Re: Pentax mirrorless

OK, so when the marketing bods have succeeded in ramming 'mirrorless' down our throats and we've all (except me) succumed and converted.....5 years down the road and I can just see all the nostalgia for the good old "nice bright clear" optical viewfinder of the past

Incidentally.......
if I want a computer I'll buy one
if I want a phone I'll buy one
if I want a camera I'll buy one
I don't want some bloody 'do it all jack of all trades master of none' piece of junk that's been forced on me by the 'marketing machine' of today's 'Must have the latest gimmick' society!

I want my camera for taking photos,
I don't need 'GPS' because I'm too stupid to remember where I took a certain photo.
I don't need/want to be able to instantly transfer my photos to bleedin' facebook so they can be nicked by some greedy corporate who's too mean to pay the going rate.
As for wifi...why on earth does the average amateur photographer need ‘wifi’ on their camera? professionals..yes I can see the point but for me a complete NO. Oh and by the way.......’Burst rate’......isn’t 15 frames per second fast enough for God’s sake??? I mean.....It’s practically video!
Oh and another thing.......I’m sure a nice ‘Phone control APP’ (whatever that is) would improve my photography, after I’ve read the encyclopaedia to learn how to use it......I must be missing something here

NFC???

On another note, the grass isn’t always greener.......I picked up (and quickly put down) a so called ‘mid range’ camera from C.....N today......sorry but what a ‘Toy’!, it felt like it had been pulled from a Christmas cracker! My Pentax kit lens weighed more than this +lens combined!
Now I know their ‘upper level’ cameras are good (my brother has one) but at this level Pentax are in a different class! This item made my Kx look positively ‘Rolls Royce’

Rant over

PS. How many people have taken how many photos over ISO 25,000?

Just interested

Wow . Someone got out of bed on the wrong side today.

I actually like my photos geotagged. I had a logger for the job and did it all in PP, but now I have the Pentax O-GPS1I don't need to do that. It is a pain that it didn't work for a period during my holiday, and I have no idea where the photos were taken. Clearly I am incredibly stupid.

I see.


Yes, sometimes, but rarely. Those settings are for emergency or creative use and not intended for architectural poster prints. When I come across a Martian landing at dusk I'll be very glad I have those settings.

..sorry John that was last night...you missed it I'm afraid....

Ah, I was judging last night, that must be why.

I though it was just me who had these thoughts but clearly not... Perhaps we're just being left behind by the "essential" technology of today, Michael. I did know what an APP was once but I've forgotten and my son has some Facebook. I think.

Not on my Pentax, and that's the point I think you're missing here.

Having low noise / High ISO capabilities allows you to shoot with faster shutter speeds and wider depth of fields than you otherwise would be able to. This is useful in situations where you can't directly control the lighting of a scene, such as street photography at night or band/concert work etc.

As I said elsewhere, geotagging is not the only use for GPS, and if included would allow for native astrotracing. This presents Pentax with a serious point of difference, and I expect most would see the benefits in Pentax having a stronger position in the market. (Heck a $50NZ phone has gps and wifi capabilities, it's not expensive and doesn't hurt your cameras photo taking ability).

App control. Mate, Pentax already offers this via flu card. This is nothing new, but I'm proposing they do it in a more standard way that doesn't require shelling out more money to another company to achieve this.

Seriously, nothing above relates to mirrorless form factors, and that was the main point I was trying to make. Lets avoid the hype and look to improve the DSLR as it stands.

I personally would love to be able to use a viewfinder during video work, and then I'd love some of the focussing aids that are available when in live view. You mention the "good old "nice bright clear" optical viewfinder of the past" and I agree with this, but it does make me think of two things:

1) There genuinely are times when an optical viewfinder is pretty useless. You use the viewfinder to frame and focus, but when the light drops that's hard, and when you're trying to focus with a narrow depth of field it displays differently than when the shot is taken - Hence the DOF preview button. Honestly, digital displays can be very useful for this type of work, and Live View is already on your camera. Focussing on the moon is massively more accurate with digital zoom and focus peaking than via optical.

2) Have you picked up 35mm cameras of late and looked through their viewfinders? That's the optical viewfinder of past that I want. Seriously they are massive and bright. Personally I don't get that buzz from a Digital optical viewfinder in the same way. Maybe I need to change my focussing screen out for a different type than factory...

Video is the other thing that people rubbish, but seriously, that's nothing new either, Pentax have been offering video capabilities since what, 2009?

It's an interesting rant, and clearly shows two sides of a coin on this issue, but personally I don't think it's got a lot to do with the mirrorless form factor.

Finally something to agree on there Richard! I also think the 'debate' has got 'mirrorless' vs 'DSLR' mixed up with 'new high tech options' vs 'old fogeys choice'. .

What we really need is a good assessment of the ideal conditions for both types of viewfinder and image projection systems. For me, I'll take any compromise needed to stick with a great OVF (as I think I've got), for the reasons I referred to after my trial with the Sony A7. But then I'm a particular kind of photographer who mainly shoots certain types of photographs. Maybe the OVF is not necessarily the best choice for another type of photographer shooting an a different type of image?

What's needed is good information about the relative strengths and weakness of each as related to specific types of photography, genres, lighting situations .....

I have.

I'd also take a lot more if the dynamic range was a lot greater. In fact there's a 12MP sensor capable of such, I'm just waiting for pentax to make use of it.

I geotag my pics, not becuase I can't remember where I took them it's becuase I can locate them in my catalogue by real world location. Very useful.

So that's 'one' so far then ..... No sorry, John said he did also ... It's a very select group then ....

I'm now doing so regularly.......and without an EVF I'd have to use the screen.

3 !

This video from Philip Bloom is worth a watch with regards to the above mentioned sensor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1W-bPyYR0k He also has an accompanying indepth review of the A7S. It's pretty remarkable what the sensor can do. I doubt whether Sony will be allowing other manufacturers to use the chip any time soon, but that is purely speculation on my part.

"My Pentax kit lens weighed more than this +lens combined!"

Which is why, with sadness in many respects, I have changed from Pentax to Olympus...