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The D-FA 100mm f2.8 WR Macro is one of the newer mid-range lenses from Pentax, which was based on a long line of 100mm macro lenses through the years. The main purpose of a lens like this is to have the ability to achieve 1:1 magnification of the subject, but also allow for a good amount of working distance from the subject thanks to the 100mm focal length.  Macro lenses generally have the best sharpness characteristics out of all lens types, but the reason all lenses are not macro lenses is that a long amount of lens element travel and fine focus ring rotation is necessary to achieve that level of magnification and sharpness. Having a quick standard lens trades some of that ability for practicality. Get the Pentax D-FA 100mm f/2.8 Macro WR lens through my links:  B&H Photo Video eBay Used on KEH Amazon Adorama As an affiliate of these shops, I earn from qualifying purchases!  Technical specifications for the lens: Lens Mount: PENTAX KAF2 Lens Construction: 9 elemen...

In the current land of Pentax, the DA* 300mm F4 SDM is as long as new lenses get unless you have the time, money, and connections to custom order something longer directly from Pentax Japan. Even then I’ve only heard that is possible from what people say on Internet forums. What's included with the lens. A coin in the tripod connector screw. Until around a half year ago, I managed with a Tamron AF 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 LD telephoto zoom lens. Eventually I was looking for that Pentax SMC coating as well as weather resistance and presumably higher sharpness, so I started my research to see what was available. I made the big purchase and can now say I’m happy that I did. Lens from the front. Check out the Pentax SMCP-DA* 300mm f/4 ED (IF) SDM Autofocus Lens through my links: B&H: https://bhpho.to/2GklNO8 Amazon: https://amzn.to/2WOL9u4 Used on KEH: https://shrsl.com/28xp7 ebay: https://ebay.us/wEnE1b Adorama: https://adorama.rfvk.net/vNBj5e   As an affiliate of these shops, I earn ...

What is “cosplay” you might ask? It’s a Japanese word, which is a merging of two English words that describe an action and more importantly a subculture. It technically means “costume play,” or to dress up in costume similar to what many Americans do on Halloween. In this case it’s done more than once a year and at times with extremely impressive or ludicrous results. Many cosplayers create their own costumes based on designs of characters from various forms of media or even ones they invent. Attending anime (Japanese animation) conventions starting in 2003 was a big reason I became extremely interested in photography. Seeing colorful, interesting, and outlandish costumes, it’s hard not wanting to take photographs and participate at times. I started with a simple 2MP Canon Powershot S200 Elph back then, and eventually moved up to digital SLRs. I can see a pretty stark contrast between earlier images in output quality and composition. However I do see keepers in all sets, it’...

The people at Pentax Forums created their first review of the K-5 camera. Overall it’s pretty good. I especially found the comparison to the K-7 helpful in seeing just how much of an improvement the K-5 is.   Besides the obvious improvements, I’d say what is nicest about the K-5 is that Pentax is giving users more control. 5 user modes, two auto-focus priority settings for AF.S/AF.C, raw button can now be a custom function button, and ISO noise reduction can be controlled individually, auto-align in HDR mode. 

I took more photos of the feral cats today. This time the kittens were out in full force, so I focused on them. “Look behind you…” “Perfect pose” “Pwned” “Siblings”

We have had feral cats around for a few years. It’s a tough life they lead, but the alternative in captivity is most likely a quick “humane” end. As some of them are quite friendly, I take photos of them occasionally. A few highlights: Little tiger face. This was the first time I saw this cat. She must have been another “concubine” of the leader. We had found a home for a cat that looked just like her, so she must be related in some way. Her eating expressions were funny as I tossed her pieces of dry cat food. Leader for three generations. One minute he is nice, the other he scampers away. His feral nature is strong. Baby cat portraiture. The dominate male needs to be fixed. This is the result of not doing anything, however we have a lead on homes for the four of them. LOL cats This photo reminds me of the “lolcat meme” internet photos.

If you haven’t visited luminous-landscape.com before, I highly recommend it. Their articles are unique in that they have a strong photographer’s feel to them, and the topics in are focused on photography for what it is at the heart instead of what many other sites have. The Pentax 645D Without getting into the 645D specific content of the article, I must say I found it very fitting with my ideas about photography, and why I feel that Pentax cameras have a certain “photographer’s camera” feel to them. This feel is the major reason why I choose to use them as my primary tools. It’s fun to read the reviewer experiencing Pentax features from a point of view that hasn’t spent much time with their tools. Here are a few quotes from the article I want to comment on: The ergonomics are, to me, stellar. This is the most usable SLR (of any format) I have had in my hand for years. Quality ergonomics in a photography tool. Always a good aspect to keep in mind. The body melds perfectly into my...

I was recently asked this question: Hey Scott…I’m looking at DSLRs from the filmmaker’s point of view. Of course I want to take awesome photos but the world of DSLR filmmaking is exploding and since the video quality for quite a few DSLRs are so amazing it’s something I want to get in on. I’m looking at the Canon 550D right now. I can’t afford anything like the 5D, desp…ite how epic it would be. Here is my response, which might help if you are just starting out and want a Canon DSLR for video: Yeah, from the limited information I’ve read so far about Canon DSLRs, at the moment, Canon is the one putting the most video specific features into their cameras. Although of course their flagship class 1D Mark IV has exclusive features like “rolling shutter correction,” but I think overall that they put a good amount of those video specific features into the lesser models. The expensive yet “cheaper” 1D Mark II I don’t think has that advanced feature, but it does have the physical benefit of...

I’m a fan of something called Anime (Japanese Animation). While many people in western cultures feel that animation is only for children, in Japan they have broadened the scope of animated films and videos. A large section of Anime is geared toward adult audiences. FLAG What brings me to this topic today is an Anime called “Flag,” which I just recently picked up. It’s a 13 episode series on 4 DVDs about photographers and field reporters. For more information visit the Wikipedia entry as well as the licenser in the USA store page . Here is a short clip someone put up on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FotdsMagoV8 The series is primarily in a documentary style, where a large percentage of the scenes are shot first-person in either of the two main character’s points of view. The primary character is a young female who has taken steps to expand her photography by getting into the thick of a foreign conflict. She creates a captivating image of a sect’s flag that becomes a sy...

Dx0 mark released their data on the D7000 recently. Comparing the K-5 we see that… The K-5 comes out on top in most of the tests. Pentax has some fine programmers and engineers for sure given they were working with pretty much the same physical sensor as the Nikon camp was. Overall score: +2 points Portrait color depth: +0.2 bits Landscape dynamic range: +0.2 Evs Sports Low ISO: -5 ISO The interesting thing to note that Pentax was able to stretch the usable ISO range to 80-51200, whereas the Nikon has 100-25,600. It also managed to get an additional 1 FPS in speed out of the sensor. Of course, both cameras gave a strong showing, so it’s good for both camps that the new Sony sensor is a strong performer.

While I don’t know if my ideas would be good from a business standpoint, this is how I would set things up. I think having three very well structured and defined tiers would best help users understand what they are buying. The Pentax lineup as it stands at the moment is fragmented with too many naming conventions and no well defined tiers besides the DA* line to everything else. High Tier (All lenses would be WR): Phase out DA* name and downgrade the APS-C only DA* glass such as the 16-50mm 2.8 and 50-135mm 2.8 to the middle tier (Other DA* are OK in FF!). Do not use the * (star) designator anymore. People outside of the Pentax realm usually seem to have no idea how to pronounce the “*” symbol… Take FA capable DA* lenses and call them D-FA SDM WR Limited. Make sure there is a full range of D-FA SDM Limited zooms available for advanced users. Take the FA Limiteds and DA Limiteds that are FA capable and make them WR. Call them D-FA WR Limited. All must include weather resistance (WR),...

Update… As you probably know the full-frame Pentax K-1 was release in April 2016. By then I had switched to Nikon so I could try out a camera that sensor size. That said, I was off by around 5 years! It finally happened! In July I had written a forum posting where I was taking a guess at what Pentax was planning to release toward the end of 2010 in the USA: K-x with a soft replacement on the way K-7 replacement that comes out at $1100 MSRP. Pretty much exactly the same body wise to keep costs down, but has a few soft improvements like the sensor. I can’t see this not working as they can sell the K-7 around $800 or less right now. A more advanced model that comes out between $1600 and $2400 depending on what is in it. It could be full frame, or something like an APS-C “machine gun” camera ala. 7D. The 645D taking up the super high-end. I think that was reasonable close to the mark in 3 out of 4. The K-r is generally a soft upgrade replacement for the K-x. The 645D is now going to be sol...

Even with some back-focusing, quite a few of the images turned out lovely. I’m looking for forward to my next outing with this combo to see what I can really do with it. As orange as orange can be. Symbol of Rockford Post-apocalyptic crossing.

Disclaimer: There is no warranty or assuredness that the text provided is accurate, so you must try at our own personal risk. Know that you could screw your camera up if you are not careful and the risk is only yours to take. If you don’t want to take the risk, send the camera in to Pentax for servicing. It’s that simple! Now with the Myth Busters-esque disclaimer out of the way… I recently took the K10D w/ FA 50mm f1.4 to a park around sunset after a meeting with my friend. I was planning on using the images for a review of the FA 50mm f1.4 lens. Upon skimming through the resulting photos such as the one below: Missed focus My thoughts from this previous post I had made about an auto focus anomaly the K10D had with the DA 14mm f2.8 were confirmed. My most used shooting style is to be in selectable point auto focus mode with a gravitation toward the 4 “rule of thirds” points. I had noticed in those images that the subject I had intended to be in focus was not. What was in focus...

Woot is currently selling the K20D refurbished with an 18-55mm lens for $499 + $5 shipping. With new old stock available and a lot of used camera bodies around. Now seems to be the time to pick up an older camera body that still is a very solid camera. Woot's website EDIT, the link is no longer working so I removed it. Technically it’s selling through “Moofi” which is some other gimmick from Woot. I don’t image the deal will last more than a few days.

The new K-5 is on par or better than current full frame sensors in quite a few aspects from a technical standpoint! The Pentax K-5 with the smc PENTAX-DA 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 ED AL [IF] DC WR lens References: DxO mark PentaxForums Check out the Pentax K-5 through my links:  B&H Photo Video Used on KEH Used on ebay Amazon As an affiliate of these shops, I earn from qualifying purchases!  The dynamic range of 14.12 Ev at ISO 80 specifically tops all other cameras, which is one technical value I personally feel is important in a picture taking tool. So overall, I’d say Pentax is making a good showing with this new camera body even though it’s APS-C sized. There are not any other APS-C cameras to come close to the K-5, but it will be interesting to see scores from the Nikon D7000, which I expect to be lower.