wes_stewart

Lindy:

 

I understand your comments but I think you're overcomplicating the point on the SR. It is no substitute for a tripod. It allows (for me, anyway...) 2 to 2.5 stops slower shutter speed when handheld. It has allowed me to take some low light shots that would have been blurry messes without SR. There's really nothing spooky or unintuitive about it. It just works. For me the benefit is most obvious at medium telephoto lengths (maybe 135 to 200mm) where I've still got my walkabout lens on the body.

 

Where I think in-body IS is inferior to in-lens IS is the fact that you can't see the effect in the viewfinder prior to the exposure.

 

If you're in the Charlotte, NC area any time soon, please stop by and borrow my K10D for an afternoon and convince yourself. Bring a handful of lenses and take all the pics you want.

FWIW, Herb Keppler, RIP, loved that 100-400 cheapo Phoenix lens...

Higher synced shutter speeds are what you get for your dollars with those nice expensive ones from Pentax... Otherwise you're stuck with shutter speeds of 1/180 or slower.

 

Keep in mind that the flash only lasts for a few milliseconds, so the flash will be freezing the action, not the shutter speed.

I think the best near-term solution is just to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Changing the way you heat, cool, and light your house will have a huge impact without any expensive alternative energy systems. Stop buying water in bottles and just get it out of the tap. Consolidate your car trips. Try to find a use for everything you would normally throw away. Plant a garden. Start a compost pile. Don't automatically throw clothes into the laundry after one wearing. Buy your fruits and vegetables from local producers. It's really easy to start.

Post some examples...

When there are focus issues only at the longer end of a zoom, One might suspect camera shake... SR can only compensate for long focal lengths and shaky hands so much.

 

In any case, if you aren't focusing the way Michael describes, then you are trusting the camera to know which elements of the composition you want have in focus.

 

Just my $0.02, but I have hardly ever use anything but center spot AF. Focus, compose, and shoot. I hardly even think about it now.

All:

 

I need to build a pano of the interior of Pleasant Grove Campground in Mineral

Springs, NC. Here is it in Microsoft Live:

 

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=34.955245~-80.683846&style=h&lvl=18&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&cid=5A51498244D3CA8D!101&encType=1

 

There are about 70 'tents' (shacks, actually) arranged in a square where they

have been holding religious meetings since our grandparents were children. The

pano needs to be the facades of these old, interesting 'tents', many of which

are quirky to say the least. There are structures, including a huge, open-air

church, in the middle of the square that prevent simply setting up in the middle

and shooting from one location. To avoid trees and structures I will need to

set up and move my camera every two or three shots, or 30 times. I figure I

will have to take 90 images to provide enough overlap, particularly in the corners.

 

I have only done panos in autostitch with 10 or 15 images, not 90. Does anyone

have experience stitching this many images?

 

Thanks,

 

Wes

What is the subject of your photos? Longer exposures will allow you to blend ambient light with the flash, though the results can be interesting if the color temp of the light sources is significantly different. The K10D will fire the flash as the trailing curtain closes (not really, but that's a different conversation) so that any movement detected with ambient light will preceed the image captured as the flash fires. This will make moving subject appear to move 'into' their exposure in the frame. Go outside tonight and try it on moving cars. With digital you only need expose a few frames to see the effect.

You'll want 200 to 300 on the long end to get pictures of critters. I'm not sure the kit lens is worth the $$ in your scenario. The 50 f1.4 however will serve you for decades.

"The background is sharp in all of my blurry pictures."

 

If this is the case, you simply aren't focused on the subjects. Switch focusing to use only the single, center point. Put this point on someone's eyes in the middle of the group, and focus. Hold the shutter part-way down and it should hold that focus. This may have nothing to do with lens, aperture, tripods, etc.

Michael:

 

If shutter speed, aperture and ISO are fixed, and you're using a flash where the intensity isn't controlled by the camera, how exactly could the camera affect the exposure? :)

Richard:

 

It sounds like you're just extracting the embedded jpeg in Photo Browser? That's not the same as using Photo Lab to generate a jpeg. Correct me if I'm wrong, but extracting jpegs in the browser and generating jpegs in lab are two different animals altogether.

That's the meter. None of the exposure variables is changing (shutter speed, aperture, or ISO) but the camera is still metering the exposure. If you've always used the camera in one of the auto modes, it has probably always been dead center.

What, precisely, is changing? The aperture, iso, shutter speed?

It works pretty good on my Lenovo T60 with a gig of ram.

The body/lens information exchange probably hasn't changed much since they wrote the specs for the A-series lenses. They've just added contacts every now and then for different reasons (F-series, FA-series, mtf transfer, power zoom contacts). Body/Lens communication is very, very basic among all brands.

First, try your flash in the three scenarios (on camera, on camera on adapter, off camera) on another camera to eliminate one variable.

 

Then try a different flash (camera store) in those three scenarios on your camera to eliminate another variable.

 

At that point you'll know if one of these is bad: the cord, the socket on the adapter, or the socket on the flash.

This might not work for everybody, but the Pentax Remote Assistant will do all kinds of need intervalometer and bulb stuff. It will even do this on more than one body at a time.

 

Yes, you'll need to be tethered to the camera, but you can set a delay before the exposure so that you can button up the computer and run away. You can actually run the intervalometer with the bulb stuff, so you could possibly combine multiple bulb exposures if you fiddled around and got the settings right.

The Pentax 18-250 is a Tamron with a Pentax brand on it. Go look at the two of them side-by-side in your neighborhood camera store. Pentax has done this in the past with Tamron zooms.

The old, FA-version 100/F2.8 macro, or a fast 50mm or shorter lens. A fast lens like the 35/2, 50/1.4, or 24/2 opens a whole new world of photography...

Rose:

 

The best accessory I ever got for flower macros was a sheet of white card stock about 8.5 x 11 inches. Use contact adhesive to stick aluminum foil to one side with the shiny side out.

 

You can use it to direct some light into flowers, which would have lightened up with center of the orange bloom nicely.

 

You can use the white side to bounce a nice, soft highlight into the sides or from behind.

 

You can also use the white side as a background when the flower you want is surrounded by something you don't want (like perhaps a zillion copies of itself).

 

W

Just my opinion, but examining specifications is one thing, and hands-on is another. The best way to see the differences between systems is to borrow examples from friends/associates and take some photos. The handling and ergonomics of APS-C and 4/3 systems tend to offset any technical shortcomings, at least to me.

Maybe I misunderstand the question, but there is no discernible shutter lag. Just like every other DSLR.

To start, what model camera is it and what lens(es) are you using? That will help people help you.

 

By all means take the camera to Thanksgiving. With digital you will know RIGHT NOW if the picture isn't what you expected, so you can just keep snapping away.

The PZ-1 doesn't have particularly good AF, but other than that it is a very capable camera. Of the cameras you listed, however, I would pick the zx-5n. It is very capable, has good AF, DOF preview (if I remember correctly) and takes an accessory vertical grip/battery pack. AV and TV priority are ridiculously easy on the zx-5n. Just grab the aperture ring if you want to change it, and the camera will adjust the shutter accordingly. Or just spin the shutter dial and the camera will adjust the aperture accordingly. EZ.