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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
11-26-2018, 04:02 PM
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Well, my little setup got here today. Best $48.98 I ever spent in my life. Hands down.
I set it up quickly, and got the four little lights set up, sorta played around with placement and the background. I ended up paper-clipping the fabric that I normally use as a background to the little loops by the velcro fasteners at the back corners. Works perfectly.
Grabbed one of my radios and put two lights on the top, one on the side, and one aimed obliquely away from the radio but still aimed inside the tent.
I took like five shots in quick succession. Looked through them, dreading what I would find.
Every. Single. One. was almost perfect. Sure, a tiny tweak with the sliders on the levels, maybe, but that would be all that was necessary. The color is DEAD-ON perfect, so much so it was kinda un-nerving. That's with just the little LEDs without the two color filters. No color adjustment...no "how do I get rid of the awful yellow cast on this otherwise perfect shot?" and then 20 minutes of experimenting with various settings and sliders before giving up. Lather, rinse, repeat.
So I just wanted to say "THANK YOU ALL FOR POINTING ME IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION!" I just put up with those poor old Dazors for a year because I thought "real photography lights" would set me back hundreds. This is truly gonna change everything, and hopefully allow me to take this eBay thing to the next level.
A whole 'nuther world, indeed. Thank's y'all.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
11-15-2018, 05:36 PM
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Nice results...thanks for the inspiration! I am looking forward to getting one of these and learning how to use it.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
11-15-2018, 02:05 PM
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Many thanks for all the suggestions, y'all. I will stop cussin' at my K-30 and heed the good advice. As soon as I get the money for this month's bills squared away, I will spring for one of the 4-LED light box setups. Yah, things are too tight for comfort, so I have to be strategic about every penny I spend right now.
But I am sure getting one of these setups will take everything to the next level, literally. Taking and processing the photos has been the biggest, most time-consuming thing in all this. From the screenshot you can see why...SO many shots just to get one useable, and sometimes I would take a bunch and in processing realize I would have to go back and reshoot one or two things because of the Dreaded Yellow Bars.
And I guess I should get the "Unintentional Masochist Award" for persevering with those poor old Dazors enough over the last year to have made a few hundred sales with the photos I got from 'em. But yeah, it was certainly an unnecessarily painful process, to say the least! With one of those setups, I'm sure that will cut the time down significantly, once I figure out the basics of using it.
Thanks again. I need to go apologize to my K-30. I called is some really bad names last night....lol.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
11-15-2018, 12:25 AM
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Wow...that would certainly make all this nonsense vanish in an instant, wouldn't it?
I hadn't looked into a "light box" setup like that...it certainly seems to cover all the bases. I will definitely look at all the ones Amazon has; but it will have to wait until I can spare the $60. I'm a Luddite, sure, I love old stuff, but my choice of '50s-era lighting here was strictly out of necessity. lol. Thank you for all the suggestions. I will see what I can do to make what I have work until I can grab one of those groovy setups.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
11-14-2018, 09:41 PM
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reh321: lol on "outside" right now...we've had a solid week of smoke and haze from the big fire 120 miles away. And I did try incandescents, and the results were not great. They are harsh and cause too much glare for most things. I actually settled on the fluorescents because 1. I had 'em, and 2. When they play nice with the K-30, the color is almost spot-on. I have to adjust the levels to get the highlights, midrange and lows all balanced, and the color generally "rights itself" when I do that. The trick I use is to crop the shot, call up "Levels" in PS, and look at the histogram. First I'll take the far right slider and slide it to where it makes contact with the right edge of the curve. Then I take the middle slider and slide it to the left, until the pic just barely starts to look "washed out". Then I take the far left slider and slide IT to the right, until it just touches the curve. That results in a useable shot, most of the time...unless this yellow bar thing happens. Thx for the idea of using 1/30...that makes total sense.
bigdavephoto: thanks for that tip as well. I will try the tissue idea with the flash and see if that makes a diff.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
11-14-2018, 08:41 PM
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I had left the ISO as "variable", with a low of 100 and the max at whatever the max is. I know from the old days that 400 was what you used in a film camera for "low light", but that wasn't consistent either. I tried setting it at 3200 and at 6400, same. I can't really use the flash; it's just way too harsh for most of the items like the jewelry, and the reflections are usually too much for most other items. I've been through a lot of trial and error with this...that last said with a wry chuckle. I will try the slower shutter speed and tripod, and will just have to try repositioning the item, instead of myself and camera, to get all the angles.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
11-14-2018, 08:22 PM
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If I go with a slow shutter speed, I will have to use the tripod a lot more than I do. That will be a bit awkward, as I'm constantly shifting angles and zooms to get detailed shots...sometimes I'm shooting from above, other times from the side, etc. I will experiment; it might mean a big change in how I do things.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
11-14-2018, 08:10 PM
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Ah, OK. I will see if that is workable, in the way I'm having to do these photos. I have tried to "pin it" to either distance away from the lights, or relation of distance of light to item, etc., and it's just so inconsistent I couldn't really attach it to any one factor. I will see if using 1/50s or slower is feasible. Thanks.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
11-14-2018, 07:51 PM
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I know, it's 2018. I'm still using my K-30 I bought as soon as it came out five years ago. It's all I have, and right now it is (and HAS BEEN) giving me fits. I am having to depend on it to take photos for eBay. I am having to rely on eBay for survival right now, and I have to take a LOT of photos, of many different types of items, from jewelry to vintage radios.
I am limited in my setup. I only have two 18" dual-fluorescent-tube Dazor desk lamps on articulating arms (from the '50s) to use as lights. I position the lights as close to the items as I can, and can usually get the item lit well, but the K-30 just doesn't work consistently.
What happens is sorta encapsulated in the screenshot i've att'd. One pic will be ok, and "true" as far as color goes, then without any warning, or moving of the camera, the next photo will have this huge dark yellow band at some point across it. The band can be either at the top or in the middle, or on both top and bottom.
I'm able to finagle with the sliders in "Levels" in photoshop to get the "color correct" finished photos brightened and presentable. Even with the initial photos being as dark as they are, I have taught myself a little trick with the sliders in "levels" using the histogram, and it generally works every time. However, on the photos with the dark yellow bands, that does not work to get the yellow out.
This is getting more frustrating for me, the more I'm having to use the camera, as you can see from the screenshot, I'm having to take 5 or 6 times the number of shots than I would if the darn thing would just WORK CONSISTENTLY. It's actually slowing me down tremendously, as far as getting items listed.
I use "auto" setting, because I really don't have the expertise or time to adjust settings between each shot.
Can anyone tell me what the heck is wrong with the K-30? or is it just "how they are" with this kind of light? Or is it me? It almost looks to me like the "rolling" effect you get when trying to film a tv screen...it seems to progress from top to bottom as the shots progress. I'm almost about to ask my buddy if I can borrow his Canon. I don't remember this "dark yellow band" thing happening when i first got the K-30, but then I wasn't doing this specific type of photo, either. Thanks in advance.
Well, I tried to attach a screenshot, and it won't let me. It says I am at my limit. I haven't "attached" anything to a post since 2014. I went in and tried to delete some attachments, and it won't let me do that, either. So, I went in and deleted all the old albums I had up and put the screenshot in an "album". I guess folks can somehow navigate to that to see what I'm talking about.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
03-27-2018, 10:27 AM
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Thanks all for your suggestions!
I had thought of that, but I wanted to have the sound of the hard drive spinning up and then down at the end to show it was functioning properly, plus the Mac does "talk" at one point in the demo. And re: recording separately, I don't really have the skills to sync up a separate soundtrack to the video.
Just checked, and the installed firmware is the last version made for the K-30, 1.06.
Sadly, nope. K-30 hasn't got a mic jack.
I will just have to let it be what it is, and hope that people will read my explanation.
Many thanks to Adam (and ALL of you) for continuing to make this such an excellent community. This forum was why I decided to buy a "new" Pentax in the first place, back in 2012-13. I don't visit as often as I used to, and it's wonderful to know y'all are all still here, making this the only place to come for All Things Pentax.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
03-27-2018, 01:34 AM
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Well, if it's been kept dry and clean, it would likely power up and ask for a startup floppy. They're amazingly resilient little critters. I had not fired this Plus up in at least 15 years, and it is still working fine. This one didn't see much in the way of abuse in its life, and its capacitors seem to be holding out fine. The original Macs had a tendency to blow capacitors on their analog/power boards, but most of them were repaired/upgraded, if they survived. I have an original 1984 Mac that was upgraded. If you've got an original 128k Mac that's STILL a 128, that would be something!
---------- Post added 03-27-18 at 03:41 AM ----------
The noise seems more mechanical than electrical, if that makes sense...but that just may be the way it ends up sounding on the final recording. Whatever it is, the automatic recording level control definitely amplifies it when there is no other sound being recorded. Just sitting there, it's "brrt-brrt-brrt"-ing away.
And I don't know of any audio labs myself, but this is the Bay Area, and there's pretty much everything within a few mile radius...Berkeley's right down the way.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
03-26-2018, 11:57 PM
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Thanks for explaining...that makes sense, in light of the noise I'm hearing. It's in short bursts, and that fits the scenario of having to constantly adjust to keep it steady. I will have to live with it, then. I had just never noticed that sound before, and when there's no other sound, that automatic level control just cranks that little mechanical brrrrt right up to fill that audio space.
The Pentax, of course, took the best video of the working screen, as far as the "rolling lines" interference and other video artifacts that usually show up. It's actually very minimal. I tried two other cameras, and they both had much worse "rolling line" type visual defects, the worst one for that being the camera on the iPhone.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
03-26-2018, 10:45 PM
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Thanks, Adam. I guess I assumed it was the writing to the card, because it synced up with the red light flashing. Can the SR system be turned off completely? I have the camera on the tripod, it's not moving at all while it's recording, so I'm not sure why the sensor would need keeping in place.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
03-26-2018, 09:11 PM
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Hello all, I haven't posted in forever, and my life is on a completely different track than is was last time I was here. "Life happens" as they say.
I am currently in the process of selling off most all of my collectibles in order to survive. One of those things is a very cool old Macintosh Plus with an original Apple external hard drive...both vintage 1986.
I thought I would take a video with the K-30 showing how well the machine works. I tried several times, and kept hearing this odd noise all through every single video. It's a rhythmic "skrch-skrch-skrch" or "brrrt-brrrrt-brrrt-brrrt" sorta sound. I eliminated all noises in the room (fans, other computers running, etc) and it was still there throughout every video I tried to make.
It suddenly dawned on me: The K-30 is recording (and amplifying via its Automatic Level Control) the sound of itself writing to its own SD card! I am certain of it. The rhythmic noise matches the red flashing light as the camera records to the SD card.
Here is the video I finally had to settle with...if you listen on amplified speakers it is unmistakably loud...and annoying!
You Tube
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src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-5wKj0G0Vpw?controls=1" allowfullscreen>
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I really don't want to even USE it, because some people might not read my explanation and will think the hard drive is making the noise, which (in the world of Mac collecting) signals a no go. The main reason I wanted to make a video was to show that the hard drive makes NO BAD NOISES...and the camera itself is inserting what anyone familiar with a hard drive would call "A BAD NOISE."
I looked in the manual, worked my way through every menu option several times, but I can find NO setting to turn off the 'Automatic Level/Volume Control" on the K-30. Has anyone else found any way to keep this sound off their videos? Or is this just a really bad design flaw?
I would imagine that being able to turn off the "ALC" when recording videos would lessen the volume of the noise, but I can't find any way to do that. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears. Thx.
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
11-16-2016, 05:41 PM
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Number 12, most definitely.
It looks like it was taken in the early days of photography, like an undiscovered-until-now gem.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
07-30-2016, 01:06 PM
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
07-30-2016, 12:48 PM
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Ordered my K-30 on January 15, 2013. What a happy coincidence that the email for this survey came today and prompted me to check the info, as today is my K-30's four-year "birthday": it was manufactured on July 30, 2012!
Shutter count is 16,474 and it's performed wonderfully for me. The only "problems" I have had were related to the "four AA" battery adapters not being sturdy enough to maintain contact with all four batteries...I ordered a spare "regular" battery, everything has been great.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
04-02-2014, 09:07 AM
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PPPPPP42: Thanks for the encouragement on the focusing screen...I will probably get brave enough and try it soon. I really did love the split-image in the center and prism around the outside on the K-1000. It seemed to totally take the guesswork out of focus. Even though I'm getting older and my eyes getting worse, I'm still using the viewfinder. I have tried using the little LCD screen, but it just doesn't work for me...and the thing it does where it "magnifies" a section of it just throws me off terribly. I've found that my eye is "happy" with the focus at pretty much the exact same spot where the little "stop sign" flashes and K-30 beeps.
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Forum: Visitors' Center
04-02-2014, 09:01 AM
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Jay, I started out with a K-1000, and made the jump to digital when I bought my K-30. I love the camera. The manual lenses are marvelous with it, once you figure out the buttons and settings.
I did feel a bit let down when they introduced the K-50 so very soon after the K-30, but have not felt compelled to "upgrade"...the K-30 was a comfortable choice and I'm glad i bought it. From what I've seen, you can get a K-30 body only for as low as about $300 on the Marketplace here...a fact that (having bought mine new in January of last year) kinda makes me cringe at what I paid for mine!
But as a first digital camera, I'm glad I chose the K-30. And that 18-135 kit lens is no slouch, either...although it did contribute to me putting off turning that dial away from "AUTO" for a longer time than it should have!:lol:
And you've found the right place to ask questions...wondrously helpful and friendly folk abound!
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
03-31-2014, 06:24 PM
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I guess I'm still kinda puzzled about replacing the focusing screen...I mean, I loved my old split-image screen in the K-1000: you line it all up, you're in focus, it's all good, done. But do any of these replacement screens replicate that? I keep reading about having to use a dremel tool to get it to fit, and having to mess with shims, etc., and I'm not sure I want to go through all that.
I'm finding the stock screen is getting me as close as I can get, as the K-30 still "beeps" and flashes the stop-sign shape to let you know when it's in focus, but it would be cool to have a split-image in the very center to concentrate on again.
And to sorta get back to the topic, one of the lenses I've wanted to find is the M-series 20mm. There's currently one on eBay going for $313.10 and that is in BIDS, not buy-it-now. There were a coupla buy-it-nows that were ridiculous. And in the end I guess it just comes down to they only made so many, and there are people willing to pay silly amounts of money for things, which just skews things upward in general. I have vowed not to pay silly amounts of money for lenses.
Just read the reviews for that 17mm "fisheye" K-series lens...dangit...that looks cool, too......
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
03-28-2014, 05:27 PM
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Maybe if I wait long enough, the prices will drop again! :lol:
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
03-28-2014, 01:49 PM
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I will confess to beginning to buy up every different "M" lens I can find now (does that mean I'm part of the problem? :lol:)...and I'm grimacing at the sight of $300+ extension tubes on FleaBay as well.
I'm totally blown away by using these great old lenses with my K-30. It's a whole different world than using the all auto-everything 18-135 kit lens, and I'm lovin' it.
I guess I'm glad I haven't thought about trying the screw-mount Takumars yet.......yet...
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Forum: Sold Items
03-27-2014, 05:51 PM
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Forum: General Talk
03-24-2014, 03:37 PM
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They brought her over about an hour ago...she seems to have made herself at home just fine. She's pretty spry for bein' 13...seems to like the yard ok, and has been exploring and sniffing. Looks like she'll have herself a nice vacation here.
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Forum: General Talk
03-21-2014, 05:01 PM
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Happy that today my UPS guy brought the att'd from B & H. Exact replacement. Local store Precision Camera was "out of stock" on both the tripod and head. B & H rules. It cost less to replace them than it did to buy them in the first place
Now I can get back to what I was doin'...what I promised my darlin' I would do.
And when I took all my tax stuff to my CPA yesterday, there was a little white dog in her office. Her 13 year old Westy. She said she needed to ask me for a "big favor"...she wants me to keep her dog while she tries to sell her house. An "open-ended" thing...as long as it takes her to sell the house.
Not quite the kind of doggie I'd want if I was getting one, but she evidently had her trained quite well. As soon as I walked in, the little Westy (who's name is "Boo"...which was what we used to call Blanche "for short") greeted me with much wagging and sniffing and coquettishness, after which she lay down right in front of my right shoe, stopping short of putting her head on my shoe.
How could I refuse? Oy.
So I will spend the morning putting up a few fence posts to repair the fence that the deer trampled down after Blanche passed, and she's going to bring her over tomorrow sometime.
And I can finally get back to my archiving project.
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