glenn_holden

<p>Rick:<br>

He is in Canada. Unfortunately, while there is a Best Buy chain here, they do not have the same offerings as the Best Buy in the US.<br>

I asked Best Buy here and they said they could not get the same product as the US (refurbished Pentax that is). Nice if they could because the prices sure do look attractive.</p>

<p>Glenn</p>

<p>Steven:<br>

I have the same lens/camera combination, it works ok in auto focus, but you have to have enough light. However, I've never seen the "MF" in the view finder. Is this a used/older lens? I know that Sigma has to reverse engineer their lens to meet Pentax, I had this problem with the 70-210 sigma a few years ago. They did take it back and do something to it, and it worked ok after that.<br>

It is possible that your camera is set into manual focus some how. I'll take a look at mine tonight and see what might have caused this.<br>

Glenn</p>

<p>Wow, a couple of weeks, and no response yet. Does this mean no one on this forum ever bought a K-M?<br>

Maybe that is why Pentax discountinued them.<br>

Glenn Holden</p>

<p>Just before Christmas, my old *ist DS finally died, well, at least it became unreliable in that every second or third exposure went wonky. Considering it had something like 27,000 exposures on it, I didn't feel to bad. I considered updating to a K7 but my wife used the DS, it was light and simple enough for her- so I always had a backup body for the K10, and I didn't have to carry it. (grin).<br>

Anyway, rather than have it looked at, I bought, on super sale, clear out, the last K-M the photo shop had. It was a good "camera of record" until exposure 2547, that is. Then it got part way through an exposure and the mirror locked up! (Had a fresh set of batterys in it- 2500 maHr rechargeable). Anyway, I replaced the batterys with another set, and it did work again, for about 25 exposures, then it did the same thing. Unfortunately, I was on vacation, so I didn't have time to take a good look at it.<br>

When I got home, I had a good look at the batterys. They all test good on a discharge. It looks like they have tiny pin point weld splatter marks on them. I burnished them up, and took a look inside the battery compartment. The contacts inside are not like the contacts in the cover, they are a piece of small brass bent up with a point on the end with a surface area not much larger than a pin point. I did a light burnish on them, and re-installed the batterys and it's been good for another 100 shots so far without any problem.<br>

I looked at the old dS contacts, it is an entirely different design inside- the contacts are a Y shape arrangement, with much more surface area in contact with the battery.<br>

I now suspect what happens is that the small surface area in contact with the batterys inside the K-M slightly develop some sort of a corrosion, and the weld marks on the battery result from the high current during exposure through a small area, until there is enough corrosion that it prevents enough current flow from activating the mechanism.<br>

Sounds like a design defect to me. Has anyone out there had a similiar problem, and what was their fix?<br>

Sorry, I burnished up the batterys before I thought to take a picture of what the marks on the batterys looked like.</p>

<p>Peter:<br>

No disrespect, but in my experieince, the folks at Henry are less than well versed in the features of the pentax DSLR line of cameras. I'd take whatever they say with a grain or two of salt.<br>

I asked to see one of the 18-270's at the Toronto Henry's show last week, and all I got was blank stares- never heard of it. I do admit that they were very very busy.<br>

LGH</p>

<p>Howard:<br>

Like you, I looked at the Tamron 18-270. It seems like an ideal travel lens. The local dealer here swears on a stack of Nikons that indeed, he was to a dealer show and the Pentax version does indeed have internal lens stabilization. It also works with the K10/K20 D. In fact, he produced a brochure which states that.<br>

I'd like to try it before buying, but he won't order in a lens to try (he's a Nikon person). If you succeed in trying one, please post what your impressions are.<br>

LGH</p>

<p>Most likely to be a collectors item- the shutter will be a fabric curtain, and since it was rubber coated, or a similar material, likely to have pin holes in it.<br>

I have one of the early models with the light meter on top, (not coupled) that, if I recall correctly, was simply a silicon photocell and didn't need batteries.</p>

<p>LGH</p>

<p>ps: the MX is a good, sturdy camera, I have one in my collection as well.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I agree that it probably stands for full frame, but you should look at this in context.<br>

Now this is giving away my age, but if the "FF" is on a lens or a teleconverter, it could stand for Flat Field- ie: it is corrected for close shooting of flat images, not a curvature, that is, it is a copy lens.<br>

For those of you who remember slides, a "FF" lens on a projector was used for glass mounted images.<br>

LGH</p>

<p>Jacques:<br>

I have the Tamron 1.4 X teleconverter as well. I use it with my Sigma 200-500 for birds (as well as various other Tamron lens). I just checked the combination on the camera, and according to the image playback on the camera, it does not disable the antishake, and it did not ask for a focal length, but it does record the focal length of the lens without the 1.4 X factor.<br>

LGH</p>

<p>Patrick/Peter<br>

I am in Canada, Niagara area of Ontario, I'll go in as well if you can get the camera to Ontario. I also have some rolls of B & W still in the freezer I can contribute.<br>

LG Holden</p>

I use two back up 60 GB portable drives with card readers and usb link, then you can take one to an internet cafe and burn a DVD (or two if you want) from the portable drive. Erase the files on the drive and start over again.

LGH

I know that Bali x-rays luggage bags on the way in. If you have an X on it, you are in trouble. Never had trouble with photo gear however, and I did have a couple of camera bodies, but they were in carry on. I don't think they x-ray your carry on yet, but I could be wrong there.

LGH

I have both the PZ-1 and the MZ. The PZ-1 is built like a tank, it still works, but my MZ died about 5 years ago now. There are also some documented problems with the film advance in some of the MZ cameras.

If I had a choice, it would be the PZ-1. Yes, you can download the manual from the Pentax web site, and it's not that hard to figure it out.

LGH

Mark:

I was there last year. You can no longer hire a motor cycle and driver like you used to be able to. A private dirver/guide is a good idea, but last year they had started renting electric bikes (at the main gate where you get your photo id) and were placing charging outlets at the more common temples. This would be a very good way of getting around, but I don't know if the pilot program was extended or not. They are trying to reduce motor exhaust in the park.

The only restrictions I was told about were no pictures of police or military. I took a lot of pictures, but always asked first, and unlike Vietnam, not a single person refused or asked for money!

Lots of good advice given above. I took a monopod instead of a tripod, you can get double use out of it as a walking stick as well as a camera support, and it's easier to carry. I would not worry about having an ultra wide lens, I did lots of stitched panos, which I am sure you will end up doing too.

As far as lens are concerned, you might want something a bit longer if you are going to take pictures of some of the temple details, and as others have said, a small flash works well. I also took a graduated neutral density filter, good for when the light starts to go and you are into a high contrast light/shadow situation.

Have a safe trip.

LGH

Folks:

This is just a guess, but I suspect it may relate to the lack or presence of an anit-reflective coating on the rear element of the lens rather than a focus problem.

Some of the film lens did not have an anti-reflective coating on the rear element since the film itself has an anti-halation backing. No such luck with a sensor.

LGH

Lindsey:

Spent 3 weeks in Vietnam and Cambodia, in Feb this year and never had a problem with camera theft or felt there was any problem. Lots of folks in Vietnam and Cambodia have new digital cameras, including the better off locals. You might, however, get asked for a financial contribution if you take pictures of particular people at the more popular tourist sites. They didn't seem to bother the locals, but went after the tourists.

Mind you, I kept the cameras in a bag until I wanted to use them, and not walk around all day with a camera around my neck.

I took some plastic bags for the equipment, but in Feb. it wasn't overly dusty or rainy. I did take a Rocket blower though, and did blow out the cameras about every two days.

LGH

Hin

Like yourself, I have many pentax cameras of various vintage starting when I was a teenager, and now I am in my 60's. I could never bring myself around to selling any of them. However, yours look in much better shape then mine.

I have a set just like yours, and I've used it lots of times. It used to be my vacation/snapshot camera. Yes, you can still get the print film here in Canada at some of the local drug stores, and they will process it, but it takes forever to get your film back.

How is your motor drive holding up? Mine has the little tabs that hold the end of the winder on broken, so it has some ugly black tape around the battery end of the winder. From the picture,it looks like you had the same probem.

I also like the little zoom lens that Pentax came out with later, but I've never been able to find one on *bay at a price I could afford. I did, however, manage to get an aftermarket teleconverter.

LGH

Todd:

Are there, in fact multiple re-enactments of the Civil War in/around Gettysburg? Your pictures are from April, it seems to me that I recall the big re-enactment is in early July, in fact I thought it was around the July 04 weekend. It seems to me that the last itme I was down, I was told that the re-enactment is not allowed on the battlefield itself.

I was intending to head down this year. Any information welcome.

LGH

You can clean the mirror with "dust off" or similiar if you are careful. If you don't like the idea of using canned air, try the Rocket blower. Always point the body down when doing this so particles fall out not back into the body.

I don't remember if the K 1000 has a user removable screen or not, I'm at work so I cannot look, but you can tell by looking for a little tab on the screen. If so, you can remove and clean that as well.

Clean around the lens mount as well as this is an area where dirt accumulates and will get into the camera when changing lens.

As far as re-lubing of the shutter and mechanism is concerned, I'd leave that to a professional but the K-1000 is pretty rugged in that regard.

And yes, except for the digital lens, any "K" mount lens will work ok.

LGH

Tamron 500 mm with the matching 2 x ff converter, and the drop filters. Bought it new to try Astrophotography. Makes a nice light 1500 mm equivelant with digital. I've used it with a home made mount for sky/night photography.

Not a bad set up with the digital, the 500 mm by itself is quite sharp, actually isn't a bad "semi macro" lens, blurs background quite nicely, gives you a long working distance to the subject.

As others have said, the donut effect can be controlled. For $100, it is certainly worth adding one to your collection.

LGH

Del:

The new Metz 48 works well with the K10 D but it might be a little outside your price range, I think it is $200 plus at the minute. It has a decent output, swivel/tilt, manual control, p-TTL, wireless, front and rear sync, uses 4 AA's, etc.

Don't think you would find one used yet.

LGH

Lots of choices here. Try Pinnacle Studio 9 or 10, or, my favorite is Pro Show Gold. You can download a Pro Show Gold "try out" package for free from the internet. You can also download "pixtures to exe" from the internet as well. They are all similiar, but some have a steeper learning curve than others.

All of them will allow you to format your show in the DVD format so you can burn a true DVD that will run on a DVD player.

Also the stripped Nero package that comes with most DVD burners works on the PC with XP, but not as slick as some of the other packages.

LGH

Andrew:

I used to be a filter on filter off person, but lately I just leave it on.

So, consider this another vote for B&W- UV-1 especially when shooting on a beach- I'd hate to see the crap on my front lens element that gets on the filter!

LGH

Javier:

I also have the Tamron 1.4 AF and I have the matched Tamron 2.0 Flat Field for my Macro. Yes, if you are a "pixal peeper", you can see the effect on the image, but if you downsize the image to 1024 X 768 and make a JPEG, IMHO it looks as good as one from an equivalent focal length prime lens.

The 1.4 is nice since it small and light, gives just that little extra on the focal length, and only costs you one step of exposure.

LGH

Andrew:

I am in Canada as well, don't ever ship UPS ground, they will back charge you for brokerage, even if you don't get charged at the time of delivery, regardles of the amount of the package. When you complain, their attitude is "tough". The "expedited" service is better, but considerably more expensive.

If you can, ship United States Postal Service (USPS), it will come thorugh Canada Post, as others have said, it is a lot cheaper.

LGH