william-porter

<p>Stephanie Pletscher writes:</p>

<blockquote><i>I do like the look of a fisheye used SOMETIMES. I work at a lab as well and the other day we had a girl in who was nearly in tears because her photog had not gotten a single photo of her and her husband where they weren't distorted.</i></blockquote>

<p>I agree. Very wide angle lenses are specialty tools -- and the fish-eye is a specialty within the specialty. Personally, I think a very little fish-eye goes a long way. I prefer my Sigma 10-20 f/4-5.6.</p>

<p>I don't have sixty-seven folks on hand, but I'm taking a test shot that shows, I think, that I could fairly easily get them all -- and with a minimum of distortion. The shot was taken just now from the couch in my living room. You can see my knee at the bottom of the shot. Angle of view from left to right is a good 90 degrees. There is some perspectival distortion: the walls on the left and right seem to be skewed. But I could have reduced that by holding the camera higher when shooting. Keep in mind that there's only about 10 ft between the camera and the fireplace. The advantage of a lens like the Sigma 10-20 is that you can get a lot into a shot without major distortion and yet work in close quarters, as in the dressing room.</p><div></div>

<p>Bill Poupore writes:</p>

<blockquote>All my camera equipment got stolen so I'm starting from scratch.</blockquote>

<p>Been there, had that happen to me. I sympathize.</p>

<blockquote>I'll be doing some serious photography when time permits but the most important thing right now is to have something to take pictures of my three year old son. I've looked at the P&S cameras and the super-zooms but they all seem to be like my old P&S digital - great for recording pictures of the back of his head because he's moved before they can respond to the shutter button being pushed. It seems only SLRs have the FAST response that you need to get the pictures you want when shooting a toddler</blockquote>

<p>I think that the problem of shutter lag can be exaggerated. On the last fixed-lens camera I had, a Canon PowerShot S3 IS, shutter lag did not keep me from shooting sports -- or children. I think that any time you are shooting a moving target, you have to learn to anticipate the shot. With a fixed-lens camera, you just have to think about half a second ahead.</p>

<blockquote>Now the K100D is a nice camera in it's own right, but it's small size would seem to make it the ideal "high performance P&S" that I'm looking for when used with an appropriate lens. Is this a good idea or am I missing something? And if so, what lens would be best for filling it's role? This would be for taking pics of him playing where I'm at a distance size isn't so much an issue, as well as when I'm joining in (I'm really still a three year old myself) and it has to be easy to handle.</blockquote>

<p>I don't think you're missing anything, or at least you aren't missing much. I suspect that the majority of digital SLRs being sold today are being sold to hobbyists and enthusiasts who will use them mainly as point-and-shoot cameras. Nothing inherently wrong with that. The K100D has a number of scene modes, an easy-to-use program mode, and a very easy to use automatic mode.</p>

<p>However, keep in mind that the digital SLR is not a compact camera with shorter shutter delay. Fixed-lens compact cameras have a bunch of real advantages over digital SLRs. They're cheaper, not just initially, but especially AFTER the purchase, because buying a digital SLR is like buying a horse. The initial purchase is the smallest part of the cost of ownership. After you've got it, you have to feed it -- buy lenses, filters, tripods, flash units, diffusers, battery grips, and on and on. You might be the world's most disciplined person and be able to limit yourself to the camera body + one lens. But "LBA" (lens buying addiction) is a joke for a reason: it's real.</p>

<p>In addition to the cost difference, fixed-lens cameras like the Canon PowerShot S3 IS or the G7 (or excellent similar cameras from Panasonic and other makers) take excellent video (often 30 frames per second!). They may allow voice annotations. You can frame photos using the LCD screen rather than viewfinder, something many people find advantageous. (Many, not all.) Some compact cameras have LCD screens that can be swiveled out, which sometimes makes it easier to take candid photos without being noticed. With a fixed-lens camera, you never have to worry about dust on your sensor. You're looking at a Pentax dslr so for you this isn't an issue, but if you were considering a Canon Rebel XT or XTi instead, you should be aware that the Canon fixed-lens cameras have image stabilization built-in, while their digital SLRs don't. (You have to keep paying for IS over and over again, with every lens.)</p>

<p>And finally, don't let anybody tell you that the digital SLR will simply "take better pictures." It will, but not simply. The top of the line compact fixed-lens cameras now can take fantastic photographs. And they're especially good at the kind of thing that you have expressed an interest in. A digital SLR is expandable, modifiable, you can spend more money to get better lenses, etc. If you want the very best quality optics, well, those are made for digital SLRs these days. But the lenses on the top-of-the-line compact cameras are very good.

</p>

<p>I'm not trying to talk you out of buying the K100D. When I faced this decision myself, I went with the K100D (and now have a K10D). But I think it's good to go into the decision well informed. The K100D is a great camera and you really can't go wrong with it. Price may go down here in a few days with the Super is released, by the way (if that has not happened already).</p>

<p>Good luck,</p>

<p>Will Porter</p>

<p>P.S. Someone mentioned the Tamron 18-250 lens. I own this lens and it is indeed quite a decent lens and gives you something like the range of shooting options you would have with a compact superzoom like the Canon PowerShot S5 IS. If you do go with the Pentax K100D, I suggest that you consider buying the body only and getting a lens of your own choice. The kit lens is decent, too, especially for the price. But I stopped using mine almost immediately and that seems to be a common experience. Three good alternatives to the kit lens are the Tamron 18-250 I mentioned already (or the 18-200, which is almost as good and $100 cheaper), the Tamron 28-75 f/2.8, or the Pentax 16-45 f/4. If you like primes, the Pentax 50mm f/1.4 is excellent and inexpensive -- but it's a bit of a telephoto lens on a digital SLR. You certainly could use it as your only lens but you'd find yourself stepping back from your subjects more often than you might like. </p>

I got the Sigma 10-20 about 10 days ago to use with my Pentax K10D. Have not had a chance to put it through its paces properly, but so far, I like it very well. I have the Pentax 16-45 f/4, which does a nice job open wide, so I wanted the Sigma for the 10-15 range more than anything. I will be taking it to the Grand Canyon with me in November (naturally), but I bought it mainly for close-quarters interior photography at weddings and social events. My tests so far suggest that it will meet that need very capably. The only problem is that 10-20 is a fairly specialized range, and at events, I often want as much versatility as I can get. Something like 10-35 would have been better for me, but I gather that poses some significant technical challenges. I expect I'll be using the Pentax 16-45 as much as possible, and that I'll break out the Sigma 10-20 mainly when I really need it for a few shots. But we'll see.

By the way, nice photos. The photo taken in the canoe that's being pulled gives a good illustration of how this lens represents distance from the subject.

Will Porter

Dallas, Texas

I shoot to PEF with my K10D all the time, and before I got the K10D I used a K100D for a few months. I've never had a problem importing PEF files from either of these cameras into Lightroom, and I've been using Lightroom since late in the beta period (starting in January 2007). I am now using Lightroom 1.1 on a Dell laptop running Windows XP SP2.

I have read that some programs on the Mac get their drivers updated as part of system updates. But I am pretty sure that applies mainly to iPhoto and Aperture, which are made by Apple, and does not apply to Lightroom.

I do believe that I read that there were some slight differences between the older PEF files produced by, say, the *istD, and the newer form of PEFs produced by the K100D/110D and the K10D. I haven't ever used an *istD.

If you're using a trial version of Lightroom, I assume you're using version 1.1, right?

You mention a "Super K100D". Not sure what that is. The K100D Super hasn't been released yet, has it? Pretty sure it hasn't been released here in the USA. If that's actually what you've got, well, it's possible that Pentax made some tweaks in the format that are affecting things.

I would recommend checking out the user support forums for Lightroom over at Adobe.com. Bit chaotic there, but can be helpful.

Will