PentaxLife Tag: Pentax

mattdm on "Pentax P-TTL options: a comparative overview"

mattdm — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:40:59 +0000

I've put some more work into this, and moved from the google knol to a much-expanded site on its own domain. Please see the new Pentax Flash Guide at http://pttl.mattdm.org instead of the above link.

mattdm on "Pentax P-TTL options: a comparative overview"

mattdm — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:00:55 +0000

I've created a Google Knol page about the various Pentax and third-party options for P-TTL flashes. Please visit:

http://knol.google.com/k/matthew-miller/-/3jwk7bitq8i8/1#

This is a work in progress. More description of features is planned (and more in-depth discussion of which flashes have which features). And I welcome your comments and contributions!

Vitali on "New lenses froom Pentax!"

Vitali — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 04:30:25 +0000

loveking, it will

The only significant difference of K100D Super is exactly what you need - SDM (in lens motor) support.

loveking on "New lenses froom Pentax!"

loveking — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:20:58 +0000

Will the Sigma 70-200 HSM works on K100D Super,
I knew it does not work on K100D

Illuminae on "New lenses froom Pentax!"

Illuminae — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:44:50 +0000

Pentax (by summer 2008) - 7 lenses:
DA 18-55 mkII
DA 55-300 f4-5.8
DA*200 f2.8
DA*300 f4.0
DA 35 f2.8 macro
DA*60-250 f4.0
DA 17-70 f4.0
(after Summer 2008) - 3 lenses + TC
15mm Limited
DA*30mm
DA*55 f1.4

Sigma - 4
50-150 HSM
70-200 HSM
120-400 HSM
150-500 HSM

Tamron - 3 lenses
17-50 f2.8
70-200 f2.8
10-24 f3.5-4.5

Illuminae on "New lenses froom Pentax!"

Illuminae — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:40:07 +0000

http://images.gfx.no/418/418960/pentax_60-250mm_lens.jpg

Illuminae on "New lenses from Pentax!"

Illuminae — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:19:06 +0000

Pentax announces new lenses:
- SMC DA* 60-250mm f4 ED IF SDM
- SMC DA 17-70 f/4 AL[IF] SDM
- SMC DA* 55mm f/1.4 SDM

And a new SMC DA* 30mm has shown up on their roadmap: http://www.digital.pentax.co.jp/en/lens/roadmap.pdf

Illuminae on "New lenses froom Pentax!"

Illuminae — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:18:32 +0000

Pentax announces new lenses:
- SMC DA* 60-250mm f4 ED IF SDM
- SMC DA 17-70 f/4 AL[IF] SDM
- SMC DA* 55mm f/1.4 SDM

And a new SMC DA* 30mm has shown up on their roadmap: http://www.digital.pentax.co.jp/en/lens/roadmap.pdf

Alex007 on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

Alex007 — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:42:42 +0000

Dear rvannatta,

Yes I also have the same issue with my ample collected strobes...so what is your problem...set the camera to manual ox "X" set the F stop as the same as indicated on your "Auto" thyristor in use strobe ( I own a Sunpak 443AF, Metz 40Z3, + a Vivitar 3700, those are the ONLY ones that had very low trigger voltage + Central contact only!), so NO problem with the hot shoe contact, among my other 5 strobes two of them Hammer type (Sunpak 522/Metz CL-4),...that can't be use with the K10D. Believe me I can live 100 years with this "Flash issue!

Peace,

Alex 007

hinioman on "My inexpensive gear list"

hinioman — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 20:50:18 +0000

I have since added bunch of inexpensive gear that I have updated the gear list yet

Albinar 28mm f/2.8 Macro for ($11)
http://techtheman.blogspot.com/2007/11/albinar-28mm-f28-macro-test-shots.html

Super Takumar 35mm f/3.5 with bowers m42 converter ($45)
http://hintheman.blogspot.com/2007/11/i-make-breakfast.html

Schneider 135mm f/3.5 test shots
http://techtheman.blogspot.com/2007/11/schnieder-135mm-f35.html
http://hintheman.blogspot.com/2007/11/red-fall-leaves.html

Thanks,
Hin

hinioman on "My inexpensive gear list"

hinioman — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:20:21 +0000

I have a blog post with my gear list for Pentax. It is my first posting and I want to extend my introduction with my inexpensive gear list of Pentax to forum.

http://techtheman.blogspot.com/2007/10/inexpensive-gear-with-pentax.html

Thanks,
Hin

---
http://techtheman.blogspot.com
http://hintheman.blogspot.com

rvannatta on "News"

rvannatta — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 15:37:49 +0000

It seems to be the only news there is. From all indications Hoya has clamped a lid on new news and there isn't any. This is probably not completely surprising because they have installed new management who wants their options open as to what they are going to do. It does appear that they are dragging a bit on the ambitious schedule to ship around 9 new lenses during 2007(the pentax roadmap).
While they didn't tie themselves t specific shipping dates, the first two were suppose to be 'real soon now' which turned out to be august, and which even now seem to be fairly hard to get.

It's getting pretty late to bulk up the shelves of the christmas retailers with products that haven't seen the light of day yet. My speculation is that much of the rest of the roadmap will slide into 2008. It's all built around the SDM technology which has had a bumpy start. It would be a major train wreck if they put out a whole family of SDM's that were disappointing.

Vitali on "News"

Vitali — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:00:47 +0000

Thank you for the link, Mitchel. It's very interesting. However, this is not quite fresh news. This interview was published in the beginning of March 2007.

Mitchel109 on "News"

Mitchel109 — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 03:23:44 +0000

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-news-releases/4337-translation-pma-pentax-interview-new-dslr-body-year-company-strategy.html

Vitali on "K10D spotted in Florida"

Vitali — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 16:57:51 +0000

Tallahassee Democrat reports about Mike Carlton who has spotted a rufous hummingbird, a bird not normally seen in that area.

When the hummer was still there the next day, Carlton - an accomplished amateur nature photographer ... - set up his Pentax K10D digital single-lens reflex camera on a tripod and took a series of portraits of the bird. He used a 300-mm lens and triggered the shutter with a wireless remote to capture clear and close-up photos of the bird's rusty-red plumage, beady black eyes, needle-like beak and white chest band.

rvannatta on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

rvannatta — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:37:19 +0000

Wait I will. With Hoya being a glass maker, one can assume they bought Pentax so they could sell some glass. If they are doing what they ought to be be doing, it is flogging their whole announced family of SDM lenses into production and stuffing the shelves of every retailer with them before the Christmas selling season.

Vitali on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

Vitali — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:20:25 +0000

Well, they've promised some kind of "surprise" soon:
http://pentaxlife.com/some-leaks-rumors-and-ramblings

Let's wait for pre-Xmas announcements...

rvannatta on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

rvannatta — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:01:42 +0000

IT seems like a functional macro system is mission critical to having a phtographic system.

It takes a little imagination to mount a bellows on the digital camera, but it can be done (by putting a short extension tube behind it) but if you don't have a macro flash solution one whole
segment of photography is missing.

Over all it seems to me that taking the flash sensor out of the camera body is a step backwards
but maybe it is a precursor of some other really elegant solution they have in mind and not just a way to save 50 cents worth of parts in the cost of manufacture.

It wouldn't surprise me if Pentax delibertely broke the backwards compatibility of the flash units just so they could sell everyone a new flash unit. I now have 3 perfectly good
flash units that won't work on my K10 of which the Pentax ring light is one.

If you know anyone that is anyone, I sure would appreciate a clue as to how they expect us to take a macro photo with their equipment.

Vitali on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

Vitali — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 19:55:30 +0000

Thanks for sharing your impressions. It sounds like SDM is really great improvement.

>> Where I'm really stuck with with the macro flash.

Yeah :( No P-TTL macro flash. And I haven't heard of any plans yet.

rvannatta on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

rvannatta — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 17:50:58 +0000

It is visibly faster, and quiet enough that
you have to put your ear up to the lens to hear it.

Part of the design of the 16-50 at least is a very short travel for the focus range.

Unlike the oldhand focus that took most of a turn on a helical to find the focus the 16-50 only
moves about a 1" and the positioning is done what appears to be a stepper motor, and is really faster than your eye can figure out that it is out of focus so if you hold the shutter button down (to have it active) and pan from a distant object to a close object your eye won't see anything out of focus even though the mechanics have moved from one extreme to the other.

Likewise if you want to manually adjust the focus because you don't like what the motor did, it has a slip clutch override, andyou can easily turn
the focus ring to manually tinker with the focus if you want/need to.

Just to see the difference I put the lens on my istD, and it works there in the traditional way
but that way sucks in comparison.

I was almost ready to dump my perfectly good istD on ebay until I figured out I had another
problem that I need it for, and that is the Flash
issue.

All my flash units are of the older and now unsupported (by the K10) technology.

Where I'm really stuck with with the macro flash.
I have an 080C ringlight flash unit which works as well on my istD as it did on the SuperProgram it was designed to work with, but alas, no work on the K10.

Thus it seems that the istD has to stay around
for macro work, until a macro suitable flash solution appears for the K family of digitals.

And I'm not sure there is a 'macro' solution
any thoughts????

Vitali on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

Vitali — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 10:02:14 +0000

Is SDM really so much faster?

rvannatta on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

rvannatta — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 05:04:45 +0000

Other than the fact that 50mm is too long for the format.

I just got an SDM lens and while I have no optical opinion on it yet (I got a 16-50), I have a mechanical opinion, and that is that I don't want any more non SDM lenses.

The SDM is one of those Oh my gosh improvements

paulandapentax on "Pentax photo gallery...questionable!!!"

paulandapentax — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 16:54:45 +0000

I voted on 4 or 5 scanned shots...

digitalphil on "Pentax photo gallery...questionable!!!"

digitalphil — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 14:34:42 +0000

One last comment I feel I must add. Once you are accepted as a member, you then are also allowed to be on the jury. This was a nice surprise and eases my mind a tad. But still surprising results!
BTW...anyone note how many film (scanned) images there were? Of all the images I voted on...none were film like mine...hmmmm, what's with that?

paulandapentax on "Pentax photo gallery...questionable!!!"

paulandapentax — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 14:25:08 +0000

I had my first three submissions rejected also. I'm no pro however. One of which I thought was really nice though. My best work has not been done with Pentax glass though. I am new to photography and the K10D is my first slr. My problem is with the issue of lenses. Honestly, Pentax lenses are difficult to find right now and the selection of available ones aren't that great...or they're priced higher than my car...I choose to follow the rules (because I can understand Pentax wanting Pentax products only showcased) and not submit shots with my Sigma glass. I see a lot of shots that say "unknown lens" being added and I suspect that some shots aren't shot with Pentax glass.

There certainly are a lot of shots that got in before the voting started which to be fair, should have to go through committee too. Some of which are quite bad. I thought, though, that this gallery was also to showcase amateur photographers. There should be a standard...but how high? Oh well..

elhocid on "Pentax photo gallery...questionable!!!"

elhocid — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:25:38 +0000

Don't be sad about it. If I were the judge deciding on who to allow, you would be rejected as well digitalphil.
Additionally I would reject some of those already in. There are too many photos with questionable qualities on PPG.

Vitali on "Pentax photo gallery...questionable!!!"

Vitali — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 05:15:26 +0000

You are not alone, digitalphil.

Many people on other Pentax forums and online communities were complaining about sometimes strange and unexpected decisions of PentaxPhotoGallery editorial stuff.

benjikan on "Pentax photo gallery...questionable!!!"

benjikan — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:26:17 +0000

I tend to agree with your analysis...

digitalphil on "Pentax photo gallery...questionable!!!"

digitalphil — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:36:14 +0000

I must state my displeasure with the new online Pentax Gallery. I have been shooting for over 20 years and have many accolades from people regarding my work. So I submitted to Pentax and was just as quickly rejected. I am insulted! My work can be seen on my site and speaks for itself.

Vitali on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

Vitali — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 06:36:44 +0000

Pentax FA 50mm F/1.7 is a bit sharper...