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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
04-07-2019, 11:59 AM
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Amazing shot of the Monarch caterpillar! Looks like it's nearing the stage when it will spin its chrysalis. Will you drive yourself crazy documenting that development? I could think of worse obsessions, and given your skill you should wind up with some amazing images.
Actually, I wonder whether autofocus is reliable enough to do use time lapse and automate the process...
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
01-15-2017, 10:36 AM
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First of all, if the moon moves enough to blur its detail, then moving the sensor to remove this blur will simply transfer the blur to the buildings, which will now appear to the sensor as if they are moving against the sky. It's similar to panning, where you can unblur one motion at the expense of introducing another.
Regarding the moon itself and astrotracer: The "motion" of the stars appears because we're viewing the sky from the rotating surface of the earth. The position of the moon is subject to the same effect, so, yes, to the extent that astrotracer compensates for the diurnal spinning of the earth, it should also work for the moon, and even planets, if you're interested in those.
However, since the moon is moving around the earth once a month, it does move extremely slowly against the background of the starts on a much longer monthly basis, and this version of astrotracer will not compensate for that. Given the notoriously high resolution of the K-1, this lunar motion might cause blurring of the moon's surface on very long exposures, so hopefully, Ricoh's next firmware release will have 2 astrotracer settings, the current one which follows the stars, and a second slightly different one to follow the moon's monthly orbit superimposed on the stellar background. Presumably, the K-1 can determine astro time from satellite measurements, so timing of the lunar cycle and the moon's position will be computed automatically, and a new set of graticules can be provided to locate individual craters in the viewfinder, whose names will be accessible in a new moon menu. Perhaps there's already an iPhone app for that, which Ricoh could incorporate into their WiFi...
To cut short unintended arguments, the entire last paragraph was a lame attempt at weird geek humor. :lol:
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
01-07-2017, 02:57 PM
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Thanks for your comments, especially the butterfly advice. Sorry to hear you pretty much confirming my worst fears (confusion?) about portable macro tripods, but encouraged by your comments on SR.
FWIW, I've had some success using catch-in-focus with manual lenses for hand-held focus situations. I tripped across this trying to photograph some nesting birds about 3 ft. away, using the Vivitar macro on a K5IIs, and I'm anxious to try it out on the K-1. It only amounts to using burst mode along with catch-in-focus. Starting with the lens out-of-focus, hold the shutter button down and very slowly turn the focus ring through focus. When the lens reaches the in-focus range, the camera starts firing, and if you're turning slowly enough, the camera will burst continuously for quite a few shots, stopping when the lens passes beyond the other side of the in-focus range. The results are a highly mixed bag of shots as the focal plane moves down the depth of the subject, with sharpness varying all over the place as the camera's SR and human vibrations compete (this is hand-held). But if you turn the focus very slowly, the shots will go on long enough to get a couple of amazingly sharp keepers out of a large, mostly useless batch. It's pretty weird, though surprising natural, to find yourself controlling shutter-firing with the focus ring. The surprise of seeing which parts of the subject wind up in focus is part of the fun.
Apologies if I'm wasting time belaboring a well-known technique, but I haven't seen it discussed and thought some might find this combination of catch-in-focus with burst mode useful, especially those using legacy primes on the K-1.
Regards - Gerry
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
01-06-2017, 09:27 PM
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Gorgeous photos. I'm not quite in the same boat as you are, but I'm at least in the water hanging onto the side.
I just ordered a K-1; I'm planning to try macro work with a venerable Vivitar Series 1 100mm/2.8; I even have an old monster tripod. Mine's a Bogen 3051 with 1 1/4" telescoping legs. Elegantly simple to set up and adjust, rock-solid in place, and a joy to use. Unfortunately, you practically have to hire a shipping company if you want to take it more than a few hundred yards from your house or car. Not exactly for a walk in the park.
So 3 questions:
i) About how far away was your camera from the subjects when you took these pictures? (I'm guessing about 2 ft, closer than most tripods)
ii) Have you come across any portably-lightweight tripods or support devices especially suitable for this kind of photography? (That is, easy to place solidly on irregular ground, and adjust to a position that puts camera & lens at a good macro angle)
iii) Are the SR and autofocus on the K-1 good enough so you can get, say, 1 of 3 keepers hand-held? (I guess I'll soon find this out for myself).
Thanks - Gerry
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