PentaxLife Forum: Digital SLR cameras

stevesemipro on "Pentax Dishonours Warranty"

stevesemipro — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 10:41:18 +0000

They sent the disk, after several months, at no charge. Everybody was civil. The software still doesn't work, but it's probably my machine like the techs had said before. I'm going to try a different raw software and be happy with my camera. Pentax finally did what they said they would.

stevesemipro on "Pentax Dishonours Warranty"

stevesemipro — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 21:53:24 +0000

I just talked to Pentax again about the disk, and they said they'll send another one. I sure hope so. I don't want to have to ditch Pentax over a 25 dollar disk.

stevesemipro on "Pentax Dishonours Warranty"

stevesemipro — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 03:53:08 +0000

I just had trouble with Pentax customer service, too. I bought a K7, and loved it, but the Silkypix software didn't work. I talked to Matt at customer service and we troubleshot and discovered that the disk was the problem. He said he'd send a replacement. Months later, I still hadn't received the disk. I called and talked to Edward who made me do the same troubleshooting, and then said he would have a disk sent. Then, months later again, I called and talked to David, a manager. He said Pentax would not send me a disk and that I had to buy one. Now, as much as I liked the K7, I hate Pentax and I'll not buy any lenses for the kit. I'll sell it, I suppose, and move back to Nikon. I've spent probably ten hours on teh phone trying to right this. I haven't just lost the grand I spent on the kit, I've wasted time learning how to use K7 I bought but will not expand on because Pentax is a dishonest company that does not stand by its products or its word.

nanhi on "Advice on buying a DSRL"

nanhi — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 17:06:22 +0000

The Pentax K20D is an awesome camera for less than $ 600 Body price (bought mine in May 2009 with the AL II Kit lens from B&H for $ 770). It blows the competition away. Live view is best in manual mode on the K20D. But you can go for the Pentax K7 with its excellent Live View and lots of other improvements over the K20D.
A 300 mm lens for birding is always better than a a lens with a 2x teleconverter - degrades lens performance. just make sure the lens retains sharpness at the tele end - research on Google.

nonfan on "Pentax Dishonours Warranty"

nonfan — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:11:09 +0000

I've had Pentax SLRs since 1967 when I bought a Spotmatic. Since then I have had K1000, ME, ME Super, K10D and now K20D. For all I have a range of lenses, and still use them all. In all these years no warranty claims were necessary, until the seal strip came out of the 16-50 2.8 zoom, and the autofocus failed. I was shocked when Pentax refused the warranty on the lens, claiming it had been dropped. When I asked for proof they sent a photo of the inside at the back, which clearly showed the problem: One mounting screw had been over-torqued, probably in manufacture, because the mount must be removed to see it. The screw fractured its mount, and slightly warped the lens case, causing the failure of both the seal and the autofocus. With the photo came a new claim, that the lens had been on the camera when it was dropped. Donkey-dust.
Neither the lens nor camera has suffered any trauma, and there are no marks on either that would indicate abuse. There is only a severely overtightened screw inside the seven-month-old lens. I guess its time to move on to Nikon, with a much better engine, far less image noise and a warranty that can be trusted.
PS I was also responsible for the purchase of more than 800 k1000s, MEs and ME Supers during the '70s and '80s while teaching a course in composition.

benjikan on "My first ever Benjamin Kanarek Blog..."

benjikan — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:14:28 +0000

Hello All;

I have just posted my first blog ever. It is very recent, i.e. today and yesterday. It will be a general, photography, advertising, marketing and creative blog, that will NOT be brand related.

Please feel free to contribute comments etc.

Thanks
Ben

http://benjaminkanarekblog.com

mattdm on "K-7"

mattdm — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:47:59 +0000

So, unless this is the only Pentax site you ever visit, you know that the K-7 is out and it looks awesome.

This place just seemed so dead I figured someone had to say *something*!

MJBDIGITAL on "645D releasing in japan"

MJBDIGITAL — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:03:08 +0000

It's been a long time since I've posted here (just like everyone), I actually had to sign up again.

...but I thought, if you havent seen this, you might like to...

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/news/PMA_Pentax_revives_medium_format_digital_camera_plan_news_278069.html

enjoy

camel58 on "autofocus trouble w/k10d"

camel58 — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 06:28:56 +0000

hi everyone i'm needing help.AF on my k10d does not work i've tried with 3 lenses so i know it's the body i have cleaned all contacts,reset to default settings taken battery out and put back in i don't know what else to do someone please help.my camera has become my life...thanx

Vortex on "Advice on buying a DSRL"

Vortex — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:23:18 +0000

25 years ago, I was into phtography. It died after about a yesr. Recently, I see mysef fascinated by some of digital photos I see & the amzing detail of nature-related subjects.

So, I am building my small set of camera for general use & macro/tele shooting. This is what I am thinking:

>> I get a small P/S for general use and landscape photography. I get a DSRL with a single lense (somthing like 70 - 200 or 300) for tele shooting. I already got Canon SD990 for my general use. I like its IQ & am happy. I am very badly torn between Pentax K20D & Canon xsi or 40D.

I used Canon xsi for a short time and very much liked the zoom capability of the liveview, i.e. 10x, for macro focusing. I read that Pentax liveview really sucks & the 8x zoom cannot be used.

My questions are:

Does k20D liveview zoom responds to manual focus, i.e. if I use manual focus do I see a focused 8x window or it is blurred.

Second question: What do you think of my setting plan and am I better of with K20D or Canon, considering that I have Canon SD990.

Third question: Which lense is more appropriate for general/flower/bird photogrphy: Pentax 55 - 300 or Sigma 70 - 200 f/2.8 and 2x teleconverter.

Thanks

shoottothrill on "Speculation about K300D and K30D"

shoottothrill — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:21:13 +0000

I can't see anything that says the images are 17mp.

Simen1 on "Speculation about K300D and K30D"

Simen1 — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:41:06 +0000

Here are a 17 megapixel Pentax Photo:
http://www.pentaxslr.com/lenses/lens_35

Does this mean that there will be a K20D sucsessor soon? I really hope it features HD video capability like Nikon D90 and Canon 5Dmk2. I altso hope the megapixelmania doesent hurt the dynamic range and ISO properties to much.

Simen1 on "Mirrorless "DLSR" from Pentax/Samsung too?"

Simen1 — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:31:31 +0000

Recently Panasonic and Olympus announced the new mirrorless micro Four Thirds (mFT) system. I want to start speculating if Pentax/Samsung is planning something similar. Hopefully with 1,5 crop sensor size. If not, maby with a smaller sensor then the mFT system.

The mFT may switch me over to Olympus/Panasonic, but i hesitate a bit bacause of the smaller sensor size and would prefer a Pentax sticker on the camera.

Canon, Nikon and Sony is not very interessting to me of various reasons.

Vitali on "Plans for new 28-105mm or 28-80?"

Vitali — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:17:22 +0000

28-105mm will be 42-152mm on a APS-C cameras like K20D. I doubt Pentax will rool out something like this until there will be at least a couple of more or less affordable K-mount full-frames.

Ojay on "how to switch off OPS in SAMSUNG GX-10?"

Ojay — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:00:42 +0000

Switch at the lower right-hand corner of the screen (with the hand icon on it)

signamax on "how to switch off OPS in SAMSUNG GX-10?"

signamax — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:03:42 +0000

subj is the question.
I attached manual lens to the body, and manual call for OPS being switched off.
In the menue the OPS option is AUTO and not highlighted so cannot be switched to MANUAL. cursor skips it.
folks, please, adivise.

Max

chewbacca on "Plans for new 28-105mm or 28-80?"

chewbacca — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:30:55 +0000

Will either of these two be produced? Hopefully the 28-105mm, since now the 17-70mm is at the door, hopefully with a Star attached or atleast SDM. If it was upp to me i would like to se it with weatherseal instead of SDM but both would be best :)

Any one who knows anything about this?

silas on "K10D lcd preview"

silas — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:39:46 +0000

This might be a dumb question... Just recently bought a Metz 48 flashgun. Used it as bounce flash off ceilings etc.. The previews I was getting on the K10D lcd screen looked a little darker than final result viewed on a laptop. Overall the pics came out great. Although some shots were overexposed. Is there a way of getting more accurate previews while shooting?

Vitali on "That full frame camera on the new/cover of this site."

Vitali — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:53:57 +0000

This was photoshopped image of the MZ-S based MZ-D a.k.a. K1D prototype. Chinese took this image to illustrate the news bit about upcoming Chinese Patrion-Aigo branded DSLR. It is, actually, seven - eight years old for now.

Mitchel109 on "That full frame camera on the new/cover of this site."

Mitchel109 — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 18:24:04 +0000

Isnt that a really really old picture of that camera? I saw it over a year ago, although it didnt have that patriot logo on it, and it said pentax on the popup flash....

Vitali on "Hi"

Vitali — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:35:28 +0000

Try to find Lenspen lens cleaning kit.

Also, Marumi, Hoya or Kenko circular polarizer would be nice addition to your 17-70mm Sigma.

>> If I could get some help with a way to keep my kit dry as my lenses are not weather proof.

Just avoid shooting in too dusty conditions and under the rain (use umbrella in that case).

europanorama on "Zenit N1 manual focus DSLR from Russia"

europanorama — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:08:50 +0000

this could be highly interesting if the mount can be exchanged. 2nd
i have signals fromk kmz-zenit that there will be a digital horizon(rotating pancam). we will see if its a 360 or a swinglens((short rotation). with changing lens and 360-wow. i would only miss a 24mm shiftlens(135)if its 4/3 we would need a 12,13 or 14mm shiftlens( fx2) 24, 26(roundshot 65/70/220-rsp 65el) equivalent) or 28mm.
but stitching noshift and shiftshotshould be no problem i was told. i will try it out with my roundshot. rectiliniar superwideangle-shots-up to appr. 160 degr can easily be created. using panoramafactory or altostorm rectiliniar and other software.
michael przewrocki
www.europanorama.ch.vu
3dstereo-aeropanoramas
marspanoramas like never before

EvilRobotSanta on "Hi"

EvilRobotSanta — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:33:51 +0000

I am new to photography in a way as I have only just purchased a new DSRL camera (PENTAX K200D).I have some equipment ,but am looking to make the most out of my upcoming holiday to Las Vages and Canada. Can I get some ideas as to what I should get in the way of lens filters and cleaning equipment.

Body : Pentax K200D
1st lens : Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 DC Macro
2nd lens : Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG Macro
2 x 4GB SD cards
Tamrac 3340 carry bag

If I could get some help with a way to keep my kit dry as my lenses are not weather proof.

Ojay on "Samsung GX10 support & overall longevity"

Ojay — Wed, 28 May 2008 23:31:55 +0000

Apple update 10.5.3 with camera raw update (includes Pentax K20D) and still no support for the GX10!

I've been getting ready to buy a GX20 but I think I might make it a K20D for convenience sake.

Pity...I much prefer the grip on the Samsungs.

Aspex on "Samsung GX10 support & overall longevity"

Aspex — Wed, 21 May 2008 10:20:51 +0000

Hey all, can anyone lend a hand as to how i properly update to version 1.3..being new to the digital cameras all i keep reading is to load it to root directory?????? but i must not be doing it properly because everytime i hold the menu button while switching on it just say ver 1.00 then turns on???? if anyone can help it'd be awesome..Cheers

Vitali on "Leaning Pic's"

Vitali — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 04:06:06 +0000

It's a rare issue. Contact your local Pentax dealer. He would help.

Vitali on "K10d manual mode issues"

Vitali — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 04:03:37 +0000

Nope Never seen it.

jbl on "K10d manual mode issues"

jbl — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:46:35 +0000

Hi, has anyone had this issue with their camera....with a battery only in the grip, not the camera body, the f stop dial does not function. Its frozen at f8. I have tried various lenses. Even with camera menu selected to use battery from grip first, it does not function in manual or arp/priority mode. Functions fine when battery is in camera body. Also, does anyone have a heads up on where to buy a grip for the samsung?

ratcatcher on "Leaning Pic's"

ratcatcher — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:54:38 +0000

Hi All

I have noticed on other Pantax forums that some people with the K10D (myself included) have experienced some of there photo's leaning to one side and i was wandering if anyone on this forum had experienced the same. If so what has been done to fix the issue.

Richard

steveh0607 on "Rechargeable AA Battery Life"

steveh0607 — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:00:30 +0000

Thanks Vitali. Looks like I'll be coming home to Pentax (I have a SuperProgram from the early 1980's - that still works!).