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Forum: General Photography
6 Days Ago
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Last year, a used PEN E-P5 for my two Pentax Auto 110 lenses bought in 1979 was my gateway to Olympus and M43. The Auto 110 lenses match the 16mm M43 format and I was nostalgic about using the Auto 110 lenses and curious to see how they would perform. It's very easy to use them with focus peeking, particularly the 50 mm (= 100 mm FF) 2.8, which can be used as a very decent manual focus, wide-open aperture portrait lens.
I was so impressed with the features of the E-P5 that I bought a used silver PEN-F with 17mm 1.8 (with the Oly grip), followed by a new E-M1 III.
As for bokeh: the tiny Olympus 45/1.8 is an excellent portait lens, with just enough depth of field and buttery smooth bokeh for head shots and body shots wide open. I have a K adapter, but don't really use it given that I now have a full spectrum of superb Olympus lenses. But I suspect the FA 43 Limited would be an excellent candidate for a portait lens on M43.
I like Olympus because of it's excellent optics, range of lenses, light weight, small size and weather sealing. It's IBIS is even better than Pentax's, if you can believe that. Skin tones are very natural straight out the camera.
For family events, I use my PEN-F with the small 17/25/45 1.8 lenses. The PEN-F is just fun to use. For landscapes, wildlife and all weather shooting, I use the E-M1 III with the 12-40 2.8, 40-150 2.8 and 2x teleconverter -- I can fit everything into a medium sling bag easily.
My advice is to get a used E-P5 or PEN-F (but the PEN-F tends to be quite expensive used), M42 adapter and try out your M42 lenses with focus peeking. If you don't enjoy the experience and images, you can easily resell the Olympus camera. It's also easy to continually multiply the M42 focal length by 2 to get the equivalent FF focal length on M43.
Here's a photo taken in 2021 with the 16 MP PEN E-P5 (from 2013) and 45/1.8 lens showing what M43 is capable of. For me depth of field is great, bokeh is great. The tree was about 3 metres (9 feet) behind the couple.
click image to enlarge to see all the imperfections :o
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
06-08-2022, 04:13 AM
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I have no doubt that Ricoh know exactly why they made the design choices they did. As far as I remember, a flippy screen was omitted to leave more horizontal distance between the screen surface and the outer edge of the eyecup. The goal was to make the experience of using the new larger optical viewfinder as pleasant as possible. A flippy screen would have been too thick for the comfort that the designers were looking for in using the viewfinder.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
06-02-2022, 09:48 PM
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I think we have to agree to disagree and move forward. I think Ricoh dropped the ball in omitting a moveable screen. Others think differently. The K-3III is off my radar, probably forever, but not the K-1II, which my full frame lenses still call to, even though I pretend to be deaf and super rational.
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
04-15-2022, 02:13 AM
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From a buyer's point of view,
1. KEH has excellent and conservative grading
2. But their big weakness is their inability to show shutter counts on cameras for sale
It's ironic that they insist on an elaborate set up to view the actual items on offer, whereas their own website never shows the actual items you're buying, only generic photos. But I've always found their grading excellent, which greatly execuses the lack of actual photos.
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Forum: Pentax KP
04-03-2022, 10:23 PM
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I bought the KP when it became obvious that an articulated screen would be omitted from the K-3iii. The KP is a very capable camera if used in AF-S with the viewfinder. I also like using its tilt screen LV with AF-C for fast focus point recompose - its tracking is perfect for LV off-centre portraits. However, the KP is not as comfortable to hold as my K-5ii. It also lacks IR, which is very useful for self group portraits and landscapes (I find using a cellphone as an IR replacement is clumsy by comparison). But I am not surprised that the KP is as sought-after as it is.
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Forum: Ricoh GR
03-31-2022, 04:02 AM
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A couple of observations, for what they're worth. Ricoh could possibly copy Olympus/OM-S. I been using Oly M43 constantly changing lenses for the last nine months, with the naked sensor exposed each time. I was very nervous at first, but I've yet to see a speck of dust on any image. That's certainly not the case with my KP or K-5II during the same period. Even though the sensors of both camera companies vibrate on power up, it appears to me that Olympus' ultrasonic dust removal may be better than Ricoh/Pentax's for whatever reason. I suspect it has to do with the smaller sensor vibrating at higher frequencies, but I may be wrong. No doubt there are also patent protections for each, which need to be considered.
But it really is a pain having a fixed lens camera with sensor dust. Luckily, I've been using Sony RX100s for about 10 years and yet to see any sensor dust. I suspect it's because I never put the camera in my pocket without being in its camera case. Pockets are dust dumps and recommend that one never put a naked camera in a pocket.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
02-14-2022, 08:54 AM
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Surely it makes sense for Ricoh to make a K1000 or MX or suchlike to sell to film photographers. That would instantly entrench Ricoh/Pentax as different from mirrorless over and above Pentax dSLRs. Or are there so few film photographers that the venture wouldn't be viable?
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
01-24-2022, 09:19 PM
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The FA 135/2.8 has a permant place in my bag. It's small and light, very sharp and, at 200 mm equivalent, it's perfect for long landscape and long candid portrait shots in APS-C.
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Forum: General Photography
01-17-2022, 11:16 PM
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Still using XP at work - great operating system, esp. for legacy accounting programs, the contemporary versions of which you now have to rent to use. Usually nothing beats Windows for backwards compatibility, but there are some programs that just won't run on Windows 10.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
01-04-2022, 06:52 PM
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It's the reason I didn't buy the K-3 III and chose to stick with the KP in the Pentax world.
Being a keen hiker, and having several Olympus weather sealed lenses, I used the money to buy an Olympus EM1 III instead (for it's portability, IBIS, weathersealing, burst rate, accurate focusing, and... fully articulated screen). I'm neutral regarding EVF/OVF.
That said, I don't think I'd ever sell my K-5II or old Pentax lenses. But the K-3 III without an articulating screen just wasn't compelling enough at $2000.
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Forum: General Photography
11-29-2021, 10:40 PM
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Photographs are normally viewed as snapshots caught in time - each a combination of subject and photographer being in the right spot at the right time, with the photographer having the skills and equipment to capture the photo. There's some hypocracy in photographing a drugged subject without stating the fact. It's a mider form of the type of manipulation that some natural history photographers have gotten into trouble before when using stuffed animals in posed shots without declaring the fact. One isn't able to visually distinguish between a drugged or non-drugged subject usually. Drugging your subject without saying that's what you've done is lying by omission, in my view. In any event, to me, photos of animals (including insects) being their undrugged natural selves are far better than staged photos using drugged animals.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
08-22-2021, 12:08 AM
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There's no evidence that the camera learns "on the fly" as one takes photographs. Unless there are conclusive and unambiguous statements to the contrary, not marketing fluff, I think we can be certain that all K-3IIIs with the same firmware behave exactly the same.
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Forum: General Photography
08-07-2021, 12:30 AM
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Yes please. Love looking at old photos from from the 20th century post WWII.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
07-19-2021, 11:00 PM
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Whatever you do, backup, backup, backup. Photographs are irreplaceable but so easy to duplicate nowadays. Modern digital files and media are fragile.
For many years I've had my photos + LR catalogs on one removable HD. Almost 200,000 images, now, going back many years. My portable HD (+ laptop) is constantly with me on the move. Having a portable HD means I can use the LR catalog on multiple computers. But I have a daily backup of new images + catalog to a second removable HD stored at home, with a third mirrored HD stored in a safe in a strongroom at a different location.
I don't have the bandwidth / capacity to backup all my images online. That will come though, but I'll still have physical backups that I own and in my possession.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
06-30-2021, 07:46 AM
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Looks good... BUT I can't wait for the DFA 21 Limited. The money for it is burning a hole in my pocket.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
06-18-2021, 08:30 AM
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^^^ Agree 100%. The reply is just about as unhelpful as can be.
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
06-16-2021, 01:05 AM
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Welcome deco009, you have a good eye for composition.
The K-5 is a very good camera. The DA 18-135 is weather resistent, silent and focuses well on the K-5, and can be bought second hand for a good price.
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
05-27-2021, 05:29 AM
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Hey Neopifex, those are a wonderful and very useful addition to the set. Thanks so much for taking the time and trouble to create them.
I have an Auto 110 that I bought in 1980. It's very pleasing to be able to add the logo to my signature.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
05-25-2021, 04:19 AM
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I agree with gatorguy ^^^
I own and use the ND 16, 64 and 1000 filters and find them particularly useful on the Sigma 8-16, which is too bulbous for a filter thread.
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
05-24-2021, 02:27 AM
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Hello and welcome from me in Cape Town.
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Forum: Sold Items
05-22-2021, 04:35 AM
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Excellent lens. Highly recommended.
I use internal clip series ND filters, which work a treat with this or any lens.
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Forum: Photographic Industry and Professionals
05-21-2021, 08:56 PM
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You're most welcome.
That sounds great - by all means, please go ahead. My plans for further sets are vague.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
05-15-2021, 06:03 AM
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
05-03-2021, 10:55 PM
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Thanks Craig and everyone - that's very helpful. The viewfinder AF point system behaviour obviously needs to be explored and got used to by new users coming from previous generations of cameras.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
05-03-2021, 04:28 PM
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Two questions for actual K-3III owners...
It appears that the K-3III's AF points light up dark grey when in focus, not the bright red found in previous K-7/5/3 series models.
When using the viewfinder -
1. How difficult are the focus points to see against a dark background and in the dark?
2. Is it possible to change the AF point colour?
See this video, in which the AF points light up okay against a light background, but are nothing like those bright red AF points found in the KP and K-5, for example.
Youtu.be
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src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gmaXXUF1B0w?controls=1" allowfullscreen>
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