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Pentax K10d and Sigma 18-50 F28 lens

amosstarz
Posted 03/11/2007 - 13:27 Link
Just about 2 weeks old. Pentax K10d like brand will full USA warranty.

Sigma 18-50 F2.8 just a few days old. Also with full USA Warranty.

All original accessories, boxes, instructions, etc are included with both items.

Will also throw in a Vivitar 200mm F3.5 MF lens.

Asking $850.00 + Shipping. Prefer USA shipping
Mannesty
Posted 03/11/2007 - 14:28 Link
Why are you selling after only two weeks?
Peter E Smith - flickr Photostream
amosstarz
Posted 04/11/2007 - 03:39 Link
I took the camera out for a spin a couple of times. I found that it is slow in writing RAW file to the memory card, overblows highlights, overexposes/underexposes in certain areas, does not have in-camera BW mode (which I love), and can only shoot JPEG when bracketing is turned on. I am generally not happy.
Tyr
Posted 04/11/2007 - 10:38 Link
amosstarz wrote:
I took the camera out for a spin a couple of times. I found that it is slow in writing RAW file to the memory card, overblows highlights, overexposes/underexposes in certain areas, does not have in-camera BW mode (which I love), and can only shoot JPEG when bracketing is turned on. I am generally not happy.

What memory card do you have? With a high speed card writing RAW and JPEG is very quick. You NEED a 120x speed or better card in the K10D as with any other good DSLR. Sandisk Extreme III cards are what I use and there is only a slowdown after 9 shots. Shooting JPEG I can shoot continuously till the card is full.

Learning to use a camera and its limitations any you will get brilliant shots. The needs to be exposed to the left of the histogram to retain maximum detail. Shooting to the right will cause blown out highlights. The S5Pro is one of the few cameras that you expose to right as it is much better with highlights than dark regions.

It does have in camera B+W mode but only in JPEG. There is no such thing as a B+W RAW file in any DSLR. It may be tagged as such, but will never be B+W. You can quickly apply a B+W filter to any shot you take in the K10D internally and save the output file as a JPEG on the camera! The in camera RAW developer is handy.

RAW works for exposure bracketing but only if you have a good memory card! A good memory card is very important on any DSLR. You can't stick in a good low speed card and expect it to keep up. That is like buying a sports kit car and sticking a 1.2l Polo engine in it and complaining that it won't go.


I'll just give some examples of places where the camera would normally overexpose parts.

Sky overexposure on an overcast day:
Comment Image


Exposed for sky details while still leaving it slightly high to capture shadow details. Processing the image I pulled down the highlights slightly and pushed up the dark regions.

Shooting into the sun:
Comment Image


There will always be some overexposure in this situation but there is enough shadow detail to be able to expose for the highlights you want and push up the shadows a bit.


Just my thoughts on what your problems seem to be. I always shoot on manual to get full control over the exposure. The metering system is not perfect an it becomes second nature to adjust to compensate. You must also know where/what to meter against to get the image you want.
George Lazarette
Posted 04/11/2007 - 11:23 Link
He "took it out for a spin a couple of times" and knows all about it.

Sad.

G
Keywords: Charming, polite, and generally agreeable.
Clarky
Posted 04/11/2007 - 11:33 Link
I can't believe you used it a couple of times and decided it was no good so you sell it. Thats just crazy in my book there has to be more to this excuse than you are telling.
Its like taking a boat out fishing and if the fish are'nt jumping into the boat the minute you get there its time to move to a different spot.
Camera:|K-7|
Pentax Lenses:|DA12-24/f4 ED AL|DA35Ltd Macro|FA31Ltd|FA77Ltd|FA50/1.4|F70-210|FA20-35 f4/AL|A*200/f4 Macro ED|A50/1.7|A50 Macro f2.8|1.7xAF adapter|
Voigtlander|125/f2.5SL Macro APO Lanthar|
Sigma Lenses:|EX DG 100-300 f4|2X & 1.4X TC|
Flashes:|AF540FGZx2|RingFlash AF160FC|
Kim C
Posted 04/11/2007 - 12:06 Link
Interesting, you seem to be posting the same message on all the Pentax forums.

Kim
Daniel Bridge
Posted 04/11/2007 - 16:16 Link
Kim C wrote:
Interesting, you seem to be posting the same message on all the Pentax forums.

Kim

Well, to be fair, if I was selling kit I would tell as many people as I could - helps with the sale. And it's not like it's his first post here, so he's not a spammer.

However, I do find it odd, to buy a camera that doesn't have a specific feature you want (B&W mode), then complain it hasn't got it. And the slow writing of RAW files is frankly baffling, does he mean the buffer should be bigger, so he can take more than 10 in a row?

Not sure what he means by "can only shoot JPEG when bracketing is turned on". Is that "when bracketing is turned on, can only shoot JPEG", or "can't shoot JPEG unless bracketing is turned on"? Either way points to a faulty camera surely?

Dan
K-3, a macro lens and a DA*300mm...
MattMatic
Posted 05/11/2007 - 09:02 Link
Quote:
I took the camera out for a spin a couple of times. I found that it is slow in writing RAW file to the memory card, overblows highlights, overexposes/underexposes in certain areas, does not have in-camera BW mode (which I love), and can only shoot JPEG when bracketing is turned on. I am generally not happy.

* Slow with a slow card. Sandisk Extreme III is fast, fast, fast. The RAW files are big because this is a 10Mp camera.
* Overblows highlights - not if you learn to meter.
* Over/under expose - all CCDs have a limited dynamic range. Not even a Canon 1DsMkIII can render everything in a scene (that's why pros still use ND grad filters for landscape work)
* In-camera BW mode - yes it does. Read the manual
* Only shoot JPEG for bracketing. Rubbish. I regularly shoot RAW with exposure bracketing.

Still, it's your choice
Matt
http://www.mattmatic.co.uk
(For gallery, tips and links)
Mannesty
Posted 05/11/2007 - 12:17 Link
amosstarz wrote:
I took the camera out for a spin a couple of times. I found that it is slow in writing RAW file to the memory card, overblows highlights, overexposes/underexposes in certain areas, does not have in-camera BW mode (which I love), and can only shoot JPEG when bracketing is turned on. I am generally not happy.

I don't think you've really had time to get to know your camera. Maybe a modern DSLR is not for you.
Peter E Smith - flickr Photostream
amosstarz
Posted 05/11/2007 - 19:46 Link
Having experienced other DSLR's - Olympus and Nikon - I found the Pentax to be slower and more cumbersome. I didnt like the way bracketing worked, I didnt like the slow write time, and I missed the In-camera BW Mode. Yes I know you can spend oodles on a Sandisk Extreme III but frankly the D80 has very quick write time using a standard Panasonic Class 2 4gb SDHC Card.

I am not here to bad mouth Pentax. I hold Pentax near and dear since my photography started with a Pentax. I actually joined this list as a user of the Spotmatic.

The entire workflow with using Pentax seemed slower. As I have told many other people who questioned my decision. I prefer very minimal post processing (if I can help it)...in-camera BW mode really boosts my personal creativity. I felt handicapped with not having that in the K10d. Bracketing isnt critical to me just yet since I have started to experiment with that.

Do I know Pentax? Perhaps not. However, I have experienced other DSLR's in the same class.

Anyhow luckily - the place that I purchased the camera has agreed to take a return.
amosstarz
Posted 05/11/2007 - 19:51 Link
In-camera BW mode in other DSLR's is different than how Pentax implemented it. You actually set the camera to BW mode and shoot a photo. You can see the BW image on the LCD - no filter/etc conversion required. You can select bw with filters (Red, orange, sepia, and yellow) and see the image as you intended. You can do all this in RAW so the camera still retains the color information and you can recover the colors in PP if you want.

Check it out sometime - its nifty.
amosstarz
Posted 05/11/2007 - 19:54 Link
You can see the photos that I produced with the K10d here:

www.flickr.com/photos/4love Not bad for a couple of tries. I hoped to do some BW but too much of a hassle.

Peace and B Wild!
ChrisA
Posted 05/11/2007 - 20:23 Link
amosstarz wrote:
In-camera BW mode in other DSLR's is different than how Pentax implemented it. You actually set the camera to BW mode and shoot a photo. You can see the BW image on the LCD - no filter/etc conversion required. You can select bw with filters (Red, orange, sepia, and yellow) and see the image as you intended. You can do all this in RAW so the camera still retains the color information and you can recover the colors in PP if you want.

Check it out sometime - its nifty.

You can do something very similar to this with the K10D.

Once you've taken a picture, or several, you change to playback mode, and then just hit the 'Fn' button, and use the 4-position switch to select the filter icon on the left.

That gives you access to pretty much exactly what you describe here - all visible on the LCD. In B&W, you can have red/green/blue filters, sepia, colour filters... and once you've picked a filter you can still scroll through the pictures with it selected. You can save the edited ones as a new file.

I can't comment on the usability of this compared with other cameras, but it isn't very hard. Admittedly the camera itself isn't in B&W 'mode' as such, but it all seems to achieve the same as you're describing. I suppose if "selecting Playback/Fn/Select Filter icon" is really a chore compared with other cameras, it could become annoying.

I'm not at all convinced that the specific issues with the camera are really valid. You have made an error of fact, in that you can take bracketed exposures in RAW, so maybe consider the possibility you're wrong about the other things too.

But anyway, hope you get something you're happy with eventually.

I expect it is possible to be happy in life with a non-Pentax camera, despite the impression you might get to the contrary here.
amosstarz
Posted 05/11/2007 - 20:59 Link
"I can't comment on the usability of this compared with other cameras, but it isn't very hard. Admittedly the camera itself isn't in B&W 'mode' as such, but it all seems to achieve the same as you're describing. I suppose if "selecting Playback/Fn/Select Filter icon" is really a chore compared with other cameras, it could become annoying"

It is more of a chore and you have potential to miss the scene totally while you sit and change to playback and select the filters that you want. In the meantime your entire photographic opportunity could change (i.e, clouds, action, etc).

Yes basic RAW mode is available for bracketing, however I selected "extended" bracketing - "contrast" which the camera can ONLY use with JPEG.

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