refusal to even attempt to focus

[Larry Colen]

This afternoon I was photographing a heron at the Waldport seawall with 
my K-1 and sigma 50-500 during low tide.  It had flown from one spot to 
another, I was walking back to the new spot, photographing as I went, 
and at one point the camera went completely out of focus, then wouldn't 
even attempt to focus. I eventually got it back on track, got some more 
shots, then the bird spooked, flew off (past me) I tried for some flight 
photos but the lens again went completely out of focus, then refused to 
do anything to get back into focus. With the bigma I couldn't (easily) 
manually focus and I completely lost my opportunity for those BiF photos.


Does anyone know what causes the focus mechanism to freeze up like that, 
or any way to convince it to try to refocus?


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OT: 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year!

[Daniel J. Matyola]

http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/nature-photographer-of-the-year-2017/

Dan Matyola
http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/danieljmatyola
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Re: PESO - Haleakala Observatories, Maui

[Rick Womer]

Depends on the ambient light, of course.

On Sun, Dec 17, 2017 at 22:03 Alan C  wrote:

> !!!, but shouldn't it be red?
>
> Alan C
>
> -Original Message-
> From: Rick Womer
> Sent: 18 December, 2017 12:37 AM
> To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List
> Subject: Re: PESO - Haleakala Observatories, Maui
>
> Clever, Jostein!
>
> The place does have an extraterrestrial feeling to it.
>
> Rick
>
> > On Dec 17, 2017, at 8:14 AM, Jostein  wrote:
> >
> > Nice pic.
> > Out of Curiosity (pun intended) I think it would look like this:
> > http://www.alunfoto.no/temp/curiosity-Womer.jpg
> >
> > Yours mashed with this:
> > http://www.360pano.eu/pano/0776/0776.jpg
> >
> > :-)
> > Jostein
> >
> > Den 17.12.2017 03:33, skrev Rick Womer:
> >> About 300 vertical feet below the summit is this complex of about eight
> >> observatories:
> >> https://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/1805-orig.jpg
> >> (K-5, DA 10-17)
> >> I wonder if it would look much different on Mars…
> >> Comments appreciated!
> >> Rick
>
>
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Re: PESO - Haleakala Observatories, Maui

[Alan C]

!!!, but shouldn't it be red?

Alan C

-Original Message- 
From: Rick Womer

Sent: 18 December, 2017 12:37 AM
To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List
Subject: Re: PESO - Haleakala Observatories, Maui

Clever, Jostein!

The place does have an extraterrestrial feeling to it.

Rick


On Dec 17, 2017, at 8:14 AM, Jostein  wrote:

Nice pic.
Out of Curiosity (pun intended) I think it would look like this:
http://www.alunfoto.no/temp/curiosity-Womer.jpg

Yours mashed with this:
http://www.360pano.eu/pano/0776/0776.jpg

:-)
Jostein

Den 17.12.2017 03:33, skrev Rick Womer:
About 300 vertical feet below the summit is this complex of about eight 
observatories:

https://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/1805-orig.jpg
(K-5, DA 10-17)
I wonder if it would look much different on Mars…
Comments appreciated!
Rick



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Re: PESO+ squeezerlens experiments

[Daniel J. Matyola]

The first image ("pedestals") just confuses me.

My favorite of the group is "Cautiously Optimistic."  Quite pleasing and
effective.


Dan Matyola
http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/danieljmatyola

On Sun, Dec 17, 2017 at 7:34 PM, Bruce Walker 
wrote:

> I finally bought a Squeezerlens tilt/shift gadget for my 645z because
> I had a hankering to dabble with pictorialism once again. After
> shooting a few random scenes and objects I booked a shoot with a
> visual artist slash model from Seattle who was just visiting the area.
> That went astoundingly well and here is the best shot so far ...
>
> "A comment regarding pedestals: no-one asked the woman"
>
> https://portfolio.brucemwalker.com/index/IjteXqCQu5c4
>
>
> The Squeezerlens is hand made by a nice German guy named Frank
> Baeseler, and versions exist for various mounts, including the Pentax
> 645. (I would have simply bought a Lensbaby but they don't do anything
> for medium format.)
>
> http://squeezerlens.com/medium-squeezerlens.html
>
> The optic in my copy is a Leitz Hektor (120 mm, f:2.5) projector lens.
> It produces all kinds of wonderful distortion and looks super dreamy
> when shooting a backlit scene.
>
>
> Some more shots:
> https://portfolio.brucemwalker.com/index/IqrQue6u8Q8c
> https://portfolio.brucemwalker.com/index/IYXaBBmvIVv0
>
> And less serious: "Pictorialist Glamour"
> http://off-axis.brucemwalker.com/image/168659165532
>
> Enjoy!
>
> --
> -bmw
>
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Re: PESO+ squeezerlens experiments

[Bob W-PDML]

Good stuff. Interesting lens.

I like this:

https://portfolio.brucemwalker.com/index/IYXaBBmvIVv0

B

> On 18 Dec 2017, at 00:35, Bruce Walker  wrote:
> 
> I finally bought a Squeezerlens tilt/shift gadget for my 645z because
> I had a hankering to dabble with pictorialism once again. After
> shooting a few random scenes and objects I booked a shoot with a
> visual artist slash model from Seattle who was just visiting the area.
> That went astoundingly well and here is the best shot so far ...
> 
> "A comment regarding pedestals: no-one asked the woman"
> 
> https://portfolio.brucemwalker.com/index/IjteXqCQu5c4
> 
> 
> The Squeezerlens is hand made by a nice German guy named Frank
> Baeseler, and versions exist for various mounts, including the Pentax
> 645. (I would have simply bought a Lensbaby but they don't do anything
> for medium format.)
> 
> http://squeezerlens.com/medium-squeezerlens.html
> 
> The optic in my copy is a Leitz Hektor (120 mm, f:2.5) projector lens.
> It produces all kinds of wonderful distortion and looks super dreamy
> when shooting a backlit scene.
> 
> 
> Some more shots:
> https://portfolio.brucemwalker.com/index/IqrQue6u8Q8c
> https://portfolio.brucemwalker.com/index/IYXaBBmvIVv0
> 
> And less serious: "Pictorialist Glamour"
> http://off-axis.brucemwalker.com/image/168659165532
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> -- 
> -bmw
> 
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PESO+ squeezerlens experiments

[Bruce Walker]

I finally bought a Squeezerlens tilt/shift gadget for my 645z because
I had a hankering to dabble with pictorialism once again. After
shooting a few random scenes and objects I booked a shoot with a
visual artist slash model from Seattle who was just visiting the area.
That went astoundingly well and here is the best shot so far ...

"A comment regarding pedestals: no-one asked the woman"

https://portfolio.brucemwalker.com/index/IjteXqCQu5c4


The Squeezerlens is hand made by a nice German guy named Frank
Baeseler, and versions exist for various mounts, including the Pentax
645. (I would have simply bought a Lensbaby but they don't do anything
for medium format.)

http://squeezerlens.com/medium-squeezerlens.html

The optic in my copy is a Leitz Hektor (120 mm, f:2.5) projector lens.
It produces all kinds of wonderful distortion and looks super dreamy
when shooting a backlit scene.


Some more shots:
https://portfolio.brucemwalker.com/index/IqrQue6u8Q8c
https://portfolio.brucemwalker.com/index/IYXaBBmvIVv0

And less serious: "Pictorialist Glamour"
http://off-axis.brucemwalker.com/image/168659165532

Enjoy!

-- 
-bmw

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Re: PESO - Haleakala Observatories, Maui

[Rick Womer]

Clever, Jostein! 

The place does have an extraterrestrial feeling to it.

Rick
 
> On Dec 17, 2017, at 8:14 AM, Jostein  wrote:
> 
> Nice pic.
> Out of Curiosity (pun intended) I think it would look like this:
> http://www.alunfoto.no/temp/curiosity-Womer.jpg
> 
> Yours mashed with this:
> http://www.360pano.eu/pano/0776/0776.jpg
> 
> :-)
> Jostein
> 
> Den 17.12.2017 03:33, skrev Rick Womer:
>> About 300 vertical feet below the summit is this complex of about eight 
>> observatories:
>> https://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/1805-orig.jpg
>> (K-5, DA 10-17)
>> I wonder if it would look much different on Mars…
>> Comments appreciated!
>> Rick


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Re: Second thoughts about Pentax

[P. J. Alling]

Actually the K-5 isn't that much older.  It was introduced in 2010 and 
discontinued officially 2013 about a year after the K-5II and K-5IIs 
were released.


There wasn't a lot of "improvement" in APS-C sensors from the K-5 until 
the release of 24mp Cameras like the K-3 were released at the end of 
2013, (which includes the Nikon 3xxx, 5xxx and 7xxx which all received 
pretty much the same sensor).


The K-5 sensor when tested by DxO remained at the top of APS-C sensors 
for a number or years, and even beat out FF and even a couple of Medium 
format sensors.


The Fuji X-Trans sensors were also in the class that DxO put near the 
top of the heap.


One can take exception to what makes a sensor good, and DxO may be 
testing some of the wrong things but they are consistent for comparison 
purposes.



On 12/17/2017 5:47 AM, Eric Weir wrote:

On Dec 16, 2017, at 10:08 PM, P. J. Alling  wrote:

So is the Fuji X-M1, released in 2013 IIRC.

Yes, but it was no longer in production when I bought mine about two years ago. 
I was fortunate to find a new one. I see the K-5 is about ten years older.

--
Eric Weir
Decatur, GA  USA
eew...@bellsouth.net

"What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from a great loneliness of spirit."

- Chief Seattle








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America was founded so we could all be anything we damn well please.
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Re: Second thoughts about Pentax

[Larry Colen]

Eric Weir wrote:


Finally you don't mention if you're shooting RAW or Jpeg.   Pentax out of 
camera Jpeg files are not the best.  If you're shooting RAW; with a little more 
sharpening and contrast adjustment to the Pentax images you shouldn't see any 
marked difference between either camera given roughly equivalent lenses.


Thanks, P.J. All that helps. And yes, it’s the 27mm/2.8 that I have. I misspoke.

I shoot RAW. When I wrote I was comparing unedited RAW images in Lightroom.


Note that the greater the dynamic range a camera has, the less apparent 
contrast there will be in the unedited file. The only thing that really 
matters is the quality of the final image as presented.




Wondering what the opinion here would be of the Pentax DA 35/2.4 would be. It’s 
my only autofocus Pentax prime. I thought images made with it might make for a 
fairer comparison with my Fuji setup.

--
Eric Weir
Decatur, GA  USA
eew...@bellsouth.net

"What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from a great loneliness of spirit."

- Chief Seattle








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Re: OT: One of the world’s great headlines

[mike wilson]

> On 16 December 2017 at 15:06 Bob W-PDML  wrote:
> 
> 
> https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/dec/15/sex-between-snow-monkeys-and-sika-deer-may-be-new-behavioural-tradition

Reminds me of the WWI "French push bottles up Germans" headline for some reason.

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Re: Second thoughts about Pentax

[Eric Weir]

> On Dec 16, 2017, at 10:13 PM, P. J. Alling  wrote:
> 
> I'm a bit late to this but, there are two things that stand out.
> 1. The K-5 has an AA filter, so the images will require a bit of judicious 
> sharpening to equal the sharpness of images from the X-Trans sensor in the 
> Fuji as it doesn't need an AA filter and doesn't have one due to it's more or 
> less, non repetitive,  the color lens pattern.
> 
> 2. You're comparing a prime lens to a consumer zoom.  Now, modern zoom lenses 
> can often meet or exceed image quality standards set by older prime lenses 
> but, usually I find that even my SMCP-A 24mm f2.8 seems to perform better 
> than even modern zooms, though maybe not quite as sharp as the SMCP-FA 20-35 
> f4.0, which is an amazing little zoom.
> 
> I don't know which 28mm you have, unless you actually have the Fuji 27mm f2.8 
> pancake lens, which if you do, is hardly being fair to the Pentax camera and 
> lens combination.  It's reputed to be one of the very best inexpensive lenses 
> in the Fuji system, while the Pentax Zoom is pretty good but not even close 
> to being the best.   Even the Pentax A 28mm f2.8 should produce better 
> quality images.
> 
> Finally you don't mention if you're shooting RAW or Jpeg.   Pentax out of 
> camera Jpeg files are not the best.  If you're shooting RAW; with a little 
> more sharpening and contrast adjustment to the Pentax images you shouldn't 
> see any marked difference between either camera given roughly equivalent 
> lenses.

Thanks, P.J. All that helps. And yes, it’s the 27mm/2.8 that I have. I 
misspoke. 

I shoot RAW. When I wrote I was comparing unedited RAW images in Lightroom.

Wondering what the opinion here would be of the Pentax DA 35/2.4 would be. It’s 
my only autofocus Pentax prime. I thought images made with it might make for a 
fairer comparison with my Fuji setup.

--
Eric Weir
Decatur, GA  USA
eew...@bellsouth.net

"What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, 
men would die from a great loneliness of spirit." 

- Chief Seattle






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Re: Second thoughts about Pentax

[Eric Weir]

> On Dec 16, 2017, at 10:08 PM, P. J. Alling  wrote:
> 
> So is the Fuji X-M1, released in 2013 IIRC.

Yes, but it was no longer in production when I bought mine about two years ago. 
I was fortunate to find a new one. I see the K-5 is about ten years older.

--
Eric Weir
Decatur, GA  USA
eew...@bellsouth.net

"What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, 
men would die from a great loneliness of spirit." 

- Chief Seattle






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