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r.t. dowling

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Posts posted by r.t. dowling

    erratic control wheel on K-r

    in Pentax

    Posted

    <p>You said "after less than a year," so I assume the camera is still under warranty. You should get Pentax to fix it, and it shouldn't cost you anything. If they aren't answering your emails, try calling them. If that doesn't work, get your state Attorney General's office to send Pentax a friendly letter. That usually does the trick pretty quickly. (I know several people who have had to do that with various computer manufacturers.)</p>

    Which 50mm equivalent prime?

    in Pentax

    Posted

    <p>Personally I would go for the DA 35/2.4. If you look at the test results on Photozone.de, the 35/2.4 performs almost identically to the 31/1.8 Limited. Obviously there is a difference in build quality and materials, but Mr. Samios did specify that he wanted an affordable lens, and the 31/1.8 is not affordable.</p>

    <p>Others have suggested the FA 35/2, but unless Mr. Samios plans to use the lens on a film SLR at some point, I can't think of any compelling reason to choose the FA 35/2 in favor of the DA 35/2.4. Again, the optical performance is very similar, if not identical (the FA is much worse in the purple fringing department than the DA), and he'd be spending quite a bit more money ($475 vs. $179) for an aperture ring that he may never use.</p>

    <p>The speed difference between 1.8, 2, and 2.4 is really quite trivial, especially on a camera like the K-5 that has such great high-ISO performance. 1.8 was a necessity in the days when films faster than ISO 400 looked like crap, but those days are (thankfully) long gone!</p>

    K-30 leak-link with images..!

    in Pentax

    Posted

    <p>That's just my impression based on doing my own comparisons of lenses that have been tested with the 16mp sensor and then retested with the 24mp sensor. In several cases the lenses fared significantly worse on the 24mp sensor, particularly in the borders and corners.</p>

    Pentax K-30

    in Pentax

    Posted

    <p>You're absolutely right that film has thus far refused to die (particularly B&W film), but let's look at it another way: is Pentax still making film cameras? Is Olympus? Is Sony? Is Canon? No, no, no, and no. Nikon still makes the F6, but that's a niche within a niche within a niche, and I don't expect them to make it for much longer.</p>

    <p>I think there will come a time, in the not-so-distant future, that DSLRs will be in a similar niche to the F6. That time isn't here yet, but it's probably not that far off.</p>

    K-30 leak-link with images..!

    in Pentax

    Posted

    <p>Wouldn't surprise me if they go ahead and use the 24 MP Sony sensor in the K-5's replacement. (K-3?) That's fine for people who have a collection of exceptionally good glass; it's quite an unforgiving sensor and can really bring out the flaws in otherwise decent lenses.</p>

    Manual focus to MILC lens converter with automatic aperture possible?

    in Mirrorless Digital Cameras

    Posted

    <p>Unless you really really really need to shoot in Program or Shutter Priority modes, this isn't that big a deal. I use manual lenses on my E-PL1 and Aperture Priority mode works great. It's not much different than using Aperture Priority on my DSLR with fully-automatic lenses, except that I'm setting the aperture on the lens instead of using a thumb wheel on the camera. I actually prefer setting it on the lens; I find this much more ergonomically friendly.</p>

    <p>Sure, it's annoying that the lens aperture isn't recorded in EXIF, but obviously that doesn't effect the quality of the photos or the photo-taking experience.</p>

    <p>I agree with Craig's post. Using these lenses on mirrorless cameras is, in some ways, superior to using them on mirrored cameras.</p>

    New Pentax Lens: 50mm f/1.8

    in Pentax

    Posted

    <p>For the price, I feel like they ought to have made this a WR lens. I'm sorry, $250 is too high for a 50/1.8, especially one with a plastic mount. You can get a Nikon 50/1.8 with a metal mount and an aperture ring for $125, and it's a damn nice lens.</p>

    K-30 leak-link with images..!

    in Pentax

    Posted

    <p>Thanks for the link, William. Now that I've seen better photos of it, from different angles, I find the design/appearance a lot more appealing than I did when the first photos were leaked.</p>

    <p>I do think it's a little silly that they included the words "DIGITAL SINGLE-LENS REFLEX CAMERA" on the back of the camera underneath the LCD screen. That's like building a car and putting "CAR" on the bumper. Are they worried that people won't know what it is? LOL</p>

    Pentax K-30

    in Pentax

    Posted

    <p>Minor correction: Pentax no longer has a monopoly on weather sealed kit lenses. The 12-50 kit lens that debuted with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 is weather sealed.</p>

    Pentax K-30

    in Pentax

    Posted

    <p>I have to say I'm a little surprised by the physical appearance. To me, it looks chunkier/fatter/less-sleek than Pentax's entry/mid DSLRs of the past. If someone had put black tape over the Pentax name and showed me the photos, I would've guessed Canon or Sony.</p>

    <p>It's too bad that they couldn't figure out a way to do something really new/different/innovative with it. </p>

    <p>I'm sure it will take fantastic pictures, though.</p>

    K-01 Review (and several Pentax lenses)

    in Pentax

    Posted

    <blockquote>

    <p><em>"I never heard about dcresource before."</em></p>

    </blockquote>

    <p>It's a good site. They've been testing and reviewing digital cameras longer than just about any other site on the web. They didn't get to where they are today by writing biased, unfair reviews.</p>

    <p>Not sure if you read the review or not, but in addition to the defective 16-50, they also received a defective K-01, a defective 18-55 WR, and a defective 55-200. The only lenses they didn't have any problems with were the 40 XS, a borrowed 50-135, and their pre-existing 18-55.</p>

    <p>Short fair-use quote from the review:</p>

     

    <blockquote>

    <p >I want to expand on my experiences with Pentax quality control (or lack of it). The weeks I spent with the K-01 were frustrating. My original K-01 would produce out-of-focus photos about 50% of the time, with multiple lenses. I exchanged it for a second body, which did not have that issue. Lenses were a different story -- here's a quick summary of my experiences:</p>

    <ul>

    <li ><strong>F2.8, 40 mm pancake</strong>: my kit lens worked great -- no complaints!</li>

    <li ><strong>F3.5-5.6, 18 - 55 mm #1</strong>: returned it early on due to the blurry photos issue mentioned above; seemed okay aside from corner blurring.</li>

    <li ><strong>F3.5-5.6, 18 - 55 mm #2</strong>: this lens arrived to replace 18-55 #1, and was a brand new water resistent (WR) model; it was decentered, meaning that sharpness drops off rapidly as you move away from the center of the frame; I did not have focusing problems with this particular lens.</li>

    <li ><strong>F3.5-5.6, 18 - 55 mm #3</strong>: I bought this lens years ago just to have around, and used it to reshoot the photos taken with the WR model; this lens had the same blurriness issues as lens #1 did with my original K-01 body, but it did okay with the second one; this is a Mark I lens, so it had issues with vignetting that the other two 18-55's did not.</li>

    <li ><strong>F2.8, 16 - 50 mm</strong>: this $1500 lens is in Pentax's DA* lineup, so I was expecting great things; it arrived brand new and guess what -- it was decentered, too. My 18-55 actually produced sharper photos (see example below), with <a href="http://www.dcresource.com/sites/default/files/galleries/pentax-k-01-photo-gallery/IMGP0465.JPG" target="_blank">one exception</a>.</li>

    <li ><strong>F4.0-5.6, 50 - 200 mm:</strong> another one of the possible kit lenses, this lens also appeared to be decentered, and had <a href="http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/pentax/k01-assets/IMGP0090.JPG" target="_blank">horrible purple fringing</a> in my first pass of night test shots.</li>

    <li ><strong>F2.8, 50 - 135 mm:</strong> borrowed this $1600 DA* lens from a friend to take over night shot duty, and it worked great.</li>

    </ul>

    </blockquote>

    <p>They're reviewing cameras on a regular basis -- dozens of cameras per year -- so one would assume that if it was a shipping problem, it would effect the other cameras they review, not just the Pentax cameras. One also assumes that they woudn't go out of their way to bash Pentax if the packages were obviously damaged or mishandled.</p>

    Pentax TV commercials

    in Pentax

    Posted

    <p>David M.: rumor has it that Pentax is trying to get some of their cameras onto the shelves of Target stores.</p>

    <p>My local Target has a standalone display for the Nikon "1" series cameras and it's quite eyecatching. It would be cool to see a similar display with the K-01 and whatever Pentax's current tough/waterproof P&S cam is called.</p>

    Pentax K-01 vs Olympus E-M5

    in Mirrorless Digital Cameras

    Posted

    <blockquote>

    <p><em>"I'd like to meet someone who was seriously considering both of those cameras."</em></p>

    </blockquote>

    <p>Hi, nice to meet you.<br>

    Some of us care more about the photos a camera produces than how the camera looks hanging from our necks. My cameras are photographic tools, not fashion accessories or status symbols.</p>

    Pentax K-01 vs Olympus E-M5

    in Mirrorless Digital Cameras

    Posted

    <p>If the K-01 had an EVF (or the option for one), I would choose it over the E-M5 without hesitation. I couldn't care less about its physical appearance.</p>

    <p>At this point I'm torn between the two because I do want an EVF, or at least the ability to add one, but I really like that 16mp APS-C sensor, and I have a few K-mount lenses. I've been experimenting with Micro Four Thirds via an E-PL1, and while I can certainly use my K-mount lenses on it, the 2x crop factor is becoming a real pain in the butt (I'm surprised at how much more annoying it is than the 1.5x APS-C crop factor), and the lack of focus peaking in the E-M5 doesn't help the manual focus situation. <em></em></p>

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