K5 issues

[Justinr]

Having been wanting to upgrade my dslr to the Pentax K5 for a while I actually got round to ordering today and having put the phone down I thought I'd groom my smugness a little by reading some more reviews of it. Lo and behold the first thing I came across was a list of users with stained sensors and front focusing. First time I'd come across these issues, has anyone else?

[tsjanik]

Pentax has acknowledged the stain problem and will repair/replace all stained cameras and the issue appears to be less frequent now.  Pentax is apparently about to release a fimware update that addresses the focus issue.  You can get more information than you ever wanted about this here:
http://www.pentaxforums.com/

[Justinr]

 

You can get more information than you ever wanted about this here:
http://www.pentaxforums.com/

 

Bit of a refugee from that place myself, very errr... focussed I think is the polite way to put it. I bailed out when the all started lining up to salute the Stars and Stripes.

Thanks for the reassurance anyway.

[Rob C]

 

Bit of a refugee from that place myself, very errr... focussed I think is the polite way to put it. I bailed out when the all started lining up to salute the Stars and Stripes.

Thanks for the reassurance anyway.

Is Pentax going to start making them in the States? Cameras, I mean.

Rob C

[marcmccalmont]

Having been wanting to upgrade my dslr to the Pentax K5 for a while I actually got round to ordering today and having put the phone down I thought I'd groom my smugness a little by reading some more reviews of it. Lo and behold the first thing I came across was a list of users with stained sensors and front focusing. First time I'd come across these issues, has anyone else?

I received mine a month ago and have no problems at all
I love the camera it's like a mini mfdb it keeps up with my p45+ except for resolution
I finally have a travel camera I like!
Marc

[Justinr]

I received mine a month ago and have no problems at all
I love the camera it's like a mini mfdb it keeps up with my p45+ except for resolution
I finally have a travel camera I like!
Marc

It's funny you should say that Marc as I find that the drop off in quality between my humble K10 and the Mamiya ZD is not as bad as you'd think, certainly not for monitor display, even in the studio. I'm thinking that the K5 allied with some half decent glass will close the gap even further.

[marcmccalmont]

I bought the 18-135 instead of the kit glass seems pretty good
Marc

[Justinr]

Me too, along with the 60-250mm, primes are going to have to wait until they can pay for themselves. The standard kit lens can best be described as a good starting point, lovely warm but not over saturated colours, however, any enlargements are best kept modest.

A few months back I acquired a standard Pentax fit Sigma 24-135 which is really not the worst. This banner picture was taken with it and considering that it's a crop from a much larger image and the resulting small compressed file size it is reasonably acceptable for it's purpose. The text on the instrument could be sharper I  know but overall it's quite a strong image. www.mobilejerry1.com

Which Volcano is that BTW. I'm guessing something like Mt Helena.

[marcmccalmont]

Fuji san

[Justinr]

Bl**dy volcanoes, all look the same to me! 

Actually there's a point there, I am so used to seeing photos of Helena from the air and Fuji from the ground that identity is suggested by the angle of view rather than logical thought or geographical knowledge.

[Rob C]

Me too, along with the 60-250mm, primes are going to have to wait until they can pay for themselves. The standard kit lens can best be described as a good starting point, lovely warm but not over saturated colours, however, any enlargements are best kept modest.

A few months back I acquired a standard Pentax fit Sigma 24-135 which is really not the worst. This banner picture was taken with it and considering that it's a crop from a much larger image and the resulting small compressed file size it is reasonably acceptable for it's purpose. The text on the instrument could be sharper I  know but overall it's quite a strong image. www.mobilejerry1.com

Which Volcano is that BTW. I'm guessing something like Mt Helena.

Bad economics, Justin: better off with a couple of good focal lengths than a huge range of crap. You end up paying many times over to get to where you should have begun.

Rob C

[tetsuo77]

That banner, doesn´t float meboat, to be honest.
I do not think is that much of a feature.

Have to agree with Rob C [ouch!  ]: I think that the kind of flexibility you´re looking for is better off with a flexible macro than a widerange zoom: better off with the 35 macro than the 18-135 lens.

Unless you want to have a good wide angle option. For that, it is Pentax the one that offers the best price/performance ratio, with that 12-24 or the equivalent Tokina.

I don´t think that Pentax has a good and reasonable priced primes now, but for the 35 macro [the better choice of both 35´s]. Once the price increased on the 50 1.4, and the überexpensive 55, and the "i kissed a girl and I liked it" 43 [which is moodier than a woman, but less than a Leitz-Leica R].

[Justinr]

I have this heavy feeling in my heart Rob that you are absolutely right and it was a decision that I did not take lightly for I used to do all my MF wedding work on just three primes lenses.

However, for the motor racing job I do need the ability to zoom in and out rapidly with no time for the swapping of lenses and the carrying of a two or more bodies with assorted lenses is not really an option. There was a fellow at the circuit the other week who was decked out in the latest Canons with wonderfully expensive prime telephotos and the results I saw were very impressive, crystal clear and as sharp as they come, but they were all the same picture for he could only fill the frame at one distance. I need to be on the grid one minute then up on a bank the next to catch the action at various points on the oval.

I think it is also fair to say that the gap in image quality between zoom and fixed lenses is not as great as it was and although it hurts to say I think we have to admit that a good modern zoom lens on a reasonable digital can match many a prime on 35mm film.

Primes I find can be relatively time consuming to use and in the digital era everything is expected to be instant. A sad state of affairs but I have to go with the flow unfortunately.  

[Justinr]

Tetsuo

Aye, as a photo on its own it's by no means a classic but at the end of the day I find myself taking shots for a medium which is hopelessly unpredictable for everyone experiences the viewing of a website differently. How we view photos depends on what we are expecting from them, as photographers we will look to areas that casual viewers will not even know about let alone be in a position to judge. Using this one here has brought only favourable comments, so far, from the client (and his customers) who wanted a colour scheme and theme to match a certain car manufacturers corporate look. The site is yet unfinished BTW.

Photography as a general rule is very much a secondary consideration to the 'poetry of code' in the vast majority of site designers minds but that is what they are taught which is why we see so much unthinking use of middle of the road stock images, dawns, cityscapes, young things holding happy meetings etc. Getting away from that takes some effort but I feel it's worth it.

[marcmccalmont]

I'm still taken back by how good this little camera is!
Marc

[ErikKaffehr]

Great!

Erik

I'm still taken back by how good this little camera is!
Marc

[Justinr]

After much huffing and puffing and threats to cancel the order the couriers actually managed to deliver mine tonight, only 4 days late with some lame excuse about the address, but anyway that's hopefully in the past.

First two impressions-

a. It's tiny, if you are into big dollops of bling hanging off your neck then look elsewhere

b. It's bl**dy good so far. Only taken a few shots around the house but it has even impressed a teenage daughter. Need I say more.

[Justinr]

I think I'm going to get on with this little fella.

A rough and ready test showed that if anything there was a back focus problem with the 60-250 lens but it was hard to tell this apart from the DoF effect so I won't be making any adjustments until it shows itself as a real issue. No evidence of stains so far.

The two pictures show the original and a crop there from. Taken at iso 1600, f25, 1/100th, hand held. Pentax 18-135 lens at full zoom.

Although I have brightened the crop there has been no noise or sharpness adjustment.