PhotographyBanzai.com

The rear dial on my K-7 has been having issues for quite a while. Scrolling left especially didn’t work properly. The aperture would jump around randomly and even cause the camera to temporarily lock up. After my successful modification of the K-01, I was feeling confident enough to take the K-7 apart to see if I could do something about it. In the past I tried the old trick of getting some rubbing alcohol into the dial housing, but the weather resistant nature of the camera made that technique ineffective. Lets get down to business. Whenever disassembling a complex piece of electronics like a DSLR, be sure to sort your screws as you remove them. It’s also a good idea to take photos of the process and even a picture of each screw as it relates to a hole in the camera. That way you won’t end up putting the wrong screws into the wrong holes, or even worse end up with extra screws at the end! I always start with the bottom panel. It’s easy to remove and it helps me get a better ide...

I’m a bit back logged on photo excursion postings. This one was at a local parked called Aldeen that has a few interesting water retention structures as well as some nice green space. I was using the Pentax K-5 and DA* 55mm f1.4 lens. It was around sunset, so eventually auto-focus became a big challenge. In addition to that, I was using a friend’s Yongnuo flash units and RF wireless flash triggers. Here are a few images from the outing:  I’ve been making Youtube videos as well that are a bit more interesting than a few photos and some text on the site. Below is the video for this excursion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLJ_AteA3RQ

The only one available locally was a demo unit with a yellow grip. I personally don’t like that shade of yellow and wouldn’t feel right using it in professional situations, but the deal was good and I couldn’t pass it up. I was able to acquire one of those fake K-01 display models to use as parts.  If you haven’t seen them before, they are empty shells that are used to give people an idea of each style of the camera. It’s an efficient way for Pentax to get something into local stores for people to handle. If you want to do something similar to what I did, you are on your own in finding one of those fake cameras. Sorry, I can’t help you find one.   When in doubt, contact Pentax and see if they sell the grip sections for the K-01. I tried that, but didn’t have much luck. CRIS support was a bit better and referred me to a parts department, but they didn’t even have the parts listing document or know what a K-01 was! (they did have a document for the K-7 they sent me a...

I saw that Pentax Japan will be having more K-30 camera colors than the black, white, and blue we will get over here (again). http://www.pentax.jp/japan/products/k-30/color/index.html The color that stands out the most for me is the military green. It’s pretty appealing. The added bonus is that I could see it being the Master Chief’s camera of choice (main character from the popular HALO games)… Here is an image to illustrate my point:  If Master Chief had a camera. So why would the Chief use the K-30?  Military green doesn’t stand out and actually matches pretty closely with his armor color of choice. The matte finish version doesn’t reflect light as much as most cameras. He doesn’t want snipers seeing the glint of a shiny camera. The K-30 is weather resistant. Would he settle for anything less? The overall design fits pretty well with what I would expect to see as a military spec. Spartan camera. If I had the funds I’d probably want to import one of those when they event...

As you might know, I frequently use two cameras at the same time. I usually do this at conventions and situations where I need a decent range of focal lengths with the prime lenses I use. It adds extra cost, but it’s the way I prefer to do things. My K-7 is having some issues with the rear dial and potentially some other issues, so I went about remedying that situation. I ended up selling some equipment I rarely use or were not a good fit for me. With that cash, I just recently put it into a K-01 and a used 24mm lens I feel will better fit my style. Here is a quick shot of my new K-01. You might notice it has one small visual variation to the three offered color schemes. I’ll get to that reason shortly.  The K-01 after replacing the grip. I contacted my local camera shop to see if they had one available. All they had was a demo unit with a yellow grip. While I respect people who like and enjoy that version of the K-01, it just doesn’t fit my style and I feel that I couldn’...

The Pentax K-30 information was leaked.  K-30 looks pretty cool! Update: See official information on PentaxForums.com EDIT: Some updates for new information… Specifications so far I personally think are valid: Traditional digital SLR camera. 16 Mega-pixel sensor with video capabilities like the K-01 Weather resistant (Pentax WR). Uses AA or rechargeable batteries. Basically the same power system as the K-r. ISO range from 100 to 25600. Black, white, and blue body panels in the USA. 3-inch LCD like existing K-7/K-5/K-01 cameras. Dual scroll wheel operation. The shutter/mirror system appears to be from the K-r, so 6fps operation and 1/6000th maximum shutter speed (the negative being louder compared to the K-5’s). I personally like the rugged look, especial since I think it will be able to back up the claim. This will be one of the smallest large-sensor weather resistant cameras out there. The Olympus OM-D is probably the only real competition, but Pentax has it topped in affordable ...

As you might know, I’ve been submitting videos to Youtube for a while that are connected with my photography in some fashion. The channel is located here if you haven’t seen it before. I always strive to improve the quality and content of my videos. It’s been a great learning process with video/audio and just as rewarding and fun as photography. I had done quite a bit of video editing in the past, but now I create most of the content myself along with the editing.  The largest challenge has been music. People love music and feel it usually adds to the overall presentation. People also complain if something isn’t exciting enough for their tastes. I’ve had a few negative comments on my videos about the lack of background music, so I went on an Internet quest to find solutions. First off, I have dipped my fingers into audio creation with tools such as LMMS , but this will be a long and difficult process to understand how to make my own top-quality musical scores. The beat in ...

One of the great things about conventions is the potential for meeting new people and networking. While I had known of Stephen ( "Secretasianman" ) through the Anime Central forum, I had never met him. This year we met at the photographer’s gathering we had organized through the forum. On that Friday we also spent some time doing “hallway cosplay” photography along with yet another photographer Jacob .  One of the great things about photography is that it reflects the multitude of choices we make before pressing the shutter button. Everything from equipment choices to framing angles and camera settings create a unique and special image that can only be our own. After seeing Stephen’s photos from our time doing photography together, I thought it would be fun to go through some of the images that were of the same cosplayers.  Stephen with a classy suit and my camera on the other side. He was using a Nikon D700 with a Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 lens. He was also using a small flash ...

I’m finished going through the entire ACEN photo set. Even though I took considerably less than 2011, it still took around a week due to having some contract work.  My favorites and other honorable mentions I didn’t post before:  With the big drop in quantity, I think I’ll have to try my best to stay at a hotel closer to the convention next year. The cost would go up around 3 times though. 

This is it for my Anime Central 2012 photos. I finished going through the Sunday photos last night, but passed out half way through them being uploaded to my Zenfolio gallery. Now that I’m back in the game, here are the results.  A few highlights: Sunday was getting pretty sparse around noon, so I didn’t stay too long. Most of the activity was in the dealers room. It’s always pretty challenging to take photos in there, but I seem drawn to it. I think maybe because the backdrop really puts out the convention atmosphere.

I finished going through what is usually the largest day photography wise. It looks like I took things pretty easy this year; only resulting in around 300 general convention photos for the day. Enjoy! Here are a few highlight photos:  Equipment wise, I again used the 31mm f1.8 lens for the majority of my wandering around photos. I also switched off to the 85mm f1.4 for gathering photos frequently because that lens works well in those situations where it is hard to get close to the people posing. The Masquerade event was a big bust for various reasons. They force the seating, resulting in a pretty useless situation photo wise with people blocking the way and being far back.  The Masquerade also was severely cut due to everything running behind as well as a fire alarm at the Hyatt hotel. Next year I’ll consider applying for a press badge to avoid some of the hassles that come with being restricted as a normal attendee (If you happen to know the process, please contact me ...

I finished going through the photos for Friday. They turned out pretty decent. Here are a few photos from Friday: Equipment wise I used the K-5, 31mm f1.8 lens, and Sigma flash most of the time. With settings I used aperture priority often with a fixed ISO and a negative exposure bias. That’s usually my go-to setup for quick reliable photography. It allows me to focus on more than just settings by not having to control shutter speed or flash power directly. The K-5 and 31mm held up pretty well with focus, but at such large apertures it is always going to be an issue.