PhotographyBanzai.com

Is it time for us to start calling some digital equipment retro? Digital SLRs go out of style pretty quickly, sometimes as soon as a few years. However, there can be benefits to using older equipment, which I’ll try to cover in this review. The most obvious benefit is using equipment that was initially for pro-level photographers, but getting it at a cut-rate price used. While the *istD is on the borderline of what I would call pro-level, it does have a control layout that makes it justifiably part of that group. History: The Pentax *ist D (* is pronounced “star”) was the first DSLR released by Pentax in 2003. It is was and still is one of the smallest enthusiast-pro level camera bodies. If I can put it a bit harshly, Pentax regurgitated the internals of this camera into many of their following models. The closest is the *ist DS and DS2, but quite a few of the earlier K series cameras used the same sensor and presumably other internal parts. The *istD didn’t have a true success...

It’s getting close to October. That was the month I started this site last year. While I’ve had a few different photography sites over the years, this one has been the largest by far in content and page visits. I thought it would be fun to show some stats about the site from October 23rd 2010 – August 2011, so basically 11 months of information from Google Analytics to go through. The site was linked up with Google Analytics on October 23rd 2010 and I have the stats spanning from then until today (August 26th 2011). The statistics through my webhost are a lot higher, but that’s due to Google filtering out all of the extras like search engine bots and anyone who opts out of Google Analytics (yeah, it is possible to opt-out). Visits: 17,279 Absolute Unique Visits: 13,987 Page Views: 26,765 Here is a graph of daily visits: The two large spikes were Otakon 2011 and Chicago Comic Con 2011. Showing the monthly stats shows a significant improvement most months. Without large conventions...

I made a video on a whim last night as I wanted to get some practice doing video with my 100mm macro lens. I tried making a product detail video with the K-5 as the subject. On a somewhat related note, the K-5 will be going back to the repair facility once I receive the shipping label. Hopefully the second time is the charm with that camera. The video was taken with the K-7 at the highest setting and edited in Kdenlive for Linux. I have a few ideas to get better clip quality that I will have to try in the future. I’d like to eventually try a similar video with the K-7 or *ist D as a subject to see how that works. Get a used Pentax K-5 through my links: B&H ,  KEH ,  eBay , and  Amazon An an affiliate of these shops, I earn from qualifying purchases! Videos related to the camera:  My full K-5 review… ( YouTube video ) DA* 55mm at a Japanese garden . FA* 24mm at a beautiful park . TAv mode for freezing action . Av mode with flash . Program modes on the K-5 . D-BG4...

I compiled a video from the clips that I took Sunday at Wizard World’s Chicago Comic Con. Uploaded it to Youtube for your viewing pleasure! Edit: I removed the old video along with various similar videos. All of those were compiled into one video and placed on my Cosplay/crafting channel instead of the “Photography Banzai” one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH8CkEjKDTA As you can see from this and past videos, I like upbeat fast paced dance style music. I also have been trying to use Creative Commons licensed music to avoid any unwanted headaches. So I think I improved a bit from my last video in source quality. This time I used my 10-17mm Fisheye lens a lot with the walking around the convention center clips and then I used the 31mm lens for the standard source material. A lot less camera shake, but I still need to keep movement in mind when I’m walking around to further lessen camera shake and abrupt panning movements. Eventually I’d like to move toward more fun directed vid...

I attended the Chicago Comic Con on Sunday. There really wasn’t much cosplay, but I managed to get a few photos. If I attend this event next year, I plan on going on Saturday because that should have more costumers and such to document. There are various well knows actors and actresses that attend so that they can interface with fans. A few highlight photos: There were not too many photos, so I tried to put a little extra effort into post-processing of each. The main technique I used in the convention center was to aim the flash toward the ground instead of directly at the cosplayer or up into nothingness of the tall celling. The negative with that is when I was too close, there was a noticeable difference in brightness of their lower body compared to their face.  I easily fixed that with the “graduated filter” tool in Adobe Camera Raw. Let’s see… besides that… The camera I was using was the K-7 with 31mm lens and Sigma flash. I did take a limited few photos with a 10-17mm fisheye ...

So it’s only been a few days since getting the K-5 back from a 2 month service call, but the camera is starting to show signs of the double mirror flop issue again. The issue is best described on this PentaxForums.com thread . Here is a short video of the camera in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rZ50NEmLdE As I’ll be attending a convention tomorrow, I wanted to take the camera. The issue doesn’t seem very bad at the moment, but I’m sure it will only get worse with time. So I’m uncertain if I should bother taking the camera or not. If I don’t, I would probably just stick to taking photos with the K-7 rather than video. Maybe I should switch the K-5 to video duty? ugh…

Looks like I forgot to write a blog posting about the video I compiled for Otakon. I didn’t take much source content at Otakon, so I just used what I had and made it work. In a few words… camera shake and fast panning. So not the most amazing video I’m sure, but you might find it interesting… Edit: I removed the old video along with various similar videos. All of those were compiled into one video and placed on my Cosplay/crafting channel instead of the “Photography Banzai” one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH8CkEjKDTA So what was I trying to accomplish? I wanted to show the convention as a whole. That meant a lot of crowd shows along with anything else I came upon through the event. Every clip of people dancing was just being in the right place at the right time.  I was limited to using the 40mm f2.8 and 85mm f1.4 lenses as that’s all I brought to the convention. In retrospect and looking forward, I want to try shooting a complete video with my 14mm lens to minimize came...

I received my K-5 back from service yesterday. Thanks to David from Camera Craft for making it as easy as possible. The camera took around 2 months to get fixed, which was a inconvenience to say the least. The camera appears to be functioning properly so far. The only thing I noticed was that I had to add +8 to the global lens correction to get proper focus. It’s just in time for a sci-fi convention I’d like to attend in the Chicago area. I was thinking of using the K-5 for photos and K-7 with a wide angle lens for video exclusively.

I finished up processing of Sunday photos last night. The only other thing I might do is to see if I can piece together a video from all of the clips I took at Otakon, but that’s to be determined if I have enough decent content to use. Probably my biggest convention yet photo count wise. I think that’s due to having Thursday and a full Friday to work with. Overall, Otakon was a fun convention experience. The layout is easy to manage from a walking standpoint and there is a large amount of cosplay to be seen everywhere. I hope you east coasters liked the photos because the chance I’ll be attending Otakon again is pretty slim. Instead of driving and a hotel 3 miles from the convention, I’d have to fly and get a room right near the convention center to make it manageable (eg. too expensive for me currently…).  It was nice seeing thousands of convention goers I had never seen before and of course I can’t forget enjoying the  $1 ice cold water  to be had outside the convention...

I finally finished going through the Saturday photos. I had a lot and also had a few things get in the way of processing. I sported the 85mm for most of the gatherings and the 40mm for general hallway stuff. There are just too many images I’d like to post up here as highlights… Now on to Sunday photos, so I can finish this an move on to something (most likely) more profitable.  🙂

So I was wondering around on Sunday and noticed a large break dance competition at Otakon on Sunday. It looks like it was orchestrated for a video of a new, yet already well known, Canadian videographer nicknamed “ Acksonl ” (aka. Ackson’s Creatives ) on Youtube. His work is popular enough that I noticed quite a few mimics with similar setups circling around cosplayers at the convention. So anyways, I hung around for a while and took some photos and videos of the competition. In his second video of the convention at 3:15, I was taking a photo of one of the break dancers with the K-7 and 85mm f1.4 lens: The photo on the left was the closest one to what I took at that period in time. The second is the videographer with his large Steadicam setup. His videos are pretty amusing overall. He has a good style and choice in music, which I think is a big reason he is so popular.

Finished going through the Friday photos. This is the first time I’ve taken so many photos on a convention Friday. It’s nice arriving Thursday so that Friday can be a full convention day. Here are some highlight images: As you can see I started using the 85mm f1.4 lens for gathering photos. It’s kind of a cop-out to asking each individual cosplayer for photos, but I still think some of the photos turned out really nice. Basically at the gathering I just try to take a photo focusing on each person in the group photo rather than getting one big photo of everyone (mostly because of the lens focal length…). I experimented with using the 85mm lens in hallway photos, but there were a few issues. Mostly such a tight focal length made things difficult and I was having flare issues at times with strong back-lights.