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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
06-24-2015, 02:21 PM
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Can you give some details of this known issue?
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-21-2015, 07:24 AM
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Thanks for all the replies. A lot of good food for thought. I didn't realize the difference in these lenses with regard to quick shift manual focus. Being new to the auto focus world I was thinking I could just turn off auto focus like I do now and would be good to go. A lot to learn.
I also hadn't really considered the used market but it sounds like that, and going with a max zoom in the 300mm range may be the way to go. No to get through this $ doldrums time. Company take over, extend period between pay checks. Will be good to go before summer though.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-18-2015, 07:07 PM
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Greetings all,
I have a K50 with the 18-55 kit lens. I want to pick up another zoom, something with a bit more reach to take landscapes and some wild life pictures. While I know it is best to buy the best quality lens the real world tends to get in the way. Would love to have the Hubble to mount but I have a much smaller operating budget so $1000+, even 500+ lenses are out of the question at this time.
I'm looking at the Pentax 50-200 mm kit lens, Sigma 70-300 APO, and the Tamron 70-300mm. All can be had for around or under $200 and I do like the idea of weather resistance on the Pentax, plus it is brand name.
How does the image quality of these lenses compare and in your opinion, would the extra 100mm be worth going to an after market brand? I have an old off brand 70 to 200 zoom for my old Minolta film camera and while I can tell the difference in image quality between this and one of my Minolta primes, the image quality was generally acceptable.
FWIW, I tend to shoot in manual mode the most and kind of prefer to manually focus if that matters. Old habits die hard.
Thanks in advance.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
03-01-2015, 10:43 AM
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I'll second the LightZone suggestion. Downloaded it and have played with it for a couple of hours. It really does make editing raw pictures quick and easy. Much better than the Silkypix program that came with my K50. For special photos, like creating sepia, I can do better using a more advanced editor, although not nearly as easily. However since I've just started with the program I'm probably missing a bit. For basic photographs, it works great.
While it doesn't have cataloging I don't really need that and definitely can't complain about the price. Perhaps a bit slow but then I've had little experience editing 16mp images so don't have a comparison.
Thanks for the mention. This was the first I've heard of it and saved me the price of Lightroom.
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
02-26-2015, 07:56 PM
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I "gave" my Minolta film camera and lenses to my daughter, 27 years old. She likes it a lot better than her digital. Says she can take a lot better pictures with it. Prefers B&W also. A real Luddite in the making. :)
Just wish I still had my old darkroom set up. She'd probably love watching the images form.
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
02-24-2015, 08:01 PM
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One of the nicest things I find about digital, besides not having to wait during development to see what I got, is that bad shots cost so little. I now have no problem with taking multiple variations of the same subject trying to get the perfect one. The miser in me sometimes interfered with my doing that when using film.
On the negative side, I enjoyed my time in a dark room more than sitting at a computer. But it sure is easier now.
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
02-24-2015, 07:22 AM
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I've noticed all the modes. I can see a use for them but been spending most of my time in M Tv and Av. M for the most part. Love the fact I can use my phone as a remote release. Oh the possibilities.
Also love the in camera time lapse.
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
02-23-2015, 09:59 AM
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Greetings all,
Started SLR photography back in the mid 1970, Yashica TL Electro, after a decade playing with a cheap twin leans camera. Finally went to the Minolta system, which I still have. Like most, I suspect, got into digital with a point and shoot and done little film since.
I did have a Pentax ME film camera, which took excellent pictures and was great as a small travel camera, but was actually too small to suit and didn't like having no control. Decided to try a DSLR and picked Pentax mostly because of the weather resistance, and the fact that the ME took so good pictures, technically great that is. Good photographs are more photographer that camera in my opinion. Plus I really didn't want to join the canikon crowd.
Still like doing things more manually or I tend to enter a point and shoot mode, which at least with me is not conducive to taking good photos. I just start pushing the shutter button instead of taking my time. It is kind of surprising how often I put it in manual mode and turn off auto focus.
The one observation I have is that while with the old Yashica I was mostly concerned with learning photography. Learning about f-stop and shutter speed usage as well as composure. The operation of the camera was very simple. Now it seems that the biggest hurtle that a new photographer would face would be the camera operation. I suspect the majority simply drop into a point and shoot mode.
Being a technical type person, physics major, electronic tech and former network administrator, I've had little problem on figuring out how to do most of what I need, and then some. I do however see how it would be very intimidating for a person new in to photography. Too bad there isn't a simple quality digital SLR without all the features so one could spend more initial time learning photography instead of operating the equipment.
But that is the Luddite in me and I doubt there would be much of a market for it. I love all the bell and whistles and raw mode is so neat. Now I just need to get an IR pass filter and start playing with some IR photography. Hadn't been able to do any of that since my old Nikon 880 died.
Now to start exploring this fantastic resource and do some learning. Don't see how we able made it without the internet resources now available.
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