|
Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
10-04-2013, 09:15 AM
|
| |
On a recent trip to Arches National Park I hiked up to the Delicate Arch to try and get a picture of the arch at sunset. That was an amazing experience, but the hike back in the darkness actually ended up being an even more amazing experience. It happened to be a new moon that weekend, so the Milky Way was out in full force. When we got back to the car we saw the Milky Way sitting above our Subaru so we decided to try and take a picture of it. I set my camera and tripod down in the middle of the road, and did a 30 second exposure while my buddy used his headlamp to light the foreground. I had no clue how this would turn out, since it was my first time attempting it, but to my surprise it came out amazing.
|
|
Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-01-2013, 07:49 AM
|
| |
And my guess as to why the 35mm/1.4 is available and the 30mm is not...
The 35mm is probably a much lower volume product, so their factory probably has spare capacity to build the Pentax versions.
They are probably expecting to sell a lot more of the 30mm since it's more consumer oriented due to its price, so their factory is probably going to be kept busy building the Canikon versions for longer. But I'm confident that we'll eventually see it.
|
|
Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-01-2013, 07:43 AM
|
| |
I emailed Sigma yesterday asking if the new 30mm 1.4 Art lens will be released for Pentax. Here is their response:
Hello Mike,
At Sigma we manufacturer every item we sell in our Factory in Japan, in order to do this we must fill the major demand brands, Canon and Nikon, first. Pentax has a much smaller market share and will usually follow at a later date, which we don’t have yet. Please be patient and it will come.
Yours Truly,
Paul Pizzano
Sigma Corporation of America
So there's hope. Be patient. It will come.
|
|
Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
03-13-2013, 11:20 AM
|
| |
I use the Op-Tech strap as well. I like that it comes with two separate buckles-- I have one on each of my SLRs and I can swap cameras very quickly.
When hiking I usually have the camera hanging loose at my side, but sometimes when I'm traveling I'll wear a small messenger bag on the same shoulder as the strap. Then I can slip the camera into the messenger bag when it's not in use. I find it's a pretty stealthy way to carry the camera, which I find useful for situations like riding on public transportation, but at the same time the camera's pretty accessible.
Another great thing about the op-tech strap is that the buckles are the same for their other accessories, so you can un-clip your camera from the shoulder strap and switch to a wrist strap very quickly and easily.
|
|
Forum: Pentax Compact Cameras
02-28-2013, 04:31 PM
|
| |
| |
|
Forum: Post Your Photos!
01-23-2013, 05:01 PM
|
| |
A long thirsty hike back to the car... It's somewhere in the hills over the horizon.
|
|
Forum: Post Your Photos!
01-16-2013, 02:52 PM
|
| |
Hey guys thanks for the feedback. I wasn't sure how to upload a large attachment on the site, the size limit seems to be too small for a panoramic like this. Here's a link to a 4k pixel high version in picasa.
Yosemite Falls Vertical Shot |
|
Forum: Post Your Photos!
01-15-2013, 12:53 AM
|
| |
A vertical landscape shot of Yosemite Falls.
|
|
Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
12-28-2012, 05:22 PM
|
| |
I've done some bicycle touring too, last year I biked from Seattle down to my home in the Sacramento area, which was right around 1000 miles. My main regret on that trip was not bringing my SLR, I took the coastal route for most of the way, which was beautiful. There were some amazing sunsets on the Oregon coast which my little point and shoot camera just couldn't do justice. Now that my camping gear is smaller I might give it another shot and bring the SLR this time around.
Here's a blog post from my trip last year-- I wished that I had my SLR with me.
military acronyms | MT – Mike's Thoughts |
|
Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
12-28-2012, 03:18 PM
|
| |
I might be in the minority here, but I bought the D600 with the deal Adam posted, but then returned it and bought a Pentax K-5. I am coming from a K20D.
Was it worth the money?
No doubt about it, the D600 is an incredible camera, but in the end I couldn't justify the increase in cost. The increase in dynamic range is pretty incredible, but I'm thinking the K-5 will have a pretty significant increase for me too, coming from a K20D. The autofocus on the D600 is amazing, lightning quick, and 39 points... man I never thought I'd need them, but they're actually really cool to have. I didn't play around with trying to focus on fast moving objects though, but I'd imagine it would also be a huge improvement over my K20D. But I realized that I mostly shoot landscapes, so the less advanced AF on my K20D is fine.
Worth the new lenses?
This was the biggest reason why I returned it. I have the 16-50/2.8 and the 50-135/2.8. To replace those I would need to buy the Nikon 24-70/2.8 and 70-200/2.8 VR II which is about $4k combined. Even if I cheap out and buy the 24-120/f4 and 80-200/2.8 I'm looking at around $2500 at least. My solution was to just survive with the 2 kit lenses, the 24-85 and the 70-300VR and buy some primes, but even then I couldn't justify the cost. I could buy a Bigma and a K-5 for the price of the 2 lens D600 kit.
Do you have the glass?
No. Like I said I had the 2 kit lenses. I also bought a Rokinon 14mm/2.8 as my ultrawide. It was quite nice on the D600. The kit lenses were actually not bad, I didn't have a problem with them, and they seemed sharp enough. Nikon VR is pretty nice-- I have pretty shaky hands, but at 24mm I was able to get decent results at 1/4 sec.
Worth the additional FOV?
Kind of. My original plan, before returning the D600 was to get by with the 2 kit lenses, the Rokinon 14mm, and a thrifty 50, most likely the 50mm/1.8G. The FOV on the 14mm is incredible, and a cheap but tack sharp 50 is an incredible blessing. One big gripe I have with Pentax is none of the 50mm equivalents (35mm or 31mm) have SDM or HSM except for the new and expensive Sigma 35mm 1.4-
Worth the weight?
I was surprised, it was actually about the same size and weight as my K20D-- only marginally larger and I actually thought the K20D was heavier, but that's probably because I was using f/2.8 glass on it. So the weight and size were fine for me.
Worth the resolution?
Not really for me. The raw files were twice as big as the ones from my K20D, which made post processing slower. I print relatively few of my photos, and when I do at most it's on 20x30 canvas, which is pretty forgiving. Everything I've printed from my K20D has been good enough for me, so the D600's large files don't add much, except for eating up space on my hard drive and backup server.
The one thing that really really made me wanna keep the D600 is the night shots I took at ISO6400. I was really impressed with the noise performance of the D600. But really, all I'm looking for is the ability to shoot 30 seconds at ISO3200 and be happy with the results, I'm thinking the K-5 will work well enough for me.
So in the end I chose to return the D600 and buy the K-5, saving me more than $1500, but more importantly, saving me the hassle of selling all my Pentax lenses.
I have some more thoughts on my blog if you're interested-- this was written before I decided to return the D600, but it shows my thought process, and there are some images that show the DR and ISO performance.
newly nikonian? | MT – Mike's Thoughts |
|
Forum: Pentax Price Watch
12-06-2012, 02:23 PM
|
| |
Haha Adam, if you can work some magic to get the price down on that lens, I might end up buying it... I really would like a quiet focusing lens. Manual focus works but I have trouble getting the focus sometimes on my trusty old K20D.
|
|
Forum: Pentax Price Watch
12-06-2012, 11:11 AM
|
| |
Yea same here... If it had HSM I would've bought it already. So are we basically SOL if we want an HSM or SDM fast prime that's normal or wider on APS-C?
I have a 24mm f1.8 and 35mm f2 but both are screw drive and I feel sort of self conscious when using it in quiet museums...
|
|
Forum: Pentax Price Watch
12-06-2012, 10:51 AM
|
| |
This is the non HSM version, correct? Some of the reviews state that it's loud, so it sounds like it's screw drive. It's strange that the HSM versions for Canon and Nikon are $349.
|
|
Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-03-2012, 06:57 PM
|
| |
I fully support this too. I mostly bought my lenses used, with some Sigma lenses to fill in gaps. I'd love me some Pentax primes but haven't bought any except for some older manual lenses due to cost.
|
|
Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
11-27-2012, 08:03 PM
|
| |
| |
|
Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
11-20-2012, 10:00 AM
|
| |
The 16-50 is the lens that I use probably 80-90% of the time. It's the lens that I bring when I go backpacking, so weather sealing is a must, so my only options really are the 16-50 and the 18-135.
Like most people I've had the lens repaired for SDM issues. Luckily mine froze up right before the warranty period ended, so I got mine repaired for free. Since then it's been solid, I'm wondering if the newer SDM motors are less likely to have problems?
I've come to realize that no lens is perfect-- I definitely have gripes with it. It's a bit soft at f/2.8-- so when I'm shooting indoors and critical sharpness is a necessity, I'll use a prime. That being said, it's definitely usable at 2.8. Often when I travel I'll only bring this one lens and it works good enough in every situation.
At the extreme wide end there's a good bit of distortion and a bit of vignetting, but Lightroom 4's lens profile fixes it pretty well. The wide end comes in handy a lot for the landscapes I shoot-- I have a Sigma 10-20, but the DA 16-50 is wide enough 90% of the time.
Although I have had my problems with the lens, I can't imagine a better lens for my needs. I don't have the 18-135WR to compare against, but I think for my needs the extra wideness and faster aperture makes the 16-50 my swiss army knife.
|
|
Forum: Pentax Price Watch
11-16-2012, 08:58 PM
|
| |
This looks great. I bought one, thanks. According to the reviews you can split it into two single slings too...
|
|
Forum: Pentax Price Watch
11-15-2012, 09:11 AM
|
| |
FRYS.com
On sale for $799, which is almost as good as Adorama's price...
It looks like it's only available at the Campbell Fry's though, sold out elsewhere according to their online stock check. That's a bit far for me to drive to, but a great deal for someone in the San Francisco Bay area...
|
|
Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
11-14-2012, 10:45 PM
|
| |
flowers in my neighborhood
|
|
Forum: Photo Critique
11-14-2012, 05:14 PM
|
| |
I've shot with 400 speed fujifilm before and have gotten pretty grainy shots. In my case I think it was from storing the film in a warm environment for a long time.
|
|
Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
11-14-2012, 05:10 PM
|
| |
Thanks Adam for this contest! I posted my submissions last night and am looking forward to reading all the other submissions.
|
|
Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
11-14-2012, 04:32 PM
|
| |
7 shot panoramic from the top of Cloud's Rest in Yosemite.
|
|
Forum: Sold Items
11-09-2012, 10:16 AM
|
| |
Is this an HSM or screw drive lens?
Also I looked through some pix on your Flickr but couldn't figure out which ones were shot with the 150-500. Can you link a couple that you are happy with that were shot on this lens?
Thanks
|
