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Forum: Site Suggestions and Help
04-29-2007, 07:10 PM
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I sort of agree with this. While I photograph almost everything, I seem to have specialized in people. Models, and women who wish/want/think they are models. Posting these pictures doesn't seem to fit into the PEOPLE catagory as they are not family or friends. Also candids of people taken during street photography don't seem to fit the current catagories either. The K10D is the best digital camera I've ever used even getting kudos from a pro who shoots Nikon. I'd just love to post some of these images.
Michael
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
02-17-2007, 05:20 PM
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I know Calumet on Cherry Street just south of Division carries Pentax and should have the aux lenses from Sigma & Tamron. I asked about them for my K10D and they didn't say NO. Helix on Racine just north of the Ike should have them too plus they used to have a great selection of used glass.
Neither store discounts but...
Michael (Oak Park)
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
01-24-2007, 06:34 PM
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Well I spoke with Pentax tech support and think they solved the problem well not really they just explained the WHY.
Seems the shoe itself is not a contuctor, just the little contacts on the floor of the shoe. So the Safe Synch has no way to complete the circuit as the flat part that slides into the camera is ground and is looking to be in electrical contact with the sides of the shoe. The pocket Wizard has a set of contacts on it's base that make contact with those of the Pentax hot shoe. Simple yet disappointing.
Now to buy those Wizards...
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-24-2007, 06:19 PM
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What exactly does this do with/to the external strobes. Aren't they just fired as slaves? Wireless is by light not radio, is that correct. Can whatever this special feature is be used on other makes of strobes or to fire studio strobes?
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
01-24-2007, 05:37 PM
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The kit lens is not great but there really is nothing wrong with it either except being a bit slow, f/3.5 -5.6. Thing is buting it with the camera, it's REALLY inexpensive. So you will be shooting right away. That said start saving your silver for the new lenses coming out in a few months, there will be a 16-50 f/2.8 and 50-135 f/2.8 these lenses are made for the K10D and should be spectacular. The 16-50 will have a field of view equal to a 24-75 on 35mm camera. The other being 75-200mm FOV
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-23-2007, 10:46 PM
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You mention taking portraits. A 50 mm even with a 1.5x reduction in field of view, is still a 50 mm lens for portraiture. (For a given lens focal length for 35mm, multiply it by 1.5 to see what the 'equivalent' field of view is for the digital camera. So 50mm would be like looking through a 75mm lens.) The thing is the depth of field and forshortening of the image with a 50 mm or even 75mm is not great for portraits. Good 35mm portrait lenses start at 85 mm and go to 105. At this focal length the background is usually out of focus and the facial features seem flattened. You don't want the nose to look large because it is closest to the camera.
Hope this helps.
Michael
See my picture of Elyse in my Gallery Photos. This was takem with the 100mm F2.8 macro.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
01-19-2007, 06:46 AM
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Pentax makes or used to make them. I purchased a lens with one but the lens was bad so it went back. I'm having a hard time finding them.
These lenses really add quite a bit of weight up front.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
01-18-2007, 08:21 PM
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After getting my K10D I spoke with customer service at Pentax about using 645 and 67 lenses. They said that the K10 was tested with the medium format lenses and there was NO problem with focus and sharpness.
A medium format lens has to be sharp over a much larger area than a 35MM or DSLR that combined with the larger format is the reason studio pros use them. Look at the ads in a fashion magazine or the portrait work of Annie Lebovitz to see just how sharp they can be. Also look at the price of a Hasselblad or any other Mdeium format lens. US$ 3000+ for some Hassy glass.
Focusing on a CCD as compared to film. What is this misinfo about the light rays have to hit the CCD straight on, where as film is tolerant of the light hitting at an angle. Go back to high school physics. light focuses at a single point at an angle. The reason there are lenses designed for Digital as opposed to film are two fold. 1. Because the CCD is smaller than than the area of film, the lens does not have to cover as large an area. Therefore it can be smaller and the design is different. 2. The CCD is very reflective compared to the surface of film so the digital lens must be coated differently to prevent internal reflections the cause of low contrast. A top notch 35MM lens will be an effective digital lens, a poor film lens will be a very poor digital lens.
Field of view ratios, image crop with non digital lenses. As stated focal length IS focal length. f/ stop IS f/stop. The field of view is reduced as follows.
67 = 60 X 70 mm 2.98 X as large as the 23.5 X15.7mm K10D CCD
645= 60 X45mm 2.55 X as large as the 23.5 X15.7mm K10D CCD
35 = 35 X 24 mm 1.53 X as large as the 23.5 X15.7mm K10D CCD
APS film and CCDs are 25.1 X 16.7 mm
So a 100mm 35mm lens has the field of view of a 153mm on the K10D
100mm 645 lens has the field of view of a 255mm on the
K10D
100mm 67 lens has the field of view of 298mm on the K10D.
REMEMBER the f/stop does not change. How about the 298 mm FOV F/2.8
Hope this helps :-)
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
01-16-2007, 06:09 PM
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Think I will. When I bought my Speedotrons I was sold a wireless system for $50. You get what you pay for. It would only trip the flash 1/2 the time off my Fuji S9000. VERY embarrassing infront of Models The warrantee expired so...
I'm returning a defective lens I over paid for on ebay, so as my buddy said, you already spent the $$ so buy the pocket wizard. As soon as the return clears paypal, I will.
Still the question remains, WHY was this happening?
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
01-13-2007, 11:13 PM
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Thanks. I tried two Pentax autofocus lenses the standard kit lens and a 100MM f/2.0 Macro, on the K10 with the same negative results. I didn't even try the Zeiss 180. I had the camera set on Green, P M and X I went into flash menu with the Fn button and set it to flash. Nothing. I fired studio strobes at a friend's studio earlier this week using a Pocket Wizard remote on the K10 earlier this week.
I moved the SafeSnych from fully foward against the front stop of the hot shoe to almost falling off the rear in very small increments to be sure the spring loaded contact was in the correct location. I even turned the Safe Synch front to back to be sure the contacts were touching.
When all that failed I put the SafeSynch on my Fuji S9000 and the strobes fired as they should. Glad I had my 'former' main camera along to complete the shoot.
When we went outside to shoot, I used the K10 with both Pentax lenses and the pop up flash fired as fill. NO Problem.
Is the configuration of the terminals in the hotshoe especially the center one not standard? Are the sides of the shoe conductors? They should be ground.
Thanks again all!
Michael
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
01-13-2007, 05:03 PM
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Well looks like there have been a lot of viewers of this post but few responders.
I'm still perplexed about this.
Michael
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
01-12-2007, 08:08 PM
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Well here I am at a two Model shoot with a brand new K10D, some great lenses, including a Zeiss 180 f/2.8 for the 645 with adapter ring, AND my Speedotron 1205 strobe. The Speedo was being triggered off the K10D through a Wein SafeSynch and cable as a short in the Speedotron would probably cook the K10D. Well no matter what settings I used on the K10D I could not get the strobes to fire. X, M, P, what ever. Nothing. I went into the strobe menu and it was set to fire the strobe. I know the SafeSynch and cable were OK because when put it on my Fuji S9000, things fired as they should. I even moved the SafeSynch fore and aft to be sure the thing was making contact.
Now to make matters more interesting, when I had the camera at a friend's studio two days ago, we were triggering his Speedotrons with a Pocket Wizard wireless transmitter on the Pentax hot shoe. Plus the built in Flash would fire today without a problem.
Nothing like impressing two beautiful Models with a new camera, some awe inspiring lenses and a flash that won't work off the new toy. I did the shoot with the Fuji indoors and the Pentax outside using the built in flash for fill.
So what was I doing wrong???
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
01-10-2007, 10:12 PM
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The article is in the May June '06 Digital Photo Pro. Page 130. by Mike Stensvold
"If you set a lower ISO than the sensor's native sensitivity, the camera's image processor adjusts the image data after the A/D converter converts it to digital form. In the process, the dynamic range is reduced. So it is best to shoot at the sensor's native ISO whenever possible."
This is what i.glisin stated about the dynamic range, but I do not think the lowest ISO listed on the camera is the native ISO, just what the processor will lower it to.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
01-10-2007, 08:23 PM
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The split prism is a great way to focus but with longer focal lengths, it has a tendency to go black on one side or the other. Eye position is also critical with long lenses. I loved it on my old Nikon FTn. Nikon had a solution to having to rotate the camera to focus on horizontal objects. When their cameras were selected to go to the moon they developed a split prism that was on a 45 degree angle. One did not have to rotate the camera to focus on the horizon. Remember as they put it there are few vertical objects to focus on, on the moon.
Now if KatzEye would like my camera to do the 45 degree prism....
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
01-10-2007, 07:54 PM
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I just read an article about ISO in digital cameras. It explained that each sensor has a native ISO and when we increase it we are just turning up the gain and therefore introducing noise. Well we all kind of knew that. The part I found really interesting is that when we shoot below the native ISO of the sensor the camera throws out info in post processing of the data. That is data from the sensor enters the image processor and is lost to make the lower ISO. The article goes on to suggest that because of this, the lower ISO settings (below native ISO) don't really produce a good an image as the camera is capable of. They suggest shooting at the native ISO and not going to much above that.
My question is what is the native ISO of the sensor in the K10D. As most of my shooting is done with studio lights, I can shoot at that ISO with out any concern for lack of light.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
12-30-2006, 04:48 PM
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I asked the same question of a friend of mine with VR lenses for his Nikon. They too advise one to turn off the VR when on a tripod. His explaination is that it poses an unnecessary drain on the battery.
Also remember that the original manuals are written in Japanese and it may be a language/translation thing.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
12-30-2006, 11:51 AM
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I'd say I shoot almost 20K pictures a year shooting Models. +/_ 300 images a shoot, 70 or so Model shoots a year. 20K is 5 years of shooting. In 3 years 10 megapixels is going to be unacceptable resolution. I got the Optio 555 three years ago. So you can still unload the camera at that time and the new owner will still have some use left in the camera.
Michael
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
12-30-2006, 11:39 AM
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Cap of a fountain pen.
Michael
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
12-18-2006, 06:23 PM
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Which Metz strobes particularly the 45 and 60 series will work with the K10D? Which SCA modules will allow TTL with this camera?
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
12-18-2006, 04:59 PM
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While I'm new to Pentax (a 1968 Spotmatic doesn't count) and Pentax digital (OK, I do own a Optio 555 as 'back up') I have lots of experience with other non DSLR digital cameras (Nikon 650, 995, a 5000 something [returned to Nikon after one week] and a 4500. Fuji 5000, 7000 and 9000). I was sold on the K10D by the features and a discount from a friend at Pentax. Mind you I'm up to here with manual and auto focus Nikon glass from my film days. So glass will be an issue.
The way I see it, the sharpness issue, IF in fact it is real, is not a camera or lens issue but a firmware problem in how the camera processes the data CCD to jpeg. If all one needs to do is shoot Raw and not use Pentax software, then it must be the conversion algorithms in the camera. That being the case, Pentax may in fact come out with a firmware up grade somewhere down the line to address the issue.
Any way it shouldn't be as bad as the lack of sharpness in my Fuji S9000. There is a very soft range of focal lengths on the wide angle side. My S7000 was the phenomenally sharp but the 10X optical zoom of the S9000 leaves a bit to be desired.
But since I do not yet have the camera I'll have to reserve final judgment.
I do know that DP Review stated the Optio 555 was sharper than the Fuji S7000, a fact I might not dispute. But shooting with Models, there is no way they would accept me as a serious photographer if I shot with the 555. LOL
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
12-15-2006, 09:22 AM
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My contact at Pentax finally got around to getting my credit card # yesterday, so it has been OFFICIALLY ordered. The camera/lens should come in ten days but it might take a bit longer for the grip and the 10-17 fish-eye.
While I've been looking forward to this since I learned about the camera in September, I feel I'm moving forward and backwards with this purchase. I've been shooting digital since '99 but have always used a self contained camera that had tilt screens and or electronic view finders never a DSLR. I've gotten so used to having the ability to compose up high or down low without using the view finder, that I'll have to relearn how to shoot with an SLR. LOL Time will tell.
Michael
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
12-15-2006, 08:46 AM
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While waiting for my order to be placed, (my contact at Pentax was on vacation) I downloaded the pdf file of the manual. Hopefully I'll have a jump on that curve.
I'm also getting the 10-17 fisheye. anyone care to comment on that lens?
Oh, camera to arrive in next two weeks.
Michael
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
12-13-2006, 07:38 AM
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I ordered one with my K10D. Will evaluate as soon as they arrive.
Michael
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
12-09-2006, 03:36 PM
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Exposure info please. The picture is FANTASTIC!!!
Michael
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
12-03-2006, 08:54 AM
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I'm supposedly getting one directly from Pentax. I have a contact there. I was shown the camera in September, was told shipping would be late November, then after the first of December. I've already gone out and bought lenses for it and SD cards. I hope it was not a premature move on my part....
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