PhotographyBanzai.com

Thanks to a good tip from a user at a forum I frequent , I decided to test with just the FA 50mm f1.4 lens on both bodies. The difference this time is that I covered the data connections between the cameras and lens for the second sample set. Reason for the testing:  Find out if the K-7 is “cooking” the ISO/exposure settings when it sees that a wide aperture lens is attached. Also, analyze the data to better understand how CCD (K10D in this case) and CMOS (K-7 in this case) sensors record similar data. The test components:  K-7 camera body (CMOS type imaging sensor) K10D camera body (CCD type imaging sensor) Pentax FA 50mm f1.4 allowing the data connection and disabling the data connection by covering the connections with tape. I can confirm success as the EXIF data does not list the lens when covered. A single 20-LED lamp for lighting and a toy car as the subject inside a light tent. Another lamp around 4 feet away due to it being night time in the test. A solid tripod Ca...

After doing some testing with the Chinon 55mm f1.7 I was really wanting to take the lens out. So after a meeting today I took the lens and the K-7 out for a stroll at one of the local parks near the Rock River. I’m pretty enthusiastic about the results considering I probably paid a pretty small amount for the lens quite a few years ago. Considering it’s an M42 without any data connection to the camera body, it’s extremely easy to use out in the field.  My setting overall:  Highlight correction on and shadow correction +2 on. User mode set to (P)rogram, I have the camera control the shutter speed and ISO while I handle the aperture. Switched primarily between f1.7 and f5.6 throughout the walk. The aperture setting f1.7 is surprisingly sharp and contrast-y.  Here are a few of the photographs ( full set on Flickr . Smugmug Flickr free accounts are now limited to 1000 photos, so these might not be available.): Using the manual focus ring with this lens is a dream compared...

To follow up on my article here about the possibility that camera manufacturers are upping ISO behind the scenes with older wide aperture lenses, I attempted to do a test with two of my lenses and the two camera bodies I have. The test components: K-7 camera body (CMOS type imaging sensor) K10D camera body (CCD type imaging sensor) Chinon 55mm f1.7 (M42 Screwmount + K-adapter designed for film) Pentax FA 50mm f1.4 (K-mount FA lens designed for film but likely with consideration from Pentax DSLR engineers because it is still sold new) Daylight with a single 20-LED lamp for lighting and a toy car as the subject inside a light tent. A solid tripod Here is a photo of the setup and a second of the Chinon 55mm in case you are interested in what it looks like: The test process: – I took photos with each lens on each camera using the widest respective aperture (1/100s, ISO 200) and f8 (1/8s, ISO 200) with custom white balance by allowing the camera to take a test image. – I had to slightly rea...

I noticed this video on a forum posting at dpreview.com and thought it was amusing. Apparently the Beatles had a fondness or some type of advertising deal with Pentax back in their heyday. EDIT: The video is no longer available on YouTube. Try a Google search to see information about it.  If you do a search in Japanese on youtube , you find quite a few other unusual advertisements. What the thumbnails look like in case videos get removed over time. A collection of commercials titled "1978-1996 ペンタックスCM集" There is an old advertisement where a Pentax Spotmatic is used by a young woman as she travels around and plays around and photographs pretty much everything in sight. I think the size of Pentax and colors fit one of their target demographics and always have (young women). Defeating the myth Pentax is “selling out” with their new colorful DSLR cameras:  The video is titled "［懐かしいCM］ PENTAX （昭和40年代） ×3":  Pentax forcing their name into peoples’ heads. "1964年CM...

https://luminous-landscape.com/an-open-letter-to-the-major-camera-manufacturers/ I noticed this link a few minutes ago. It’s an interesting article and I suggest a visit to check it out. Using facts from the DxO group, the author suggests that large aperture lenses are not being fully utilized by current digital camera sensors due to a failing in their design. Light rays coming from the outer edges are not parallel enough, so they never reach the light sensing devices in the sensor. He also notes that when these large aperture lenses are being used, the cameras are increasing the ISO to compensate behind the scenes without user knowledge. From a Pentax perspective, I wonder if this is a reason Pentax has been releasing lenses “slower than film days” to increase the overall parallelism of the light rays. For example the new DA-L 35mm f2.4 is very similar to the old FA 35mm f2 lens, so maybe the loss of 0.4 f-stop was to improve the overall ability of the lens to get as much of the...

Fall is in full force now. Strong winds and leaves everywhere. I took a few images today with the K-7 and FA 50mm f1.4. These images below are in the range f1.6 to f2.0. I was looking to get some action shots, but of course once I went outside the wind didn’t pickup much. Curve Slice 3rds Suspended

I was planning on writing an article about my three wide angle lenses (14mm f2.8, 10-17mm fisheye, and Zenitar 16mm fisheye). I started taking a few sample photos with each and noticed something strange. The images at wide aperture with the 14mm f2.8 looked really poor. Initially I was thinking that user error was involved, so I went through various processes about… 3 or 4 times with the same result. Eventually I tried the 14mm f2.8 on my other camera body and received an extremely sharp image at the same aperture setting. It’s just a fact of life that there are tolerances and levels of variation when electronic and mechanical devices are aligned and configured. What I know now is that my K10D has an issue with something called front/back focusing, so far I only know it happens on the 14mm f2.8. The mechanical device inside is slightly miss-aligned so when I take a large aperture shot, the intended area of discernible focus isn’t where I expected it to be producing a seemingly un-sharp...

Thanks to David at my local camera shop Camera Craft for giving me a M42 reversing ring + M42 to K-mount Adapter. This is a fun little gadget that’s a nice cheap way to get into extreme macro photography. This is what the reversing adapter looks like. The black ring is the one that you connect a lens to backwards. The silver ring is the adapter that converts the M42 screw mount to Pentax K-mount. This is what the adapter looks like when it is mounted to the camera with a lens. In the photo I’m using a Pentax FA 50mm f1.4 lens and a K10D camera body. When choosing a lens to reverse, it’s best to find one that has an aperture ring, otherwise you will need to get creative by somehow moving and locking the aperture lever to stop-down the lens when necessary. Here is a very quick test: First off I took a photo at f1.4 of a 40mm LTD lens hood. A nice tiny-tiny slice of focus is available to work with. My second test was at f5.6 of a USD quarter dollar. You can see a larger area of perceiv...

Astrophotography has always been one of those areas that I’ve wanted to spend time on but rarely have. I always thought the cost of entry was really high (it can be) and the time of day best to take photos has been prohibitive. Forgoing the advanced methods and tools, I have put some time into the subject…  My first attempt in recent memory was in May 2010, which resulted in images like this: I was primarily using a 10-17mm Fisheye lens due to the large field of view it provides. The nice thing about using a wide angle lens in astrophotography as it’s quite east to avoid having stars blur due to the Earth’s rotation. Eventually I plan on trying my newer rectilinear 14mm prime instead of the 10-17mm Fisheye. More recently I had a short amount of time to connect my camera to a large refracting telescope at an observatory here in my home city resulting in this image of Jupiter: Image from a 10 inch Astro-Physics, Inc. refracting telescope with a Pentax *ist DS and a T-mount adapte...

I sold my Pentax *ist DS and a bunch of lenses I don’t use often to a friend who was interested in getting into photography for a cut-rate price. White it’s nice to free up some space and continue moving on to more advanced tools, I see quite a few negatives with only having one camera body.  Here is a K10D new in the box from a local camera shop I bought recently. For example, I prefer using prime lenses to zoom ones. When I’m at an event, having one body with prime lens in a small shoulder bag and another body around my neck with a prime or a standard zoom lens allows for a good deal of range and composition options without having to fumble around and switch lenses whenever I need a different tool. I had been to an event where I only took one camera body and three lenses. Due to the nature of the event I was frequently switching lenses, which was something I could have avoided by bringing two bodies and two lenses that had focal lengths far enough apart. Besides those two simpl...

A few weeks ago I did a quick test to try out my best macro lens with a 1.5x teleconverter I had just bought. The results were good and takes me one step closer to that special level of magnification I eventually want to get to. If you don’t know much about macro photography, read this wikipedia article to get a quick overview. Eventually I’d like to have a setup were I can focus on features of small insects, such as filling a full image frame with the structure and detail of their eyes. Here are the results: Even with the teleconverter and limited depth of field, there is a nice amount of detail. A larger view of the grasshopper. You can even see some damage it has in the thorax region. Generally I put the camera into manual focus mode and completely extend the focusing tube to maximum magnification. Then I try to hold as steady as possible to frame and select what slice of image I want to be in focus. With such small objects, it’s quite difficult to stay still enough, so I thin...

As I’ve started spending a lot of time doing nature photography, so I though it would be a good idea to find a substantial way to reduce camera shake when using long telephoto lenses. Using tripods out in the field to photograph wildlife has mobility limitations, so I wanted to try something unique. Through research I learned about the Bushhawk camera mount system, which uses your shoulder to improve stability and overall improve your ability to smoothly pan the camera to follow moving subjects. As I am on a budget, I opted to buy what I considered the bare essentials to get started. The main mount (shoulder stock and hand grip that has a button for auto focus and shutter) as well as the second grip that attaches to the front of the primary hand grip. The issue I was having with this setup is that the camera only attached to the mount by one screw. This allows for horizontal rotation of the camera if it gets bumped making things difficult. Luckily, I have a friend who works in a machin...