PhotographyBanzai.com

Today PentaxForums.com released a review comparing the Canon 7D and Pentax K-5. Overall I think it is a really interesting review for a person who uses either system. I think they tried to be as non-fanboy-ish as possible by bringing out the best and worst of each system. Here is the review link: http://www.pentaxforums.com/reviews/Canon_7D_vs_Pentax_K5.php It brought up the pretty well known differences: – The 7D has great AF and video control. – The K-5 has a great sensor and ergonomics. They both have high build quality, weather resistance, fast operation, and a multitude of other similar features. Obviously both camera bodies would be a great photography tool to use if you can afford the entry price. I think it also explains why the K-5 came out around $1500 and has held a strong price since then.

Today I went out to a local park for the nice weather and to get some practice. This time I used two lenses that don’t get as much usage as some of my others. The 100mm f2.8 Macro and 10-17mm Fisheye lenses. Here are a few photos: A small photo can’t do justice to just how sharp that photo is at 100% detail. It was taken with the 100mm f2.8 macro lens. The K-5 and 100mm lens can achieve high vibrancy: A nice flat field: Bokeh is great with this lens: If you are looking for a lens to create epic feeling images, the 10-17mm Fisheye should be a contender: The 10-17 would be useful for unique one-man videos: The 10-17 has the ability to focus very close: I’m a sucker for photos like this: Not your normal architecture lens:

In case you haven’t heard of the term, A photo bomb happens when someone in the background intentionally looks at the camera, or even makes a funny face to seemingly ruin a photograph. In my mind I think they are pretty amusing and the photos have a value all there own. Well, that is of course all within reason. Too much or not going away, so I can eventually get a quality shot of my subject is irritating. Below I’ll show you the best bombers I had for this years Anime Central convention. This guy knows how to photo bomb. He first started with a peace sign, but then moved up to a full face bomb. The reason he was successful was because he was close enough to the subject that his features were not obscured in blur. I think it was one of Batman’s friends… The next guy gave a great effort, so much so that I got irritated after a while and said “Dude, please!” He promptly left after that. Stick to your guns, but make it short and sweet. The photo bomb wasn’t successful because he was maki...

I wanted to go over the techniques I used at this convention partly for a personal log and also for anyone who might find the discussion of techniques interesting. This really is just a selection of techniques, but a good overview nonetheless. Primary Equipment: Pentax K-5 camera body Pentax FA 31mm f1.8 lens Sigma 530 DG Super flash + Stofen diffuser (used in certain situations) Pentax DA 50-200mm WR lens (fashion show and masquerade) K-7 + DA 55mm f1.4 SDM (only used them once for a private shoot) Kata 3N1-22 backpack Camera modes: The K-5 camera body has 5 selectable setting modes allowing the photographer to select and save settings in those 5 slots. I used three slots primarily, which I will go over below. I’ll also include any other factors in how that mode was used. USER Mode 1 (flash photography): – ISO fixed (usually 80, but a range for creative and testing reasons) – Av mode (usually large aperture) – Exposure compensation like -2 inside, only slight reduction like -2/3rds ou...

I finally finished processing photos. Sunday was a bit easier to get through than Saturday of course. Besides the Prince of Tennis gathering, I just spent my time walking around and taking miscellaneous cosplay photos. So when processing was all said and done it took me around 4 days to post-process 3 days of photos. I had around 20 camera raw setting saves that I selected through, so that I could give my photos this year a common natural yet vibrant feel to them (I did hand tweak images that didn’t fit in those sets).  While some of the images might feel a bit bright or over exposed (depending on your monitor, I have an ViewSonic VP2365wb E-IPS based LCD monitor set to give me true colors), that was the direction I was going and how I perceived events. It’s primarily a style choice on my part. Clean vibrancy. Some highlight images of the day: My final cosplay of the day, a Jedi Ninja Turtle. What a perfect way to end the event for me as I am an avid fan on Ninja Turtles: Sitting o...

Saturday was probably the biggest day photography wise. A lot of random cosplay photos in the halls as well as the masquerade and fashion show. A few highlight images: Cosplay at Anime conventions encompasses more than just things from Japan. An excellent Master Chief cosplay: I believe this person and a few others were a walking advertisement for a Renaissance fair. Very excellent makeup work and how they never broke character: Angle is sometimes important when trying to minimize busy backgrounds: A finely tailored cosplay: A shot of the masquerade event: All event shots like this and the fashion show were taken with the Pentax 50-200mm WR lens on the K-5. It’s surprising how sharp the lens is at 200mm f5.6 considering how relatively cheap it is. That combo is surprisingly strong for events like that thanks to the high ISO capability and fast auto-focus of the K-5 camera body. I really liked how the framing in this image turned out: I really like the feel of movement and action in thi...

I’m back from the 3-day Anime convention in Rosemont Illinois. Started processing photos, but it is slow work. I tweak every image by hand in Adobe camera raw and sometimes make a few modifications once the image is opened up in Photoshop. A a few highlight photos from Friday (day 1): As you can see, I forced myself to use the flash in some situations. The Sigma did well considering I was having issues with it in the past. Used Av mode and HHS enabled on the flash, but I controlled both the aperture and ISO. If I let the camera control the ISO it does screwy things, so I just set it to 80 outdoors and a mixture of higher ISO indoors unless I want dark backgrounds from light fall-off. For this type of work I don’t need to control the shutter speed, so I prefer letting the camera do that. Day 2 (Saturday) and day 3 (Sunday) will be coming in the future.

he question was brought up on Pentax Forums recently “Is the 31mm Limited really 2.8 times better than the 40mm Limited?” As you can guess, the debate has been raging on for many pages. FA 31mm f1.8 Limited to DA 40mm f2.8 Limited together: The 31mm and 30mm with a Canadian coin. To start things off, that photo describes why I advocate buying both. While their usage can overlap, the sheer size difference puts them in different categories. FA 31mm differences: Almost the perfect general purpose lens with a very normal focal length in APS-C. No quick-shift focus system is a pain sometimes. Average sized and gives your left hand something to hold. Wide aperture for background blur and low-light photography. Big front element with the build in hood isn’t ideal for current Pentax DSLRs. Has an aperture ring. Front element and filter threads are a little different. Took me three tries to find a filter that I could safely use (Hoya HMC and S-HMC are good, I opted for a S-HMC with this lens)....