Forum: Pentax Medium Format
03-11-2024, 01:47 PM
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Yes, rangefinders have inherent advantages over SLRs but from my experience, Mamiyas are often designed and used for portraiture and weddings and do not have the resolution and contrast of Pentax. Fujinon lenses are less consistent and have a range of quality. Again, others may have a different experience, but if mirror slap induced blur is giving someone lesser results, it's not the lens at fault.
"Best" medium format optics made in my eyes is Zeiss, but best is subjective based on what is needed or desired for the subject and rendered image.
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Forum: Contest Voting
03-09-2024, 04:40 PM
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I would like to nominate this photo
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
02-15-2024, 10:17 AM
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Not to derail a 13+ year thread with over 7k replies, does anyone know how to view just your own replies in a given thread?
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
02-14-2024, 05:07 PM
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Other than this reply, most of mine on this thread (typically three times a year for the fall, spring, and summer semesters) are these tallies. I've been entering that for two years or more.
Trends?
Digital: More Canon, less Nikon, Pentax always between 0-2 per semester. Mirrorless quality has improved, but less Canon and more Sony, typically 0-3 per semester.
Film: More Minolta, Nikon, Pentax, and less Canon and Olympus, but I'd have to study my tallies and chart them for accuracy.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-08-2024, 03:02 AM
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An $89 electric toothbrush may need 2-4 seals to help protect a couple of basic areas on that toothbrush. And although a Pentax K-70 may be the lower-end DSLR, it incorporates 100 weather sealing parts.
The camera only list price of the K-70 when it was new in 2016 was around $650. The list prices of the Canon Rebel T6 and the Nikon D3400 in 2016 was around $500. Feature for feature, most entry-level Pentax DSLRs were more comparable to Canon and Nikon's mid to high level models like the Canon 80D or Nikon D7500.
Canon and Nikon were competing against each other with cost cutting pentamirrors, single wheel controls, and cheaper non-weather sealed kit lenses too. The five letters on the front of the camera allowed them to do this and only a small minority of consumers recognized the better value on the higher price tag PENTAX.
Also considering the parts and complexity of a DSLR vs. an electric toothbrush, the profit margin consumers pay Oral-B and Philips is obscene. The retail price of one disposable brush head made of nylon and plastic? First world problems.
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
02-07-2024, 11:38 PM
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Love photography like this where I can see something new yet familiar.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-05-2024, 07:50 PM
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Excellent demo. I think the WB setting is a big part of the OP's color balance issue. The exposure issue can be remedied with simple exposure bracketing.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-04-2024, 01:23 AM
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First try using the Shade setting for White Balance instead of AWB to fix color balance issues.
If the images are washed out, as in over exposed, make sure you do not have EV compensation set on +. If anything, having shots slightly under exposed will make the colors richer. What exposure mode are you shooting with?
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Forum: Film Processing, Scanning, and Darkroom
02-02-2024, 01:07 PM
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Thatʻs great news. Tri-X is such a classic that it pained me to eliminate it from the list of films used in my classes because it was just too pricey.
I hope Kodak doesn't outsource and license Tri-X and lose quality control. For example the Kodak XTOL developer made in Germany was so different than the original that I switched back to D76.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-31-2024, 12:57 PM
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I check and know the weather for the day and try to be as prepared as possible.
Where I find weather-sealed cameras and AW or WR lenses most helpful is when suddenly coming in from the outside cold and dry to a warm interior; or from a dry air conditioned interior (room or car) to a hot and humid exterior; or microclimates in altitude changes or entering a cave or even being in the tropics but approaching a cold fresh water fall that rapidly changes the air temperature and humidity.
Non-sealed cameras will often stop working and lenses will fog internally.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-30-2024, 02:56 PM
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
01-30-2024, 12:00 AM
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On both my 645 and 645N, the body caps are fairly snug; not loose. I assume when a lens is mounted, it does not "rattle around"? If not, then yes, there is something broken on your body cap.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
01-27-2024, 12:38 PM
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I always unplug my fridge when I close the door to turn off the light. I'm afraid it'll heat up the fridge and waste electricity too.
And in case you're wondering, yes there is a little guy in the camera that unplugs the light for the screen when it is not visible to the photographer. I should get him to live in my fridge too;)
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
01-27-2024, 12:28 PM
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Good point; I wasn't aware that shutter delay turns off SR.
In my photo classes, I instruct students, as a default, to turn off Stabilizer (Canon), VR (Nikon), SR (Pentax), or SS (Sony) unless, as a last resort they must shoot handheld at marginal speeds without flash or increasing the ISO.
If the OP does not use shutter delay, and has SR on with a tripod, then that could be the cause of the issue posted.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
01-27-2024, 12:20 PM
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The banding in the sky is an artifact called dithering when manipulating jpegs that don't have the bit depth of RAW files. The unaltered jpeg will not have this and it is caused in post processing not by any lens or sensor issues.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
01-26-2024, 11:29 PM
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The 18-55mm kit zoom that came with my K50 is exceptionally sharp, but no doubt, there will be a variation of quality on other exact same model zoom, assuming one hasn't been decentered or impacted in some way.
Primes are inherently higher performers, but again, most 200mm telephotos are not known for their resolution like a 35, 50, or 85mm prime. You may by chance have an exceptional telephoto prime and a below average sample of the kit zoom.
This is the beauty of interchangeable lens cameras; having options.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
01-26-2024, 11:21 PM
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If you can see the world with a "glass half full", those images look more like art than photography. Try to repeat the effect and you can't. Caused by divine intervention? I agree with the possible causes as mentioned above. When battery power is low, lots of anomalies can happen.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
01-26-2024, 11:13 PM
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Many good suggestions so far and the only one I'd add is make sure Shake Reduction is turned off if you're using a tripod. Practice, persistence, trial and error, learn from mistakes, and you'll find the solution.
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Forum: Vintage Cameras and Equipment
01-24-2024, 02:52 PM
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That's a good idea but knowing my Dad, when he was in Japan and into photography, I am almost 100% certain this had to be taken in 1950.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
01-18-2024, 02:29 PM
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Tally for this semester's photo classes:
25 Canon
11 Nikon
3 Minolta
2 Sony
2 Pentax (K2, K70)
1 Olympus
1 Praktica
41 SLR/DSLRs
4 Mirrorless
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Forum: General Photography
01-17-2024, 08:56 PM
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What is a photograph to the subject, to the photographer, to a viewer, are all personally subjective images, reflections, messages based on a complex matrix of our life experiences, state of mind, memories and dreams. The photograph reveals as much about the photographer as it does the viewer, intentionally or not.
I referred to Sontag because reading the book made me rethink my ideas about photography. For example, “To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed.” There are a lot of people who do not want their images or their culture appropriated. One can respect that or disregard it. Is there a difference between the photographic commercialization of Hawaiian culture and documenting the authentic practice of it?
Another; “In the real world, something is happening and no one knows what is going to happen. In the image-world, it has happened, and it will forever happen in that way.” Those words make me think of photographs as artifacts of a time freezing machine that capture the past for the future.
In context to "thoughts of people who had experience with photography", if you consume photography, images are passive. If you create photographs, the process is active and the photographer can have intent in capturing specific places and people in a specific time and manner.
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Forum: General Photography
01-17-2024, 04:46 PM
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I would love to know a few examples, or even one, where you felt she was "wrong".
Although I appreciate to know what a photographer thinks about photography, I do not believe photographers are THE authority on photography.
I read the book because I found her ideas and perspective engaging. I don't necessarily agree with it, but is photography only what I believe it is or is it possible it is all the things that others, including PF members believe?
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Forum: General Photography
01-17-2024, 03:17 PM
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One of the best answers to your question can be found in the 224 pages of Susan Sontag's book, On Photography.
She essentially deconstructs photography. It was written in 1977, before cell phone cameras infected the global masses daily, and thus is missing the latest chapter.
Considering most photographic images taken today are selfies, I probably wouldn't want to read that chapter. Sontag passed away in 2004, so that burden is on the Pentax Forum members:eek:
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
01-17-2024, 10:59 AM
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It is most likely desilvering of the pentaprism which is not uncommon on the K1000 40+ years old. It should not affect picture quality but is too annoying to ignore.
You cannot clean it. The solution is to replace the pentaprism. I slowly and carefully followed the directions in the video link below. You will need a second camera K1000 with a good pentaprism as a 'donor' to replace yours. You will need jewelers tools too (small screwdrivers).
On a scale of 1-10, with 1=I can't tie my shoes and 10=I can take apart a Rolex and put it back together perfectly, I would consider my skills or lack of around a 5. It took me about an hour. I took lots of photos of the progress and was careful not to lose any parts. There is nothing more satisfying than saving this K1000 or at least knowing you tried. You Tube |
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y6ehEPbOiRc?controls=1" allowfullscreen> |
And you could also buy any Pentax camera body only (K1000, KM, K2, etc) and use the lens from your current camera.
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Forum: General Photography
01-17-2024, 10:34 AM
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OP: Why are you asking? Is it a philosophical reason? A legal reason? A generative AI issue?
It's sort of like asking What is Food? to a cooking forum. Serious reply only;)
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