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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
12 Hours Ago
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Well, it looks like there’s no more new products to be revealed, although there’s still a little time for a “One more thing” announcement, but I wouldn’t bet much on it.
The HD versions of the three FA Limiteds are good to hear about, nonetheless. I imagine that the major impetus for this was that stocks of the previous SMC versions were simply running down, and the coatings line has probably shifted to all HD now. All that remained was to amend the lens and box nomenclature, although it seems that there was a little tweaking of the aperture blade shapes in at least one of the range.
It was also good to have the new DA*16-50/2.8 included, although we’ve known about this lens for a while now. The absence of anything on the DFA21 is a little concerning, but probably just means there’s a bit more development going on.
The J-versions of the K-1ii mostly don’t do anything for me (or many others, from what I read), although I don’t mind the grip attachment.
So, overall, CP+2021 hasn’t been the most interesting event, but at least Ricoh is hanging in there with a slowly-developing range.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
1 Day Ago
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Nobody who lives in the real world, obviously. It’s a situation I encounter on a regular basis, and forms a large subset of all serious photography.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
2 Days Ago
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Presumably intended to allow for the DPR meandering bicycle test? :D
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
4 Days Ago
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Both estimates indicate that the maximum aperture could be at least F2.8, but possibly F2. The old FA20, of which I have a copy that is quite good IMO, is F2.8 with a front element of 43mm diameter. Of course, the entrance pupil is used to determine the maximum F-number, not the size of the front element, and the DFA21 is in all likelihood a quite different design to the FA20.
I’m interested in how this lens turns out. Faster would be better with an optical viewfinder, but DoF becomes of less interest in this focal length, except perhaps for closer work.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
5 Days Ago
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Nice work there, house. Using the same technique, what do you think the diameter of the front element might be?
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
5 Days Ago
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The Spotmatic F, ES and ESII were the only M42 bodies to have full aperture metering, I think. I still have my SP-F and ESII.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
6 Days Ago
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There’s a ‘New Products/Reference Listings’ session noted for 25 February. With no detail, it could be anything from a refreshing of the lens roadmap to a 645Z replacement announcement. Perhaps a new series of tutorials.
We’ll soon know.
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Forum: General Talk
6 Days Ago
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My present reading is down to two:
‘The Discovery of Heaven’ by Harry Mulisch; and
‘Self Portrait’ by Man Ray.
Most of the time I have at least two on the go, depending on the weather and the state of my other tasks.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-19-2021, 09:49 PM
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Back at the end of the Hoya era, there was a considerable outcry here, when Pentax lens prices rose. Since then, most of us have realised that Hoya was just clearing existing stocks at bargain prices to maximise their profit from their asset-stripping exercise. Ricoh inherited the bulk of opprobrium at the time of takeover, for bringing prices back to the level needed for a sustainable enterprise and, as we know, have introduced some premium priced and specified lenses recently. Unfortunately, the notion that Pentax is a low-cost brand appears to have stuck in some minds, and was probably reinforced by the fact that the launch price of the successive top APS-C bodies fell from the *istD to the K-3ii, even though a number of those models did introduce some innovative technology.
Now, with Pentax not only battling the remaining rival APS-C DSLRs, but also their MILC successors, a significant leap forward has been required to make the K-3iii competitive. From what we’ve seen so far of the K-3iii’s specification, that leap forward has meant that at least some of the previous cost-saving measures like retaining or tweaking the existing processing engines and firmware or using older sensors have had to be abandoned. So as a consequence, the value-for-money proposition that has made its predecessors attractive will now also require rethinking the notion of what constitutes an acceptable price for the K-3iii.
What will be interesting will be the numbers of K-3iii bodies sold. While the whole market for interchangeable-lens cameras has fallen dramatically, the fact that other manufacturers are abandoning, or at least marginalising their DSLRs may mean that Pentax sales hold up, given that they’re a small manufacturer whose niche status will have changed from outlier to segment dominator. We’ll see, but it’d be fascinating to know what Ricoh thinks their sales volume of the K-3iii will be. They said after the launch of both the K-1 and the 645Z that they were pleasantly surprised at their sales, so let’s hope the K-3iii provides them with something similar.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-18-2021, 02:31 PM
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Not just some Pentaxians. Words have a habit of acquiring "baggage" mostly, I imagine, due to usage and context. Some words carry a portent that shifts or expands their original meaning, and sometimes that meaning is flipped to imply the opposite.
So, you and the title are strictly correct, but "indefinitely" carries the possibility of "never" with it, and you can't simply tag one group with latching onto that possibility. Language is malleable. As Humpty Dumpty said: "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less."
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-18-2021, 03:26 AM
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I read the "that development" to refer to the delay in the parts. If you group "determined that" it's possible to interpret the sentence as meaning they've determined to develop things further. Personally, I think the fact that there's been a delay in the supply chain simply means there's a delay in releasing the camera to market. There's been no change to the online touch and try session to accompany this announcement, so again I think that means there won't be any changes to the camera itself, just to its availability date.
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
02-17-2021, 01:14 PM
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Hello, and welcome to Pentax Forums from the other side of the Pacific Ocean.
It’s a shame that your K-3 is defunct. Perhaps it can be revived, depending on what happened to it.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-15-2021, 03:43 PM
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I just had a look at the CP+2021 website. There’s no indication of exhibitor sites within that, at least as far as the English language pages are concerned. The exhibition and event links are greyed out, so I imagine that’s why Ricoh created their own site. Of course, that doesn’t preclude further Pentax product announcements during the event.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-15-2021, 01:43 PM
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I do remember Surfar(is) greatest hit was "Wipeout".
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-15-2021, 01:37 PM
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Did you read the announcement? I don't know why they have confined this initiative to China, but perhaps they see a need to broaden the outlook of young people there. :)
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-15-2021, 12:48 PM
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I don’t recall that Ricoh has made CP+ a special event, previously. If that’s the case, then the creation of a page to cover it means something. Of course, it may simply be a means to promote the K-3iii, but perhaps there is more coming.
On the other hand, it may just be that my recollection isn’t perfect. :)
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Forum: General Photography
02-13-2021, 07:21 PM
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I'm with you on the insurance bit.
On the mount exposure, I just had a thought: wouldn't a thick rubber band serve as an external seal, and be better than "better than nothing"? My first thought was to modify the body mount to incorporate a seal there, but that's too much like work to make it reliable. :cool:
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-11-2021, 12:54 PM
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It may not be the main reason, but it’s a reason, nonetheless. The fact that its absence has been used to suppress sales through constant negative marketing propaganda should have made it an imperative at least one generation ago.
There may be a few perverse characters who have bought into the Pentax system because of the relatively poor video performance, but I doubt they’d have been greater in number than those who have been put off by it.
Once the hubbub over the K-3iii settles down, video performance should no longer be worthy of contention, but it will be worthy of discussion. Not by me, though, because I’m not particularly interested in video, but it will be by my 17 year-old grandson, who is interested in both video and stills photography – he’ll be buying gear long after most of us here will have ceased having an interest in anything, and so will his age cohort.
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
02-10-2021, 10:56 PM
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Forum: General Photography
02-10-2021, 10:44 PM
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Munchkins. Only more hip. :D
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Forum: General Photography
02-10-2021, 10:37 PM
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Well, here's me thinking it was a mirror.:)
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Forum: General Photography
02-10-2021, 08:04 PM
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He almost lost me at the start with the "This is the future of photography" assertion (still waiting for the Lytro), and then compounded it with his repeated reference to that new species, "creatives".
I'm sure it will appeal to a few phone photographers. "Eyepiece, what eyepiece?". Alice just needs a looking glass. :D
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-10-2021, 07:53 PM
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I think we're all getting a little twitchy, waiting for the K-3iii announcement and some more information (not that we're all interested in buying one, as some have declared, from time to time...) ;)
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Forum: General Photography
02-10-2021, 07:49 PM
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You can always find (or is that "create"?) holes if you go looking closely. I wouldn't know about the opposition, but in the Pentax APS-C lineup, I can only think of two, neither of which I need or want, but I might think about if either was available:- A long fast-focussing zoom, dedicated to APS-C (the DFA150-450 might suit, but it's heavy and therefore not in the style of the better APS-C lenses, IMO); and
- A tilt-shift lens, again in the APS-C style.
Like you, I've got the rest pretty much covered, from the DA14 to the DFA 70-210 (full-frame, I know, but light enough to include in my APS-C bag) and the A400/5.6 (as before), not to mention the Sigma 8-16 for non-OEM coverage.
As I said, I don't know if anyone else does better in APS-C, but then I don't much care, either.
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
02-10-2021, 07:30 PM
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Just so we don't get left off the map, hello from Hobart (Tasmania, that is, and not the USA).
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