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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
12-06-2021, 03:51 PM
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In late 2017 I was wanting to upgrade my K3 with the upcoming K3ii replacement and didn't know whether to wait or go FF with the K1. I was unsure how long the wait would be so I bought a K1ii and a FF lens or two and could not have been happier that I didn't wait the 3 years for the K3 iii. I have now also the K3iii and I think the best of both worlds. The K3iii gets an outing for birding, sports/action for its superior reach, AFC and frame rate and when I need a smaller camera; and the K1ii is my choice for portraits, landscapes, indoors, people, night and macro for its pixels, IQ, low-light/high iso capabilities, flippy screen and GPS. If a K1iii appeared with the AFC and frame rate of the K3iii then that would be very attractive - in the meantime Im happy to use what I have and wait.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
09-10-2023, 11:19 PM
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Male and female King Parrots and pair of Crimson Rosella's - so blessed to have these sociable guys in the backyard. Taken with K1ii and flash, all at F4, 100 ISO and some cropping. DFA 85 bokeh is beautiful to my eye.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
09-05-2023, 06:51 PM
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1/640/800, F6.3, 450mm (and cropped), ISO 320/400
The flowering wattles make a beautiful background for these photos.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III Monochrome
06-03-2023, 11:32 PM
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Sandy, you are showing off a little more than your field curvature with this lot!
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Forum: Lens Clubs
11-29-2022, 12:49 AM
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
02-22-2023, 03:25 PM
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My 22 yo daughter has been using a cheap film P&S for a couple of years. Last Xmas her gift request was a better old P&S because the new cheap P&S cameras regularly malfunction. I found her a good copy of a late 1980's Nikon AF3 which she loves. She has the latest smart phone and is an avid social media user. So 'why does she want a film P&S camera" I hear you ask. Well, I have asked this many times myself - why bother with the poorer IQ, expense and delay of film???
She uses her film camera for more special occasions - friends 21st parties or a special trip somewhere with friends. I have offered my GR3 many times - surely the compactness and image quality will do the job but it's always a "no thanks dad". She also has several friends who also use film cameras, so I am not surprised that Pentax/Ricoh is talking about a camera for this market.
The main reason my daughter loves her film P&S is the excitement she feels when she sends her film in for processing and she gets her e-prints back (she gets a scan back rather than prints). In an era of instant gratification, she loves the thrill of seeing the photos she took 1/3/6 months earlier and being reminded of the occasion and then sending the photos on to her friends to re-live the moment too.
Secondly, she likes the look of the film photos. Her phone camera is so sharp and good, she actually enjoys the contrary look of the film's lower resolution and IQ and grain. The weak in-camera flash also adds to the vintage look.
To a lesser extent, she also likes the cache of having a genuine vintage camera to take her vintage photos with.
Good copies of these old P&S cameras are in high demand on ebay etc. I paid $270 AUD (~$180USD) for my daughter's. These old camera's are slowly wearing out and with no spares available, I am not surprised that Ricoh/Pentax are looking at filling this niche. I think a Pentax brand compact, simple to use, film P&S with a half decent flash would be attractive to this young group and would introduce them to the Pentax brand. The fact that Pentax is a real deal vintage brand that is relatively unknown aka exotic, might work in this market niche. I look forward to seeing Ricoh/Pentax bringing a modern 'Nikon AF3' to market.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
12-19-2022, 10:56 PM
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And if they can manage to avoid the gamekeepers shotgun and the rat poison then they just need to avoid the 10,000 wind turbines springing out of the ground over their range!
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
12-16-2022, 05:49 PM
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I thought I would give the K3-3 crew a heads-up on an experience I had this morning that might happen to others.
Many of us will know feeling when you have gone somewhere to take some photos and then your camera won't do what you want it to do, and you're not sure if it is you or the camera that is malfunctioning. And that sinking feeling when you work out it is the camera that needs fixing ($$).
I was keen to try the new firmware AF SEL XS with DFA 150-450 and 1.4x TC, so I headed out this morning .
I walked into the park, turned the camera on, top LCD lit up - all good.
I then hit the INFO button to change the AF to SEL XS and the backscreen stayed black - what am I doing wrong??
Then I hit MENU button, back screen still blank - has the back screen failed??? - Panic.
I turn the camera off, then remove and replace the battery - still no back screen.
I take a photo - looks normal. Hit the photo review and the screen displays - so the screen works - is there a gremlin in the new firmware??
I decide to continue my walk, thinking what could be wrong.
Then I remembered that I needed to clean my back screen properly following the screen getting quite dirty when I walked through some long grass on my previous outing. I had wiped it with my finger but it was grimey and needed a proper clean.
I hit the MENU button - nothing. I then got a clean handkerchief and wiped the backscreen and then the eye sensor at the top of the screen. As I wiped the sensor the back screen sprang into life. The sensor had been dirty and the camera was fine - relief!
Hopefully my post might save other Pentaxians a few anxious moments if it happens to them.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
11-29-2022, 12:44 AM
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Melbourne Docklands area. This combo gives a 125mm equivalent - a short telephoto..
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Forum: Lens Clubs
10-16-2022, 02:55 AM
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Forum: Lens Clubs
12-07-2020, 06:23 AM
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I went for a short walk around the Docklands area of Melbourne with my new DFA 85 and my K1ii to see what it could do. It was midday, overcast and the light was very flat. While not the lens' specialty of wide apertures, beautiful bokeh and portraits, it nevertheless delivered some interesting shots and the resolution is quite astounding. The fourth photo is a 100% crop of the 3rd photo to show the resolution available - you can make out the people in the gondolas on the ferris wheel in the background!
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Forum: Lens Clubs
05-23-2022, 12:51 AM
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I heard a bit of avian commotion in the park behind my house recently, and I found this Collared Sparrowhawk (Accipiter cirrocephalus) in a large pine tree lunching on an unfortunate Spotted Dove (I think). I was impressed by how quickly the Sparrowhawk was able to consume its meal and how it picked clean the bones. I guess 15-20 minutes and it was on its way. I moved to about 10m (yards) from it to get some better light without it being overly concerned by my presence. I assume the other birds were able to relax for the rest of the day after it left??
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Forum: Ricoh GR
10-11-2021, 09:58 PM
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1/20s, F4, ISO200. Shadows lifted in post.
Just love having the GR3 in my pocket when a photo opportunity presents.
I doubt if any cell phone camera could produce this detail and dynamic range?
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Forum: Ricoh GR
02-08-2022, 03:54 PM
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Just love the photo opportunities that having the GR3 in your pocket brings...
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
02-08-2022, 05:35 AM
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Eastern Rosella enjoying the blackberries
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
02-09-2022, 04:47 PM
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Hi Loyd,
if you are wondering about the weather conditions at the time of the photo, it was fine and sunny. In fact it was near perfect morning light (sun behind me) and, although these birds are generally wary and quite skittish, I was able to quietly approach him to about 10m (yards). I think he was enjoying the blackberries too much to take notice of me. Having really good light makes all the difference. In post (LR), the photo is cropped to square format, highlights reduced and a bit of 'texture' (I find this works well for feather detail), small sharpening, whites up a bit, blacks down. No exposure, noise reduction or vibrance/sat adjustment required. I shoot in RAW. I have attached the original photo before any editing for reference. Regards, Geoff
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
02-10-2022, 08:20 PM
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So who introduced blackberries to Australia?
Cheers,
Loyd
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Meuller, government botanist for the colony of Victoria. In 1858 he began cultivating them in the Melbourne Botanic Gardens and then (allegedly) spread them through the countryside to provide food for travellers. No doubt the Rosellas and other wildlife facilitated the spread and now they are probably the most hated plant in these parts. I trust he was knighted for deeds other than spreading noxious weeds. But well spotted - they shouldn't be here! G
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
01-31-2022, 03:46 AM
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
01-18-2022, 12:34 AM
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K3 with the DFA 70-200mm.
The second photo was taken during a 20 minute interval in racing for the officials to take their lunch. There seemed to be more bodies than water in the pool!
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
01-10-2022, 12:04 AM
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What are the odds? I took the same photo from almost the same spot a week earlier with my GR3! Mine didn't turn out so well.
(If you are still down there, there was a family of Peregrine falcons hunting the cliffs near the Cape Schanck Lighthouse in the early morning)
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Forum: Lens Clubs
10-26-2021, 05:28 AM
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A Powerful Owl sitting on a brush tail possum caught during the night. These possums grow to about 2.5kg (5.5lbs) or about the size of a big cat but they are regular meals for these owls. Powerful Owls have very large talons and are known to take prey that is 50-100% of their own body weight. I've included a closeup of their talons which they use to more or less instantly kill their prey with their lethal grip. This female has a wingspan of about 130cm (4 ft) and probably weighs just under 2 kgs - the possum weighing close to the same. Fantastic birds. Main photo taken with the K1ii & 150-450, talon shot from a couple of years ago with the K3 and DA* 300.
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
10-13-2021, 03:11 PM
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The 70-200 and 150-450 both have the focus range limit switches (not sure about 15-30) - maybe you have inadvertently selected one of the focus ranges? I have done this a few times and wondered why the focus doesnt work.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
07-05-2021, 03:52 PM
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Just wondering why you use the fancy pen on the front of the print and then pencil on the rear? why not use the pen on both sides?? Thx
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
05-14-2021, 10:59 PM
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First day out with the new toy and the DFA 150-450. It will take a while to get the setup sorted but it was easy to translate my basic K1ii setup to the K3iii and get a few shots (weather not great here today). Most noticeable differences after a couple of years shooting the K1ii are: the K3ii is a very compact camera, hi-fps is very quick (11fps vs 4fps) and quiet, even a single shot is fast in duration, quiet and no vibration - very smooth, viewfinder is nice like the K1, menu's are extensive but quick to navigate (touch screen is great when typing custom User mode names), AF-S is fast and accurate & AF-C was accurate to track a couple of birds flying and looks promising, ISO noise looks similar to the K1 on the few photos to date but early days (the attached photos were ISO 1250 & 1600 and I gave them a touch of NR in LR) but the K1 is much better than my old K3 so K3iii users coming from a K3/K3ii will see a big improvement, camera feels great in hand, not sure I like the photo replay button position (a bit of stretch to reach it with my thumb). Photo IQ looks very good with fine detail.
Powerful Owl roosting.
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Forum: Ricoh GR
03-29-2021, 03:46 AM
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Apologies to those still doing it tough under COVID restrictions, but there is hope that it passes and life heads back towards normality. Here in Melbourne (Aust) last year we had several months of lockdown but recently restrictions eased to allow 50% capacity at sporting venues. It felt surreal to attend an Australian Football match with 50,000 maskless others at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Hopefully we don't have a relapse. Meanwhile stay safe and happy. (The GR3 in your pocket is GR8 for capturing these occasions).
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