anthony_armstrong

Edward,

Even if the digicam has a viewfinder you need to carefully assess it. I had a new Canon G7 for a couple of days and found that even with the diopter at its sharpest adjustment the image was seriously blurred. It may have been a manufacturing defect rather than a design defect so I sent it back - I am waiting for my local camera shop to get them in stock so I can try-before-I-buy. Worth the extra price a shop charges versus mailorder.

I cruised through Best Buy and found that optical viewfinders are getting rarer, Pentax & Nikon digicams don't have them. On those brands that do have them you'll find that most of them are so bad that they give you a headache if you have them to your eye for more than a second. No, it is not my eyesight! Manufacturers are devoting their attention to other features and the finders are an afterthought.

I guess that their reasoning is that if you are that concerned about the viewfinder then you should be using an SLR. Oh well, such is progress.

As Brit transplanted to the US I have discovered that there are cultural differences in color (colour) preferences. The American preference is for high contrast and bright reds with Europeans preferring more muted tones - might have something to do with the weather. As with all generalizations this is not universally true but I definitely have found that my American friends & family prefer pictures that "pop".

Maybe that is why Fuji film took off in Europe - we liked the subtle Japanese color palette compared to Kodak's. Fuji set up a production plant in South Carolina to supply the US market with a slightly different emulsion formulation than the rest of the world. Also, be careful buying Fuji film at Walmart - they bully suppliers and specify Fuji's old 3 layer emulsion because it is cheaper.

I find myself using Fuji's consumer grade 4-layer 400 speed color negative film because I prefer the lower contrast compared to 100 speed!

As Ronald Smith points out, we seem to have been acclimatized to brighter images and digicams do seem to have default saturation, brightness & sharpening set to higher levels than I would prefer (See DPReview's comments on the new Samsung NV10 digicam as typical of today's models - a technical & design winner but over saturated colors with no way to change that default setting) add to that the more limited dynamic range of sensors compared to film - more akin to a slide film with highlights burning out and shadows blocking up more easily than negative film.

I hope that the next wave of digicam development will move away from increased pixel count (10Mp is roughly as high resolution as 400 speed film)and concentrate on the more subtle aspects of image quality.

I would suggest the used section at www.keh.com and eBay as the best places to look. By the way, I have just had my LX repaired by Pentax in Colorado and they appear to still have all of the necessary spare parts.

I hope you will enjoy yours as much as I am enjoying this finely made machine.

I have experienced similar strange behavior on both a Pentax ZX10 and a Nikon N2020. In both cases replacing the battery solved the problem - though why the old one had enough juice to operate the wind-on motor but couldn't trip the lower-current shutter magnets is a mystery to me. Perhaps the batteries were not bad and the fact I removed them caused a 'cold reboot' of the internal computer chip?

I would recommend trying a new battery before springing for a new lens

As a long-time Pentax user I am pleased to see them bringing out new models. Like the previous poster I too am glad they have dropped the silly names but they are still shooting themselves in the foot by adopting a naming convention in which the HIGHER numbers have LOWER functionality - that is the reverse of every other consumer goods manufacturer. The K110 is like the K100 but without the image stabilization.

Here in America we have the tendency to "buy the sizzle not the steak" so marketing is vitally important. Pentax have never been good at labels - prefering NOT to mention it when their lenses contain aspherical elements or low-dispersion glass or when their metering is "matrix" or when the lenses have "D" functionality.

In Europe & Asia customers seem capable of looking beyond the "branding" and other marketing hype and make purchasing decisions on more objective, functional criteria with the result that Pentax is more highly regarded in those markets than in the US.

Come on Pentax, if you want to increase US sales then you have to be more like Canon and use simple names like "Rebel" or "KISS" rather than "300v". Or be more like Nikon and use an under-dressed drug-addled Brit bimbo to push your product on television (while the British company Burberry and the French company Chanel dropped her). These things are much more important than the product itself.

Sorry, I have to disagree with Barry. My Domke bag had a seam pull out after 3 years of very light use. On close inspection with a loupe it was clear that the original sewing was defective - off track.

At first I was pleased with the bag but as I used it more I realised that the basic design allowed rain to enter and for small pieces to fall out of the closed bag. It failed to perform its basic mission of carrying my gear in safety. Also the metal clip was impossible to undo single-handed so you could never get the camera out in a hurry. Ironically it was an anti-velcro mood that persuaded me to buy the Domke in the first place. The more I lived with the bag the more I realised that ballistic nylon, velcro and zippers were genuinely beneficial advances.

During my moments of nostalgia I thought it was a great bag for my Leica M3 but I now realize that, like the camera, the bag's inefficiencies actually get in the way of taking pictures. Also like the camera, the bag is prone to failure just when you need it most. If your objective is taking pictures then look at more thoughtfully designed products from Lowepro, Tamarac and a host of other manufacturers. If you like the "pro" look then go for either the Domke or its imitators even though my experience is that they are, technically, inferior products on the basis of their design & materials.

I travelled a lot on business in the late 70s & early 80s and I usually took a Voigtlander 110 with me - it had a sharp f5.6 lens. Loaded with Kodak colour negative it produced reasonable 4x6 prints. yes they were grainy and not able to be enlarged but at least it was in my briefcase or pocket at all times so I captured many memories that would otherwise have been lost so I owe Kodak & 110 film a debt of gratitude.

Then I discovered a cheap full frame 35mm camera imported by Hanimex into the UK. It had a zone focus, 3 element lens that opened up to f2.8 so I could take pictures inside a museum without flash - the 110 was history for me!

When APS came on the scene I lusted after the Canon elph/ixus but it was too late to market and by then there were plenty of pocketable full frame 35mm cameras (I still use the Oly stylus epic) with easy loading so why bother with the extra cost and lower quality of APS?

I am lucky to own the Contax T2 and T3 which are just a little too heavy for the pants pocket but can be squeezed into a jacket pocket without dragging the jacket down too much. With those two cameras technical quality is never an issue - they are as sharp & contrasty as any SLR prime lens!!

Today, of course, for all round useability in a pocket camera you cannot beat a small digital camera. On this point I disagree with Ian. At 6 megapixels there is probably more detail than 110 film could capture and the colour accuracy is better than film while you can tune the contrast and saturation to be as "vibrant" as you wish, either in-camera or on the computer afterwards.

A digicam now resides permanently in my briefcase as the modern functional equivalent of a 110 film camera - taking the everyday snapshot when the SLR is just too much to carry. I don't believe that there is a place in today's world for 110 - even with the superb Canon 110 ED camera. I love film and still process my own 35mm black & white. In the past I also reloaded Minolta 16mm cartridges and also used a Yashica Atoron (Minox cartridges) so I can claim to be a fan of subminature formats. However I have to admit that, today, digital is just better all round for everyday snapshots.

I have just stripped down the camera to its last nut & bolt! All of the gears were in perfect condition, firm on their shafts and seemingly working perfectly. So the most likly candidate for bad behaviour was not the culprit in this case. There was no sign of any interference in the shutter or mirror mechanism so I have to conclude it was some form of mechanical misalignment/wear or an electric/logic problem.

If anybody needs a part for their ZX-M please let me know and I will send it free of charge. The baseplate & battery cover or the door latch might be useful to someone!

I have been using an ZX-M as a second body to my ZX-5n so it hasn't

had much use. I fired it up after several weeks of non-use and it has

a problem. Whatever I do it just gives me a quiet 'whirr' sound for

about a second. Switch it on - whirr, close the back - whirr (no not

the film loading noise - a much quieter one), change modes - whirr.

The body does not recognize any lens.

It feels like the exposure cycle has not completed (I had that

several time with ME Supers)and the shutter has not completely reset.

I noticed on eBay that there are several ZXs for sale with the same

problem.

Is this a known failure mode? I couldn't find anything on my search

of Photonet.

If no-one knows what is the problem I will have to go in blind and

try to work out what is happening (or NOT happening) and report back

to the forum. I hope it is something visible like a slipped/cracked

gear rather than an invisible failure of a chip or sensor switch.

best regards, Tony Armstrong

I have been keeping an eye on the price of the DS for a couple of months now. $600 for body & lens is very good. I have seen a couple of places at $649 but they were not major retailers and I have had personal experience of the bait & switch tactics of those sort of online retailers.

The cheapest kit price from a reputable store is over $700 so $600 from a local store is a good price.

yes it is relatively easy to clean & lubricate that bit of the lens. With the lens face down unscrew the mounting ring and lift it off.

You can then lift off the plastic aperture control ring (or there may be another couple of black screws to undo, underneath the chrome mounting flange - I can't remember but it will be obvious when you remove the mounting flange) but be very careful to note where the little flat metal springs go (next to the button for releasing the ring from the A position). There will also be a tiny ball bearing with a coil spring behind it that provides the 'click' stops. After cleaning up lubricate the ball with the tiniest amount of high-temperature grease - the size of a pinhead. That grease will also hold the ball in place when you reassemble.

Take notes & draw pictures to make sure you get the aperture control ring and mounting flange back in exactly the same position.

The usual reason the Pentak K lenses aperture ring gets stiff is because the little plastic ridges that holds the flat springs in place breaks off so the flat springs can move around and jam the ring. The springs are there so that you have to press the button to move the aperture ring into & out of the "A" position. Personally I am always moving the ring from A to specific apertures so I am glad to take out the flat springs completely!!

It takes longer to describe than the repair itself!!

There is a chance that the stiffness is because of a breakage further into the lens and beyond home repair. But if all blades of the iris move in step when you turn the ring and the iris reacts snappily to the stop-down lever then the stiffness is usually easily rectified at the back end of the lens as described above.

good luck - they are great lenses, well worth the bother of repairing yourself and, if you mess up then a replacement only costs a few dollars on eBay.

Hi,

I had exactly the same problem on a Yashica camera. There is a spot of glue that holds the mirror to the plate. This glue had softened and allowed the mirror to slip down by a tiny fraction of an inch. You couldn't see any difference through the viewfinder but the edge of the mirror hung over the metal plate is sits upon and contacted the rear of the lens when it tried to flip up.

I carefully inserted a thin blade between the mirror and the plate to break the glue which I then removed completely. Reglue with the glass mirror pushed fully onto the metal plate - wood glue worked just fine for me.

Search this site for the last couple of years and you will find that other people have had the same problem with Yashica SLRs. Take a look at your camera and I bet you will find the glass mirror extends beyond the edge of the metal plate. The good news is that it only took ten minutes to fix.

An excellent summary of this wonderful little camera. Yes, the programmed shutter hangs onto f2.8 but the 4 element prime lens is sharper at this aperture than a consumer zoom lens at f8!!!

My complaint about the Epic is the care you need to exercise on focussing. You definitely have to learn the two-stage process of half-pressing the shutter, slight pause for the green light, then press the whole way. When my wife uses the camera she believes that "point & shoot" means what it says and there are always two or three shots on the roll that are mis-focussed. I am often caught out too.

The fact that the exposure program favors wide apertures means that any focussing errors are more obvious. The up-side of this is that closer, portrait, shots have their background nicely out of focus, giving emphasis to the subject. (an aside: my complaint against digital P&S cameras is that the very short focal length of their lenses means almost everything in a shot is always in focus. It is nearly impossible to isolate a subject by selective focus - I guess that is why I own an SLR as well).

I do have a Contax T3 that focusses better, gives me control of exposure and renders sharp contrasty images - but this cost $700 and isn't splashproof like the Epic.

I wonder how many of these fixed focal length lens cameras Olympus actually sold? The average consumer would have prefered the zoom lens version, or these days a digital P&S, while the serious amateur is probably prepared to pay the extra for a Contax, Leica, Rollei, Ricoh prime lens camera that offers more control.

I have used the Epic at the extreme of its capabilities in a huge auditorium - must have been f2.8 at 1/30th. I took it just to record the general scene but then I looked at the detail, thinking I might blow it up to 16x20 - the right hand edge is definitely less sharp than the left hand edge, making me wish I had used the Contax T3 or SLR instead, I guess that is the difference between a $700 camera and a $70 camera.

Still, I have to admit that it is hard to beat the Epic in terms of bang for the buck.

happy picture taking.

I can relate, slightly, to Andrew's rant about other people's low standards. I have struggled many times to ensure crisp, flowing video from my Sony DV camcorder only to have family & friends totally ignore the technical quality of the finished product.

To their eyes it is indistinguishable from the VGA mpegs that my digicam produces.In fact they regard the video output of the digicam highly superior for the simple reason that I carry it with me and use it while the camcorder stays home. To them it is all about content rather than technical quality.

If you don't mind the lower technical quality then you will find the digicam so much more convenient than a camcorder. However, I did do some videotapes of high school volleyball players for them to send to college coaches and that was worth the extra time & effort of lugging around the camcorder & tripod then hours of editing to make a 3 minute tape. - or maybe the college coaches were also more interested in the content than the technical quality ?

Either way - have fun and don't stress too much about the equipment.

I was told that one of the things that distinguishes a professional photographer from an amateur is that they know how to use flash. If you are confident that you can calculate fill ratios to soften harsh shadows outdoors and use bounce flash techniques indoors then your results with flash will be better than without.

Personally I so dislike the "deer caught in the headlights" look of harsh flash that I prefer to use a large aperture lens instead of risking getting the fill ratio wrong. If I use flash indoors I always try to use the ceiling or wall as a reflector. I am an amateur and not confident of getting it right every shot.

I am fortunately in having a number of cameras, including an expensive 'point & shoot' that automatically does daytime fill flash. My family & friends invariably prefer the photos taken using the flash.

If you are confident of your flash technique in the fast pace of a wedding then I would recommend using it. Indoors I would do a mixture of flash for the "documenting" of guests and also some non-flash shots for unposed "natural" views.

Good luck - I hate it when anyone asks me to take a few pictures at a family wedding.

I think that was called the EX-S2 or EX-M2 for the USA market. Is this the model?

http://world.casio.com/qv/download/en/manual/ex_s2m2.html

Hello,

I have just dug out a camera from the closet after a year of non-use

and find that I cannot charge the Sony info-Lithium batteries. The

charger shows an orange light for around 10 seconds then just

switches off. One battery is working ok so I know that the charger is

functioning.

Is there away of reviving deeply discharged batteries?

Hi,

I have always found it faster & more convenient to use a multi-function card reader rather than connecting up the camera itself. They cost around $20.

It is going to be really difficult for anyone to help you trouble-shoot unless they have had the exact same problem (is it the cable?).

Assuming that the camera still captures the pictures to the card then a card reader will solve the problem.

regards

$60 buys you a slave flash that will work with any digital camera - and will not be fooled by the pre-flash that many digital cameras employ to calculate exposure/distance microseconds before they fire the main flash.

There are a number of advantages to this approach:

- You use any digital camera, not just ones with a hot shoe.

- The off-camera positioning of the flash avoids the "deer in the headlights" look direct flash gives.

- Red-eye is usually completely eliminated.

- you could add multiple units for backlighting, bouncing off low white ceilings or walls.

I have used slave flashes with film cameras to great effect. It is well worth the time taken to experiment.

regards

Oh .... there is another possibility. Does your Pentax model have a switch on the body that says MF/AF. Mine does - and that switches off the autofocus. Check that it is switched to the AF position.

On reflection this is the most likely problem!!

Hi,

Sigma autofocus lenses should work fine on your Pentax. I never have had any problems. On pentax cameras the autofocus connection from camera body to lens is mechanical - a small screwdriver & slot type of arrangement. There have been incidences of Sigma lenses not working with Canon & Nikon because they use electrical connections to 'talk' to a focusing motor inside the lens and sometimes Sigma didn't get that protocol exactly right.

There are 3 possiblities:

1. You were given the wrong lenses in the kit . Unlikely and they wouldn't mount at all if that were the case.

2. You haven't mounted the lens quite right. You must make sure to turn it until it clicks into place. Maybe you are being too gentle with your new camera. It shouldn't take too much force but you should feel some resistance until you hear the definite click.

3. Camera or lenses are defective.

Your best course of action is to take it back to the shop and have them mount the lenses and try it out. Ask them to show you exactly how to do it.

I hope you enjoy Ireland.

My stylus epic only misses focus in the hands of my wife. This is because, like most people, she regards it as a point and shoot camera rather than a point, half press, wait a fraction of a second until the green light shows and then shoot. It is imperative on the Stylus Epic to make a slight pause at the halfway point on the shutter in order to let the autofocus determine the distance. Most people press the shutter in one swift movement.

It seems that in the absence of any focus confirmation it defaults to infinity so even if the group of people are dead center it may still have appeared to focus on the skyline behind them.

It can, also miss focus if you have two heads in the frame with a gap between so, even if you pause to let the autofocus do its job, you will still get the background sharp not the heads. Almost every P&S is guilty of this to a greater or lesser degree

This behavior is made worse by the exposure program that Olympus built in - it holds on to f2.8 until there is enough light for 1/250th second and only then starts to close the aperture down. Therefore depth of field is more limited and focussing errors more obvious than on other cameras that would select a smaller aperture.

I don't experience any of these problems with my Contax T3 which still manages to determine the focus distance no matter how fast I trip the shutter and even if I have the main subject off center. Hovever this cost over $600 compared to $90 for the Stylus Epic.

Once I worked out the need to wait for the green light on the Epic(which is, incidently, made clear in the user manual - but who ever reads those? I prefered to waste several rolls of film finding out for myself) and keep the focus point in the center of the frame (or hold the half-press to lock focus then recompose) I can say I have never had a single missed focus from the Oly and have enjoyed the sharp, contrasty pictures it produces.

On the other hand, if you have to think that much about how you are handling the equipment then it can hardly be called a "point & shoot" camera. The other cameras you mention probably require even more thought to use - coincident rangefinder, set aperture - so you sound as if you are prepared to do more than just point & shoot therefore the Stylus Epic is by far the best choice (I couldn't stand the vignetting on the XA I had).

Another vote for the Epic.

www.butkus.org has manuals for Ricoh, and other cameras that are often overlooked. I am not sure what discussion or historical background he has on Ricoh cameras. Perhaps an email to Ricoh themselves might elicit a response from a keen service employee.

I have had a number of Ricoh cameras and found them to be very capable and much more durable than their initial impression would suggest. Plus they use the fabulous Pentax prime lenses. I hope you enjoy your camera.

Planar refers to the optical formula of the lens not the type of mounting.

The Planar formula was devised by Carl Zeiss sometime around the 1890s but, because it was a 6 element design there was too much light loss & reflection that reduced contrast, at the 12 glass-air surfaces and it was upstaged by their Tessar design with half the number of glass-air surfaces.

When they invented lens coatings that got around the air-glass problem then the symmetrical Planar design, with its inherently better corrections for aberrations, became a viable design - and particularly superior to the Tessar at the wide apertures (f2.8 is the maximum for the 4 element, 3 group, Tessar design)

The Planar formula has appeared in lenses with many different mounts, as has the Distagon design. It sounds from your description that your Distagons have the Contax/Yashica SLR mount and, if you want to keep using those very fine lenses then the Contax Aria is a great choice.

I didn't realise that there was any adapter that allowed the Contax SLR lenses to be used on the G series rangefinder. Could you post a link?

Thank you Ajay,

I had not thought of how to repair my mirror so I am glad to hear how you tackled the problem. I will attack it with an X-acto knife this weekend.

regards, Tony Armstrong