Bump - anybody interested?

The MZ AA battery grip is a useful accessory (FG I think?).

There are loads of good cheap AF bodies out there - many of the 'classic' MF bodies are more expensive these days. The Z-1 was the original double dial Pentax - Hyper modes, body controlled aperture (useful for DA lenses), IF button (think GREEN button) - and it handles just like a K-5.

The only warning is - remember you don't have any SR - once accustomed to shooting much slower speeds than you should, it's easy to forget (oh and no chimping!).

John.

Hi Peter,

My Z-1 manual shows the socket cover to be the 'FD' type (for comparison the SFX was the 'F'). IIRC the Z-1p had a slightly different finish to the Z-1 (slightly bluer and possibly with a different texture?), but the 'FD' cover should fit fine (given the info in my manual).

John.

Hi All, please read all of this post for the background.

This lens has a sticky aperture. It has been used without any noticeable problems on manual film cameras with monochrome film (K1000, MX), but when using the GREEN button on a DSLR the aperture doesn't always stop down fully before the camera takes the metering (the film cameras open-aperture meter).

Anybody interested in making an offer?

Regards,

John.

I had a similar problem, it turned out that the built-in memory card reader in my laptop wasn't SDHC card compatible (SD card only), so it wasn't able to read all the file(s) once the data on the card had passed a particular amount. A £10 USB SDHC card reader sorted the problem.

IIRC I was still able to get the full image when connecting the camera via USB (the camera's software is SDHC compatible - obviously!).

In my case it wasn't to do with RAW/JPG but the amount of data on the card (which obviously fills up faster - and therefore happens sooner - if shooting RAW).

John.

It depends how much you value interchangeable lenses. I have an MX-1 which is quite a small profile with the lens retracted. It has effectively replaced my K-5 & DA17-70 as a walkround kit (and I carry it much more often than I'd carry that). I keep looking at the Q range but the MX-1 is hard to beat.

Interesting conundrum. I liked the look of the GR (I have a GR1s) but its initial price was too high compared to the MX-1 so I bought that instead. It has essentially replaced my K-5 except for more specialist shooting.

Now that GR prices are dropping a bit and most of my shots from the MX-1 are at the wide end of the zoom, the GR v Q-S1 decision could be a tough call.

I like the shot, although I'd probably have tried moving to the left (risking the road) to move the pole away from the sign (hindsight is wonderful). I'd probably consider cropping it tighter to the pub and and above the shadow in the foreground. The pole is part of the street furniture and immediately in front of the subject, you can't retain the character of the shot if you remove it. You could clone it out then run a 'watercolour' or similar filter over it perhaps for an artists impression.

Hi Jonathan, you've done very well with the Velvia - the contrast between orange & blue can be completely overpowering if you get it wrong. I like the Tmax 100 shots too.

It's great to see medium format film shots on the forum, please keep them coming (I need to sort out more of mine).

John.

The biggest problems with indoor flash are usually either red-eye and/or ugly shadows on any background. The former is best avoided by a bracket, the second is mostly fixed by positioning the subject away from any background (even with bounce or a brolly you'll still get a shadow otherwise).

Outdoors, flash is useful for fill-flash, but any gun with an 'A' setting and it's own sensor works well enough, just aim for 1:2 or 1:4 depending on the conditions.

In any case, you'll be able to refine you're technique from your test shots once you've selected a particular gun.