danblu

Hi David, The 80 200 is a really good portrait lens, really sharp with super smooth bokeh. I have one and love it.

cheers.

My apologies, I stand corrected. On my istd one needs to have afs setting and I notice that one needs to have the menu setting... auto focus on when shutter button pressed halfway... set to the on position. Without this it will fire regardless of the focus. A very useful feature indeed.

On my istd one simply sets the focus control to "continuous". With this setting the shutter will not fire until focus is achieved. Best of luck with it Bill, kind regards,

Pete

Why don't you just go and get one? Surely it's not that big a deal!!

Another method... with an M lens... press the lens release button and rotate the lens back in the direction one removes it, about 10 degrees. In this position the camera is always metering and aperture priority can be used. The lens is already stopped down to whichever aperture is chosen so I need to open the aperture to focus then set the aperture for the effect I want, all the time being careful the lens dosn't fall off. :) good luck with the istd, great camera.

I have the istd and the M lens works fine in manual mode. You do need to press the green button to get the camera to set the shutter speed. Not so so good for sports but fine for slow moving landscapes. :)

That looks like a whole lot of ordinary folks who are truly concerned, nicely documented Justin. Theres certainly a lot to be said for having a chook in the back yard, composting and growing some vegies and using solar for hot water, and indeed getting the bike out. I'm a vegetarian so sprouts are big in my diet, very good for the environment as less land needed to make protein. I agree it is the person making little choices that will make the big difference in regard to global warming and indeed pollution. There is also the issue of health that could be tackled using the same philosophies, organic food, unprocessed and cooked and hopefully grown at or near home. No action is more patriotic than eating well!

Photography can be such a shallow hobby or it can be world changing, I pray your photos make a difference.

Good luck Pete

I have a 200 A lens that exposes ok but sometimes purple fringing effect is a problem. I also use 28 m, 50 1.7A, and a fabulous 80 - 200 4.5 M. My camera is the istd. All the above take great photos atttached to the D. This purple fringing effect is the only thing I have against these older lenses, and it is a serious problem.

I am amazed at the results people are getting with the 18 - 55 da kit lens, it will give you all the modern features and unless you are making huge prints would surely be just fine. Seems to me these newer lenses are very good value.

The fgz 360 pentax should be just fine , if you need swivel just take it of the camera and hold it in your hand.

Why not a decent macro lens. much fun.

I agree the megapixels are not a big deal, 6 is plenty for normal use. The feature on the k10 that apeals to me is the environmental sealing, to be able to use the camera in wet or dusty conditions without too much concern would decide the issue for me. The new Pentax lenses announced must be sealed as well, at least one hopes so!

good luck.

This camera should be fine even for a novice, the green settings are automatic so any one can use it. In fact it used to be a given thing that the way to learn was to use a camera without any automatic settings at all . The k10 will leave you with room that you may not outgrow for a long time. In regard to the zoom the 50-200 Pentax should be good, using longer than 200 really does need a tripod or at least a monopod used very well. There are a raft of new Pentax lenses coming soon with faster autofocus which I believe will only operate with the k10.

For surfing shots you need a really long lens, something like a 500mm f 4.5 sigma costing many thousands of dollars. I have the 200 A Pentax lens and have tried using it for surf shots with an Pentax 2x converter, very difficult to focus because the converter reduces the light coming into the camera, second the shots have pronounced chromatic abberation which is like purple- blue haloes about the contrasty sections in the photo-ugly. I guess you could simply use the 200 m and crop the photos, getting the same enlargement as a 1.7 converter would be within reason. Using a manual focus lens for surfing is ok as surfers are not moving towards the shore at great speeds, probably 10 to 15 knots, they get speed from moving transversly across the face of the wave. You would probably be focused at infinity anyway. These Pentax cameras have a feature which is called trap focus, using manual lens, set focusing options to af.s, the camera then will not release the shutter until focus is achieved, works well in well lit scenes.

Yes, need to "just see" not think!

I've had similar thing happen when listening to classical music, very modern stuff, it was one chord played continuously for about one half hour, after a few minutes my mind started to make melodies to this chord which were enchanting, they say that beauty lies within us so maybe it just takes a little time to emerge.

I like the M 28, use it a lot on my istd, even though this lens is not rated highly I think it is a very good lens. I use the A 50 1.7 over my old m 50 2 as it is much more convenient due to being able to use aperture priority and shutter priority modes, with the M lenses one must press the green button prior to exposure. With longer lenses I recommend using an A series lens at least as I think one needs faster responses at these lengths. A lot of people complain about the older lenses under exposing somewhat, but the colors are great and the shots do have a film like quality to them which i like. A zoom that I like is the Pentax M 80- 200 4.5, not great for sports as mentioned above but simply wonderful for portraits, so sharp at 4.5 :) this link is a portrait with the 80-200 http://www.photo.net/photo/10078991 and this stool is shot using the 28, 2.8 M http://www.photo.net/photo/10020003

Hi Chris, I think the main difference is that using an slr you get what you see, the image in the viewfinder is not a tv screen. Lack of shutter lag is another serious advantage, the point and shoots that I've used have had serious delay after the shutter is pressed making them next to useless for action photography. The slr lets you choose the quality of your lenses, you can get really superb gear or you can get entry level or somewhere in between these extremes, with the point and shoots , of course, you get what you are given.

You can get great shots with both and necessity is the mother of invention so limitations often lead to creativity. I think that by the time one has learned to use the camera, different lenses, lighting , photoshop etc. ones eyesight is probably dim.:)

It is a method of communication, both photos and titles and surely both are an art form.

Thanks kindly Jochen, the lens is a Tamron sp 90 di and I believe from reading reviews that it gets softer past f22. I guess enough power to use a difuser of some sort would be an advantage.

Any recommendations for a flash. I have the istD and would like to light for

macro using a 90 mm lens. I imagine using a cord and handholding the flash.

Does it need to be powerful or will a lower powered unit do the job? Thankyou.

Sure it is about as hit and miss as autofocus is, good light good results, fast lens better results. Fun to muck about with though.

I have been looking at the Pentax 50 - 200 zoom here at ...http://www.pbase.com/cameras/pentax reviewer has suggested it is good because it is as good at 200 as it is at 50. Seems a really fine lens. An estension tube set would enable a decent macro range.

I've been looking at photos taken with the 18-50 Pentax at pbase.com and it looks to be an excellent optic -never mind the money part. I remember reading a couple of years ago Pentax statement that the lenses designed for digital sensors would be smaller and cheaper. I think they have proved their point in this and other digital lenses.

I can't see that you would need shake reduction unless your shutter speed is less than the length of your lens,ie, with a 50 mm lens any situation where the shutter speed is less than 1/50th second. If you have a longer lens then you will need it more often especially the slow zooms. Of course this feature will give you more control of depth of field by allowing smaller apertures hand held. Best of luck with your new camera.

How well it works seems to depend on the amount of light it gets, using a 200 a f1:4 here today and it is a bit hit and miss, though still useful but with a 50 f1:1.7 attached works like a charm. It is very overcast here today, showers and windy. I can achieve sharp photos of a branch swinging in the wind at closest focus with the 200 mentioned using the trap focus, vehicles going past here are doing 60 kilometres per hour, about 37 mph or so and trap focus works fine every time on these. Seems quicker and easier to set up for trap focus, say a flower, move the focus towards with the shutter depressed and as soon as focus is achieved the camera fires. I am getting good results like this at least as good as manually focusing and a lot quicker and seems more reliable.