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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
09-03-2016, 01:56 AM
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Also consider the FA 28 2.8 AL, if you can find one.
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
08-31-2016, 03:51 PM
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On my older cameras the first thing I do is select Natural instead of Bright.
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
07-07-2016, 02:22 AM
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I've done this with a K20D. Your K-1 will have much better dynamic range, which will be great for scanning slides.
I used a D-FA100 macro without bellows or tubes. The flat field can be useful for copy work. As is said above, stop down a bit.
It can be useful to create a mask with an opening for light to go through the slide. This keeps stray light from going around the slide and into the lens. I also put a tiny shelf below the opening to hold the slide in position while the board is almost vertical. Very quick to change and position slides. Use the camera on a tripod with the 2-second timer.
For a light source, a flash reflected against a pure white board may be better than a light table whose bulbs are of questionable color rendition.
For scanning print film, I used a dark blue filter in front of the lens to cancel much of the orange mask, hopefully reducing the dynamic range. You can try it both ways and see what works.
Every generation of new camera tempts me to get one just to re-scan old slides. Our K20D has gone missing recently, leaving a K10D and two istDs cameras, so perhaps it's almost time...!
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Forum: Pentax Q
10-03-2014, 12:56 PM
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I really want to like this system, but so far it doesn't exist. I'd want three good primes, a corresponding hotshoe viewfinder, and stereo video recording. Or maybe an MX-2,3,4, etc. with a hotshoe.
A few years ago we went on a large sailing boat and I left the newer stuff in the truck and brought out the ole' *ist-DS and an M50 and DA21 onto the boat. Great photos.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
07-28-2014, 12:31 PM
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You also want a second camera for back-up, and two flash units. A tele lens with decent speed. Liability insurance. Lots of practice for lighting, posing, group posing, crowd control, and a price that makes it worth your time.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-16-2014, 12:21 PM
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The white car has blown out highlights, and the Pentax is set to Vibrant, which combined lead to much of that cyan glow around the edges.
Try it again with the colors set to Natural, and dial down the exposure a half stop or so.
As mentioned above, tripod and ISO 100 and better focusing will help too.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-15-2014, 02:50 AM
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Please seriously consider an FA-28 or an M-28 to tide you over until you can afford what you really want.
The FA-28, when stopped down where you would use it, will be great for most any of the applications you list above. Looks like around $300 at KEH. I have one for group portraits, and it's great.
I also have an M-28 which is fine, and there are many other Pentax brand manual focus 28s which would work as well. More like $100. Use the focus assist of modern cameras and you're good to go.
For the older lenses, check the lens reviews here, and also at:
Stan's Pentax Photography |
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
02-24-2014, 08:24 PM
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A version with an AA filter for use with studio strobes.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
02-18-2014, 03:20 AM
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It's worse than that. You're considered to be very rude if you point out the problems with someone's work. So I don't.
---------- Post added 02-18-2014 at 04:22 AM ----------
I would never take someone else on during a wedding. They wouldn't be covered by my insurance, and I could be liable for their actions.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
02-17-2014, 08:15 AM
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Business liability insurance, registration with the local authorities, registration to pay state sales tax, use a contract, have at least two each of camera bodies and flash units. Avoiding any of these can get you into lots of hot water.
Any modern camera can do a wedding or a family event. Exactly how it's done can depend on the equipment, but someone who knows what they're doing can do a wonderful job with a film camera and a single roll of film. We're totally spoiled these days with 32GB cards and intelligent flash units and cameras on auto-pilot.
To actually answer the question: You'll want to have at least two cameras, two flash units, two flash brackets, several lenses, a good tripod, plenty of spare batteries and memory cards, and a good way to keep this stuff close and move it in a hurry. It'd help to have a second person to hold onto the spare gear. And you need all the legal stuff mentioned above. And read books on how to cover a wedding, keeping in mind that there are several ways to do it. And practice wrangling people. Do some family events first.
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Forum: Pentax Q
01-17-2014, 05:20 AM
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Takes care of one of my biggest concerns with the Q.
Is this the original Q? Does the Q7 do better than original/Q10 for purple fringe?
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
01-03-2014, 10:38 PM
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Your solution might be to try a K3 set to medium resolution.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
12-18-2013, 10:07 PM
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You might want to try a small amount of electronic cleaner sprayed into the cracks around the buttons that don't work.
This kind of cleaner often fixes switches which have become dirty.
Do a search for "electronic cleaner spray" or something like that.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
12-09-2013, 10:32 PM
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I should have clarified that I was referring to flash photography with the AA simulator.
The K-3 simulator is supposedly good up to around 1/1000 second, but flash durations can easily be much faster, which reduces the effectiveness of the AA simulator.
Note on the following page that most of the flash power comes in a surge near the start of the flash exposure, then the flash tails off for a while.
According to their specification page for the studio strobe which I use for our main light, it has a t.5 duration of 1/6000 second as I usually have it set.
They also show 1/2000 or faster for speedlights such as you might commonly use on the hotshoe or bracket during a wedding reception.
So depending on what kind of flash unit and how it's used, the AA simulator might or might not have a noticable effect.
Reference:
Flash Duration |
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
12-08-2013, 11:46 PM
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My wife and I did around a dozen weddings for pay, until we got tired of it. We earn more with less work from family portrait sessions.
We used two Minolta 600si and a K1000, then I used an original Canon Digital Rebel until this little plastic pin for the mirror flip decided to break ( common problem, I hear ), then two Pentax Ist-DS for a long time ( which work fine to this day ) , then added a K10D then a K20D.
Flash was dual auto-flash to cross light the subjects. One mounted on the flash bracket with the camera plus a radio transmitter, and the remote flash on a stick with a receiver. Totally awesome looking lighting, but it's harder work than just running around with on-camera only.
Bunch of primes in a bag, although we also used a few zooms and my wife got the 80-200/2.8 on a tripod for the ceremony from the balcony or the like, while I covered the processional from the aisle. The processional is the most intense part of the whole ceremony, while posing everyone is the most intense part of the time afterwards. The reception is mostly easy.
The primes are great for being able to see something through the viewfinder while in a dark reception hall or the like. The bazooka 80-200 is great for gaining some respect from the clients, especially when it's my wife who's running it. The big flip frame with strobe and transmitter help too.
Lots of manual focus. Katz-Eye screens, although I'd prefer the center focus patch screen of the original K1000 instead of the split image and ring of the Katz-Eye. Split image focus doesn't do much for a face. Since using flash, the depth of field can cover small focus errors, but it's pretty fast to manually focus on the fly during a dance, and there's plenty of time to let the autofocus work its stuff while the camera is on the tripod during formals or ceremony. During a processional, you just focus on a spot on the floor and trip when they arrive at that spot. Then manually focus a bit on the fly as they keep walking.
Several cameras are required for back-up, but they're also nice for use during the ceremony when you instantly change between flash for processional / recessional, v.s. ambient only for the ceremony.
In reality, you can do a beautiful job covering a wedding with a tripod, two K1000s, and some auto flashes. Everything else is optional, but often very nice to have.
My biggest concern with the K-3 would be the lack of the AA filter when it comes to the veil and such. It will be interesting to see how that turns out in reality.
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
11-27-2013, 03:37 AM
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The lack of an AA filter can be a problem for studio portrait or product catalog shooters with strobe units, where clothing texture or other patterns can become a problem because the strobes are much faster than the moving sensor solution to aliasing, and it's one reason why I don't think I'll ever get a K-3 camera.
Also, it looks like images with small gray specks in the subject can end up with light from the specks hitting just one or two sensor sites, and showing up with a false color.
Sample at:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/172-pentax-k-3/242505-tale-3-sensors-k-3-...ml#post2580773 |
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
11-15-2013, 11:07 PM
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Look at the ISO 100 image from the blog, which is the first image shown.
These are photographs of the face of a camera, containing very small dots from the texture of the surface of the camera, each dot being around a single pixel in size. Since this is ISO 100, the dots are not noise.
One interesting thing about these is that the dots are shades of gray on the sensor which has an anti-aliasing filter, but they become cyan or magenta or yellow on the sensor without the filter, depending on which photo site they land on. They look like hot pixels from an aging sensor.
It's anyone's guess as to whether they'd show up in a print from a photo lab using lasers and photo paper.
Direct link to the image:
http://wkoopmans.ca/notebook/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PentaxK3vsK7_100ISO.jpg |
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
11-14-2013, 02:37 PM
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The original question is valid. Many of the comparisons between the two cameras which have been made so far have been done by downscaling the K3 files instead of upscaling the K5 or both files. Large prints will have upscaled files, and the detail and resolution of the original files will become more important than noise when printed to 16x20 or larger and viewed from a normal distance.
It can take the lab a few business days to turn around some prints, so I am not surprised that the original poster might not have any larger prints for comparison after only one week.
I imagine that the increased resolution of the K3 will be noticable in large prints v.s. the K5.
Having said all that, there have been professional photographers selling nice wall portraits since the days of 3 Mpixel cameras.
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Forum: Pentax Q
09-15-2013, 08:51 PM
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Check out my join date, you newbie!!! (joke)
Anyhow, in your first message in this thread you said that you expected a larger difference, and so I was wondering what was going on, including the possibility that you might have gotten that image from somewhere else and it might have been more of an illustration instead of an actual photo. After all, the bright colors of the sensor certainly make it LOOK like something which might have been created v.s. photographed.
I suspect that you'd see more of a difference if you retook the image while centered between the cameras, to get rid of any wide(er) angle distortion which may have caused the original Q sensor to appear larger because it's closer to the camera than the new Q7 sensor. For example, try backing up and zooming in as far as you can, to keep relative distances to each camera close to identical. I realize that this will be hard to do while keeping the neat looking reflections of the sensor, though. A head-on flash might at least illuminate the sensors, even if they don't go all colorful like you managed above.
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Forum: Pentax Q
09-13-2013, 09:22 PM
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Good point about the sensor shift.
Could be genuine, of course! He didn't say where the image came from, his own cameras or some third party.
I don't have a Q camera yet. Maybe someone who has one could simply take off a lens and see if you can angle the camera a bit and see the sensor this far off center.
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Forum: Pentax Q
09-13-2013, 09:04 PM
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Pull up the image in your image editor and draw an intersection between the opposite mounting screws around the opening. This is where the sensor should be centered.
Or measure the distance from the edge of the 'sensor' to the edge of the mount or the mounting screws.
This is clearly an illustration instead of a photograph of actual sensors in place.
From Ricoh's website, PENTAX - Q Black shows an illustration of the sensor of the original Q, centered in its mounting plate.
Having said all this, the original point still stands that the Q7's sensor is larger...
Edit: Ok, I can see that the images are not taken straight-on, so this implies that the sensor is pretty deep back in a kind of tunnel compared to the opening of the mounting plate. Pretty wild...
Edit 2: Or, as point out below, more likely the SR sensor shift is letting the sensors move around.
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Forum: Pentax Q
09-13-2013, 02:10 PM
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Bogus image? Sensors should be centered in the mount opening...
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
07-23-2013, 02:29 AM
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My recommendation for a 13 year old with a budget, interested in bird photography:
An IST-DS for around $130, or a K10D around $200, from KEH.com.
200mm manual focus Pentax prime lens: $50 to $200 depending on which you get.
300mm: $150 to $250.
400mm: $465.
Add a tripod with a ball head. Lighter weight if you will be hiking with it, heavier weight if you will be planted and not moving around much.
You'll be able to get awesome shots, and you can also save some money for other things later!
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KEH's page for Pentax digital DSLRs:
Pentax Digital Camera Bodies - KEH.com
KEH's page for manual focus prime lenses:
Pentax Manual Focus Fixed Focal Length Lenses - KEH.com |
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Forum: Pentax Q
06-13-2013, 11:16 PM
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But still without stereo sound?
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
06-10-2013, 09:22 PM
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Any modern DSLR will do fine for most portrait work. Much more important is to have a second and even a third DSLR sitting around for backup during a paid gig. You could do perfectly wonderful stuff with an old film K1000 and three prime lenses.
Your primes are fine. You will might want something wider for large groups. I like the 21.
For portrait work, lighting is more important than which camera. Speed lights for remote work, monolights for studio work, and some people use flat reflectors and an assistant for fill light outdoors, although I use speedlights instead.
Studio equipment also includes backgrounds and stands and posing benches and so on.
Also important is training in lighting and posing.
More important still is business liability insurance.
If you are doing it for money, then you also need business registration and federal income tax filings and state sales tax filings and all the associated record keeping. And supposedly the sales tax people are nastier than the income tax people.
ppa.com is where you should start looking around.
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