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 edit: Just buy a Pentax ME Super I suppose enough people use Pentax (including the old manual bodies) to warrant a thread. Thanks to SoundMonkey for the title suggestion! Digital Bodies *ist Series (Digital) The *ist D series was Pentax's first Digital SLR, introduced in 2003, these used a 6 megapixel CCD, and had a 1.5x crop factor.
K-Series The K-Series of cameras is the successor to the *ist Series, most featuring a 10 megapixel sensor, with the excedption of the K20D and the K-7, which have a 14.6 megapixel sensor. The K-Series usually consists of a consumer model and a "Pro-sumer" model, though Pentax does not currently offer a fully professional camera. The K-Series also features Shake Reduction in camera on most of the bodies.
Lenses A big reason why people choose Pentax is the wide range of lens selection. This is thanks to legacy support of the K-Mount, allowing nearly any Pentax lens to be used on the current bodies. Unlike Canon and Nikon, Pentax's Shake Reduction lies not in the lens, but in the camera bodies. Pentax also manufactures their own lenses for their digital bodies, the DA series, and a higher-quality version, DA*. Unfortunately, Pentax is getting less popular these days, and some lens manufacturers aren't making a few of their lenses with a K-Mount, but if you find a good one, please post. edit: Seems I was wrong about this. The popular Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 is available for Pentax mounts. The Oldschool Pentax is well known for it's old manual bodies, the simplicity of them making them popular for students. The K1000 is one of their most popular bodies, being produced from 1976 to 1977. The K-Series film cameras introduced Pentax's bayonet K-Mount, which they still use today. Because of this, K-mount lenses from 1973 are able to be used on today's newest bodies without an adapter, which gives Pentax 36 years worth of lens selection. --- I have three Pentax cameras myself, a film ME, an *ist D and a K200D. I had bought the ME off eBay years ago and it came with some lenses, so when I went digital I decided to stick with Pentax to be able to use the lenses. One of the lenses from the original ME set I got is still one of my most used today. Pentax Q system Basically a cell phone camera sensor with interchangeable lenses. Now comes in anime. Why would you ever buy this? Kazy fucked around with this message at 19:29 on Jan 29, 2013 |
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Jul 15, 2009 00:17
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My K10d should be here any day now. Hope you don't mind if I throw some stuff in, I've been geeking out Pentax big time for the past week: Nikon F-Mount If you have a Nikon F-mount lens, this should be mountable on the K-mount by just turning the lens upside down. Updated: The lens will not lock so it's only practical for small lenses, and even then you'll need to be careful. K-Mount (continued) Pentax DSLRs make use of the "Crippled" KAF2 mount. Crip KAF2 simply lacks a lever to manually activate the aperture in some older lenses. This just means you'll need to use them in manual stopdown mode. If you happen to have a Pentax-A lens, or a lens with an "A" on the aperture ring, chances are that you've got a lens which will happily give the camera full aperture control as long as the aperture ring is in the "A" position. And as with other brands, you can adapt many other mounts to the Pentax K-mount: M42, S/T mounts, C/Y-mount, Adaptall, and a few others. Shake Reduction (continued) As mentioned, it is in-body. This means that you can enable image stabilization on your old 1910 Carl Zeiss jury-rigged to your Pentax body, all the way up to the fancy 2009-ish 70-200 f/2.8. Weathersealing Starting with the K10d, Pentax has added comprehensive weather sealing to their high end cameras. To date the K10d, K20d, K200D, and K-7 are all weatherresistant. Pentax is also manufacturing weather resistant lenses, so if you buy a new K-7 kit, feel free to take it into the shower with you. some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Jul 20, 2009 |
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Jul 15, 2009 01:05
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I love the old manual Pentaxes. I have a bunch of M-series bodies and primes if anyone has any questions about that generation of cameras. I've also got a Super Program which is nice in its own ways. Right now my favourite is the ME Super SE. The diagonal focusing screen is to die for and god dammit, all camera makers should have done it too.
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Jul 15, 2009 01:35
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Thanks Martytoof, I had forgotten about the Weather Sealing, and didn't know about the Nikon F-Mount thing. Can I get some recommendation of lenses? My only AF lenses are the kit lens and a DA 50-200, plus a few manual ones (Pentax 28mm f/2, Pentax 50mm f/2, Vivitar 70-205mm f/3.8). I've been eyeing this 50mm f/1.4 lens, but I was wondering if there was something better.
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Jul 15, 2009 07:13
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Kazy posted:Thanks Martytoof, I had forgotten about the Weather Sealing, and didn't know about the Nikon F-Mount thing. If you're after a 50, that is really the only reasonably priced AF option, unless you can find the F50/1.7 used somewhere, however if you dont mind manual focus, there are tons of options out there, you'll pay the most for the A series 50/1.4, and my personal favorite is the M42 screwmount 50/1.4, in terms of handling and build quality. One thing to watch out for in screwmount 50's is the rear element tends to go yellow, which creates an easy to fix and barely noticable yellow cast on the images, but more annoyingly cuts light transmission by about 1/3rd of a stop. You can fix it though, just wrap the barrel in tin foil (leaving the front and rear elements exposed) and set the lens in the sun, so that the light hits the rear element, and leave it there for a month or two, should clear it up. I've never bothered to do it though for either of the two yellowed lenses I have. I have a ton of old K-mount and screwmount lenses, if anyone has any questions I'd be more than happy to help. Edit: As a general recomendation, if you're looking for a manual focus Pentax body, my absolute favorite is the ZX-M it's not that old of a model, but is manual focus only, with an accurate and modern electronic meter, full manual control as well as aperture priority with all lenses, including screwmount, and full shutter priority and program AE with A-series or newer lenses. Cheap, lightweight, with good buildquality, it has long been my go to film body when I need metering or Av. If you're looking for a more classic looking body, an ME-super or Super Program will get you 80% of what the ZX-M will do in a smaller, metal-bodied package, and usually for decently cheap. For a little (or a lot) more you can go up to an MX which was the semi-pro level manual focus body during the 80's when every manufacturer wanted smaller bodies. If anyone sees a good deal on either an LX or MZ-S toss em my way, I would love either or both bodies in my collection. johnasavoia fucked around with this message at 14:14 on Jul 15, 2009 |
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Jul 15, 2009 14:08
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Great thread, unfortunately it has me considering jumping ship on Canon. The in-body IS and weather resistance seem pretty awesome. With adapted and old lenses do you just get mf or do some have af? How does the k20d stack up to the canon 40d?
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Jul 15, 2009 17:43
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johnasavoia posted:If you're looking for a more classic looking body, an ME-super or Super Program will get you 80% of what the ZX-M will do in a smaller, metal-bodied package, and usually for decently cheap. For a little (or a lot) more you can go up to an MX which was the semi-pro level manual focus body during the 80's when every manufacturer wanted smaller bodies. Honestly though, as much as people go on about how wonderful it is that the MX can still work without batteries, I think the battery thing is a bit of a red herring since SR44 batteries are so cheap nowadays. I found a place that sells 6 for $4 and I'm sure there are cheaper places than that. That and the fact that even on a body with aperture priority metering and an electronic shutter, the batteries will still last for ages before they need replacing. For bang for the buck with the older bodies, I'd go with an ME Super since Pentax made a ton of them and they're cheap. Yes, the MX is built like a rock but as long as you're not going to be playing underwater rugby with your camera, the ME Super should be more than durable enough. The ME Super is a little quieter than the MX too. The Super Program is nice too, but I find the shutter speed and aperture display in the viewfinder kind of hard to read in less than bright light and the little backup light is annoying to use for reading it in the dark. The only big advantages the Super Program has over the ME Super is film speed metering up to 3200 (as opposed to 1600) and full auto exposure with lenses that have the feature. The full auto exposure isn't really as great as it sounds though and aperture priority metering is more than enough for general use.
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Jul 15, 2009 17:53
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Demon_Corsair posted:Great thread, unfortunately it has me considering jumping ship on Canon. Compared to the 40D: * Better weather sealing * Better image quality * Much worse for action; fewer frames/second and the AF is pretty ancient/slow Compare it to a 50D, and weather sealing is about the only plus I see at that point.
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Jul 15, 2009 17:58
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Clayton Bigsby posted:Compared to the 40D: Aren't the Canon xxD series weather resistant too? I seem to recall that the xxD series were made resistant, but the xD series were waterproof.
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Jul 15, 2009 18:08
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Movie mode was also only just now introduced with the K-7 if that's your thing. But at $1300 new you really have to want to invest in the Pentax system to choose the K-7 over the 50D.HPL posted:Aren't the Canon xxD series weather resistant too? I seem to recall that the xxD series were made resistant, but the xD series were waterproof. I think they are sealed around the battery compartment and CF door, but not much else in terms of keeping the environment out. Edit: Indeed I can't find anything about it on Canon's own site. Seems like that's the kind of thing they'd advertise. some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 18:19 on Jul 15, 2009 |
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Jul 15, 2009 18:13
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HPL posted:Aren't the Canon xxD series weather resistant too? I seem to recall that the xxD series were made resistant, but the xD series were waterproof. The 40D and 50D have *some* sealing but very little and are not to be considered weather resistant. The 1D is not "waterproof" by any means, but does have significant amounts of weather sealing. From my personal experience: the XXDs do fine in light rain and such. The 1D series will survive almost anything including brief submersion if you're lucky.
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Jul 15, 2009 19:20
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Martytoof posted:Edit: Indeed I can't find anything about it on Canon's own site. Seems like that's the kind of thing they'd advertise. They make a pretty big deal about it in the manual and stuff. That's part of the reason why then came out with the BG-E2N (sort of) sealed grip as an "upgrade" from the BG-E2. But yeah: Clayton Bigsby posted:From my personal experience: the XXDs do fine in light rain and such. The 1D series will survive almost anything including brief submersion if you're lucky.
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Jul 15, 2009 19:22
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Clayton Bigsby posted:The 40D and 50D have *some* sealing but very little and are not to be considered weather resistant. The 1D is not "waterproof" by any means, but does have significant amounts of weather sealing. the luminous landscape people found the 5dm2 wasn't well sealed at all.
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Jul 15, 2009 19:27
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multigl posted:the luminous landscape people found the 5dm2 wasn't well sealed at all. Nobody mentioned the 5D yet, but yes, it's pretty poorly done in both Mk I and Mk II flavors. But this is not Pentax related, really...
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Jul 15, 2009 19:29
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Oh, this reminds me. DA* Series Weather Sealing I believe the DA* series Pentax lenses are also weathersealed. Though I'm not sure if it is all of them or just a select few.
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Jul 16, 2009 06:50
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here's some pentax porn i reckon 
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Jul 16, 2009 21:52
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My ME Super, have yet to shoot with it though. I shoot a k10d otherwise, very very eagerly looking at the K7 but it's way out of my budget. 
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Jul 16, 2009 22:02
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not a good shot by any means, nor all pentax(lenses all are) (and from another thread entirely)but here ya go
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Jul 16, 2009 22:32
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I've always been disappointed when I see so many recommendations for the Tamron f/2.8 17-50 in the Gear thread, and noticing that they never made it for the Pentax mount. Well apparently they did at one point, though looking at the site it no longer seems to be the case. However, it seems Dell still has some in stock. If I had the funds I'd get it right now, but I'm low on cash at the moment, but I wanted to give you guys a heads up.
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Jul 17, 2009 07:36
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Martytoof posted:My K10d should be here any day now. Hope you don't mind if I throw some stuff in, I've been geeking out Pentax big time for the past week: With stop-down metering? I was never able to find any specifics about putting Nikon lenses on Pentax bodies.
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Jul 17, 2009 21:25
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Beastruction posted:With stop-down metering? I was never able to find any specifics about putting Nikon lenses on Pentax bodies. I'm going to have to investigate. My K10d finally came in the mail and I took it to the photography store to equip it with some glass. They had a lot of Nikon F glass but I forgot to check them out  I'm going to assume it's full stop-down mode, yeah.
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Jul 17, 2009 21:29
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Martytoof posted:I'm going to have to investigate. My K10d finally came in the mail and I took it to the photography store to equip it with some glass. They had a lot of Nikon F glass but I forgot to check them out I wish I had a decent local photography store Seriously, I'd kill for a local place to check out some Pentax glass, but my local family-owned electornics store seems to sell everything BUT Pentax. 
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Jul 17, 2009 21:50
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I should point out that this was all used MF glass. The only store around here that sells new Pentax lenses is Henry's, and they're always on the super high side of the price range
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Jul 17, 2009 22:58
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My god, I'm in LOVE with the K10d's sensor grain. I'm not going to say it looks film-ish, but it's pretty grainy which I absolutely love. Even at ISO100. Edit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/martytoof/3733192269/sizes/o/ (large file warning). I obviously didn't nail the focus but I love how the grain came out. Put through some post processing but the grain was essentially the same out of camera. some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 05:58 on Jul 19, 2009 |
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Jul 19, 2009 03:16
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Martytoof posted:My god, I'm in LOVE with the K10d's sensor grain. I'm not going to say it looks film-ish, but it's pretty grainy which I absolutely love. Even at ISO100.
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Jul 19, 2009 06:40
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pwn posted:I was skeptical reading your post, but drat, that is some fine grain. I was honestly surprised enough that I had to go back into Lightroom and revert my pp to be sure 
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Jul 19, 2009 06:52
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I recently decided that it was time to pick up a dSLR and I began my search on Ebay - I didn't want to spend more than $300. I know this is an extremely low ceiling, but it put me right in the zone for a "New in box" K110D with 18-55mm kit lens for $319. Just after the camera shipped, I got an email from the seller stating that he had accidentally sent me a K100D and that the Image Stabilization made that model worth about $100 more. Now I don't know if I got hooked with a bait and switch job or what, but I wanted the camera and I didn't want to deal with sending it back and getting the K110D, so I offered to send him another $60 and keep it. The extent of my research into the K100D/110D was based on DPReview and a couple of other sites here and there. I knew it was going to be worlds better than my P&S camera, so I went with it. I got the camera and it was exactly as advertised. After a week or so, I realized that I really needed to get a longer lens and went with a Sigma 70-300mm off of Ebay. It's not the fastest lens, but most of what I'm doing with it ends up in direct sunlight (my kids' baseball games, etc.), and for $130, I'm getting my money's worth. Having not touched an SLR camera for 20 years, and forgetting most of what I learned in high school photography and summer camp, I have been obsessed with learning as much as I can. I have read the 172 page General Photography thread, and accumulated countless bookmarks to interesting sites and explanations. I just realized the beauty of the Pentax K-Mount and what that means to me. As every reader of the GP thread will note, the 50mm prime lens seems to be the must-have recommendation for any budding dSLR'er so I went out and started looking for one. I found a 50/1.7 Pentax-M lens and won the auction for $26. There are several sites that describe a really cool feature that Pentax employs in their dSLR line that makes it easier to use old lenses: auto-focus assist. You basically set the camera up to allow the use of the aperture ring, put it in manual mode, use the meter to set the shutter speed, and by leaving the camera in auto-focus, you can then press the shutter while focusing and the camera will take the shot once focus has been achieved. It's pretty neat. Anyway, I just went on a ramble here, but the bottom line is, I was drawn to Pentax because of a price-point that I was trying to maintain when diving into the dSLR market, and I was pleasantly surprised by the equipment I have been able to pick up and the results that I have gotten so far. I have now become "that guy", who brings a "giant honkin' camera" everywhere I go. I created a Smugmug account because I am going to share my baseball pictures with the other proud parents of the 9 year old Allstars. There are a couple of other pictures on there, all taken with the K100D. I have a lot to learn in every aspect of this hobby, but I'm having a lot of fun with it, and Pentax has made it affordable for me. http://artvenable.smugmug.com
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Jul 20, 2009 15:09
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I tested the Nikon F-mount lens on the K mount theory last night-unless there is some trick to it, it does not work. Upside down, sideways, etc-the rear lens caps wont lock into place, much less the actual lens.
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Jul 20, 2009 15:54
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Gnomad posted:I tested the Nikon F-mount lens on the K mount theory last night-unless there is some trick to it, it does not work. Upside down, sideways, etc-the rear lens caps wont lock into place, much less the actual lens. I've never tried it but from what I've heard, its not an actual lock, it just fits more or less, and is really only practical with smaller lenses that arent as liable to just fall off, its a cool thing to try, but not practical.
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Jul 20, 2009 16:02
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Gnomad posted:I tested the Nikon F-mount lens on the K mount theory last night-unless there is some trick to it, it does not work. Upside down, sideways, etc-the rear lens caps wont lock into place, much less the actual lens. Yeah, it won't lock, I should have updated that. My bad oobnuker posted:Contratulations! Sounds like you're really making the best of your purchase already. How is the metering with your manual lens? The K10d's metering on my 28 f/2.8 is a little spotty -- reportedly fixable by substituting the K100D's focus screen (or one of the other KxxxD models, I don't have the info underhand at the moment) so I'm going to be on the hunt for one of those soon
some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Jul 20, 2009 |
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Jul 20, 2009 16:34
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So I'm selling my old *ist D on craigslist along with a crappy lens to pay for a 50/1.4 AF lens. Hopefully it'll sell. So far I've just gotten one scam email though.
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Jul 20, 2009 16:43
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Kazy posted:So I'm selling my old *ist D on craigslist along with a crappy lens to pay for a 50/1.4 AF lens. Post to https://www.kijiji.com too. I personally can't stand browsing that site, but every item I've sold in the past year that had been posted to both sites sold through kijiji. Edit: Oh wow, I just realized my K10d grip has a space for me to put my spare memory card. I bought an 8gb sdhc yesterday to replace my 2gb, and now I don't need to worry about misplacing the smaller one 
some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 16:56 on Jul 20, 2009 |
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Jul 20, 2009 16:54
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Martytoof posted:Post to https://www.kijiji.com too. I personally can't stand browsing that site, but every item I've sold in the past year that had been posted to both sites sold through kijiji. Thanks, I'll try this, though I live in bumfuck, Texas, and it doesn't seem to have anything close to my area. 
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Jul 20, 2009 16:58
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Dude with a Pentax 6x7 checkin' in. I'm a die-hard Canon guy, but you just can't beat the 6x7 for medium format (at least, imho). I have the 75mm 4.5, 105mm 2.4, and I'm looking into getting a 55mm 3.5,
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Jul 21, 2009 01:21
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dorkasaurus_rex posted:Dude with a Pentax 6x7 checkin' in. I'm a die-hard Canon guy, but you just can't beat the 6x7 for medium format (at least, imho). I have the 75mm 4.5, 105mm 2.4, and I'm looking into getting a 55mm 3.5, I'd imagine the 55 is relatively wide on 6x7, no?
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Jul 21, 2009 08:19
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I'm trying reeaaallly hard to justify buying a K200D to play with but I can't seem to bring myself to do it. Anything without Ka contacts seems to be a bother - no aperture priority shooting, you have to use full manual and meter each shot with the green button. I think the SMC-A lenses work right, though? It's hard to justify that against a Canon XSi or something, which would get working AF-confirm on M42 with adapters and a lot broader range of lens compatibility (losing in-body IS and weather sealing and magnesium chassis). It also seems that a lot of the Pentax glass is no longer a bargain, especially new glass. e: Put an aperture metering arm on the lens mount you bastards!
Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 13:12 on Jul 21, 2009 |
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Jul 21, 2009 13:08
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Yeah I read books. posted:here's some pentax porn i reckon Pentax porn indeed. I like those shots but I really am a sucker for Pentax film bodies, the K-series bodies and the Spotmatics especially. I just can't help myself! They're so nicely balanced and they feel so real compared to a digital body. v  vRight now I have a K1000 SE I picked up for $50 with some lovely M42 lenses and a M42 adapter, a ME Super that doesn't respond to the manual buttons (I need to test it and see if the exposure's good or not too), a Spotmatic F with a stuck light meter (possibly, I'm picking up the air cell I need for it today), and a cheap P3n that's sadly what I do most of my actual shooting on because it's working right. I need to drop some money and get cameras cleaned but there's just too many toys. I would gladly trade some weight in the body for it being well built, and that's really appealing about Pentax DSLRs. If only using non-Ka lenses wasn't so badly handled by the camera I think I would own a Pentax DSLR by now. It's not even the crippled mount that annoys me, it's the things like no aperture-priority mode. How did they manage to make that not work? 
Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 13:46 on Jul 21, 2009 |
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Jul 21, 2009 13:40
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Paul MaudDib posted:I'm trying reeaaallly hard to justify buying a K200D to play with but I can't seem to bring myself to do it. Anything without Ka contacts seems to be a bother - no aperture priority shooting, you have to use full manual and meter each shot with the green button. I think the SMC-A lenses work right, though? You will get AF-confirm with both screwmount and k-mount lenses on Pentax digital bodies, and will get aperture priority on screwmount lenses via stopdown metering (same as on the canon) non-a lenses will have to stop down meter each shot with the green button, but all A-Series lenses will give full functionality (save autofocus) compared to a modern lens. Honestly its not as bad as it seems, I prefer A-Series lenses just because even in manual its faster, but for the price of the camera and cheap manual focus lenses, its an easy workaround
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Jul 21, 2009 15:05
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If there any other K200D users here, Amazon has the battery grip for it for $30 I just picked one up.
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Jul 21, 2009 20:12
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johnasavoia posted:You will get AF-confirm with both screwmount and k-mount lenses on Pentax digital bodies, and will get aperture priority on screwmount lenses via stopdown metering (same as on the canon) non-a lenses will have to stop down meter each shot with the green button, but all A-Series lenses will give full functionality (save autofocus) compared to a modern lens. Honestly its not as bad as it seems, I prefer A-Series lenses just because even in manual its faster, but for the price of the camera and cheap manual focus lenses, its an easy workaround What bothers me is how they can't manage non-A lenses normally and you have to use the green button. Why can't it do aperture priority in stopdown mode when you push the shutter release?
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Jul 21, 2009 21:56
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