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Forum: Lens Sample Photo Archive
05-21-2023, 11:38 AM
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Stunning, which seems to be par for your photography. I am an admirer
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
04-02-2022, 03:25 AM
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I recently found a Focal 28-70, f3.5-4.5 brand new in the box with the original price of $100. It's proving to be a rather nice lens and fun to use. I accidentally ran across a Sears lens of the same size and the boxes are nearly identical. Both lenses were made in Korea. The lenses are identical to the naked eye. I'm just beginning to use mine, but it does show promise.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
05-08-2021, 01:11 PM
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To me, borrowing my lenses would be like somebody asking to borrow my husband. NOT!
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
11-11-2020, 07:34 PM
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When Pentax came out with all those custom colors, I had hoped that it would attract photographers who want to customize their equipment so they would be recognized, to help ID it, etc. Instead, it seems that professionals think it's tacky or childish or something. What a shame. My white and red bodies have attracted quite a few friendly queries and comments.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
11-17-2020, 08:00 PM
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Oh, of all the photo "stuff" that I don't have and would LOVE to have, is the 645. Awesome!
As for being off topic, I disagree. Anything that documents the use of Pentax equipment should be relevant, since it shows not only that we do use it, but how and why. That in turn shows which equipment keeps Pentaxians happy. If only corporate was stressing how regular people and devotees at all levels love these cameras and lenses was thrown under a spotlight, then perhaps the "professional" stamp that sucks people into buyng heavy, expensive canacons would have less appeal and Pentax could take a bow for its production of user-friendly gear that doesn't require one to sell a kidney to be a photographer.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
11-11-2020, 01:31 AM
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She always used her old iPhone to take her pix and they were lovely. Watching me with my cameras, she decided go for a DSLR, but before I could recruit her, her grown children had pitched in and bought her an entry-level Canon setup for Christmas. I never saw her actually use it though. Then she met a widower and they are a pair now. He is a techie type--has all kinds of toys. He also had two Hasselblad Lunars, untouched in their presentation boxes. He gave one to her, hoping, I think, to go shooting together.
My friend is an artist, mostly dealing in framed abstract art that she creates from her photos in PhotoShop. Well, guess what. I haven't seen either the Canon or Hasselblad lately, She seems to prefer her iPhone 7. It takes all kinds. ;)
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
09-15-2019, 05:06 PM
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Once again, as I do each year (sigh), I would like to request a t-shirt for women. In case nobody's noticed, women are built differently than men. That said, most of us prefer to wear a shirt that actually looks good on us, which is the French t-shirt. Each year I ask about the possibility of having AT LEAST ONE CHOICE for women. Some modicum of fairness has not escaped the continued unconscious male bias in this forum ("I'm excited to see what you guys will come up with....") in the official rules. What is it that prevents even a discussion of this topic? Sad and seriously off-putting for this Pentaxian.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
10-21-2019, 06:04 PM
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
09-17-2019, 02:13 AM
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Adam,
Unexpected bonus! Really appreciate all that you do, especially this.
c:
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
03-09-2019, 05:49 PM
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I would like to nominate this photo
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
08-13-2018, 09:23 PM
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Thanks, CSA, for remembering us! c:
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Forum: Visitors' Center
07-30-2018, 04:18 PM
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I do a lot of research and repair lots of stuff, not always successfully. The parts of many things are now being made in China, either partially or in whole. Recent adventures in reading user reviews on various things: cameras, pressure cookers, micro table saws, flash drives, various tools, computers, etc., show that this is not a rare event. In particular, a woman on Amazon did deep research after the bottom of her expensive, well-reviewed pressure cooker MELTED, leaking molten aluminum (?) down into her stove--and she wasn't the only one!
Almost all complaints were grounded in the fact that once production went to China, things fell apart. That's part of my point. A second part is that most companies used the same model number for parts that had been outsourced to China and people familiar with the previous model (ostensibly the exact same thing but made in Japan or the US) found that the ones with Chinese manufacture had flawed parts that melted, blew up, didn't fit, rusted, couldn't be replaced/repaired, etc. As a result, I no longer buy ANYTHING manufactured in China or partially made there. My third point is, of course, that this is happening to many things, not just Pentax cameras. Does anybody know if this sort of thing is happening to other camera brands?
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Forum: Photo Critique
07-24-2018, 09:28 AM
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Yes, I didn't think it was unsharp, but françois' suggestion to sharpen was a good one.
Does the trick. Very nice.
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Forum: Photo Critique
07-23-2018, 05:53 PM
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Love the composition, the colors, and yes, it's plenty sharp enough. What I think it might use is some highlights. That would put it over the top. Just my opinion.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-09-2018, 07:57 PM
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You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him pick up the soap.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
06-20-2018, 02:45 AM
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Yeah. It works now. I got a different looking page this time that then flipped back to the original one which did work. Go figure.
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
05-22-2018, 09:14 PM
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[quote=Blackink;4286089]Hi Carla, thanks for the support and links. All suggestions will be welcome at this point (as in....point & shoot??!!??....Not !) lolol
A Vermont farm....I love it. Is it organic?!? We grow most of the vegetables that we eat here. maybe some day I'll post some pics with the K-50.
Take care neighbor,
Steve[COLOR="Silver"]
Hi Steve,
I'm glad you have a "cheat sheet" for your notes. That will help a lot. The reason I suggested using the auto setting is so you wouldn't be overwhelmed with all the variables coming out the door. It helps to have some success right at first and the auto setting more or less guarantees that. One thing I didn't say and should have, is to watch the numbers that the camera picks in varying light, etc. Push the camera to do difficult things--low light (where the subject might be dark enough to hinder focusing, or the picture come out too dark), shooting into the sun (look for "flair" where the sun can dilute the colors and even blot out part of the picture--showing you perhaps that you need a hood on that lens), trying to catch something moving (look for blur, where a slower lens or low light will create more blur, and a faster lens or better light will have less blur and better focusing), try using the camera's macro setting (to see how close you can get, which is a lot of fun), etc. Then look closely at the pictures; now you will have something to download, and that's important to get a handle on right away. When you are looking at the pictures on your computer, right click the picture and there will be an option for "Properties". Left click that. Inside there, go up and left click on "Details" and you should have a listing of the settings that the camera used to take the picture. It's good experience to try and figure out how and why those settings were used against the results you got.
After that, start messing around with individual settings, like the f-stop that determines how much of the subject will be in focus. The wonderful thing about digital is that it costs nothing to screw around. Sure, it will be confusing, and don't bite off too much at once and get discouraged. The reason I suggested reading a lot of reviews is that it will familiarize you with the components of the camera and you will develop a lexicon of camera terms which will help you understand what all those buttons are for. I had been shooting pictures for years before I really tackled a lot of that language, because my old Spotmatic F was a pretty simple camera, unlike modern DSLRs.
Of course we're always here to make fun of you. I'm joking, of course, but we will try to help if you ask. One day before too long you will begin to understand how things work and then it will be more fun to shoot pix and show them off. We're pulling for you. As Des said, there are really no dumb questions.
In answer to your query, we have a garden in VT that's about 20' X 40', which we expand each year. It's about six years old now and yesterday we ate the first asparagus! Yes, it's organic--a square-foot garden if you know the term. We've always had an organic mindset, but never used the square-foot technique till recently and the results are astounding. We can't get over how much that little plot produces! Much fun and we're not afraid to eat our vegetables. Maybe you could give us some tips on how to raise spinach. That seems to be susceptible to varmints and bolting and every manner of misbehaving. It's my favorite vege but we never seem to get enough of it. Hey, take some pix of your garden. I'd love to see it.
Best,
c:
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
05-19-2018, 08:10 PM
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We got about 30 tops out of it, but they have to dry for at least a year before we can use them--longer if we can hold off.
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
05-09-2018, 10:49 PM
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
03-15-2018, 11:52 PM
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LordLucan, I copied the links in your post to send to my brother-in-law who has been wrestling with my late computer crash that cost him a week of agony trying to reconstruct my files--since the cloud storage we used as a backup was unusable for some reason. We had discussed how cloud storage isn't the end-all that some people think, so I thought he might be interested in those articles. Thank you!
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
03-13-2018, 01:45 PM
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Alex645, you have made some very good points. I had discounted Polaroid and Kodak, forgotten about Mamiya, Minolta, Yashica, etc. Sigh. Currently I am enamored of the M42 Kuribayashi Petri lenses; they remind me of that old German rangefinder (Voigtlander I think) that my dog disassembled, but which I never really understood and never got that many good shot out of. Given that the Pentax is so dissed these days, it stimulates me to nostalgia that creeps into fantasizing. I do appreciate that you are "herding cats" at times. Thank you.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
03-12-2018, 04:05 AM
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With a lifetime avocation to photography, starting with the Spotmatic, I have been following this thread with great interest, and angst. The iconic Spotmatic taught me photography--that is, the Depth of Field (DOF) button schooled me, with every click, how to see a photograph. I will be eternally grateful and, yet, wondering how we always hear about the K1000 over the Spotmatic, when it is only the latter camera which offers that incredible, captivating DOF button.
Today I ran across a long 2016 article (with kudos to Jonathan Gorse) on the DP (Digital Photography Review) web site that left me almost in tears of gratitude for its appreciation of Pentax through the years, with a spotlight on the flagship K-1. Anybody who still uses Pentax cameras, of any kind, will be grinning like an idiot by the time he reaches the end of the article, and probably alarm the family when he stands and begins clapping loudly and dancing around the room. Yeah, it's that reassuring to us "rare" shooters. Here's the link:
Jonathan Gorse Photography | Pentax K1 - the 35mm legend returns...
Regressing a bit, here's an earlier article, also by Jonathan Gorse, with yet more history and praise for OUR camera:
Jonathan Gorse Photography | Why I shoot with Pentax cameras
As much as I'm a a fanatical Pentaxian, I have to admit that there is one "other" camera which inhabits my dreams, the newly announced Leica matte black M Monochrom "Stealth Edition" (limited to 125 sets) with glow-in-the-dark markings, for only $15,750. Check it out!
Leica reveals matte black M Monochrom 'Stealth Edition' with glow-in-the-dark markings: Digital Photography Review
After reading the two Pentax articles, I regained hope that one day, before long, we can shed our "Maytag repairman" personas and regain the throne from wence Pentax once ruled the photographic world. Really! :D
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
11-26-2017, 07:53 PM
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We can use our fine equipment and forum support to make more/better photos. THEN, we can enter contests and post photos whenever we get a chance, clearly showing/stating that it was Pentax equipment. We will, however, never convert those who equate excellence with money and affordability with "low class", as many of the Canikon class do.
Until we actively demonstrate how good our cameras and glass, especially OLD glass, can be, we'll never get respect and the Pentax name will leach from the land of the living, little more than a rumor. In short, if we don't commit to our own excellence, we will continue to enable the Canikon nation. It's actually happening now, as Ricoh abandons the Pentax name, switching focus to "optics", while we sit around, lonely and whining like Maytag repairmen. Maybe, if we're serious, we should show it and stop with the "...yes, but..." mentality that seems to permeate Pentaxian thinking.
But then, maybe I'm being too harsh.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
09-26-2017, 10:35 AM
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photoptimist, I shudder to think that anybody would spend all that good money for a camera because of the way it looks or simply as a knee-jerk reaction to the advertising or fame of a certain camera/brand. What does that say about them? It makes me forever glad to be a lifelong Pentaxian and grateful for the company of other serious, thinking photographers. c:
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
09-25-2017, 12:49 AM
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No doubt others have noticed how poorly Pentax nearly always fares in camera reviews. Time and again Nikon and Canon dominate the "winners" so that it becomes (to me) irritating to even check them out. I ran across this particular compendium and wish to share it. First off, Sony placed very highly, which was refreshing. I am surprised that Canon wasn't even mentioned--hard to believe but there it is!
What I also noticed is that the K-1 placed fourth in the ranking with a score of 96. That's sensational if you consider that the Pentax was the cheapest camera in the ranking--about half the price of the three cameras which placed above it and considerably cheaper than many of the lower 13 listed cameras. While I don't know the nitty-gritty of any of these other brands of cameras (being a lifelong, die-hard Pentaxian), it appears that this ranking is a welcome, ground-breaking win for Pentax.
https://photorumors.com/2017/09/24/the-top-rated-cameras-based-on-the-overal...rk-test-score/
Your thoughts?
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