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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
01-09-2015, 08:51 AM
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This is an evolving product area. There are many types of ring lights, some active lights and some reflective, some intended for macro and some intended for portrait soft lighting. I'll touch on several of them, but I am barely scratching the surface. I have seen so many new products recently and I'm never going to try them all out, but there is no need, because there are plenty of Youtube reviews in which someone else already demonstrates them. I'll be pointing to many such videos.
Macro first. As you know, LEDs are getting brighter, so bright they are used as automobile "angel" or "Halo" lights now. The huge volume for the auto market drives performance up and cost way down. The Meike FC110 LED Ring Light uses a 90mm Halo light with 18 jumbo LEDS, quite bright (~$30).
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A Do It Yourselfer on Youtube made his own ring light using 3 concentric Halo LED rings, much brighter than the FC110 for a parts cost of about $15. There are many more videos of DIY ring flashes if you are so inclined. You can make them for $10 and up. Here is his video:
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The Aputure 100 with 100 LEDs seems to have about double the output of the more common 48-60 LED ring lights ($30), yet it is still inexpensive ($50). All of these LED ring lights flash on any camera, for up to 1/10 second, and can be on constantly for focusing or for video I don't think the camera mount matters, since they trigger from the center pin and ground. I'd get the Nikon version since the pinout is similar to Pentax's pinout. Here is a review:
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Probably the brightest LED ring light right now is the H&V 300 LED ring light, available from Forum sponsor Adorama. It is aimed at portrait lighting, but it's fine for macro. With high output, it's expensive ($250-300). The H&V 300 runs on a Sony lithium camera battery, a light, cheap source for rechargeable power. Here is a youtube video review of it:
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REFLECTORS: Another class of ring lights are just reflectors for your regular flash. The key advantage is you keep all of the PTTL capabilities of your regular flash -- and they are cheap. Some are intended for portrait work, but can be used for macro too.
Here are several reflector reviews on Youtube for reflectors using your regular flash
Demo of the Ring O Flash - older design, but I have this and like it a lot ~$30:
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Compare DIY [$25], Coco [$50] ring reflectors and Alien Bee ring light [~$200]
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Demo of Round Flash, a compact, foldout design makes 18 inch diameter reflector [~$50]
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That's a quick look at many choices. Hope you find it useful.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
01-23-2015, 07:13 AM
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This has the full lens mount on it, from a camera front. Somebody's camera is ripped apart, not your problem. It was done cleanly, so perhaps the mirror box is plastic? The camera mount should spin right off, but it hasn't and I'm sure previous owner tried. There must be a pin or lever that is binding it in place. The lock pin, which is near the 2 in the previous post, is missing, so that's not the holdup, but look around there closely to be sure. It may be on the black ring, perhaps a catch that is touching a screw that you can unscrew? I'm thinking that the catch for an M42 to K mount is the culprit, since that's the other locking mechanism on this mount. Look inside a camera body to get the lay of the land. This would be so easy if it were in my hands.
Once you free it, you will have to check the lens carefully for collateral damage. This was pulled out of a camera's mirror box, and that took major impact.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
01-20-2015, 10:41 AM
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Return it to the seller. Ebay backs the buyer in these cases.
If you make a "Request" to ebay and say the reason is "not as described", and you "can't work it out with the seller", ebay will email you a prepaid mailing label for return and refund your full purchase price and shipping. Costs you nothing, except the effort to pack and ship. Better than letting this gnaw at you.
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
12-30-2014, 04:27 AM
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You can get an AF 540 FGZ foot assembly exact replacement here (price $55):
65864-0-y83 |
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Forum: Pentax K-01
01-02-2015, 10:02 AM
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Who knows if they will make a K-02? It would cannibalize the Pentax Q series, in which they are heavily invested. I think they decided not to compete in the performance mirrorless market, since Sony and others were way ahead. Instead Pentax went for compactness and low price with the Q. Unfortunately, with a tiny sensor the Q image quality can never come close to the cameras with APS or M43 sensors, so it does not interest me
It's apparent that Sony and others are ferocious competition in the performance mirrorless market. I think that's why Pentax is wary of upgrading the K-01. Still, I wish they would. This is a huge market which they ignore.
The good thing about the K-01 was it used K mount lenses, The bad thing was focus was much too slow. So if they could keep the K mount compatibility but speed up the focus, that would make it a much better product. I'm afraid they would just add useless features, instead of fixing the main problem. To go to Phase Detect auto focus, they would need a new focus mechanism. I think Sony went to the fixed partially silvered mirror on the SLT series to get faster autofocus. It had other benefits, but that was a key to faster focus. Maybe there are other technologies that work too. I sure hope they take another swing at this.
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