A28/2.8, re-discovery

With the higher resolution of my new K20D, it became more readily to distinguish bad and good lens, and I played again with my old lens.

The A28/2.8 is good in sharpness, but contrast lower than the DA, and the graduation are smoothers. As a result, the people shots with the A28/2.8 is of very present overall look. The food shots are also very appetizing too!

Why K20D, but not K10D

It's because of low-light capability.

I used my istD since 2004, and since then Pentax launched various 'new models' with the same CCD. 6MP is not really enough for large prints, so there is no point to replace my istD with those 'new models'.

The K10D upgrade the CCD and resolution, but then it has downgraded the hi-ISO... the highest sensitive for K10D is ISO1600, vs istD's 3200. Since I do many might-time available-light shots, it's really a degrade. My suspect was Pentax is not happy with the hi-ISO performance of K10D's CCD, therefore restricted the ISO to 1600 only.

The K20D comes with max ISO6400, really good. I tried K20D at ISO 3200, and the result is amazing!! All the below sample was shot with K20D, FA77, in jpeg 2-star setting, without the NR.

snaps with K20D

My first day of using K20D. Overall, my impression is very good! Some new features are very useful for snap-shooters....

K20D, FA77


Obviously, the SR is quite useful for snap. I shot the following pic off-finder in less than half a second time. I am sure the SR help me to produce a fairly sharp pic.

K20D, DA21


The Sensitive Prior mode is very useful for snapping around the city: I just turn the dial to change the ISO setting when I walked into a different lighting environment....

K20D, DA21


The ability to change the color mode AFTER the jpeg taken is just amazing. I just put the camera all the way in b/w mode, and change to color mode if I find the pic to be better AFTER I took the shot... good that I can enjoy b/w shooting.

K20D, FA77

Get my K20D

Finally, I upgraded to K20D, and my lovely istD finally can retire after almost 5 years of services. Good kid!

Together with the battery, my first impression with the K20D is: it's so 'Nikon'. It's big, heavy, solid, and a very snappy operation feel. My first question is, why the extremely large size jpeg file? in 4-star setting, the jpeg is almost 13MB; and it's 9MB in 3-star setting. Wich such a large file size, mind-as-well I will just shot the RAW format. The 2-star setting, at 3-4MB, is a much reasonable file size.

The picture quality is very nice. Even at ISO 1600, the image is still cripsy and with good dynamic range. Poor noise performance at high ISO is the main reason I don't upgrade to the K10D, and I am happy with the K20D. The K20D provides ISO 6400, which I like it!

Will try to post some pic later. Keep watching.

Underwater photos

It's not by Pentax, but my lovely little partner Fuji F10 plus the underwater housing. I am not a diver, and I find it real hard to take underwater photo for a new hand like me...





Using the underwater housing in the pool, I also that the following photo accidentally... the 'special effect' was caused by water splash all over the camera...

Casuality of the digital camera revolution...

The Polaroid.

I never owned any Polaroid camera, but the uniqueness of the 'instant' photo really rules the special niche in the photo industry for over half a century. By instantness, digital cameras are certainly better than Polaroid. But being instant, Polaroid is also "FINAL"... you can't alter a bit of a Polaroid image; and there is only ONE copy of the image. The INSTANT + FINAL + THE-ONLY-ONE combo has it's own philosophical interpretation to snap-shoters: an image attract your attention / interest, at that particular moment. When the moment passed, what you seen was also changed... there is only ONE image, and nothing else.

With Polaroid, you capture THE IMAGE. Thou I never owned a Polaroid, the news break my heart as well.

My current regular walk-around package

istD, DA21, and FA77. The combo is very small, and a very nice walk-around package when I go shopping, park... etc together with my family. Below was shot with DA21, when I go to a new shopping mall with my son.

K20D

A very attractive package... maybe it's time to retire my old friend istD....

istD - the very strong camera!

I get my istD at Apr 2004, almost 4 years from now. I fired it over 40,000 times; dropped it for several times; and it's still going. Over all these years, it only hung in 2 incidents, and both were because I use it when raining for a few hours.... in both cases the camera get life on when it was dry after an hours time. Amazing, hug?

What's more, I recently took it to a trip again, and find myself still satisfy with the picture quality of this old bleed DSLR. The photo gallery is here, and below are some of the pictures:

(by FA77/1.8)


(by DA16-45/4)


(by DA16-45/4)


(by Tamron 70-300/4-5.6)

Kid shots with FA77

Frankly, my istD / FA77 combo doesn't focus fast enough to capture kids in action. thanks to the large apeature, I find manual focusing with this lens is very easy and enjoyable.

Go Karting

Just took a few shot in-between my own karting session. Since photo is not my main objective, just bring my cheap (and light) Tamron 70-300. It doesn't let me down.

A few portrait shot with Tamron 70-300/4-5.6 LD

All taken on a trip to Ocean Park, Hong Kong a few years back:

K10D Grand Prix Package

Looks nice, but, what for?

I actually hide the brand logo and model no. of my cameras (with black electrical tape). I hate nosy pass-by around to peek which model / brand I am using.

New DA* lens

The 2 new large aperture DA* lens will be available on the market very soon, according to a Japanese site.

I, however, do not have any interest in these 2 lens whatsoever. If I like to use large aperture zooms, I'd been using Nikon now. Sorry Pentax fans, but Nikon has done a very good job in it's full-line of zoom lens. Pentax is very good at prime lens, and very good in the small overall system size, but not the zooms.

More kid shots with FA77/1.8

Really a nice lens. I like it very much.

Bokeh of DA21/3.2

It's actually not bad, for a lens at this focal length and apeature.

Kid shots with FA77/1.8

The image quality of FA77 is very good, giving very pleasure result. However, the focus speed on my istD is quite slow, and cannot lock into correct focus quite often. It's a big problem with kid's shot, so I have to resolve to use MF. Although the f/1.8 make it very easy to MF, I still hope the AF speed problem can be solved in other DSLR models.

A few bird shots with Tamron 70-300/4-5.6 LD

The depth-of-field myth on APS-DSLR

A common question: "how does the depth-of-field on 1.5X crop factor (APS size) compare to full-frame film?"

I don't want to go into the theoretical and mathematical details of depth-of-field. So I will use a Palm program to solve this. The circle-of-confusion used by the program is 30um for full-frame, and 25um for APS-DSLR.

In short, the DOF is affected by: focal length, shooting distance, aperture, and film (sensor) format. So the above question is a tricky question because it has 2 different answer. The DOF on 1.5X DSLR is bigger then 135 full-frame, and it's also smaller. It all depends on how you look at the question.

First, if you are using 'equivalent' lens on your DSLR, shooting at the same position, using the same aperture.... the DOF on DSLR is greater than full-frame film. eg:
full-frame: 75mm lens, f/2, distance=2m
APS-DSLR: 50mm lens, f/2, distance=2m
You will get the same framing and perspective with the above 2 setting. But the DOF with APS-DSLR will be bigger than full-frame 135:
DOF of full-frame: 1.96m to 2.04m, ie. 8cm
DOF of APS-DSLR: 1.92m to 2.08m, ie. 16cm

So, many people say full-frame has more 3D feeling than APS-DSLR. The main reason it the difference in DOF: a shallower DOF gives more 3D feeling.

On the other hand, if you are using SAME LENS, shooting at SAME DISTANCE, than the DOF of APS-DSLR will be shallower than full-frame 135, eg:
full-frame: 50mm, f/2, distance=2m, DOF=1.91m to 2.10m, 19cm
APS-DSLR: 50mm, f/2, distance=2m, DOF=1.92m to 2.08m, 16cm
So if you are going to use the DOF scale on your lens, the DOF on APS-DSLR will be approx. 1/4 stop shallower.

Submit your shutter count

HERE.

Someone has tripped the shutter of istD for over 130,000 times, and still living. Not bad.