PentaxLife Tag: Nikon

Alex007 on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

Alex007 — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:42:42 +0000

Dear rvannatta,

Yes I also have the same issue with my ample collected strobes...so what is your problem...set the camera to manual ox "X" set the F stop as the same as indicated on your "Auto" thyristor in use strobe ( I own a Sunpak 443AF, Metz 40Z3, + a Vivitar 3700, those are the ONLY ones that had very low trigger voltage + Central contact only!), so NO problem with the hot shoe contact, among my other 5 strobes two of them Hammer type (Sunpak 522/Metz CL-4),...that can't be use with the K10D. Believe me I can live 100 years with this "Flash issue!

Peace,

Alex 007

rvannatta on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

rvannatta — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 23:37:19 +0000

Wait I will. With Hoya being a glass maker, one can assume they bought Pentax so they could sell some glass. If they are doing what they ought to be be doing, it is flogging their whole announced family of SDM lenses into production and stuffing the shelves of every retailer with them before the Christmas selling season.

Vitali on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

Vitali — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:20:25 +0000

Well, they've promised some kind of "surprise" soon:
http://pentaxlife.com/some-leaks-rumors-and-ramblings

Let's wait for pre-Xmas announcements...

rvannatta on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

rvannatta — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:01:42 +0000

IT seems like a functional macro system is mission critical to having a phtographic system.

It takes a little imagination to mount a bellows on the digital camera, but it can be done (by putting a short extension tube behind it) but if you don't have a macro flash solution one whole
segment of photography is missing.

Over all it seems to me that taking the flash sensor out of the camera body is a step backwards
but maybe it is a precursor of some other really elegant solution they have in mind and not just a way to save 50 cents worth of parts in the cost of manufacture.

It wouldn't surprise me if Pentax delibertely broke the backwards compatibility of the flash units just so they could sell everyone a new flash unit. I now have 3 perfectly good
flash units that won't work on my K10 of which the Pentax ring light is one.

If you know anyone that is anyone, I sure would appreciate a clue as to how they expect us to take a macro photo with their equipment.

Vitali on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

Vitali — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 20:55:30 +0000

Thanks for sharing your impressions. It sounds like SDM is really great improvement.

>> Where I'm really stuck with with the macro flash.

Yeah :( No P-TTL macro flash. And I haven't heard of any plans yet.

rvannatta on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

rvannatta — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:50:58 +0000

It is visibly faster, and quiet enough that
you have to put your ear up to the lens to hear it.

Part of the design of the 16-50 at least is a very short travel for the focus range.

Unlike the oldhand focus that took most of a turn on a helical to find the focus the 16-50 only
moves about a 1" and the positioning is done what appears to be a stepper motor, and is really faster than your eye can figure out that it is out of focus so if you hold the shutter button down (to have it active) and pan from a distant object to a close object your eye won't see anything out of focus even though the mechanics have moved from one extreme to the other.

Likewise if you want to manually adjust the focus because you don't like what the motor did, it has a slip clutch override, andyou can easily turn
the focus ring to manually tinker with the focus if you want/need to.

Just to see the difference I put the lens on my istD, and it works there in the traditional way
but that way sucks in comparison.

I was almost ready to dump my perfectly good istD on ebay until I figured out I had another
problem that I need it for, and that is the Flash
issue.

All my flash units are of the older and now unsupported (by the K10) technology.

Where I'm really stuck with with the macro flash.
I have an 080C ringlight flash unit which works as well on my istD as it did on the SuperProgram it was designed to work with, but alas, no work on the K10.

Thus it seems that the istD has to stay around
for macro work, until a macro suitable flash solution appears for the K family of digitals.

And I'm not sure there is a 'macro' solution
any thoughts????

Vitali on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

Vitali — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:02:14 +0000

Is SDM really so much faster?

rvannatta on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

rvannatta — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 06:04:45 +0000

Other than the fact that 50mm is too long for the format.

I just got an SDM lens and while I have no optical opinion on it yet (I got a 16-50), I have a mechanical opinion, and that is that I don't want any more non SDM lenses.

The SDM is one of those Oh my gosh improvements

Vitali on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

Vitali — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 07:36:44 +0000

Pentax FA 50mm F/1.7 is a bit sharper...

KFrog on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

KFrog — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 03:16:13 +0000

Nice. I think that 50mm f/1.4 along with the Tamron 18-200mm will make a nice starter kit for me.

Tracnac on "A Little chat with Pentax re: Nikon 1.1 Sensor"

Tracnac — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 06:36:17 +0000

Digifilm... What's that a D200 a new Pentax ? :)

Benjikan... Any hot news that's nobody knows ?

Vitali on "A Little chat with Pentax re: Nikon 1.1 Sensor"

Vitali — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 04:26:56 +0000

I don't think there is an exclusive contract with Nikon...;-)

It's just a rumor from DPReview.

benjikan on "A Little chat with Pentax re: Nikon 1.1 Sensor"

benjikan — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 23:16:10 +0000

I don't think there is an exclusive contract with Nikon...;-)

DigiFilm on "A Little chat with Pentax re: Nikon 1.1 Sensor"

DigiFilm — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 01:02:17 +0000

Personally I'm hoping for a price drop on the D200 because of a D3. A new variant of the D200(D200s? D300?) will be nice as well, if/when that happens.

Tracnac on "A Little chat with Pentax re: Nikon 1.1 Sensor"

Tracnac — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 09:17:11 +0000

Hi,

I read somewhere that Nikon have the rights to use it exclusively for 1 year...

benjikan on "A Little chat with Pentax re: Nikon 1.1 Sensor"

benjikan — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 23:28:06 +0000

It seems that the "Rumors" about an 18.7 mega pixel Nikon with a 1.1 sensor seem to be known to the people at Pentax. When I brought up the new Nikon they weren't at all surprised and said "Yes, a 1.1 sensor of 18.7 mega pixels..."

Take it for what ever that is worth. The implications could be interesting.

Ben

Vitali on "50mm battle: Pentax vs. Nikon"

Vitali — Sun, 13 May 2007 16:38:05 +0000

Japanese blogger デジ眼.com has tested the performance of the two normal 50mm wide aperture primes from Pentax and Nikon. Look at the full size samples with the different aperture setting.

Pentax FA 50mm F1.4 on K10D vs. Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm F1.4 on D80. All pictures taken with the same exposure (in manual mode). Untouched JPEGs straight out of the cameras.

Both lenses are really good. It's hard to tell one from another.

Vitali on "More Pentax K10D samples from Japan"

Vitali — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 07:10:42 +0000

PopPhoto have tested Tokina 50-135mm F2.8 which is pretty similar to DA* 50-135mm F2.8
http://www.popphoto.com/cameralenses/3966/lens-test-tokina-50-135mm-f28-pro-dx-af.htm

Vitali on "Nikon D40x with 10Mpix and ISO 3200"

Vitali — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 07:41:28 +0000

Nikon announces 10 megapixels version of its budget digital SLR today. The most interesting thing, IMHO, is HI-1 setting boosting ISO up to 3200.

I bet it incorporates the same sensor as Sony A-100, Nikon D80 and Pentax K10D. But this sensor produces pretty noisy images at ISO 1600 (at least a lot of people complained). So, what the terrible noise (or noise reduction artifacts) we will see at ISO 3200?

LOL. Nobody will blame K10D for noise anymore :)

Vitali on "Pentax gaining market share"

Vitali — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:13:43 +0000

According to BCN Inc. Pentax market share in Japan increased from 10% month ago to 12.2%. Pentax is still third, after Nikon and Canon.

Thanks to R�diger for the link.

Vitali on "Nikon D80 and Pentax K10D head to head (review in French)"

Vitali — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 03:50:19 +0000

Le Nikon D80 et le Pentax K10D face � face (auto translation by Google)

D80 rated "bon" - good, and K10D rated "tres bon" - very good. A lot of samples from both cameras available.

Vitali on "More Pentax K10D samples from Japan"

Vitali — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 04:29:21 +0000

One more Japanese review:
http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/longterm/2007/01/12/5357.html

Now focused on MTF priority program.

Vitali on "More Pentax K10D samples from Japan"

Vitali — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 17:41:38 +0000

Another "Photogenic Weekend" with K10D:
http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/weekend/2006/12/15/5249.html

And one more report by Fumio Nakamura: now about power zoom feature that K10D support with restrictions. In Japanese, auto translation.

Also, you can find interesting review of the Tokina AT-X 535 PRO DX 50-135mm F2.8 which is fairly similar to upcoming Pentax (and Samsung) DA* 50-135mm F2.8. Most of the full size samples made with Nikon D200 so it is easy to imagine how DA* will perform on the K10D.

Vitali on "Pentax K110D vs. Nikon D40 and Nikon D50 test"

Vitali — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 12:19:08 +0000

Heinz Koch sent a link to the very ambiguous comparison of Pentax K110D and Nikon D40, D50 cameras.

All the "tests" looks pretty biased to me. Michael G. form the OK1000 blog have already posted the detailed analysis of this "test". I'm totally agree with him.

Vitali on "More Pentax K10D samples from Japan"

Vitali — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 20:15:00 +0000

Impress Watch continue publishing articles on Pentax's latest and most successful digital camera.

First one from today is a short review by Fumio Nakamura. It contains visual size comparison of K10D with the Pentax *istD, Canon EOS 20D and film SLR Pentax Z-1P. Also some full resolution shots made with old Pentax lenses (15mm F3.5, 85mm F1.8, FA* 80-200mm F2.8 and mirror telephoto zoom 400-600mm F8-12) available.

The second one is a couple of beautiful Japanese models shot by Kazuhisa Nishikawa. K10D + good old lims - 31mm and 43mm. If you tired of recent K10D samples tsunami, just relax your eyes :)