Hi folks
I would welcome your thoughts on what to get for some portrait photography for my circumstances....

I have a narrowish room I can use to work in (once I've cleared all the kids toys up) approx. 2m W x 3to4m L x 2.3m H, so a low ceiling. I have a AF540FGZ and cactus v4 radio trigger with pentax K5. I have a white/silver umbrella and a couple of stands I can use. No softbox or anything for hair highlights. I also have a plain material backdrop on stands available.

I'm starting to think through whether to get
1) a second AF540 as lighting source circa £300
2) a bowens gemini type 2 head kit circa £700
3) something like this LED panel x 2
https://www.wexphotovideo.com/interfit-lm8-400bi-bi-colour-studio-led-pad-164755...

#1 appeals because of familiarity, I know how it works etc, I feel I would need an additional softbox too to get a more natural lighting.
however the flash recharge time can be irritating at times and the volume taken up by backdrop, umbrella and softbox is starting to seem prohibitive on usable space in the room, in my mind at least.

#2 appeals because of light level controllability, good light source, remote triggering ok, with manual dials for controls rather than a menu system.
BUT have bowens gone out of business ? If so substitute interfit or elinchrom 2head kit like this
https://www.wexphotovideo.com/lastolite-lumen8-400w-twin-head-softbox-kit-151845...
or this
https://www.wexphotovideo.com/elinchrom-d-lite-rx-22-umbrella-to-go-set-1593855/

The potential problem with this approach is space both for me and the kit (and potentially heat I guess ?) as it all looks quite bulky

#3 I don't understand yet
The appeal is smaller volume, output level control plus colour temperature control, also less heat and energy use vs #2

Its advertised as useful for video and stills.

Questions :
Is the idea that it's continuous light so no flash trigger is needed, just set up lighting and shoot, or is there a need for a flash trigger.
Is it the same idea as with a studio flash i.e. modelling light + flash ?
How about the size ? I'm not exactly sure what I'm trying to do yet, is it large enough to simulate diffuse window lighting ?

The key to this decision is the space available, in order to prevent foreshortening effects I use the room lengthways, however this means there is limited space for the umbrellas to be set up, by the time I've faffed about getting it all set up my enthusiasm has waned somewhat !

Any thoughts on the LED panels and anything to save on space ?

thanks for looking.

Thanks John
In the end I had it replaced on home insurance, thanks for the tip on the discount.
cheers

Hi folks

I recently had the misfortune of my K5+DA*60-250 sliding off the sofa, as if in slow motion, and dropping nose first onto wooden floor. clunk.

The lens zoom mechanism is now completely jammed, won't turn at all.

Very annoying, especially as I am usually very careful with my kit. Still, I've had it 9 years I suppose

Anyone had any experience of a successful repair of this type of problem ?

Thanks for taking time to look and answer

Hi guys, I wonder if anyone else has had the same problem with their K5, or other SLR...

I have a K5 and the lens interchange button on the body has popped off and is now lost. To change a lens I have to insert something to depress the release so I can change the lens. So at least the mechanism is still working.

Has anyone had theirs repaired or managed a diy home fix ?

Any idea who could do a repair and likely turnaround time ?

Failing that I might persuade myself to be in the market for a used K3 !

Thanks

Thanks for your thoughts and the pointer to Mr Riley's test. I haven't been on the site in ages and I hadn't realised the PU reviews included MTF info now so didn't even think to look there !

I've been surprised the passionate endorsements here, I was expecting a trend something more like 'it's okay at f8 / it's handy not to have to change lenses / keep it away from the extremes and you'll be okay !

Hmmmm, food for thought !

Hi, I'm considering acquiring an all-purpose walkabout lens to pair with my K5, I'd welcome your thoughts on the topic.

I have plenty of lenses covering the focal lengths, but that's the point, it's always two or more, and when I've got two young kids juggling a lens swap isn't worth missing the moment, hence the consideration.

Also I've got a friends wedding to go to soon at which I'll take some casual pics when I haven't got at least one eyeball on the little tykes ! Plan A for the wedding is to take the 17-70, and if I have space, the 50-135 and a flashgun. Or just the 50-135 and settle for closer in shots.

I had considered the 16-85 but at £500 it's a bit more than I'd like to pay, considering it's not much extra reach over the 17-70 I already have and it's not a DAstar.

On the surface of it an 18-135 appeals, it nearly covers the wide end (prefer if it went down to 16mm) and at 135mm it ought to be long enough to get close to the subject.

However the review here http://ww w.photo zone.de/pen tax/597-pentax_18135_3556?start=1 (just remove the spaces) looks dire quite frankly. I prefer lenses with relatively even centre to edge performance, which is my taste for landscape lenses. This definitely isn't the case if the review is typical. I see dpreview can't be bothered to test anything longer than 55mm in pentax.

So any 18-135 users have thoughts ? Is it worth the £350 ? Does convenience outweigh the image quality ?

Alternative is a 18-270 which is a bit pricey, I haven't located any reviews of this.

Or a sigma 18-200, poss the DC Macros HSM version, I haven't located any reviews of this, I fear that at approx. £200-250 this may fall into the you get what you pay for category !

Thanks for taking the time to pitch in your thoughts. I'll apologise in advance and say I've not got much spare time for forum chat so sorry if it takes me a while to get back to you and points aren't all answered. Cheers

Thanks for the suggestion, will have a look.

Thanks for the suggestion mannesty, will have a look.

Thanks for the suggestion, current version is back it up 12 around £25. Seems to cover the data backup needs pretty well functionality wise - incremental and scheduled. The pain I will have is moving all the programs from xp to win7, think I'll just have to do a full reinstall for those. Starting to think I will need a system disk backup program for the new win7 machine.
.

Hi woodworm, thanks for your thoughts, I'll look into robocopy.

I've heard synology NAS have a good reputation, although they looked a bit more expensive than others last time I looked and you don't seem to get much storage for the money. (I'm planning on buying one of these http://www.ebuyer.com/384256-seagate-3tb-expansion-desktop-hard-drive-stbv300020...)

Secondly I've read that NAS are good at streaming, but can cause performance bottlenecks if used for digital asset management where typically you're accessing lots of small files.

So currently plan A is to continue to use internal HDD for photo editing and storage and prefer to backup those to an dedicated external drive. Any flaws in plan A, especially as it will be cheaper ?