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Tag Archives: landscape
Pentax K1 And The 150-450 DFA Lens
Not a big fan of big lenses, very unwieldy and embarrassing to pull out in public plus they are usually pretty disappointing when it comes to sharpness. The Pentax 150-450 although living up to big and embarrassing seems to break the rule of unsharp. Nice. The K-1 is one excellent camera, I haven’t shot my Canon DSLR for a while but I can safely say that the K-1 is a better experience all round. Its a testement to Pentax that with the same sensor as the Nikon D810 the K-1 can out perform the Nikon- well done Pentax.
K1 Does Black & White
Really nice monochrome from the K1 and the Sigma 35mm Art. Also used the old 43mm 1.8 and the 77mm 1.8 both of which are surprisingly good with loads of personality.
K-1 And The Macro
Got to try the K-1 and the 100 macro while in Canberra. Tiny for a modern lens but it seems to do the trick. Impressed by the K-1 camera, seems to handle just about anything including very wet rain forest.
The 500CM Goes To Shinjuku
The 500CM was introduced in 1957 and remained in production until 1970, my one is from the mid “60s and is very worn. I shot exclusively on Ilford Hp5 developed in Kodak D76 or ID11 (pretty much the same developers). For a camera this old it didn’t miss a beat, no light meter so I guestimated the exposures and mostly was pretty close. The Reciprocal Rule works like this-
The ISO equals the shutter speed at f16 on a bright sunny day. So for the 500cm with 400 ISO film it works out as: f16 at 1/500 sec.
Scanned on the Nikon LS9000 scanner using SilverFast, slow but the quality is amazing.
I worked around that, opening up in the shadows by a couple of stops as needed, usually works fine and is a hell of a lot quicker than stuffing around with light meters.
Still have to do an edit
Pentax K-1
I have no desire to use the K-1 or any DSLR for that matter, I have moved on to mirrorless or medium format. The 5D kit sits unused, the L series lenses now mainly used on the video camera or the A7. Working for the local Pentax distributor means I have access to a K-1 and have been shooting the beastie for about four weeks.
My first impressions were that it was a capable and well put together camera with an over complicated menu system and more features than just about any other camera. To be fair on the menu system, it is better than the Sony but that is not hard and the features are many but for me most of them are left unused.
The proof that this camera has potential came firstly with some landscape shots I did on Lake George. I was shoot the H6D as well as the K-1 and on seeing the results in Lightroom was pleasantly surprised- nowhere near the latitude and tonal range of the H6 but the detail and resolving power of the 36mp sensor and the Sigma 35mm Art was good, possibly exceptional for a DSLR.
So I continued with the K-1 Sigma combo and found a great landscape camera but also a pretty neat street shooter as well but the real party trick for the K-1 is the ability to use ALL the old K mount lenses. I dug out my K1000 and whacked the 50mm 1.7 on it- works perfectly.
So now I am on the hunt for K mount glass and there seems to be a bit out there at really reasonable pricing.
If you are looking for exotic glass Cosina made K mount glass as Cosina, Voightlander and Zeiss that was excellent. Sigma and Tamron still make some K mount with the 35mm Art from Sigma a standout. I have tested some older zooms and they are best avoided, Pentax zooms were never that good so keep to fixed lenses.
The K-1 was a surprise and is turning out to be a lot of fun but also delivers excellent results and has so many features that I keep discovering a new way to use it every time I pick it up.
Fiji Storm
Scanning some shots from the Hasselblad 503cx from last year, thats the great thing about film- you get nice surprises.
Treachery Beach 2016
The New Website Is Live
Click here to have a look.
Sigma Quattro- Digital Xpan
The sigma Quattro is the weirdest camera ever but it shoots the most amazing images. I use it to replace my Xpan.
Goodbye Mr Holga And Thankyou Mr Lee
In 1981 Mr T M Lee gave us the Holga, originally designed to give his fellow Chinese a cheap way of taking family portraits. By the mid 90’s it had found a new home with the new wave of hipster photographers looking for “lo-fi” cameras.
We like to take it to the beach! Holgas Plastic Beach is a collection of our favourite Holga beach shots, bring a taste of summer to any wall with bold colours and the characteristic flare of the Holga. The good thing is, we still have a few to shoot on so its not over yet.
NEX-7 And The 12mm Touit
Went for a bike ride around the airport and took the NEX-7/12mm Touit combination. Zeiss make the old camera shine, although the 24mp sensor has always been one of the best.
