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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
09-29-2016, 08:12 AM
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Try these on for size ... infrared flashbulbs!!!
These GE bulbs are #5R - made for infrared.
They look almost black, with their very dark red coating.
However, you can use a regular camera flash as an infrared source. We confirmed that by using an infrared converted DSLR and then taped an R72 glass filter over the flash head. Sure enough, the only visible light was a dim red pulse when the flash fired. With some experimentation on exposure, we were able to get, in a totally dark room, a fully-lit image on the camera, despite seeing almost nothing.
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
02-23-2016, 02:22 PM
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I've sold a few images via Flickr ranging from 150 to 350 depending on use, client, and what I thought I could get.
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
02-23-2016, 12:17 PM
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Act fast and don't think to long.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
10-01-2014, 10:10 AM
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Pentax 645Z Preview ? Pentax?s ?affordable? medium-format digital SLR gets an upgrade - DxOMark
Get this, they claim to preview the 645z.. but they print the test results in the article for the 645D. Not only that they mention the 645D's performance compared to other systems. And comment that it's not encased in a removable back... even though you can buy 4 645zs for the cost of one of those removable backs.
I've always thought these guys were total knobs... but this "Preview" is over the top, at least in my opinion. They should have just said "we haven't tested the camera and we have nothing" which would have been the honest thing to do, instead they pretend to know more than you can read off the Tech Specs on any online site, when they clearly don't know what anyone who has had the camera in their hands does.
I can't believe people quote these knobs. And I challenge you guys who think they aren't biased against Pentax, to find a review anywhere else on their site, where while claiming to "Preview" one camera, they publish test results from it's 4 year old predecessor. I'll wait for answers, but I won't hold my breath.
These guys must be trying to blackmail Pentax into sending them a camera to test.
It's a great business model, pretend to sell software and use the leverage from yourself to blackmail the companies you supposedly "support" into sending you money and gear. It would not be an unreasonable assumption to suppose DxO has asked Pentax for both, and been turned down, from the tone of the article. Why else would they publish a Preview, that says "we don't know anything but we hope to find out?".
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-13-2014, 06:23 AM
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Now that I have a perfect, optically aligned K mount copy of the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 I think it would be interesting to compare it to the SMCP-FA 31mm f/1.8 Limited – many people refer to this zoom as a stack of primes, well it certainly is big enough:
SMC-24mm f/2.8 - SMCP-FA31mm f/1.8 ASPH Limited - Sigma 15-30mm f/3.5-5.6 EX - Sigma ART 18-35mm f/1.8
The closest thing Pentax makes to this lens is the HD DA 20-40 mm f/2.8-4.0 ED Limited DC WR . To be honest I was never all that interested in the Pentax HD Limited lens. Physically the Limited Zoom Lens looks lovely, but the Limited zoom was completely overshadowed by the faster Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 “Art”
The prime I’m comparing it to is the SMCP-FA31mm f/1.8 Limited. This lens is (at the time of writing here in Australia) nearly twice as expensive as the sigma zoom. The FA31 has been one of my favorite pentax primes for a number of years, and in my experience it is a superb lens optically and I’m familiar with all its quirks.
Just to sum up the physical features of each lens
 
Flare is handled surprisingly well:
In my testing, the Sigma lens trailed behind the FA31in terms of sharpness across the frame when stopped down, The sigma zoom still did surprisingly well at f/1.8 compared to the FA31, it has higher contrast, but that advantage abruptly vanishes as soon as the FA31 is stopped down. At apertures f/4 and f/8 there is a visible difference in resolution between the two lenses, the FA31 overall being the sharper of the two:
Un-sharpened 100% center crop, Both lenses at f/8, No WB or lens profiles applied.
The Sigma Zoom lens generally handles Chromatic aberration better than the FA31, however I feel this comes at the expense of Bokeh quality. I disagree with Sigmas “art” designation with this lens, to me it is really a contemporary lens in “art” drag. Don’t get me wrong, this lens is extremely sharp for a zoom: but if that is all Sigma thinks there is to art, they are in for a surprise. I found that this lens is inconsistent in its rendering of out of focus areas: in some situations it can produce outstandingly good bokeh, but it can also produce atrociously bad bokeh. I took images on the FA31mm f/1.8 under exactly the same circumstances for comparison and the FA31 has higher amounts of LoCa, but the OOF rendering from the FA31 is simply smoother than the Sigma zoom.
  Right: Sigma 18-35mm @ f/1.8 Left : Pentax FA31mm f/1.8 @ f/1.8
Both lenses at 31mm 100% center crop.
The good news is that at the 35mm setting the lens is quite consistent with its rendering of out of focus elements. However at short focal lengths and wide apertures things seem to fall apart, even stopping the lens down cannot completely eliminate the "frog egg" bokeh. Focusing accuracy on my Pentax K5IIs is also an area where the FA31 has a distinct advantage, AF was noisier and slightly slower on the FA31 – but it was accurate. So far my FA31 has needed no AF adjustments at all.
Presently I have the Sigma lens dock on order and I will report on its efficacy however, there were still issues where the sigma lens would sometimes focus on the wrong target or sometimes mis-focus completely. I was prepared to experience some issues with AF accuracy and I was pleased to see that the Full time manual focus capability of this lens coupled with my use of the O-ME53 viewfinder magnifier allowed me to tweak the precise point of focus with this lens, but I had to tweak the focus frequently, so I’m devoting a User setting mode specifically for it.
Even with these issues the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 Is an extremely good lens. The issues I have pointed out are things to be aware of and can be avoided to a certain extent. Personally I would have no issue with recommending the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 to another experienced photographer who would be able to make the most of its strengths, and be aware of its weaknesses and find their own way around them. However I wouldn’t recommend this lens to someone starting out with photography as the weight and focusing issues would be discouraging to someone who isn't familiar with wide aperture lenses.
Performance with the Pentax O-GPS1:
After a Precise calibration and careful manual focusing with Live view, I was able to get this image taken from my back yard:
Pentax K5IIs - Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 @ 18mm f/1.8 ISO800 20s Astrotracer Mode (cropped image)
Unfortunately some cloud cover crashed the party before I was able to get more images, however I will point out this lens isn’t parfocal, you need to re-focus each time you change focal length. Coma is remarkably well controlled with this lens at f/1.8, much better than most primes I have worked with. Though vignetting at the f/1.8 setting at all focal lengths is something to be careful of.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
09-23-2014, 08:15 PM
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Shines.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
09-24-2014, 04:59 PM
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It's a great lens. I've had mine for several years now and have had zero issues with it.
I use it quite a lot for sports, both indoor and outdoor, and am very happy with the results. It is a little short for soccer, but until I can find am inexpensive 50-600mm F2.8 I'm never going to find a perfect lens for that. I do sometimes find a little CA wide open, but that's totally gone by F4.
If you like to check out the images I've taken with it I have a thousand or so on Flickr !!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fwwidall/tags/smcpentaxda50135mmf28edifsdm/
Fred.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
09-24-2014, 02:40 PM
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
09-20-2014, 05:54 PM
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I guess I can now be allowed to post in this forum? :)
I sold my first print off my website (still working out the behind the scenes kinks for full-fledged print ordering availability...will be launched no later than the end of the month), but I wanted to share the momentous (for me) occasion :D
Attachment 237932
And then a few days later, I sold this image to another friend that had been bugging me for a while:
Attachment 237934
Both have been delivered and couldn't be happier :)
-Heie
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
09-20-2014, 03:18 PM
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Sometimes when you do a super long exposure shot, light can leak in through the eye piece past the mirror. The eyepiece cover prevents that.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
09-20-2014, 03:17 PM
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When you want to prevent stray light from entering through the viewfinder - such as when doing a very long exposure for astro or real low ISO night shot.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
09-19-2014, 05:34 AM
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OK, so I had a beautiful K200D stolen from my vehicle a few weeks ago, among other equipment, and I was looking to replace it. I love the CCD sensor on the K200D and it was a camera that I was never going to sell, ever. Nice K200D bodies aren't easy to find so I was willing to settle for anything decent.
I saw a used K200D listing on a Amazon warehouse deal for $125 listed as "in good condition" which could mean anything . ....pretty cheap so I decided, what the heck, and bought it with my finders crossed. The package arrived yesterday and when I opened the familiar Amazon box It contained a brand new, unopened K200D box!....score! :)
Sometimes good things happen after something bad, it must have been Karma....:lol:
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
09-19-2014, 05:52 AM
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There's advantages and disadvantages to both, so it really boils down to preference. Why I converted to using DNG in camera was; dng is more readily recognized by most software I use, there isn't the usual lag time waiting for software to catch up with new camera models raw information by using dng, since dng doesn't store the cameras jpeg file information within the raw file and some un-essential meta data it's usually about 15% smaller than camera raw files and if using Adobe products such as Lightroom or Photoshop I don't have to deal with the extra sidecar .xmp files that contain the editing data changes to camera raw files to name a few.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
09-19-2014, 05:52 AM
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DNG will work better if you have the newest Pentax camera but still has older software.
Or if you need to ship raw files to someone with old software or to someone who is unfamiliar with PEF.
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
09-19-2014, 05:27 AM
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I'd really like to be able to use aperture priority with my M series lenses, but there we go.
As others have said you can switch the ISO sensitivity. What would be nice is the ability to get it even lower than ISO100, being able to do landscapes on ISO50 would be great.
A stock option for a split focus-screen would also be nice, I basically use manual lenses all the time and getting the focus spot-on is a little difficult sometimes.
Apart from that I love my K-3, I love teasing my Canon wielding friends about how little I paid for it even more!
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
09-19-2014, 04:59 AM
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That's already possible. Just go in the custom functions menu, change EV steps to 1/3, and set the ISO to use the same steps as EV's.
What I would like to see is an enhancement to the af mode/af point selection user interface. The fact that the 4-way controlled can be used for so many different things slows you down at times.
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Forum: General Photography
09-18-2014, 08:26 AM
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We seem to do this after every major show - where were the major announcements? I don't know about Ricoh pre-acquisition, but their approach to the past few shows seems to have been "here's what we have, here's some stuff we're working on, we hope you like it". They just don't do the "one more thing" dog-and-pony show. They announce a product when it's ready, and if that's before a show, fine. Time will tell if that's a viable strategy - for now, they appear to be profitable when others are struggling. Personally, I think we've seen more new products in the past year than any two years in recent memory. I'll take a steady flow over postponing announcements until a show (they'd just be drowned out by buzz over the latest Ca/Ni/So/Ol/Pa/Fu/Sa/Si announcement anyhow).
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Forum: General Photography
09-18-2014, 11:16 AM
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Ricoh made their own with a pentax mount. There were sold threw Sears.
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Forum: General Photography
09-18-2014, 11:38 AM
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If I'm not mistaken, Pentax intended the K-mount to be an open mount. That's why quite a number of secondary cameramakers and rebrands used the K-mount on their SLRs during the film era.
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Forum: General Photography
09-18-2014, 11:20 AM
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The Unofficial Guide to Ricoh Cameras and Rikenon Lenses
The first Ricoh SLR used Nikon F mount and was made in 1962. They switched to M42 in 1964 and to K-mount in 1977. They also made a small SLR using M29 mount and 126 cassette film in 1969.
Ricoh's last film SLRs were made ca. 2000.
There was even a solar powered SLR.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
09-15-2014, 01:11 AM
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Yesterday I had a chance to use this beast of a lens in national zoo of Malaysia. Thanks to Pentax Malaysia for lending me the lens and K-3.
At 3kg + camera weight it can't be rated as a hand holdable kit, but I had no monopod along, so ended up shooting mostly hand held. (And feeling pain in my left hand for several hours after the event)
I am not a wild life photographer, and it was a Tamron event to promote their new long lenses (150-600, 16-300, 70-300) and all were Canikon mount! but since the organizer company is the authorized dealer for Pentax and Tamron in Malaysia, they were kind enough to bring some long Pentax lenses(DA560mm and DA55-300) for us Pentaxians to try.
I've shot more than 100 frames but most of them came out blurry due to my hand shake (no surprise) or running/moving animals.
Here are some usable shots, there will still be some more of other animals later. which I will share here again.
Frustrated by mtux, on Flickr
Protecting the kid by mtux, on Flickr
under rain by mtux, on Flickr
Hope you enjoy them, and I've been successful enough to help Pentax sell one more of this beast of a lens. :D
EDIT: sorry, I was wrong, they are not Gorillas, but there's no way to edit the title. :|
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
10-10-2013, 10:37 AM
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To the OP, wow. You seem to care more about the name than about features and value. The K-3 continues to work with all your lenses and adds new features.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
09-10-2014, 08:18 PM
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My experience (amateur) with the XT1 was very good...except when using continuous focus with erratic motion. Even with auto review turned off the last exposure appears for a fraction of a second. At 8fps I only saw the last exposure so I had a hard time following any unpredictable motion. @3fps there is enough time between shots to see the live action. So I kept the Xe2 (which can do 3fps predictive anyway) and bought a K3 to go along with my DA*60-250. For me much much better than the XT1 for action. The other bothersome thing for me was that in continuous mode the XT1 is constantly hunting focus - so you don't see a still image in the viewfinder. But you can definitely trust it!
I would highly recommend you try it out before you commit to the Xt1 for action/sports.
john
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
08-18-2014, 02:08 PM
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There are a couple older Pentax 645 & 6x7 leaf shutter lenses that you can use on the 645Z. They may be an older design, but are better than no LS lens.
Phil.
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