Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
01-19-2020, 03:40 AM
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So then I am sorry. Certainly not intended.
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
01-18-2020, 05:49 AM
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So, we Pentaxians are like the archetypical wife ... whatever you say, you just cannot win :D
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
12-30-2019, 05:37 PM
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Just a clarification ... I posted the link because I thought my fellow Pentaxians may find it entertaining. I am a bit confused about all the negativity. The opinions expressed (by Chris) weren’t meant to be taken too seriously.
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
12-30-2019, 03:56 AM
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Hi friends,
I don’t know anybody noticed ... over there at dpr, new years resolutions were posted but not for Pentax :( As Jordan pointed out today, it was by mistake.
Here is an unlisted! youtube video from dpr tv about new years resolutions for Pentax, narrated by Chris. Enjoy :)
-> Youtu.be |
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e6QSl5zgXMY?controls=1" allowfullscreen> |
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-10-2019, 02:25 AM
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Hi Class A, thanks for the nice words.
There‘s always something to learn here. Like the term Othering :)
In retrospect, it is surprising the video was released at all. I‘ve seen a bit of the flak they received from Nikon friends for making the Nikon 50/1.8Z worst lens...
Interesting they retracted their Nikon opinion, but not their Pentax one. Could be that Nikon US got involved. Would mean that Pentax US is a more relaxed company which I would consider a good sign. I.e., that Nikon really feels like they must win with the Z or die.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-09-2019, 07:54 PM
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Nikon did something similiar, with the D610. Didn‘t become most disappointing launch indeed.
To me it means that Pentax does still matter to Chris and Jordan and that they hoped better from Pentax. Pentax is important enough to be on the list after all ...
And yes, there is a difference between worst camera and most disappointing launch. Without further context. But further context was provided. And this is no official award, not to be takes as serious as is done here. It is sort of a joke and it would be better for the image of Pentaxians to take it as that.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-09-2019, 07:31 PM
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In this video, the Z6 doesn‘t miss focus.
It is in wide area auto AF and half of the image is in focus, as the highlighted focus points tell you. The Z6 can‘t know what shall be the subject. It even would have recognized a person, but another camera? One finger touch would have focus that other camera. I tell from experience, playing with a Z6.
Having said this, Z6/7 on-sensor AF isn‘t on par with D850 phase AF. In low light, a K1 would probably beat it too.
P.S.
I think this thread is a bit over the top. Chris and Jordan played their year end drunken special and nominated the K-1II the 2nd most disappointing camera launch of 2018. Something most could sympathize with. They made the mistake to drop „launch“ in their delivered speech. But everybody got it anyway from the context.
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Forum: Pentax Lens Articles
10-02-2018, 04:29 PM
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Thanks for sticking the thread.
Note that I no longer regularly visit this forum so won't keep links alive if somebody moved the pages around ...
P.S.
This thread now lives for 10 years and never went havoc, or died. Probably never happened anywhere else in the internet ;)
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
04-26-2017, 03:01 PM
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The YI 360 VR camera is an important product.
YI is known to bypass non-Chinese companies with less traditional products than a DSLR. GoPro now is in deep trouble because it can't compete with YI anymore. Even Google choose to partner with YI for its VR Jump project. Not GoPro. Not Ricoh Theta. Known as the YI Halo (17,000 USD).
YI has a very transparent spec sheet. They use two 4k camera and two 220 degree lenses. If distortion free, it would yield 6.3k. In practice, they obtain 5.7k which sounds about right.
5.7k VR is 1580 per 100 degree eye lens. Within a typical 50 degree FV, you are left with 790 pixels width. That about PAL quality TV, about the minimum one may actually accept. 4k VR (or even HD VR) are below the minimum quality threshold.
So yes, this YI 360 VR culd be the first affordable VR camera which isn't a toy actually. Which unfortunately includes the 4k Theta.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
12-09-2016, 03:42 AM
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Ok, fair enough.
But in order to compare export rates in a meaningful way, one first has to define economic regions of comparable size. Otherwise, one is ONLY seeing a size effect. In order to compare with the US, it is best to compare core Europe (F, UK, NL, B, L, D, A, CH [aka DACH]) with it. I assume core Europe does still export more than the US because it is embedded in the rest of the EU.
Or speaking otherwise, it would be interesting to see the export rate of California, a state half the population of Germany.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
12-08-2016, 05:17 PM
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I wonder if this is accurate information?
At least in Germany, consumer economy is very strong NOW and US economy is considered "indeterminate" in a Trump era. I don't see how 2018 predictions can be possible today.
At least my photo friends have their pockets full of cash but don't buy cameras like they used to. Cameras today are good enough and we simply return to the pre digital hype era of a solid but small photo market.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
11-05-2016, 05:20 AM
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Do a Google image search on "tanning studio". My hit #18 shows a pretty good sample of what to achieve.
E.g., make sure you have a good balance of bench and ambient light, such that the bench gives nice reflections on the model's skin.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
07-27-2016, 02:42 AM
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I believe Nicolas already mentioned it:
There is a so-called "Linear DNG" subformat which is supposed to be demosaiced data.
E.g., it is output by the DNG converter if selecting to output downscaled DNGs.
The problem with linear DNG is that it is 3x the size of uncompressed RAW, i.e., about the size of pixel-shift RAWs. Moreover, I am not sure about available bit-depths for linear DNG. Eventually, the ability to detect motion will improve over time and a true RAW format with all four sub frames would most probably still remain the best option for archiving.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
07-25-2016, 11:26 AM
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:lol:
Actually, I am always in favour of "the best possible".
I only answered to a post which introduced "workflow" into the discussion. And information theory tells us that workflow (data efficiency) is the biggest argument in favor of Bayer, not against it. I only wanted to explain that simple fact.
Of course, I would prefer full color information at every pixel. Unfortunately, such technology does not exist yet. Foveon has noise, pixel shift has temporal blur.
And between 4x resolution and full color information, I choose 4x resolution.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
07-20-2016, 02:51 AM
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That's true in theory, false in practice.
That's because the "workflow" has to deal with 4x the data and has to guess which pixels did change.
The immense success of the Bayer pattern has to do with its efficient "workflow", needing much less original data for the same perceived image quality.
The real merit of pixel-shift is an absolute better image quality at the pixel-level than a single capture with a Bayer filter could provide. For me, it may mean more fun at post-processing at 100% view.
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Forum: Pentax Lens Articles
07-17-2016, 03:42 PM
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
07-17-2016, 03:22 AM
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For my taste, this is a too pixel-centric view.
One should not forget that our own eyes don't capture color information at full resolution or anything close. Therefore, for an optimal viewing experience of the final art, there is no point in capturing full colour information at every pixel.
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
07-08-2016, 03:51 PM
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To Rishi's defense.
He has been contacting me on several occasions, including questions about standardized AF testing.
I consider him to be one of the most open minded and competent people over there at DPR. Of course, he is able to fail just like everybody else.
But I wouldn't accuse him of incompetence or tentative testing. I think in the end, this thing all comes to tone and language. The probable cause if people got banned, I guess.
About the test itself ...
In the tracking (riding in curves) test, the K-1 lost focus because the target left the focus area. That may be considered unfair and I agree. OTOH, some other cameras have their AF area spread a wider area, so the comparison is still valid. And in BIF, it is indeed difficult to keep a subject centered. Moreover, the target corossed the center area several times and K-1 did not re-aquire focus then. Unlike some other cameras which do.
Overall, the test is valid. It is not drawing an image representative of the K-1 AF capabilities if above behaviour is worked around. But valid it is.
One last word ...
Some well known bloggers started to make fun of over-loyal Pentaxians defending the brand on every occasion. Pentaxians have to tone down their voice quite a bit on other fora if they want to be perceived as serious photographers. I say this as a Pentaxian myself, although shooting another brand as well.
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Forum: Pentax Lens Articles
07-08-2016, 03:31 PM
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I think that GeneV's test is a nice reminder that many genuine full frame lenses do vignette quite a bit as well.
I appreiate the recent entries shot with a K-1. Thank's a lot.
Nevertheless, may I suggest to provide a few corner crops as well, so everybody can assess sharpness on full frame, besides vignetting?
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
07-07-2016, 02:09 AM
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I propose to consider this entry as a good starting point for a re-designed pentaxforums logo. The current one is ... not pretty IMHO. At least not for a photographer used to some artistic level.
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Forum: Pentax Lens Articles
06-15-2016, 05:18 AM
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Thanks for the test. How about corner sharpness?
I find it interesting that LR applies their profiles despite the fact that the image circle is different. Obviously, Adobe does not keep track of image circles in the profile and the body.
Which is kind of sad as it renders DA profiles useless on full frame bodies and makes full frame profiles for DA lenses impossible. However, hand-made profiles and their manual selection could help here.
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
05-30-2016, 08:02 AM
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+1
Asahi was the original name of Pentax, Pentax just being a brand name. Very similiar to Daimler-Benz and Mercedes.
However, Asahi licensing the name from Zeiss is a bit misleading. At the time, the company in question was Pentacon in communist Germany (now belonging to Schneider Kreuznach). Pentacon was formed from parts of VEB Zeiss Ikon which is the Eastern part of Zeiss after WWII. However, the company now known as Zeiss is its Western part. Pentacon did indeed invent the Pentaprism (in the Contax S camera, picking up on wartime plans) which is why Pentax very likely had a reason to license the name from them. OTOH, I really doubt any capitalist company ever cared about licenses hold by any communist company, or vice versa ...
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
05-18-2016, 05:37 AM
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I only used a K-1 at an event. It certainly felt well and I personally love the Pentax build quality and user experience. I'd say it outperforms an A7rII in terms of responsiveness, so IMHO, it is a more professional tool overall. But having said this, it is no speed monster too. ---------- Post added 18th May 2016 at 13:42 ----------
Ok, getting rid of color filtration is the one last big step remaining. I agree.
I've just no idea which timeframe to expect when it would happen.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
05-17-2016, 10:05 AM
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This is an interesting question.
Looking at the current D500 buzz, just pushing the state of the art a little bit still seems to do the trick. Just stay ahead of the pack.
What separates pro-level cameras from more enthusiast-level cameras IMHO is responsiveness. Compared to the top of the line cameras, cameras like a A7rII etc. feel like toys, sooo slow in everything. A pro-level camera must be able to catch the image in less than the blink of an eye, including the time required to grab the camera. And contrary to popular belief, no current camera is without its limitations. So, that's an area to improve.
Another future area probably is 4k and 8k video capture with in-body frame selection apps.
OTOH, I think in-camera post-processing is useless. Images will simply be shared to a tablet and processed there. All pro photographers carry tablets these days. But ease, speed and reliability to offload images to tablets in an area for huge improvements. IMHO, this should be a fully automated process and Nikon's snapbridge is a step in the right direction here (permanent pairing).
Eventually, I think image quality (low light noise etc.) can't be improved much anymore beyond what a full frame camera delivers today. So, a pro-level camera has to differentiate elsewhere. And this does include medium format, because fast MF lenses either don't exist or would have too shallow DoF.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
05-02-2016, 03:50 PM
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Correct.
±0.5EV was a ballpark figure which seems to be rather accurate today (wrt 18% gray noise). It used to be larger in the past and will aproach 0EV in the future, as we approach the limits of physical feasibility.
And as I explained some time ago, please forget that "substrate" nonsense.
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