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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
01-25-2009, 11:09 PM
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Hi All
I'm Sid Barras from South Louisiana.
I'm a dedicated pentax user.
I started with a pentax spotmatic F.
Then I got an ES. Loved it. Bought another. Then I got an ESII, black paint. Loved it even more. THen I got two Pentax ES IIs in chrome. In my opinion, the most beautiful SLR ever made.
Then I graduated to the Pentax K2. (Into the beyond-- the K mount era)
I briefly had a KD DMD with all the fancy attachments, but traded it all for an LX with equally fancy attachments.
I bought an MX. Didn't like the metering system. (Blasphemy!)
Got another K2 instead. (Meanwhile, I still had all the M42 stuff, and continued to use it)
Then I bought the beast-- the 6x7. And several equally beasty lenses. Thought I would never shoot 35mm again; at least not for black and white.
I was happy for a little while.
THen the mini-cameras started appearing. I got an ME super. thought it was neat, a camera for the glove box.
Traded it for a Super Program. There's my second favorite pentax after the ESII chrome. An amazing machine in a tiny package. Of course, I like the LX, but the one I had was always fickle; in the shop more often than in my hand. Relegated it to the "collection shelf."
Got the SF-1. Shot with it for a long time.
Got the PZ-20 next. Nice camera. Saved up for th PZ-1. Then, almost as soon as I had it, here comes the PZ-1P. Of course, I got it too. Kept the PZ-1. Eventually added a second PZ-1P, and if film was still in vogue and my wife had let me keep my 3rd bathroom as a darkroom, I'd still be shooting the PZ-1P. A great camera.
Meanwhile, I'd slowly evolved to using the 6x7 for black and white plus-x pan and FP4+; the M42 cameras for kodak HIE infrared film, and the others for color film.
Got the MZ-S after saving for a year. But by then, the siren call of digital was too strong. I wound up selling the MZ-S for more than I paid for it...
I got a ZX-5n for my next glove box camera.
Then... Didn't get the first pentax digital SLR.
I waited.
Finally I got the DS-2. I loved that camera.
And last but not least, I bought the K10. Awesome camera.
I converted the DS-2 to infrared only by taking it apart and removing the infrared blocking filter and installing an 89b equivalent filter in its place. I don't recommend this at home. Too many things to go wrong, and I had to special order a hunk of opaque glass and cut it to size to match the blocking filter. expensive.
I also converted a canon powershot G5 to infrared only, with made to fit parts. Good results for a fraction of the cost of the pentax conversion.
Finally I am here today. I might get the K20; but if the next year or two brings a full-frame pentax (or even Samsung-- if something happens to Pentax) digital, I'll go for that.
But, I"m older now, and the days of 10 rolls of film a week are done. My photos are almost exclusively infrared now, and I shoot for my pleasure.
I still have most of the cameras and lenses I ever bought; they try to collect dust, but I give 'em a blast of air about once a week. There's still film in all of them, and they wait patiently, silent sentinels of the obsolete.
I didn't mention the lenses I have, but it would be an equally dull affair, so I shall spare you. I do hope to win the lottery or something, so that I can one day own every "star" lens and every "limited" lens. Meanwhile, I'll survive on nearly as good-as-that glass.
Goodbye from South Louisiana, from a good cajun, with roots from Church Point.
Sid Barras
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