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Forum: Travel, Events, and Groups
03-28-2018, 05:22 PM
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Earlier today - noon, I finally decided to drive over to Tempe Camera. I've been trying to decide on a new camera backpack for a couple of years now, as my mainstay is 12+ years old and pretty beat up, and the zippers are stuck. I was talking to a sales person and asked if I could try out a D800 and Tamron 15-30 plus a 70-200 for a size and fit check in the bag. So, he said you shoot Nikon and I replied - no but you probably don't carry Pentax. He smiled and said, that they do and went over and pulled off their K1 and 15-30 from a little display around the corner. Then he said - I only wish that they would advertise - even a little bit, we could sell a lot more. No one has heard about - let alone knows anything about them, which is a real shame. Then he added that the 645Z does gets a lot of rental action. Actually, that was nice to hear!
As a side note, for a retail brick and mortar - they had about 8 sales folks and a couple of repair and rental folks - with a fair amount of business while we were there. But then they are just down the street from ASU, and the university keeps them in business.
:cool:
---------- Post added 03-28-18 at 05:29 PM ----------
My question too, when I saw the [Donate] button off to the right hand side. I thought that it was somewhat odd.
:cool:
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Forum: Pentax K-70 & KF
12-27-2017, 11:44 AM
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I was in Canada a couple years ago and it was -13F -25C with wind chills of -25F -31C. I had my K3 and K50 and was shooting snowy owls on Amherst Island in Lake Ontario, even the locals were asking "what the hell are you doing here in this".
I found a owl sitting on the frozen lake and set up my gear and was taking pictures. The owl and my gear had no problems but I did, after about 30 minutes of being outside I had to hop back into my Jeep Wrangler with a soft top to warm up and I took this shot.
Not sure how long the equipment could've lasted outside in that but it was longer than me.
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Forum: Pentax K-70 & KF
03-23-2018, 10:51 AM
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Irix 15mm first impressions. No photos, as I'm in test mode ...
It handles well. The bulbous lens looks vulnerable. There's a 95mm filter thread, so I repeated my B+W protective usage that I do with all my lenses. This filter will convert the Firefly version in the same WR spec as the dearer version - or so I've informed.
Manually focusing, which I often do, is tricky at 15mm. It really is hit and miss through the viewfinder. Using LV and a loupe, it's spot on. Nothing to do with the Irix, just with no aids in the viewfinder and tiny subjects, manual focusing is hard. No surprises.
When focused correctly the lens is very good in the centre, not dropping off in resolution, until a little at wide apertures. Still good, to my mind. At the edges and corners, the impression is different. There's always going to be distortion with ultra-wide on FF, so pixel peeping the edges is rather pointless, I think. I don't think I'll have any grumbles at all about the extremes in actual use.
There is a fair bit of vignetting. I was expecting this, but it's more than I would have guessed. Guessed is the operative word, as I've never played with modern ultra-wides on FF. I'm not sure how well it will clean-up in PP, to be honest, as my first tries were not too convincing. Knowing the vignetting issue at wide apertures and getting experience with when it's worse does not particularly bother me, but I'm sure I'll get caught out at times.
The handling of flare (with B+H filter) is exceptional. I really struggled to get flaring with the sun in the frame, either full on or off too the side. This is a real plus.
An issue I have, which I'll contact Irix about, is the focusing at infinity. Yawn... The lens comes with a method of calibrating focusing at distances greater than 50m, but with this comes with warnings. At the moment it focuses fine at infinity, but there is a nice click stop that I have to focus slightly beyond to get good long distance focus. All this means, in reality, is that the handy-to-have feedback that the supposedly reached infinity point has been reached, doesn't properly work. This is just a small irritation, as I'm focusing manually and I now know I have to go slightly beyond the click point. Maybe I'll attempt to calibrate it, if it bothers me.
So, in summary, for the just over £300 I spent on this experiment with ultra-wide, this lens, is looking very promising. It's light; balances well; flare resistance is great; it's plenty sharp in the centre. It does vignette more than I expected and the infinity focusing needs adjusting.
Finally, it's packaged very nicely, well padded in a metal box. It presents well. Something Pentax could improve on, perhaps ...
When I'm clearer about it I'll post in the database ...
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Forum: Pentax K-70 & KF
03-24-2018, 04:54 AM
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Forum: General Photography
03-20-2018, 10:11 AM
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A quick internet search indicates that World Sparrow Day is mostly about declining House Sparrow populations in India, but I think that they originally spread there from Europe. The population in Canada seems to be healthy though I have heard that populations in Britain have gone down. Here's a female House Sparrow from Saskatchewan.
 House Sparrow by Steve, on Flickr
CORRECTION - pete-tarmigan has identified this as a first winter Chipping or Clay-colored Sparrow (see below)
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Forum: General Photography
03-20-2018, 10:05 AM
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I have to say......this is perhaps the most appealing thread I have ever seen on Pentaxforums.
My congratulations to all who have contributed photos of sparrows. They have been uplifting indeed!
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Forum: Weekly Photo Challenges
03-16-2018, 06:34 PM
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Winners of Weekly Challenge #417 - "Silhouette"
This was the first weekly challenge I judged and it was a tough one. Birds seemed quite popular, with seven pictures containing birds somewhere, if I counted correctly.
sealonsf - an offering to the sun, the message is clear, if only the sun was slightly more to the center to make a stronger connection.
robjmitchell - I'm inclined to title your submission as "care-free vs family life," but there's a little too much empty space in the center.
Bruce Clark - starting the trend for bird silhouettes
SpecialK - nice sunset!
rod_grant - I like the tones a lot, but the headlight is a bit distracting because it's so far in a corner and my eyes don't have a place to settle.
Jpeachee - looks painted, and I like the little detail of the person sitting on the bench.
Vaskebjorn - the diagonal bars add to the "noir" mood.
atupdate - it would make an interesting album cover!
eva - the tilted horizon really makes this work.
mohb - an adventure-style shot, I wish it had more sky since it looks like it was a pretty one.
smf - I like the purple tones.
racingsnake - the transition from yellow to blue is beautiful.
dlneubec - seems like a great way to see a sunset.
ramseybuckeye - I like the shot and the sky has very nice colors, but the silhouettes aren't contributing enough to the image.
dwalker19 - interesting use of darker tones, the picture looks better on a dark background rather than our forum's light color.
Atindra - wonderful colors, I like the restricted color range.
charliezap - I like that all the many silhouettes have clear outlines, even though it's a busy spot.
jacamar - reminds me of drawings for a biology atlas, and the grain works well.
Hattifnatt - nice tones. All those beautiful reflections and converging lines make the picture less about the girl though.
nobody - nice minimalist composition, if only the airplane was closer.
noelcmn - I like the contrast between the sky and the ground.
StephenHampshire - steam trains and sun rays make for great pictures.
Arjay Bee - the composition and tones make me think that this sea is on another planet.
Sqideyes - interesting minimalism, the white highlights add just enough to make it work.
My vote goes to eva, with special mentions for Arjay Bee and StephenHampshire. Congrats!
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
03-09-2018, 02:46 PM
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
03-09-2018, 02:42 PM
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
03-09-2018, 01:30 PM
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Lovely shots Atindra. Thanks for sharing.
So would I!
My only frustration about the 55-300 PLM is not about the lens, but the fact that DxO has not released modules for it. I've been trying to catch up on my processing backlog of shots with other lenses and parking the shots from the PLM, so I'm stockpiling a number of them. At some stage (when DxO releases modules or I get sick of waiting) I'll have lots of PLM shots to process - and share, I hope. It's a very good lens.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
03-09-2018, 12:32 PM
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Great shots, Atindra. I’m enjoying birding with my PLM55-300 on the K-3II too, some of which I’ll post when I return from vacation. Many, varying from Tomtit to Royal Albatross here in New Zealand!
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
03-09-2018, 09:41 PM
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DxO takes a while to release modules as each new lens comes out, but I think they now have modules for every DA and DFA lens other than the PLM. The PLM was released in June 2016. Modules are now so long overdue (given that it's one of Pentax's best-selling lenses) that I am starting to wonder whether they are coming at all.
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