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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
06-24-2019, 01:52 AM
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Look at the lever to the immediate left of the pentaprism, press the centre down and this releases the +- setting
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
10-05-2018, 03:34 PM
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Hi there,
I have had 2 copies of this lens and both were 3.5-4.5, not the 5.6 you mention. My first shattered internally after a drop on to a hard surface floor and I thought enough of the useful fl to buy a second copy. Yes it does lack critical sharpness when compared to some other Pentax film era lenses, but it gave sharp enough images for me to print confidently, from my MZ-S film camera at A3+ size. I found it less useful on APS-C digital and used it infrequently until I bought the K1. While waiting for the DFA 28-105 to arrive,the FA 24-90 became my walkabout zoom. I noticed that images here looked sharp enough when zoomed up to 10x for viewing on the LCD screen but then softened after 10x zoom.
It is still useful as a walkabout lens though my preference is for the DFA 28-105. It has better critical sharpness and is weather sealed.
I have 2 issues about the DFA 28-105 though: the lack of 24 mm wide end and the slowness (5.6) at the long end. I miss the 24-90 for these two features and think it was a mistake of Ricoh to opt for such a slow lens on their pro level full frame camera. The f4.5 of the 24-90 is 2/3 stop faster at its long end than the DFA 28-105. I would much rather have a 24-105 f4 as some other brands have gone for. Sure, it would have meant a larger (probably a 72mm filter size) walkabout lens but it would be more in keeping with a pro level camera.
I also have, and use on special occasions, the DFA 24-70 but due to its weight and size it is reserved for music and other genres. It's definitely not a walkabout mainstay.
I can't help compare both DFA standard fl zooms with the Sigma 17-70 that is my favourite lens for my K3 bodies. Its 2.8-4 aperture and its FF equivalent of 25-105 seems just right to me along with its 72mm filter size.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
07-22-2018, 11:08 PM
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The FA 35 has 6 blades, not 8. This can make quite a difference to the bokeh
I recently bought a used one and Sharpness is excellent but erratic AF is a distinguishing feature too. See also https://www.lenstip.com/254.1-Lens_review- for autofocus issue
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
01-09-2018, 06:59 PM
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I have a pair of K3 bodies and used the Sigma 17-70 as my walkabout zoom It was a much better lens than the Pentax 17-70 in terms of sharpness and general image quality. Prior to the K3s I used it with a K5 and I must say the auto focus was greatly improved when I bought the K3s.
Using the Sigma 17-70 on a K3 and photographing in excellent lighting gave images printed to A3 size that were just a small step below what I now get with the K1 and the DFA 24-70 or the DFA 28-105.
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
09-04-2017, 03:56 AM
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I bought the Sigma macro flash and be aware it is not a true ring flash as it has a tube on both sides that are independently adjustable. It works really well on my K3 and K1 cameras and in many ways gives more natural results for macro work on insects and other small subjects because the lighting is not flat in the way that a ring flash delivers its light.
I've been using it for over 2 years and have not had any problems.
One small issue is that Sigma did not include a 49mm mounting ring and one has to buy another ring to bridge the gap between what they include in the pack and the Pentax 100mm macro lens.
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Forum: Repairs and Warranty Service
08-28-2017, 03:09 AM
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Thanks for your input to this thread and I will be very interested in the response you get. I too will post the results when my lens returns from Japan.
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Forum: Repairs and Warranty Service
08-25-2017, 11:08 PM
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Thanks for your message and yes a climate controlled room is possibly the best option.
I disagree with your point about trapping internal moisture in the lens because the principle of diffusion is that molecules will move from an area of higher concentration (inside the lens) to an area of lower concentration (the surrounding dry air in my dry box). That's the reason for the dry box: to remove moisture from the lens and so inhibit fungal growth inside the lens.
It's interesting that another forum member has a similar issue with the same lens. I'll be interested to see what sort of a message is included when the lens returns.
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Forum: Repairs and Warranty Service
08-21-2017, 02:27 AM
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Hi, and thanks for your thoughts on my lens infection. I have taken time to get a range of readings on temperature and relative humidity from inside my dry box and I'll also give some info on my geographic location that may enable you to comment further:
Relative humidity over three weeks was a min/max of 48% -53%
Temperature min-max 17 - 22 degrees Celsius
Location: around 5 km in direct line to a small harbour and about another 10 km to open sea. My house is protected from the storms and winter frosts are infrequent and light and there were 9.6 days of ground frost last year for the nearest major centre Wellington (New Zealand).
It is a very mild climate with summer daily maximums around 28 degrees Celsius and winter daily minimums around 9 degrees Celsius.
I've included this info because if you live in a continental climate, then photographic equipment will be exposed to extremes not experienced by the infected lens I attached to my first message.
I'd be interested in any further thoughts you may have on my lens issue.
Thanks,
Don.
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Forum: Repairs and Warranty Service
08-06-2017, 04:15 AM
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Agreed. That is a question I will be asking when I next hear from the NZ Pentax techo. He gave an estimate of 4-6 weeks before he will get the lens back with a report on it from Japan.
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Forum: Repairs and Warranty Service
08-06-2017, 12:13 AM
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Yes I agree fully with what you say. I was surprised my dry box had allowed the fungal growth to go as far as it did. Your explanation fits well with what happened.
I only use the lens for special occasions due to its weight and bulk. It comes out for music gigs and similar events. My walkabout lens is the DFA 28-105.
The delay in my spotting the infection was there were no upcoming events I wanted to photograph.
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Forum: Repairs and Warranty Service
08-05-2017, 11:12 PM
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Hi, I recently noticed what looked like drying marks of water ingress inside my DFA 24-70 lens. However after photographing it with a macro lens shock and horror - it looked as though a tiny insect or similar life form had entered the lens and wandered around before dying.
There is fungus growing at the lower mid to left side and the Pentax technician who investigated thought the insect (?) may have done its droppings there and so set up the fungal infection.
The technician found the lens elements were etched by the fungus so a new lens element was required. As this is New Zealand, the Pentax techo does not have such items on hand and the lens had to go to Japan to be repaired.
Sadly the cost estimate is high at around US$890. Given the replacement cost of the DFA 24-70, I decided the lens is worth repairing.
Both the techo and I are puzzled at how a small insect or similar could enter a WR lens like the DFA 24-70.
My lenses are mostly in a special dry box design given to me by a local lens repairer (sadly deceased). I had fungus problems about 15 years ago but have had no fungus infections since using the dry box I made as a result of those earlier infections. It was a surprise to have this new issue crop up.
Has anyone else experienced a similar lens infection?
:(
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
05-27-2017, 02:45 PM
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Hi, it's worth getting the replacement lens mount done at the same time as you send it for the firmware update. if you want to sell the lens in the future it could help by having lens mount and firmware updated.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
01-05-2017, 12:31 PM
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 | Macro Wasp
Posted By
dlai |
Replies: 10
Views: 1,083
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Nice detail. I don't like getting so close if there is a nest nearby!
It looks like a Vespula germanica because of the continuous yellow band behind the eye. This is a diagnostic feature we use in New Zealand to differentiate between two introduced wasps - V. germanica and V. vulgaris (="Common wasp").
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
01-04-2017, 01:50 AM
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My sympathies are with you. I scratched the LCD of one of my K3 bodies and as the camera was less than 6 months old, I elected to have a new screen fitted. It cost $500 (New Zealand = about US$350) and I fitted a protector screen immediately. The K3 was the most costly Pentax crop sensor camera at the time and I decided the expenditure was warranted as the scratch would have severely reduced the resale value of the camera.
I guess that with the KS-1 such an expenditure may not be warranted as it is a budget model.
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Forum: Sold Items
11-21-2016, 02:28 AM
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
10-10-2016, 02:26 PM
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sorry - comment deleted - wrong post
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-01-2016, 10:01 PM
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Yes my lens does exactly the same when in less than bright light. I know now to manually return it to infinity to get it started again.
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Forum: Pentax Full Frame
06-22-2016, 02:14 AM
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Hi , I have the DFA 24-70 and K1. My main complaint is the size and weight. I knew it would be large but that did not prepare me for the actual size and weight!
It is so unlike a walkabout zoom that I decided to buy an FA 24-90 for walkabout and keep the DFA 24-70 for special events such as my music photography where the 2.8 aperture really is a bonus. Landscape and other critical work will also be where it will shine, I'm sure.
The FA 24-90 does pretty well on the K1 particularly with a little extra mid-tone contrast via Photoshop. A touch of smart sharpen/Gaussian blur removal brings it quite close to the DFA 24-70 for A4 prints. I'll examine the 2 more closely at A3 print size shortly.
Attached are two images:
1 K1 plus 24-70 of a busker being chatted to by a girl friend who dropped by. The focus is on the girl. ISO 500 1/200 f 3.5
2 K1 plus FA 24-90 a solitary busker ISO 200 1/200 f 6.3
Different lighting, different exposures so not really comparable but they hint at what each lens is capable of.:)
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
06-07-2016, 04:42 AM
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Hi, Thanks for your comment.
The Saddleback (Tieke) was photographed at the Zealandia Wildlife Sanctuary, Wellington NZ. I usually look more for the Hihi (Stitchbirds)
Bellbirds (Komako) and Whiteheads as Tui are so numerous that I've pretty well stopped photographing them. Fantails - yes I sometimes get a shot of one that has settled briefly on a branch but otherwise their rapid twists and turns defeat the Pentax autofocus.
:)
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
06-06-2016, 11:34 PM
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I have two K3 bodies and have used them extensively for forest wildlife photography. Photographing under the canopy often results in a high ISO being required and the K3s were very often working at 6400 ISO with consequent noise issues. I've started using the K1 at up to 12,800 ISO and find the K1 copes remarkably well as shown in the attached image despite the strong skylight.
Shot with DA*300mm lens plus HD 1.4x TC.
ISO 12,800
+ 1.3 stops exposure
Exposure 1/200 f8 (f 8 to bring some of the Lemonwood fruits into focus)
Daylight setting
Noise set to high ISO auto in camera
Processed in PDCU with noise removal using the setting decided by the PDCU
Post processing in Photoshop: some lightening of the bird, mid-tone contrast slider at 15%, sharpened at 50%,1.5 pixels in Smart sharpen/Gaussian blur setting.
The background was selectively darkened to reduce strong backlighting with saturation and contrast reduced.
Forgot to mention: this was taken with the APS crop mode
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
05-30-2016, 09:55 PM
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Camera set to High ISO Auto and raw files converted in PDCU with Noise reduction left at auto settings that the programme selected for the 12800 ISO image. No noise reduction done in Photoshop where basic processing was to adjust brightness and tones with some mid-tone contrast increase used on plant image.
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
05-30-2016, 09:38 PM
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I'm delighted by the high ISO performance of my K1 as I do music photography where my K3s often had to work at ISO 6400 which often gave noisy quite rough images, particularly in shadow detail.
I now find that 12800 with the K1 gives not only relatively noise-free images but also with fine detail such as individual hairs sharply defined.
The first image was of two vocalists at a blues gig with rapidly changing colour of light so it was a matter of avoiding the red and blue and grabbing shots in the brief time between those two main colours.
Exposure: ISO 12800 1/100 f 5.6 with DFA 100mm macro lens, Multi auto white balance
The second image is of a native New Zealand Tree Fuchsia flower
Exposure 6400 1/250 f 9 DFA 100mm macro lens, Daylight white balance
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Forum: Pentax Full Frame
03-04-2016, 12:31 PM
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Thanks for the reply. I currently use the 300 plus TC for wildlife photography. It gives a convenient 420mm (perhaps 430mm because the 1.4 TC magnifies more than 1.4).If buying the K1 I would like to use the combo kit there as well and if I was getting 23MB files after manually cropping the vignette then that would be an added convenience for investing in the K1.
---------- Post added 03-05-16 at 08:33 AM ----------
Yes I kept the hood on. With the 300 mounted on its own - no TC included there is no vignette at all. The TC which is not a full frame lens makes the difference.
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Forum: Pentax Full Frame
03-04-2016, 03:23 AM
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Thanks for the reply but I already use the 300 plus TC on my K3. Using it on a K1 and getting a file size similar to on the K3 would be an added bonus for me.
---------- Post added 03-04-16 at 11:25 PM ----------
The point though was about using the 300 plus the HD1.4 TC.
The TC is not a full frame lens and that is why it showed the vignette on my film camera
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Forum: Pentax Full Frame
03-04-2016, 02:29 AM
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Like many others I’m keen to see how some of my currentlyowned lenses perform on the K1. In particular I’d like to know how much of FFmy DA*300 matched with the HD 1.4 TC will fare.
As a test, I used my MZ-S 35mm film camera, got the film commerciallydeveloped then scanned it with my Nikon V ED negative scanner. Note - the poor qualityof the shot below is due to filming in a gale with Wellington’s (New Zealand)harbour being whipped up a treat.
The first image is of the selected frame scan originally shot at f11 toallow the lens setup to gain its best coverage (downsized file for web use)
The stats: (JPEG copy opened in Photoshop), 59MB size, 48cmwide/31cm high at 300ppi.
The second frame is a crop of the previous frame to remove most of the vignette (file downsized for web)
The stats: 39MB, 37cm wide/26cm high
Crop frame as MB% of original frame: 66%
The question I have for the techos is – How closely wouldthe K1 36MP and its APS-C crop of 15-16 MP relate to the MB change from my 59MBfile cropped to 39MB (66% of the full MZS-S frame)?
If the relationship is close, then would I end up with a23MB file (66% of 36MB), by shooting full frame in a K1 then manually cropping itas I’ve done here?
The APS-C crop mode in the K1 delivers a file in the 15-16MBrange, and I’d be inclined to use FF mode if I were mounting the DA*300 plusthe HD 1.4 x TC, to get a file size similar to what I currently get using myK3.
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