My Latest Toy

I have been after a 35 ltd for a while. Decided to sell a couple of under used lenses to finance it. So last week sold the FA 50 1.4 and one of my 2 55-300s.

Was all set to buy one and was browsing ebay when I came across a Pentax Q - mint - boxed including kit lens + 25mm manual cctv lens, c adapter and macro rings + the optional view finder + leather ever-ready case and an IR remote. Seemed to be going for a silly price so on a whim put a £225 snipe on it (baring in mind that the optional view finder is £200 new)and forgot about it.

I was interested when the Q first came out due to the optional view finder because I hate focusing via a screen and although owning a high end compact - rarely use it because of this. The ridiculous price of £800 (including view finder) killed any interest I may have had and had not thought of them since.

Anyway - was very surprised to discover that I had won - my immediate reaction being - what did I do that for? bang goes the 35 ltd

It arrived next day - I took it out of the box - and it was love at first sight. Looks amazing - feels amazing in the hand.

Fired off a few test shots and could not stop grinning - what a fantastic little bit of kit - perfect for street candids and will ensure I never have to leave the house without a camera!

In fact - I was so impressed that I immediately ordered the 5-15 zoom lens as Park cameras were offering these unboxed for £119 Vs average price of £280!

OK it is not in the K5 league - but I can see me having a lot of fun with this little gem.

If anybody out there was like me totally put off even looking at this "baby SLR" (which is what it feels like) due to price - at the now much more sensible slightly sub £300 price tag - it is well worth considering.

These were my first 3 test shots fully automatic - completely boring but the IQ impressed - these are straight out of camera -the flower was blowing a bit in the wind and could be a bit sharper

I have been looking at them but thinking of selling my K5 to help buy one.
Nothing wrong with the K5 but I dont do it justice seem to always get "muddy" shots which is down to the fact I'm not using it right. So thought I would go for something smaller. Although I think I'm kidding myself think a differant camera would make me take better photos LOL.

Sounds like you got a bargain fritz, well done .... jeff..

Hee hee. That's two people bitten in a week
I nabbed one from Park Cameras - white, twin lens kit - going for a low price ex demo.
Astonishing piece of gear! Ok, so it's not up to dSLR quality - but I compared against K10D and *ist-Ds. The K10D had better resolving power, but the Q was clearer than the *ist-Ds

Park still have a white single kit at £250 (Probably not for long!)

Have fun with your latest toy!!
Matt

Nice one, Fritz! After seeing some very impressive images taken by Dr Orloff with the Q, I changed my opinion of it. These confirm that it's a pretty capable camera. I like the idea of using cctv lenses on it too.

Lovely colorful contrasty images, nice one.

Just to add to the capability of the tiny Q:
(processed from DNG with LR4.1)

The Cat's Whiskers test



100% crop of above

This si so tempting!

How did you get such narrow DOF with such a small sensor?

Nice little piece of internal wizardry allows you to control the bokeh/oof areas - clever eh?

Very nice. It certainly takes away one small sensor issue.

I bought one, body only, ..... tried it for ultra long range with a variety of long lenses, decided it is not worth the hassle for birding and it's been in the box with less than 100 shots on it ever since. Will sell it and put the cash towards the Sigma 500mm. Very cute and beautifully built camera though.

In terms of quality, I would have thought that a Q + good lens would be much better than the kits that are sold with a compact camera on a spotting scope.

I'm interested in what sort of hassle you experienced?

The Q has no SR John so at those super long teles (the 85/1.4 is the shortest lens I've put on it, with the 300mm/2.8 it's insane) where the slightest of movements has it jumping all over the place, you need to put it on a tripod (not even a mono will do) and 2 sec delay.

I just don't have time for that (neither do the birds !) - OK if you were sitting in one place for a while perhaps and with large slow moving birds, but I rove, sit, rove, sit and typically shoot small passerines.

The Q does have sensor-shift SR, but the 5.5x crop factor means a 300mm lens would be a huge 1650mm-equivalent. I'm not sure I'd be using a lens anywhere near that long.

I envisaged more of a 100mm lens, giving a 550mm-equivalent. Do you think that would be more manageable?

I handled a q on the day I picked up my K5 - I have to resist for now - but one day maybe