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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
11-04-2020, 07:50 PM
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When scanning (i.e., NOT wet printing) the overexposure with regular development leads to more density on the film and reduced contrast. This provides a negative that scans really well, with high flexability in post-processing, closer to what a digital RAW would (minus the inversion of highlight/shadow detail blocking that happens in extreme contrast).
If you're wet printing, you probably want to stick to box speed and normal development until you have a handle on how it effects things (if you're anything like me, mistakes will occasionally over/under expose and over/under develop); I tend to lean towards metering on shadows to place the bottom of my exposure with some density so I always get _something_ usable out but with the penalty that sometimes the negatives are only useful in a hybrid digital workflow due to overexposure.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
10-05-2020, 09:52 AM
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Wow, Richard, that sounds like a beautiful set of kit!
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
09-24-2020, 01:30 PM
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IMO this may be equivalent to the impact to sharpness, but it's not equivalent to the manufacturing processes that lead to OOF highlights showing the grinding or molding marks of aspherics.
And yes, the AL lens had aspheric element (that's the AL after all in the name). But my point was that you can have a complete stable of great lenses without aspherics if that matters to you, and I don't find myself missing a 75/2.8 in particular for any reason.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
09-17-2020, 05:11 PM
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I mean, if there was a 4x5 digital graflock that was semi-affordable... yeah, I'd have a hard time not splurging on it.
I'm thinking about building my own stitching back but it's not going to be pretty and the multi-shot time will be prohibitive of anything but the simplest of static shots. (I even tried using my K-1 as a digital back to my LF camera -- it worked at the center but away from the center the incoming rays hit the lens mount and are mechanically vignetted; so it basically was useless.)
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
09-17-2020, 05:05 PM
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I'm not sure if it's the same issue I had (seems a little different) but mine was resolved by cleaning and lubricating the opposite side spool holder under the shutter speed wheel -- that side was binding causing excessive force to be required to advance the film so it stopped advancing while the advance level would slip and still be able to cock the shutter. Lead to some weird accidental half-frame-overlap and 6-multiple-exposures-on-one-frame when it first happened and I didn't realize what was going on.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
09-16-2020, 01:06 PM
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Re: OP decision on 645 (well, 645 crop) digital and 6x7: the 6x7 (not the 67ii mind you, but the older 6x7MLU) can be had for such a small fraction of the price of the 645Z that was an easy decision for me to make. Are you willing to deal with film? If so, seems the 6x7 is a no-brainer then. But don't expect it to magically make your photos better -- it'll give you a system that has plenty of good lenses designed without aspherics (if you care about that, which I find myself going back and forth on) -- with the bigger format, the lens imperfections of the older designs aren't as obvious as they are on old 35mm lenses. If you're looking for "modern" looking photos, then you should save up for the digital system IMO.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
09-15-2020, 04:00 PM
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Yep, that sums up why I have no interest (aside from price) -- I can shoot film and use my K-1 to do pixel-shift scanning at 36mp+ effective resolution even without needing to stitch images; yes film adds up over time but... not to 90k.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
09-14-2020, 06:43 PM
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LargeSense proved that 8x10 sensors are possible for ~90k; they're working on a higher res 4x5 for $65k. So although they are very expensive by 35mm standards, I don't see why 6x7 wouldn't be possible for 30-40k or so, in the price range of some existing high end 645 MF systems.
Pentax may no longer be the only player in "affordable MF" but there may be an opportunity for some company to "one up" everyone with a 6x7 at the same price as the 645 systems.
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Forum: Film Processing, Scanning, and Darkroom
08-18-2020, 02:19 PM
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+1 to a film holder. I got the Lomo DigitalLiza because I liked it's "format agnostic" mechanism, but I think any of them work basically the same.
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Forum: Film Processing, Scanning, and Darkroom
08-17-2020, 01:28 PM
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I picked up a dark bag, a paterson processor, a few trays, a cheap led light table, etc. For the cost of <10 rolls developed and scanned I was set up to process ~40 rolls of B&W and ~20 rolls of color. I 'scan' using my K-1, pixel shift, 100mm macro and a tripod pointed down at the light table. I like the results I get better than what I was getting at a pro lab, at least on the scanning side. Developing is about the same, they messed up one of my rolls (that was the final straw for me doing it myself), I messed up one of the first rolls that I just could not get loaded on to the spiral and ended up developed but quite crinkled in some spots. I haven't noticed a significant difference in color balance. Maybe very slight in my E-6, but it's hard to say given that I can't exactly develop the same roll twice to compare.
The pleasure of having a roll ready to go in just a couple hours (~1hr processing, ~1hr drying) without leaving the house is pretty awesome, as long as you enjoy doing it and aren't on the hook for hundreds of rolls a month, I definitely recommend it.
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Forum: Pentax Full Frame
08-07-2020, 05:44 PM
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Forum: General Photography
08-02-2020, 05:41 PM
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I've been happy with breakthrough photography 10stop
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
07-24-2020, 10:18 AM
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I just finished my second Mt. Whitney backpacking trip (this one was 3 days and a slightly more relaxed pace, the prior was the same route in 2 days) with the K-1, three primes, and a sirui t-2205x tripod with RRS-bh25 ballhead. Camera gear total is ~10lbs once I add in an extra battery, polarizer, ND... Total pack weight usually between 40 and 55lbs, depending on how long I'm going for, how much water I need to carry, and how long each day of hiking is.
Most of the time I'll take 3 primes, If I'm trying to limit weight, I'll drop one of the heavy ones primes. I used to carry the dfa24-70, but I find myself enjoying using the primes more. I usually carry one fast wide-angle, and one long macro as my primary use-cases. The wide-angle varies depending on if I am expecting a good night sky, and the macro lives on the body ~all day. Then I throw in the 40xs because it's almost negligable and then I at least have something in the middle, but don't commonly use it. I just picked up a TC, so I'll probably start packing that for a bit of extra reach atop the long macro without needing to carry my 150-450 on overnights.
But I've also gone backpacking with a 6x7 kit, so maybe I'm not a good source of advice...?
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-19-2020, 05:51 PM
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The 18-35 is amazing. It was the first lens I owned that really 'wowed' me. I don't use it anymore because I went FF -- my brother owns the 20-40 and it's nice, rather different rendering from the sigma, but if you're looking for raw IQ/sharpness at f/4-f/5.6 (also my preferred range), the sigma wins. At least my copy / his copy. I've held on to mine because it's really nice, but realistically... I don't use it anymore because I love my K-1, and it's hard to go back to the K3.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-02-2020, 06:27 PM
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The second macro I got after the 100mm pentax was a 15mm Laowa. If you're looking for something very different, well, it sure is different. It's not better really, just different.
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
06-09-2020, 05:49 PM
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higher voltages are negotiated with a digital protocol. Try checking for something like a "usb-c power delivery adjustable power sink" or somesuch set to the same voltage of the AC adapter. Then you'd need the cable from the AC adapter cut off and spliced in to your electronics.
If you don't want to deal with your own electronics, you could look into an inverter power bank and use the official AC adapter.
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
05-19-2020, 12:34 PM
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If I'm expecting significant ground work, rain pants at a minimum (I do a lot of kneeling shots where my knees would be wet/muddy) and often rain jacket go in my bag or just wear; I've been out in a downpour for hours with my K-1 shooting just fine with rain gear, and except for my hands and face I managed to stay dry (thanks Pentax weather sealing!). If it's hot... then I'll usually accept getting wet and wear fast-drying synthetics.
Remember that 'seeping' water from the bottom of the camera is often more dangerous than rain drops running over the top. Try to keep a consistent orientation and restrict zooming if seals may be soaked to reduce water ingress.
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Forum: General Photography
05-14-2020, 01:21 PM
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Nice work! This made it into my Google news feed this morning!
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Forum: Film Processing, Scanning, and Darkroom
04-29-2020, 01:18 PM
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While I'm sure that is fundamentally true, I haven't been able to tell using ~1/4 of a packet at a a time. Maybe it'd be more apparent with larger quantities or if I did more with test strips of film to check for accurately calibrated development.
All that said, sounds like the Rodinal is a better solution (no pun intended) here. :)
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Forum: Film Processing, Scanning, and Darkroom
04-29-2020, 08:53 AM
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I've been buying d76 powder in larger quantities and mixing up just 1L stock at a time. Each 1L stock lasts a month or so in my normal usage (usually dilution 1+4), but I don't see why you couldn't just mix powder to dilute directly other than the time involved (assuming you have a gram-accurate kitchen scale -- the packets are conveniently labeled with net weight so I just measure based on % of weight = % of stock solution to end with).
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Forum: Photographic Technique
04-25-2020, 03:18 PM
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I have no idea, I haven't personally used his camera, sorry, just heard him describe it. He isn't shooting panos with it, so the post-processing is a lot simpler.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
04-24-2020, 12:22 PM
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It may be weird, but the results I've seen from my friend's Z mount that will automatically step through the full stack in a fraction of a second for simple applications where a low number of images are needed is frankly jealously-inducing when I'm the one who introduced him to focus stacking!
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Forum: Film Processing, Scanning, and Darkroom
04-23-2020, 06:55 PM
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for me: (1) fun and stretching my 'seeing' to be black and white instead of color, (2) easier for home darkroom, (3) can process reversal or negative with the same film stock, (4) still cheaper in large format.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
04-23-2020, 01:29 PM
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I think to address (partially) your issues with stacked-panos: have you tried super-resolution stacked (non-pano)? I.e., something like 12 focus stacked images with the same lens and the same framing, but with a minor vibration applied to the tripod so that it shifts around some non-integer number of pixels. It'll be a ton of data but should enable higher resolution focus stacked results without the panorama stitching issues. (Obviously, enabling pixel-shift on the stack is a good first step, but it's not entirely a replacement for super resolution as far as spatial resolution is concerned.)
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Forum: Pentax Full Frame
04-21-2020, 05:51 PM
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What's the pixel pitch of the old monitor versus the new? Does the new monitor have a matte screen? IME on upgrading from 1080 to 5k, the tighter pixel pitch and the matte screen means that things seem slightly less sharp just because I don't see the edges of the pixels anymore.
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