@rfusca - My current lens collection includes Pentax SMC-M 50mm f/1.7, Pentax DA 17-135mm WR, Vivitar 100mm f/2.8 Macro, Vivitar Series III 70-200mm f/2.8mm, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8, Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 macro, Sigma 70-200 f/2.8, and the Sigma 120-400mm f/4.5-5.6.
@rfusca @jrista - In regards to the Pentax GPS module, the astro tracking feature appears to max out at a 5 minute exposure, there is only so much sensor adjustment you can do. I suspect that you do NOT want to use it in conjunction with another tracking device.
@JohnCavan ya, but if i could build a less precise barndoor, it'd be easier if I could then just have the astrotrac feature make up for some of the drift
The Vivitar is manual, the lens is legendary if you get the 3rd edition. I got it as a part of a kit purchase for next to nothing and I went for that because of the lens reputation.
Yeah, the big up for Pentax lenses is that there are a lot of old kits out there that people are trying to unload. You may end up with a few film bodies in your lens quest, but they're worth it for certain lenses.
I've already installed a new bumper, a winch, bought netting, a security trunk... The potential for craziness on this has just jumped! Two incomes, no kids can be a dangerous condition.
The one with the ship demonstrates high ISO on the K-7. ISO 4000. It's pretty noisy but I think it actually looks pretty nice — makes a very good print.
I wish I could take the same shot with one of the newer cameras to see if the cleaner images actually make a difference in a way that matters.
Presumably more DR would make the hair nicer; that's a bit flat.
@rfusca - The K-5 is a great camera, I seriously enjoy using it. I can't speak to the K-r at all, I'm afraid. If you do go K-5 with a prime, you'd want to look at something like the 31mm or the 35mm I would think. They fit close to the classic "normal" view from the film era.
@JohnCavan All of the above (except the one 77mm) are from the 40mm. It's pretty versatile as an "almost normal". I think of it as "normal, but automatically crops a little more for an magically stronger composition."
@mattdm - I can only compare K-5 to K20 where it comes to noise... It's night and day. I would hestitate at above ISO 800 on the K20, but for the K-5 I'll go way beyond that to 12,800 or even 25,600, for a shot.
Samsung made noisy sensors, no question. Have you seen my ISO 20000 shot? It'One of the shots that convinced The Online Photographer owner to buy a K-5.
Oh yeah, TAv mode is slick. I like my manual mode to be fully manual, that's not entirely the case on Nikon or Canon, so I think Pentax does it better.
Not me, my cameras live on either TAv or M modes, with the odd switch to X or bulb. Those are all nicely beside each other and I'd go nuts if I had to menu dig to make manual be manual when I wanted it.
BTW, my kid, from the crying episode earlier: ""I don't want to calm down my mind, because then I will feel happy. And if I'm happy I won't be able to remember that I am so mad at you."
@mattdm ummm, they do on the D3100 its like portrait mode "This mode will set the aperture low and vary the shutter speed to blur the background" with text that pops up on the lcd
it'd be willing to take a lil' lower price overall if it all went at once - saves ALOT of hassle....and there's the possibility that with store credit towards new gear I could come out quite nicely
@JohnCavan ya, for about 800 of it, I paid less than 100
but its worth is now what it costs to replace, so that doesn't matter much
Yeah, indeed. By the way, if you buy a Pentax, set the raw format to DNG. It's the most portable option you can select for Pentax and probably keeps you protected against future software changes. Pentax is a small player, so avoiding proprietary output is probably a better choice.
Well, in terms of cost to replace... You spend $100 to buy a D3100, get $800 for it, and buy a $1500 camera, then your real cost is only $800. That's a very big saving, so I think it matters a lot. You're turning a 800% profit on your purchase...
@JohnCavan well, adorama would have to drastically undercut the quote they gave me on the phone for me to want my gear back, so its very very likely i'll be buying pentax - their quote just determine what i'll get
@mattdm - We did. I can only give my experience, but I was using ACR and Photoshop with K-5 before the Adobe update and with software that was several years old. That would not be the case if I shot with PEF. So... mileage may vary, but I'll shoot DNG for that alone. Besides, photographic archival systems usually call for DNG, not that I'm likely to ever get asked to send to them.
Know what? I'm serious, I dropped K-5 DNG images into a version of RawTherapee that was several years old and it handled it without question. That's the point of DNG. I highly recommend reading the specification, I have, and it's informative. Adobe makes it fully available for free.
Anyways, I have yet to see a compelling argument for using PEF when the camera gives you the DNG option up front. File size differences are minor and getting even less relevant today.
@mattdm - Pentax DNGs are just DNGs, there isn't really anything special about them that I'm aware of, they looked the same in several versions of ACR and RawTherapee. However, the K-5 PEF format required software updates.
No, DNG is more than that. Like I said, reading the spec is enlightening, but if I recall correctly, Foveon won't. Part of the spec includes the sensor bayer layout needed for the demosaicing algorithm. DNG is a raw format, it's not an "embed another" container though the format allows for the original to be kept as part of the conversion were done in software (doesn't apply to Pentax cameras shooting DNG native).
Hmmm. I guess I don't care very strongly. I just don't see a disadvantage in PEF given that open source software does support all current and past cameras.
I don't see a particularly strong advantage either, really. It's kind of curious that Pentax still supports both.
Anyways, as I said, Pentax is a minor player and there is risk that software may choose to drop support for them. However, no graphics application is going to drop an Adobe supported format if they have any hope of being viable, so DNG just seems safer to me. For now, it's probably six of one, half a dozen of the other, but that can change.
@rfusca Those were on the same day, and I had the camera on "MTF" program mode, which picks the optimal aperture for the lens. (Ha!), and since I saw the shutter speed was high enough I just left it like that.
@mattdm ya, i've run into an odd problem...pentax has odd focal lengths which is causing it more difficult to make a decision....
like i liked my 50mm ALOT and it did great portraits, but i found it a bit too long if I needed more than one person in the shot...so the 40mm sounds great....but then I started looking at the 35mm, and having macro would be nice...but then a really great portrait lens would be nice too, so I starting debating if I could get away with just a 70mm...ARRG
then i started looking at third party 2.8 zooms and that just made it worse lol
And they can optimize the sensor so that only the ones are actually read, and since most of the individual samples are mostly zeros with sporadic ones, it's relatively storage-efficient.
@rfusca Canon 70-300 f/4-5.6 lens. I was shooting at ISO 800 & it was pretty noisy, so some of that is a result of trying to clean up the noise, I believe.
@JayLancePhotography Yea, it is optically just magic. Very useful range as well. I'm a wide angle fan, but this would absolutely be my 2nd lens in the bag
@dpollitt In my circle of photographers we refer to it as the "Golden Stovepipe" because it lets in so much light, and everything that you shoot through it is "golden." :-)
That's just 'cause they're scared. They either don't understand how to be successful, why they're successful... Or they're just lazy and don't want to work hard.
People who act as though they didn't have a 'beginning' to their photography career where they 'did what they had to' in order to make ends meet annoy me.
I don't aspire to be full time, I like it as is. Handful of weddings per year, shoot who I want, do as much landscape as I like, etc. I'm also not good at marketing myself, so full time would be difficult.
I tend to think that there's enough pie for everyone, but those that get chapped at 'weekend warriors' are invariably of the mindset that 'there's a limited amount of pie, so I must get as big a piece for myself as possible... At the expense of everyone else.'
making cakes went that way for me. I loved to do it...starting selling and it took off overnight - went from nothing to every waking moment baking...now I haven't made a cake in like a year
@JayLancePhotography Yea I pretty much grabbed an L general purpose and a 70-200 2.8 my first wedding, the 70-200 is what really set that event apart. Haven't shot a wedding without one before.
@JayLancePhotography I am familiar with way too many photographers who subscribe to the limited pie mindset. They always struggle with "moms with DSLRs who shoot a wedding or a baby, etc". Drives them nuts. I just laugh.
@dpollitt Many of them don't realize (or are too lazy to bother) that they should be competing in a different market... They're going after the wrong customers.
@dpollitt For that kinda money he'd need to be able to demonstrate that I'd be able to increase my business by twice the amount I paid him in the year I went... None of the high-priced single-speaker/coach/whatever guys can do that because what they are selling is "how you produce work like I do it," not "how you market work like YOU do it."
I don't want to be Jesh de Rox (or whoever) I want to do ME... But more successfully.
Mike Colon is the same way... Slightly above average photographer, but a brilliant marketer to other photographers... "Pay $8500 (plus travel) to my exotic location and I'll spend 2 days teaching you how I do what I do..." No thanks...
He's a 'rockstar photographer' so invariably he's able to lure in photographers who are looking for the 'quick way' to become a famous photographer.
'Cause apparently hard work and perseverance aren't in fashion this year. ;-)
The problem is that they invariably find that they spent $8500 (or whatever) to hear the message 'you need to work really hard and persevere.' Oops. Shoulda checked out a business book from the library. Coulda had the same less for $2 in late fees...
there's alot of businesses that revolving around marketing more than product because the public isn't educated enough to know what the differences between various product levels are
local computer stores are like that
it doesn't matter if you're 'doing it right' and cheaper, if the other guy has a cool commercial, he wins
For sure. Your average consumer couldn't tell a good photograph from a bad one, but they will almost always buy good customer service over bad customer service... In fact most people will pay MORE for roughly the same product if there is a good customer experience in it for them (witness: Apple).
The truth is that the "overnight success," the unicorn, and the "photographer that gets great success and doesn't have to do any marketing or sales because of their 'uniqueness of vision," all come from the same place... mythology. :-)
