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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-29-2008, 06:26 PM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-23-2008, 11:11 PM
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Thanks for the ideas. I don't see anything obviously physically wrong with the lens. I'll have to search out some example pics, but it will probably have to wait til after the holiday...
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-23-2008, 01:49 PM
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It's not a subject-matter/lighting issue. It happens in every situation, regardless. I can take a picture of a flat wall and it will be over-exposed compared to another lens taking the exact same pic 30 seconds later.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-23-2008, 12:37 PM
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Hi all-
I have a 70mm Limited which I love, but it does consistently over-expose by at least 2/3 of a stop, sometimes even over a whole stop. Whenever I put the lens on the camera I have to dial in exposure compensation to make up for it, and re-set it when a different lens goes on. Has any one else had this problem?
Does it sound like something which could get repaired?
This is on a K20D. None of my other lenses (Pentax and Sigma) have this issue.
Thanks,
Adam
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
08-13-2008, 07:47 AM
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Thanks!
Yeah, I'd never been to it before and was blown away how big it is. Also, there's a very good computer museum at the top of it, of all things.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
08-12-2008, 09:27 PM
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For Part 2 of photos from my recent Paris trip, this is the humungous Grand Arch at La Defense, the less popular and more modern counterpart to the Arc de Triomphe. It's on the outskirts of Paris, but still connected in a straight line to the Napoleonic-era. It's actually two office buildings joined by a bridge at the top, and is an almost perfect cube about 110m (360 ft) per side.
Here's the view from the front of it.
A three-quarter view. I like the reflections on this one
A sculpture nearby
Some people on the steps at the base of it, for scale. It's really huge!
Looking up at the canopy suspended inside it
Riding up in the elevator. The glass elevators are basically suspended in a scaffolding like structure that is in the open arch. It's a bit vertigo-inducing to ride up in them!
A view from the roof
Finally, looking up again from the ground.
(Part 1 can be seen in this thread)
Enjoy!
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
08-11-2008, 05:48 PM
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I thought I'd post some of my photos from a recent trip to Paris. I'll do them in a few batches. Here are some from the famous Pantheon. Hope you enjoy!
BTW, all taken with a K20D, and in this case with a Sigma 18-50 macro.
Full gallery here.
1. Outside, looking up at the famous dome.
2. Inside
3. Looking up inside the dome. There is a gigantic Foucault's pendulum hanging from the peak of it.
4. Another part of the ceiling
5. In the crypt under ground
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-04-2008, 03:56 AM
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I have a similar amount of play in mine. I was worried about it when I first received it as Amazon (or their vendor) had shipped it in a screwy way - the lens box was in a large outer box with lots of their inflatable padding....but the lens box was stuck in one corner of the box with absolutely no padding on 4 of its six sides! Grrr. I ran tests on it and it seems to be fine. I haven't noticed any issues with the play causing image defects.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-01-2008, 03:09 PM
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I've been happy with my Sigma 18-50 macro. It's a bit on the heavy side, but it's comparable to other lenses of same focal range and constant 2.8 aperture. Sharpness overall is quite good indeed, though it is softer at 2.8 and wide open (no surprise, that's typical). By 5.6 it is sharp at all focal lengths. Macro works well, though is not a true macro (it's a "marketing macro" as is the case with most of these kind of lenses). Bokeh is quite good, and color seems just fine.
Build quality is very good. The zoom ring goes in the opposite direction to Pentax's (and my intuition), which is one of my downsides about it. Also the hood and lens cap are rather finnicky to put on.
The new Pentax 18-55 seems quite good, but is too slow for me. 16-50 is twice as much, and was in the midst of its QC crisis when I got my Sigma, things seem to have calmed down now. Tamron has only just become available, and from what I've read it and the Sigma have some pluses and minuses each, are roughly comparable.
Hope that helps!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-01-2008, 03:02 PM
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@ Tom: Great rugby shots, especially the second one! There's something about rugby that makes players contort their mouths into funny shapes!
@ jsherman999: I shot in RAW, converted in Aperture. If shooting JPEG i always shoot Natural. I've had it shoot Vivid inadvertantly and don't like the results - reds and greens get really overblown and contrast is too high. In fact I've seen reds on flowers and clothing get too saturated and blown out. So I avoid it.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-31-2008, 02:17 AM
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Not that anyone has said it does! But the amount of detail this thing can pull out with a K20D is just astonishing.
Here's a 100% crop of a bee on a flower (from the Jardin des Plantes in Paris - great place if you've never been, BTW)
And for context, here's the whole image this was pulled from:
That makes the first image just 2.5% of the whole image area! Pretty amazing I think.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-30-2008, 11:00 AM
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I'd tend to agree with this. Carrying around a bunch of zooms gives a lot of flexibility but it's going to weigh a lot, and that will really, um, weigh you down on your feet the whole day, especially walking around in the sun as you probably will be. Plus the bag just gets bigger and more bulky in crowded areas.
But consider supplementing with a walkaround zoom that covers your favorite lengths, just in case you want to go even lighter and leave the rest of the lenses at the hotel.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-30-2008, 08:02 AM
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I've had my 70mm Limited for a few weeks, and it is pretty consistently over exposing by .5 to 1 stop often resulting in unrecoverable hot areas. I compensate with the EV control, but it's annoying that I have to keep adjusting this if switching between lenses. This is on a K20D. My other lenses are exposing fine, and yes I always shoot RAW.
I had rented a 70mm and used it at a wedding on my old DS and had the same issue where many (but not all) photos were too hot and had to get dialed back in Aperture.
Is this a common issue with this lens? Anyone else had this problem?
Thanks,
Adam
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-20-2008, 09:16 AM
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Ah, well if you're shooting RAW then the contrast setting on the camera doesn't do anything (it only affects how JPEGs are processed, including the JPEG previews accompanying RAW files). In that case all the contrast adjustment will be happening in post processing.
Don't know if you have a film background, but digital has lower dynamic range than film so produces higher contrast images (that is, details in shadows and highlights get lost more quickly because the ends of the spectrum are compressed relative to film). That's just a fact of life at the moment.
But there are tricks you can do in post processing to try to pull out detail without just flattening the contrast into oblivion. I use Aperture, and its Shadow Recovery tool is pretty miraculous. I wouldn't know how to replicate it exactly in another app though - it's doing some clever stuff with curves.
Here's an example of a very high dynamic range image, with the sun coming out from the clouds and areas of shadow. I underexposed to keep detail in the clouds.
And here's what Aperture was able to pull out of the shadows (I probably overdid it a bit)
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-19-2008, 07:27 PM
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I just picked up an Op/Tech strap for my new K20D to relieve some of the weight (esp with the battery pack attached). I realized I can kill two birds with one stone with the Op/Tech, having both a shoulder strap and a wrist strap. I tend to prefer to wrap a camera's strap around my wrist when doing street and travel photography, I find it faster to use, less cumbersome, and more secure. But full-length should straps are rather too long and bulky to be turned into wrist straps unless skinny, but skinny straps are less tiring on the shoulder after a while with a heavier camera. The Op/Tech Super Classic strap that I bought offers a neat solution to this that doesn't require buying a separate wrist strap (which Op/Tech also sells) Thought I'd share how.
Here's the Op/Tech Classic attached to the camera. It's a long strap, so the camera hangs down almost at my hips (I'm 5'10"), which I prefer. I hate having a camera at armpit/chest level.
Here's a close-up of the strap - it has little rubber nubbies (that's a technical term) embedded into the neoprene, so it is very non-slip (compared to the Domke straps I've used for years). The stretchy neoprene absorbs shock and keeps it comfy.
The trick with many of the Op/Tech straps is that they are conceived as a system, and you can swap pieces in and out. So the middle pad piece comes off with the plastic snaps. This leaves two dangling pieces of webbing...which can be snapped together to form a small strap.
Wrap this around your wrist and off you go!
A couple of notes: The Super Classic strap comes in two versions, regular and "Pro-Loop". The Pro-Loop has a slightly different way of attaching to the bracket on the camera but more importantly the webbing pieces are much shorter. This made it too short to use as a wrist strap. Second, to get the webbing long enough to use as a wrist strap it does make the combined length of the strap when worn over the shoulder quite long, so if you prefer carrying your camera on a short strap this possibly won't work for you.
But I'm happy I don't have to buy/carry/swap a secondary wrist strap!
Super Classic page |
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-19-2008, 04:47 PM
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Make sure you are in Natural picture mode, not Bright or Vibrant as these will significantly increase contrast and saturation leading to the kinds of issues you are describing. If you are looking for a major decrease in contrast I have a feeling that even at -4 it may not be enough, the adjustments in camera are relatively subtle. I would also test to see whether lowering contrast in-camera and boosting in Photoshop in PP gives good results - my guess is that it's not the same as leaving contrast at zero (middle setting), but don't have anything to back that up :)
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-10-2008, 10:00 PM
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I've had limited experience with the 77, and own the 70. I really like the 70, as I prize small size and weight (especially to offset the weight of the K20D!). The 77 is significantly heavier (heck the 70 feels lighter than my plastic FA35 f/2). The 77 has somewhat better bokeh, but for sharpness I don't think there's much in it. The 70 is really good on that point. It's tack sharp at the center at all apertures, and by 5.6 the corners are as sharp as the center.
The 70 is somewhat slower (f2.4 vs 1.8), so if you do a lot of low-light shooting that might be a concern. Interestingly both have the same minimum focusing difference.
Focusing on the 70 seems quicker.
My one seems to over-expose about half a stop, not sure if that's something common to this lens. I have to keep the EV set to -.5 for the most part.
The 70 is cheaper, though to be honest that wasn't the key factor for me, if I'd preferred the 77 I would have got it.
Hope that helps
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-07-2008, 10:40 PM
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Yep, saw that too. A pretty good write - favorable for sure, though I was hoping for a bit more discussion of the image quality - detail, bokeh. Though the information on handling, focusing speed is good to hear. Too bad the focus setting came in so out of whack, lucky he was able to correct it with the K20. For such a pricey lens I would expect it to be within tighter tolerances.
Looking forward to the rest of their K20 review (not that it matters as far as choice, as I just bought one anyway :) )
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
06-17-2008, 11:01 AM
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Yes, if image quality were truly all that mattered in photography, we'd all still be shooting with 8x10's :D
Fact is a lot of other factors come into play. 8x10s blow everything else out of the water in terms of image quality, but convenience is not exactly their strong suit. Especially as you have to lug a whacking great wood tripod around to set them on.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-24-2008, 10:35 PM
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I have used the FA24 for a couple of years, and have recently rented a DA21 for a week to see how it worked. Size-wize they are worlds apart, as others have said. The 24 is a really big and heavy lens, almost as much as my Sigma 18-50/2.8. I like its build quality and the silver look. It has been my most used lens as I like the focal length and the speed. I have not had issues with its sharpness, even wide open. It is certainly not dismal.
The DA21 is fantastically small and light, and if I were buying again I would go for that instead of the 24 as I do a lot of walk -around street photography and the 21 is much lighter and more discrete. It's not as fast, obviously. Construction is at least as good as the 24. Sharpness is perhaps slightly superior to the 24 at the edges (can't say I see much difference in the center). Color rendition of the two lenses is quite different, the 24 is warmer and the 21 cooler (apparently this is common to the newer lenses). 21 appears to have very good flare control and little fringing. I've only got limited experience with the 21 so far, but I would say the bokeh of it is slightly inferior to the 24.
You can see a few photos I've taken with the 24 here: Zenfolio | Adam Richardson | Pentax FA*24mm f2
Hope this helps!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-21-2008, 09:55 PM
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I'm holding out for one of their *non-optical* lenses - now those are rare!
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
04-25-2008, 09:50 PM
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Raw Developer had been my converter of choice too...until Aperture 2. I never felt that Ap1 or Lightroom could equal RD's ability to pull out detail (especially texture), but the Raw Fine Tuning tools in Ap2 have addressed that. The convenience of an all-in-one processor for Jpeg and Raw, with greating cataloging and publishing capabilities, means RD will only get used for legacy images.
Plus it hasn't been significantly updated in almost a year, so I'm not sure it's really still a viable long-term solution.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
04-21-2008, 11:13 AM
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@J.Scott: Thanks for the feedback, those are all good points. I should adjust the angle on the narrow building, as it is off a bit. Also, if I'd noticed the scaffolding I would have swiveled myself a bit to the right so that it could be seen :)
@Pentagor: Yes, construction is permanent! Well, it's supposed to be finished around 2050, and they started over 100 years ago. This is typical for cathedrals - most large medieval ones took a couple of centuries to build. Even with modern machinery it's taking a long time (there's relatively little budget too, so that doesn't help...)
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
04-20-2008, 09:21 AM
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I was fortunate enough to have a business trip last week in Barcelona, and while the days were pretty packed I did take one day extra to look around the city a little bit. I visited of course the amazing Sagrada Familia, truly an astonishing cathedral designed by Antonin Gaudi that has been under construction for the last 100+ years and is expected to be finished around 2050. I also visited the famous La Boqueria food market, which was a sensory overload experience, and did quite a bit of walking around the streets. The weather chose that day to be gray and rainy (the rest of the trip had beautiful weather), so the light was not that great, but it was still enjoyable taking some photos as it is a beautiful city. I definitely hope to go back again.
A few samples here, and more at my Zenfolio gallery.
Adam
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
04-11-2008, 03:49 PM
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Yikes, this put a wrench in my works.... Had been thinking I'd get the Sigma 70mm macro so that it could double as a portrait lens, but this looks fantastic
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