monochromekx

February 20, 2010

SMC Pentax Correction Lens Adapters come in two sizes: to fit the "K" and earlier bodies, such as your Spotmatic; and the "M" series to fit all Pentax bodies from the MX/ME forward, including the DSLR's. The M adapters are not compatible with the older bodies. Be sure to get the right version.

From Boz's K-Mount page: "These SMC-coated <a href="http://www.bdimitrov.de/kmp/misc/focus/correction.jpg">devices</a> change the diopter rating of the viewfinder. There are eight lenses to fit the K-bodies (-5 to +3 diopters, in 1 diopter steps) and seven for the M bodies (-5 to +2 diopters, in 1 diopter steps). "

An eBay or KEH search usually lists a few - finding your correction is the challenge. I have seen my correction (+2) only three times in many years - I've bought every one I've seen.

February 10, 2010

I have a (now) pristine S-M-C Takumar 50/1.4 that I got for $5 because the element had yellowed. I actually did the following:

<ul>

<li>Remove the front and rear caps</li>

<li>Wrap the lens in aluminum foil, shiny side in, leaving the rear element uncovered. The foil reduces heat build up and some say reflects light rays back through the lens.</li>

<li>Place the lens in a South-facing (in the Northern Hemisphere) window with the rear element pointed upward toward the sun. The rear cap serves as a convenient stand. </li>

</ul>

It took about two weeks to completely clear the element of the yellow color. The glass is absolutely gin-clear now.

January 17, 2010

BODIES: 5 manual focus bodies and one DSLR. Sold 4 bodies since October.

LENSES: 1 Auto Tak, 1 S-M-C Tak; 6 SMC; 2 FA; 1 DA; 3 Tamron AD-2 SP

FOR SALE: 11 lenses

RECENTLY SOLD: 3 bodies and 6 lenses.

Moving in the better direction, but I definitely have LBA. I've found a helpful habit to be keeping my ebay watch list empty and buying nothing unless there is money in my PayPal balance from sold items..

December 20, 2009

In 2000 and 2001 Albano Garcia conducted a survey among the members of the Pentax Discussion Mailing List.Y our question was asked, and the answers are listed on B Dimitrov's K-Mount page. FWIW, many of the Pentax information websites we take for granted today were started by members of this list. The following link should take you directly to the list and discussion of the "Best" (in their opinions) Pentax film cameras.

<ol>

<li>MESuper</li>

<li>Pz-1/Pz-1P (auto-focus) </li>

<li>Mz-3n/Zx-5n/Mz-5n (auto-focus) </li>

<li>SuperProgram/SuperA</li>

<li>K1000 (I agree with the question, "Why not a KM or KX," - or K2?)</li>

</ol>

<a href="http://www.bdimitrov.de/kmp/technology/topBodies/index.html">http://www.bdimitrov.de/kmp/technology/topBodies/index.html</a>

November 25, 2009

As for the instructions LOL! Actually, I once saw a famous photographer demonstrate the technique on a video. I just tried it again and it's actually easier than your excellent instructions would suggest at first glance. I laughed because I was reminded of the bathroom instructions in the movie "2001" -twice as long and much smaller type :-)

</blockquote>

Hah hah - I sat here and thought about those lessons and every little thing I had to do to relearn when I changed eyes - took about 15 minutes to actually type it. It is actually quite similar to an outmoded cross-body style I once saw for shooting a handgun (something I don't do).

I read it, you are so correct - it does seem ridiculously complicated. I'd love to find that video.

November 24, 2009

This is how I was taught to position my body and hands in order to create a solid, still platform for taking a photograph:

<ol>

<li>Use a camera strap</li>

<li>Wrap the strap two turns around your LEFT hand or until it places a SLIGHT tension on the camera.</li>

<li>For landscape camera orientation, REST the camera on your left palm with thumb and pointer finger on the lens focusing ring (or aperture ring, as necessary). Your palm is the base the camera sits on. Your left wrist will be bent quite backward.</li>

<li>Your right hand should come naturally to a grip position with modern DSLR grips. Using a traditional SLR body, grip the camera LIGHTLY with the meat of the thumb on the camera back, the three lower finders around the front of the body and index finger ON the shutter release.</li>

<li>Place your feet shoulder-width apart, pointing slightly to the right of the subject</li>

<li>Face your body slightly away from the subject, to the right.</li>

<li>Rest your elbows firmly against your body between the lower ribs and the hips, for support.</li>

<li>Turn (only) your head and shoulders to the left, to face the subject and bring the camera to your dominant eye (I shoot left).</li>

<li>Meter, Compose, and Focus</li>

<li>Release your breath.</li>

<li>Gently squeeze (curl slightly inward) the FOUR FINGERS of your right hand, as if compressing a block of soft foam rubber (NERF Ball). On a modern DSLR, squeeze the grip; on an SLR imagine the foam ball inside your right palm and squeeze it. </li>

<li>The shutter should release itself - you should not "know" when it will release. The action is quite similar to firing a shotgun or rifle. </li>

</ol>

This is supremely awkward at first, but eventually becomes natural. I had to switch eyes last year due to loss of vision in my right eye - so I had to re-learn this. It took about three months and several hundred clicks until it felt as natural with my left eye as it formerly did with my right

November 24, 2009

Can someone point us to info on checking and fixing back focus in the K10D?

</blockquote>

Here's a link to a thread from pentaxForums on the undocumented access to debug mode in the K10D to make focus adjustments

<a href="http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/27040-k10d-firmware-1-3-debug-mode-unleashed.html">http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/27040-k10d-firmware-1-3-debug-mode-unleashed.html</a>

And another on how to use it with a GUI written by a K10D user.

<a href="http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/27040-k10d-firmware-1-3-debug-mode-unleashed.html">http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-news-rumors/26961-k10d-gx10-1-30-firmware-debug-menu-via-usb-activation-2.html</a>

November 17, 2009

I applaud at the efforts of the contest. I think all contestants really pull out their individual and very unique stories why we chose Pentax. Perhaps, we should have more activity like this to sum up our testimonials to one's choosing of their brands. Thank you photo.net and thank you Josh for the great contest.

</blockquote>

Hin, you are always The Man!

November 4, 2009

My Pentax cameras and lenses have changed me somehow over these many years, so that we just go together. I feel a stirring when I hold or even just LOOK at a Pentax that doesn't happen when I hold one of the other brands - Oh, the others are fine tools, one mature, competent and dignified, another adolescent, loud and brassy. Yet for all their utility, they are without passion.

A Pentax feels . . . right.

If I may use an analogy:

I fly fish with a signed-by-the-maker, 1965 cane-strip rod, a 1984 smooth action graphite rod and a 2007 high-modulus boron/graphite rod, all hand-crafted or hand-finished by employees of the same, small company, each for its specific use. They have their own personalities and - new from their canvas bags - had an interesting, raw spirit, a distinct casting feel and specific presentation of the fly, yet a discernible common element, unique to the brand. Though obviously of different eras and technologies, they are clearly of the same tradition and heritage.

As I have fished these rods they have changed me, infected me with their spirits and mine has altered and mellowed theirs, so that they have more life as MY rods than just AS rods. We have fished together for so long that we have a bonded soul - we know and anticipate each other so that the fly lands where my eyes tell it to, not where my arm guides it. The mere act of the cast has become the object of fishing; catching fish is just personal scorekeeping.

So have my five Pentax cameras become part of my hands. Spotmatic F, KX, K2DMD, MESuper, K10D, they come to me naturally now, without thought, without intent, with a purposeful bond. Each has its calling today, each from its own era with its quirky challenges and pleasures, but each has that Pentax Heritage - the common Pentax feel.

When I take a camera for a walk, just holding a Pentax and taking the picture is the object; the image is just a self-measure of progress on my journey as a photographer.

September 19, 2009

Interesting how Pentax consciously or unconsciously is emulating Apple computers. Not too many years ago Apple was on the ropes with about a 3% market share (about what Pentax has in the camera world). Then Apple introduced the color Imac line of computers, sales took off, and the rest in history. So now Pentax introduces the color K-x.........................

</blockquote>

Apple also had a group of feisty, devoted followers and some sympathy; they had, after all, pioneered many, many common features, but were overwhelmed by business users.

Think about Pentax, Canon F1, the emergence of Sports Illustrated and action photography for money in general. Think about Olympus OM (my brother had one back in the day) and the MX. Perhaps looking back the single decision to answer Olympus may have sent Pentax down the path that brings us here.

Think about creative destruction as a virtue and how electronics makers used that to attack entrenched analog device makers across entire economies. Think about Swiss watches vs. Casio and how the Swatch saved an entire industry.

The Apple analogy is apt, but Apple itself was taking a page from Swatch.

The fact that Apple was still there, and Pentax is still here to compete, is a miracle.

</blockquote>

September 5, 2009

Sell whichever of the lenses you do not use in the next three months.

August 27, 2009

Alas, the cupboard is bare.

IOW, the long-held warehouse stock from the last production run, ended perhaps 2 years ago, is finally exhausted. I don't believe they have actually manufactured this lens (or the 35/2) in quite some time.

May 2, 2009

<img src="http://www.pbase.com/kx_monochrome/image/111755582/original.jpg " alt="" /> Pentax K10D Av | Tamron AD-2 SP 01A 35~80mm/2.8~3.8 | 1/100 f/2.8 ISO100 +0.7EV

A new lens to me, this was taken on my first outing with the lens. Of the 50 or so images of these Azaleas I shot experimenting with EV compensation this is the one I liked the best. I still haven't decided how I feel about the grain in the bokeh, but I have since noticed this similar appearance from other Tamron lenses of similar vintage.

I'm having a lot more fun using manual focus lenses with a digital camera than I ever thought I would.

April 26, 2009

K10D > Tamron AD-2 #01A 35~80mm f/2.8~3.8

April 15, 2009

Bob Marz +1 using K10D until it dies. I bought mine for $649 from B&H in March 2008 - could have used Beach for less but I didn't know them then. By waiting 1 year and a few months I essentially got an FA50/1.4 and FA35/2 for free versus buying it right off.

The camera and those lenses (actually, ALL of my Pentax lenses) outresolve my skill as it is, so the net investment of $350 after I would sell the K10D really gets me nothing in IQ - and everrything iin GB (gear bragging).

April 10, 2009

I finally got the grip for my K10D (second-hand, $100) and it completely changes the experience of using the camera - for the better. I have large hands and it improves my hold - gives me a more confident feel and better balance. All four fingers get a purchase on the right side of the body, and cradling the bottom in my left is not such a contortion. Frankly, for some reason my customary slight tilt to the right has gone away.

Nearly all of my lenses are vintage manual focus Pentax K, Tamron SP and Vivitar Series 1; heavy, substantial, metal and glass. I sort of felt those lenses overwhelmed the K10D and shooting for a long time exhausted my thumbs.

I just remove the grip for tripod work. Battery depletion was never a real issue before - I just stopped for a moment and replaced it. Of course, I'm not shooting an event or a wedding, so I have the time. Now battery depletion doesn't exist.

I do use the Autofocus button - but I just turn my right hand up the way I always did before I had the grip. My left hand has more area to support the body in portrait with my style. Many would say that defeats entirely the purpose of using it, but it works well for me.

Now my film cameras feel strange.

April 5, 2009

I'm still running Win2K - it is stable and runs.

I guess I'l finally have to install XP Pro. Darn.

March 27, 2009

You could also consider disabling shutter release AF and focus with the back button. Once you are accustomed to it it actually feels more natural, and you have better control of your focus point (well, sort of).

At least that way you won't accidentally move the focus ring whren you trip the shutter.

March 19, 2009

@@ Ken Yee

"The issue next year will be hyperinflation. You can't magically print $4T of money w/ no consequences and Obama is also dumping trillions more in to fit his other campaign goals (healthcare reform, etc.) so that $4T is only the beginning."

Possibly, but remember, this is a rare "credit" recession. The deflationary effect of writing down several trillion dollars of loans is merely offset by the reflationary effect of printing money. We actually NEED some inflation right now. Printing the money merely replaces that which is buried in declined home values, not to be recovered for 15 or 20 years.

Watch actual wages - when real wages start to rise (decent economic activity and 6% or lower unemployment required - say 2001) the Fed will raise interest rates and create a "normal" interest rate recession.

When the velocity of money returns, then watch out!

March 13, 2009

Last Sunday - the first day above 50 degrees in St. Louis since early November, my wife, daughter and I set out for the local nature preserve to take a walk. I loaded a small shoulder bag with the K10D and DA55~300, blower and brush. I was the last out the door, and just as I was about to close it the phone rang.

I put the camera bag down . . .

and about 15 minutes into the walk a drowsy Red Tailed Hawk put on a display high in a tree such as I have never seen - spreading wings, walking and hopping from branch to branch, stretching a leg with talons spread to scratch . . .

I reached down to my hip to open the bag . . . and . . .

March 6, 2009

OK, so rank amateur (Pentax) manual focus gear addict weighs in with a comment, just because I am here.

I submit:

When skill regularly outstrips the capability of the equipment in use then, and only then, is it time to seek the next level of equipment (sort of like when sensors out-resolve a lens).

Camera makers define which of their cameras is the pro line , and make them capable of 250,000 shutter releases, or some professional-use number, before major service is called for; pro lenses f/1.2 or 1.4 or 1.8 400mm or some big-glass aperture for the FL; and make all the necessary system attachments and options to allow a professional to earn a living, dependably, using the equipment. For Pentax K mount film cameras that is probably K2, MX, LX, 6x7, 645 and MZ-s. Maybe I missed one in there somewhere. We all know which lenses fit the definition. Is a K20D intentionally designed to meet this standard? Probably not - but . . .

Professional photographers define a pro camera as whatever they need to earn money dependably. They might choose to pay more for a heavier-duty or more feature-rich body, or pay less for just the features and duty cycle suited to the job. In fact a smart business-person conserves capital and carefully avoids over-investment. Do some professional photographers define a K20D and FA/DA and * lenses as professional tools? Absolutely - and judging by unit of IQ / $ invested, Pentax is far and away the best tool for many professional assignments. (One has to be detached and rational to see this fact, though).

Some enthusiasts have an entirely different mind-set. The equipment isn't merely incidental, it is part of the enthusiastic enjoyment of the hobby - the end-product, for many enthusiasts, is only part of the objective. Enjoying Pentax gear for its own sake (and in my case, for some strange, inexplicable reason, I enjoy old Pentax gear, not the latest and greatest techno-gadget) - enjoying gear is perfectly fine for people like me, as long as I recognize that the truly exceptional Pentax lenses I have accumulated one-at-a-time don't contribute anything to improving one of my photographs, except by luck. Only I can improve my photographs and gradually they are improving.

My good friend has a D3 and a bag full of lenses with gold bands around them and other toys. I use a KX and K lenses, and a K10D with just 2 FA's and a DA zoom the most, although I have other bodies for fun. We volunteer together in a charity that sometimes calls upon us to photograph its outdoor activities. One week we fired 4700 +/- shots between us (Auto-Levels is your friend). When we compared prints or on-screen displays the only difference between mine and his was the number of keepers he had, because he is faster and more practiced - but all of the images selected for printing (mostly 8x10, viewed from distance) and use in literature were from my cameras - better composition, contrast and light, because I took my time, according to the graphic designer (unfortunately all images are of people and the releases are for limited use by the charity only, so I can't show the work).

So there - I guess.

February 26, 2009

Well, I'm always tempted to cash everything in and start over with an MZ-S, a K20D, the FA Limiteds, and the accessories. That would leave me, what, $8,000 for cards and film? I'd never need to buy anything again.

Well, maybe the FA*300/2.8, FA*80-200/2.8 and FA*28-70/2.8.

Wait - FA*24/2, gotta have a K15/3.5. And 85/1.4.

Tamron SP 65B 400/4

Oh, and I'm keeping the Series 1 105/2.5, FA50/1.4, FA35/2, K35/3.5, K28/3.5 and SP 52B 90/2.5.

Wait, I have a better idea - smc PENTAX-A* 1:8 1200mm ED(IF).

.

Crap - I spent it all.

Twice.

February 25, 2009

Posting this from the road, so If this can be edited I will add pictures when I get home.

Just received a not-that-uncommon Tamron SP 90mm f /2.5 52B (with the 18F extension tube and the 23F hood). Had to mess with the A2 adapter to make it display the aperture setting in K10D, but once that was accomplished - this is an amazing lens.

I have some sharp Pentax glass (K28/3.5; K135/2.5) but at least to me this lens is incredible for 1979-1988. It also "snaps" into focus more visibly then any lens I have ever used - really striking the way the image "jumps" when focus is achieved.

Who needs focus confirmation? I think the FA35 might have lost its semi-perma-mount designation.

I also have a Dionar System Zoom f/4.8 85~210 AE M42 lens. I have no idea what this is, and it has a metal rear lens cap cross threaded and stuck, so I have never been able to use it. Has a nice tripod mount attached, self-hood and is virtually all metal - 3 rings (focus, zoom, aperture). Got it for $1 at a yard sale. Now that I ahve a Spotmatic F I think I'll give that rear cap a try.

If I ever get around to drilling the stuck cap to break it off I will post some photos.

Anyone knows what this is kindly reply.

Photos follow this weekend.

February 13, 2009

What is a Government refund?

a non-interest-bearing, payroll deduction savings account withdrawal by the otherwise undisciplined.

Such as lens addicts.

February 11, 2009

I spend the rest of my non-working time volunteering with the Boy Scouts of America. There's an old joke. "It's just one hour a week . . . (per Scout.)" So as I just posted to Mis, inspired by HinMan and Rose and Peter Shoot-with-what-you have and the others of you, I've been thinning my lens list since September. I'm down to fewer than three lenses. . . (per camera.) My best advice to B - study the extensive internet resources of the BEST IQ lenses available, old and new (I favor K lenses). Make a list of a small number of them you will use. Buy one at a time and use it until you are good with it. Trust that if you let one pass on an auction site, another (probably in better condition) will come along (it will). Resist the temptation to buy a lens you want that has a camera attached to it. Accept that you will, from time to time, have accumulated more lenses than you use - and that someone else will buy them. Enjoy!

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