-2021, 02:16 PM  
K-3 III image sync bluetooth woes [Solved - Samsung settings issue]
Posted By TheLastMan
Replies: 11
Views: 1,906
Thanks! Took some digging around in the menus, Samsung really did not want me to find this!
Settings - Apps - Image Sync - [scroll down] Battery - Optimise battery usage
Item at the top labelled "Apps not optimised" with arrow indicating drop down menu, select "All", lists every single app in the phone including all Android processes. Scroll down for ages to Image Sync and move the slider to disable battery optimisation. Phew!

De-optimising fixed the problem and it now reconnects automatically and happily labels all photos with GPS location data.

So beware using a Samsung phone with Image Sync folks, if you want to take advantage of the GPS tagging function.

I have found the old I phone and I still think I will try using that. It will be useful to have a dedicated mobile device to go with the camera. I can keep it in the camera bag as part of my kit
Forum: Pentax K-3 III 10-11-2021, 12:52 PM  
K-3 III image sync bluetooth woes [Solved - Samsung settings issue]
Posted By TheLastMan
Replies: 11
Views: 1,906
No, not sure how that makes a difference if the two devices won't communicate in the first place, but have now set it for 6 hours and will see what happens. Having no joy with the Samsung settings.

---------- Post added 10-11-21 at 09:14 PM ----------

OK, so tried it with my iPad and it all works fine, reconnects no problem and GPS data is tagged on all photos. So it is, as I suspected, a Samsung phone problem. I have an old iPhone 8 somewhere. I will re-activate that, and use it as my Image Sync / GPS device. No need for a SIM card as won't be using it for calls, just BT and WiFi. Actually it makes a lot of sense as that will free up the Samsung for all its main communication duties.
Forum: Pentax K-3 III 10-11-2021, 12:43 PM  
K-3 III image sync bluetooth woes [Solved - Samsung settings issue]
Posted By TheLastMan
Replies: 11
Views: 1,906
Hi folks, I am having problems with bluetooth and my K-3 III.
I have the latest version of Image Sync on my Samsung S11 (latest Android update) and latest firmware on the camera.

I successfully paired the camera to the phone using Bluetooth.I had "Automatic Bluetooth Connection" enabled in the settings of image sync. I tested that it was storing the GPS data for photos and it was.

Turned off the camera and an hour later went back to it. I went back to image sync on the phone and turned on the camera. The phone and the camera will no longer connect using Bluetooth.

Turned phone on and off again, nothing. Turned camera off and on again, nothing.

So, deleted the pairing information on both devices and then went through the pairing procedure again - which worked.

Tested it and everything was fine.

Turned the camera and image sync off again. Went back to image sync, gave it a minute or two then turned on the camera. Again, no connection between the camera and the phone would establish. This time after about 3 minutes of attempting to connect, image sync asked if I wanted to try and pair the devices again.

Any clue from anybody what is going on? Samsung is notorious for disabling app functions for battery saving reasons, so will investigate that - meanwhile any help gratefully received
Forum: Pentax K-3 III 08-25-2021, 09:58 AM  
DPR updated the K3-3 sample gallery.
Posted By TheLastMan
Replies: 26
Views: 1,705
I find that image quality of pretty well any recently released APS-C mirrorless or DSLR camera is amazing, particularly if you strip out the anti-aliasing filter - and certainly for anything more than 20 megapixels.

The differences between camera bodies are much more to do with handling and ergonomics than image quality. If you use RAW you can make virtually any camera produce images that look the same as from any other camera with the same sized sensor. The only caveat to that is low light ability and noise, but even then all recent APS-C cameras produce pretty clean images up to at least ISO 6400.

Given that most sensors are "much of a muchness", the way an image is rendered is down to a combination of the lens and the sensor size. Oh, and the brain behind the viewfinder!!

I think the lack of stunningness of the DPR images is down to the photographer / photo editor rather than the image file that came out of the camera.
Forum: Pentax K-3 III 08-25-2021, 07:52 AM  
DPR updated the K3-3 sample gallery.
Posted By TheLastMan
Replies: 26
Views: 1,705
I have tried a couple of mirrorless cameras. I really don't like the viewfinder. Although it previews the exposure and DOF, I find it too much like looking at a TV screen.

I can totally see the advantages though and would not blame anyone going down that route, however the previously referred to photography tutor said the Nikon Z series was simply not up to full professional standard, build quality, controls or reliability yet. He was going to wait until Nikon came out with a mirrorless version of the D5/6 series before trying again.

He had similar views about the Canon R series and he would not touch the current Sonys with a bargepole! He said ergonomics and exterior controls were critical for a pro. His work was mainly for retailers and restaurants (interiors, products, staff) as well as some fashion and corporate brochure work. About 75% hand-held and 25% on tripod. Speed of work was critical, with buttons falling to hand without having to take his eye away from the viewfinder. Diving into menus to find things that should be a button press was a deal breaker.
Forum: Pentax K-3 III 08-25-2021, 05:06 AM  
DPR updated the K3-3 sample gallery.
Posted By TheLastMan
Replies: 26
Views: 1,705
You forgot the fixed rear screen!

As an owner, I think think that is a pretty fair summary of the cons. Hopefully there will be a few pros to balance the review! I am finding it a total joy to use - enjoying every minute.

I would take issue with two of the items above:

I have not seen any shutter shake at low speeds, provided I have the IBIS / SR switched on, even on a tripod. I know they say to turn it off when it is on a tripod, but I have never seen any problem with my Pentax cameras leaving it on, unless using mirror lock-up when I think it is disabled by default. I might do a comparison using a tripod with and without SR / MLUP to see if it makes any difference.

Regarding "large and bulky", maybe compared to the Fuji X-T4, but it is hardly huge for a DSLR. It is quite heavy though - all that solid magnesium alloy.

Every camera has its cons, and none of these were deal breakers for me. However I own all the lenses I need for the kind of photography I do, and I have the K-70 if I am doing photography where an articulating rear screen would be handy. Most of the time that is tripod work indoors. I very rarely wish I had an articulating screen outside and for landscapes, even on a tripod.

The tutor on my photography course was a professional with his own business. He had worked for 20 years exclusively with Nikon DSLRs, most recently the D5 full frame. He always used the viewfinder, even when using a tripod. Halfway through the course his D5 shutter packed up and it had built up numerous niggling faults, so he sold it on ebay for parts and bought a Nikon Z6 II.

He hated it! The biggest problem he had was he wanted to use all his existing lenses, but had continual problems using them with the adapter.

He ended up selling it after three months, bought a second hand D5 and breathed a sigh of relief!

I think it will be a while before the majority of professional photographers who make a living from their craft go mirrorless, despite what YouTubers and review websites say.
Forum: Pentax K-3 III 08-24-2021, 11:00 AM  
DPR updated the K3-3 sample gallery.
Posted By TheLastMan
Replies: 26
Views: 1,705
Looking at their samples comparing in-camera "natural" JPEGs with ACR processed, they mention that the RAWs are adjusted for "white balance and exposure" and exported as "bright". I tend not to use presets in Lightroom, but I might do the experiment myself to see.

"Bright" in-camera JPEGs adjust colour saturation and contrast but not exposure, so it is difficult to compare their processed "bright" images (where exposure has clearly been adjusted) with OOC JPEGs. I use DNG+JPG and leave the JPG in "bright" mode as the output is usually more appealing. I process my "keepers" in lightroom, but for most photos I use the OOC JPEG files.

In high contrast scenes all my Pentax cameras (K-5, K-70 and K-3 III) have tended to meter to protect highlights. Most often those highlights are in unimportant areas of the sky or background. I therefore use "centre weighted" metering which reduces the impact of highly contrasting skies on the overall exposure. This generally avoids any issues but occasionally I may need to add +0.3 to +0.7 exposure compensation, but rarely more than that.

Otherwise, if I think I might want to keep highlight details, then I will use full scene metering and then in Lightroom shift the exposure or lift the shadows as necessary. Pentax DNG raw files have masses of dynamic range so it is almost never an issue.

High contrast scene exposure is a problem with all digital cameras, not a Pentax problem. There are some minor brand differences with how they meter highlights - but I think Pentax have it right. It is easier to extract information from the shadows than from blown highlights!

Pentax cameras are aimed at photographers who are knowledgeable enthusiasts who understand exposure, and therefore have the external buttons and dials to control it. If you want the camera to do it all for you then you are probably best sticking to your phone!
Forum: Pentax K-3 III 08-13-2021, 10:19 AM  
Minimum auto-ISO in AV & TV mode always 200
Posted By TheLastMan
Replies: 11
Views: 777
Bingo! That did it, I knew it had to be something simple!
There is probably a reason it doesn't do it in Program mode though, but I can't think of it.

Re your first point, I assumed the fact that I was posting in the Pentax K-3 III sub-forum was enough to indicate which camera I had ;)

My previous cameras were the K-5 and K-70 and never noticed it on those, probably because I was not very observant
Forum: Pentax K-3 III 08-13-2021, 08:29 AM  
Minimum auto-ISO in AV & TV mode always 200
Posted By TheLastMan
Replies: 11
Views: 777
I have auto ISO set to a minimum of 100 and a maximum of 6400
In P mode auto-ISO will always set to 100 if the light is good enough.

However, in AV & TV mode auto-ISO seems to have a minimum of 200.
Has anyone else noticed this?
Have I missed a setting?
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 11-08-2013, 01:03 PM  
DA limited 20-40 f/2.8-4 mounted images
Posted By TheLastMan
Replies: 107
Views: 35,073
Not sure what I think of this lens. I love the look of the limited primes, but this one looks rather "fussy" and confusing.

To me, the whole concept of the Ltds is the fact that they are primes. With a zoom you inevitably sacrifice image quality unless you are prepared to go big. If I had the money for this, I would have to look very carefully at the 16-50 f2.8 which is not much bigger and (on paper) has better specs. As the owner of the 18-135 I am a great fan of the new DC motor, which is blindingly quick and almost silent - so that is one major plus point for this new lens. If the final image quality is anywhere like as good as my 35mm f2.8 macro then it might find a niche.
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