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Forum: Post Your Photos!
01-11-2017, 03:21 AM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-01-2016, 10:43 PM
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There's a very interesting story that's connected to the lens give-away I had a few weeks ago that I thought you all might like to know about.
Mark Jerling, a member her on PF mentioned that a young lady he knew, young Miss May K would like some of the lenses.
He lives in New Zealand.
She lives in Missouri.
I sent her four or five of the lenses.
I live in Idaho.
But, the young lady didn't have a camera to go with the lenses, so I found a Pentax *istD L on a Craig's List ad .....
.....in San Diego.
The woman who sold it to me lives in Lebanon.
She had taken the camera to The Democratic Republic of the Congo during a Peace Corps. stint.
When I got the camera, it didn't have a memory card and I couldn't find a 2 GB card for it. BigDavePhoto, a member here on PF heard of our plight and graciously sent one to me.
He lives in Indiana.
It arrived today. I slipped it into the camera along with some AA batteries and BINGO! The camera works like a charm!.
So, tomorrow, I'm going to get it packaged up and sent off to young Miss May K, so she can begin her photography quest and post some photos for us!
Wow! What an around-the-world adventure this has been! :lol:
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-30-2016, 10:42 PM
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When San Francisco closes access to the Golden Gate National Recreation Areas for their silly weekly corporate driven event fundraisers, just hike there on foot and be rewarded with this luxury: NO PEOPLE
 Untitled by Alan Paredes, on Flickr
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-30-2016, 10:01 PM
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By manual focusing the lens, you will begin to see your subject in a whole new way. It forces you to not only see the duck, but you have to look for each feather and water drop to get the focus right. Once you train your eyes to see these details, you will see them even when using auto focus. You will get better and more consistent results by being able to see what your camera focused on and you will get more enjoyment out of seeing what you’re looking at!
Don W
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-30-2016, 06:46 PM
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For backlight silhouettes during daylight, especially when facing the sun, I found out that 8 is a magic number! I use 8-80-800: f8.0 ISO80 1/800s
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-30-2016, 05:40 PM
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Here is my advice to the novice and the pro- Take your Pentax gear and shoot everywhere you go.
Twilight, morning, afternoon and night-Don't forget to shoot in RAW and pay attention to the light.
Read the manual, read the forum, educate yourself- Advice you learn from the forum friends is equal to great wealth.
Get out there and shoot, hope you have a great day - the next line on this post is the last thing I'll say.
Always be proud of the Pentax name-----Canon and Nikon don't have as much to claim!
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-30-2016, 03:15 PM
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For Night Photography. Curves can be extremely powerful. Below are to images. The original with no edits and the edit where I have ONLY applied a couple of curves adjustments to the picture.
First I did a curves adjustment to the whole image. Then I selected the core of the Milky Way and did a second adjustment.
You can select different parts of the image to apply different curves.
Curves is your friend!
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-31-2016, 05:47 PM
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buy the best tripod you can afford and use it as often as possible.
PeteG
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-31-2016, 05:09 PM
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If you are looking to capture Aurora Borealis for example when you visit this rock in the middle of the Atlantic ocean called Iceland (where I live) :) - there are few things you need to capture the tails sharp.
A good tripod; A Pentax K5II, K5IIs, K3 or K3II (you can actually use K-01 as well or Spotmatic F with success), a good wide lens like 16-50mm f/2.8.
Location doesn't matter that much, since you can capture the northern lights in the middle of Reykjavik - they are bright over here and i've even captured them during summer in daylight (pure luck I guess).
Remember to set the focus to infinity - then put it in M (Manual mode).
So, when you have found a spot, use no more then ISO 1250 (everything above is overkill) and set your camera to capture "Interval Shooting" - you can set it to capture 10-20 frames at a time. Set the Interval to 10 seconds.
If you do this and have the lens at 16mm with some mountains, waterfall or lake (or the sea) - you should get results similar to my photo here.
Hope this helps :)
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Forum: Pentax Price Watch
01-29-2016, 07:44 AM
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You know, all this warranty bullshit is simply that, from all camera companies. The cameras are the same. It shouldn't matter at ALL where we buy them. Our home address is all that should matter. If I live in Melbourne and buy a camera from B&H, it should have an Australian warranty. This smoke and mirrors game that Pentax and others play is criminal.
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Forum: Pentax Price Watch
01-28-2016, 08:44 PM
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For those interested, the Domke bag and Sirui tripod arrived yesterday (they were ordered on Sunday). Two HUGE boxes, free postage!
Incredible considering that New York was shut down in a blizzard over the weekend.
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-30-2016, 12:10 AM
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Here is a generic eBay macro extension tube that has been extended even further using 1 1/2 inch ABS drain pipe and straight ABS couplings. There is no way to explain the build process within the constraints of this thread (5 sentences, 1 picture) - so briefly: I made them in 2 sections so that I can use either 1 by itself or 1+2 together. 1 and 2 are held together by friction alone, the two parts need considerable strength with a twisting motion to either join together or pull apart, such that there is virtually no chance of them coming apart accidentally. 1 by itself with the FA 50/1.4, gives me about 2.5:1 magnification and 1+2 with the same lens gives me about 4:1 magnification - of course, the working distance is very minimal at those magnifications.
If there are sufficient number of PF members interested in this inexpensive, extreme macro tube, I'll make another set with more pictures when the next eBay extension tube arrive and post in the appropriate sub-forum elsewhere.:)
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-15-2016, 03:01 AM
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Use a Pentax camera to withstand the harshest elements, and with an HD Pentax-DA 55-300mm lens attached to it, you can face almost anything mother nature throws to you.
Enjoy the elements, enjoy the trustworthy weather sealing and take pictures where others don't dare to, the only limits are in your mind.
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Forum: Pentax Price Watch
01-25-2016, 09:03 PM
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Awesome deal. Just bought some heavily reduced carbon fibre sticks (tripod and monopod).
Thanks B&H
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-24-2016, 08:42 PM
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Forum: Pentax Price Watch
01-24-2016, 08:58 PM
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My understanding is that Ricoh, Japan will cover with any import or export fees being your responsibility. A third-party warranty may be your best option.
Steve
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Forum: Pentax Price Watch
01-24-2016, 03:09 AM
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I just ordered a Sirui T-025X and a Domke bag - free postage even for that large package! I was unaware of the deal, but very happy to take it :)
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Forum: Pentax Price Watch
01-24-2016, 02:43 AM
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That's a nice deal- thanks for the find!
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Forum: Lens Sample Photo Archive
02-03-2014, 05:47 AM
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Forum: Lens Sample Photo Archive
02-02-2014, 07:53 PM
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This was taken at f8 1/800 300mm, there are a couple more I posted over here.
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-14-2016, 10:03 PM
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Suggestion of place for a nice non-tourist Tokyo tower short (if you come here),
Sunset to night is the best timing, so go with your mid to large steady tripod. Mini tripod won’t work. Cars will run left and right. And if it possible, go with a DA15 for kickass starburst!
location : https://goo.gl/maps/HkNmZzxJGV72
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-14-2016, 06:58 PM
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I'm going to recuse myself from actually winning the lens because (1) I already have one and so does every Pentaxian I know personally, and (2) I won a 50mm in this year's giveaway. But, who doesn't like sharing photography tips?
Here's my advice for taking photos out the window of an airplane.
Where to sit on the plane: Either the front of the plane, in front of the wing, or as far back in the plane as you can go. There are two factors here. The first is that you don't want the wing of the airplane obscuring your view. The second is that planes often have engines mounted on or near the wings, and the exhaust will blur out the view, limiting the area you can usefully take pictures out of.
What focal length to use: If I don't want to get the wing of the plane in the picture, I find that 40mm is about the widest I can usefully go. My favorite lens for out-the-window shots is probably the 77mm, but I've also gotten good results with the 40mm and the 55-300mm.
What aperture to use: I generally shoot with a pretty wide aperture. One reason is that you need a fast shutter speed to prevent motion blur (see below), but also, the airplane window usually has some ice crystals or scunge on it, and if you shoot with a large aperture, you can usually blur it out until it disappears.
What shutter speed to use: Motion blur is a real problem, especially at longer focal lengths. You'll want to experiment early during takeoff so you know what shutter speed to use when you actually want to take pictures for real. I wouldn't use anything under 1/100th second, but you'll need to use some trial and error to figure out what actually works.
What ISO to use: Whatever you need to support a relatively fast shutter speed.
Focusing: I always switch to manual focusing and set the focal distance to infinity. With autofocus, you get problems when the camera decides it really wants to focus on the scunge on the airplane window. Don't waste valuable seconds fighting your camera on this.
Postprocessing: Especially if you're taking a picture of something very far away, the colors usually don't come out very well. Haze tends to make everything look more blue, and wipes out a lot of the contrast. I usually do most of my out-of-the-window shots in black and white unless there's a really compelling reason not to.
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Forum: General Photography
11-30-2014, 04:06 AM
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Cable remote at $75 or so brought from Teds with a cash back voucher from the purchase of my *istDL2. I have used it on the K20and now the K3.
Pentax gear lasts.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
11-22-2014, 01:20 PM
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JP, 40 pages would be the minimum and that is what you would get for $69.
(If Canadian pricing is the same basis as here.)
Postage would be extra ($9.95 to Oz).
Once you have used Photobook you will get offers regularly and will never pay full price again!!!
The offers come in the form of vouchers that last 6 months - you pay for the voucher, prepare a book, and then pay for any extra pages etc over the voucher value.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
11-22-2014, 06:53 AM
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I've also been curious about getting into photo books lately. Somebody posting some pictures of the exterior and interior of a few books would be very welcome.
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