Does anyone else have favourite aperture or ISO settings? I use the word favourite intentionally, as I don't mean to ask about optimum settings, but about those settings you tend to go back to, for whatever reason.

I always used to use ISO 400 film for day to day photography, and consequently I use 400 as a default DSLR setting. I can see no particular reason to go below this for IQ reasons on modern DSLRs. (I got to play with an Epson 7880 printer this week, and made a 29 x 20" print from an in-camera K20D RAW to JPEG file at ISO 400, with no noticeable noise. There can't be many situations where 100 or 200 are going to deliver discernably superior results.)

Aperture-wise, I like f/5.6. I know there are often good reasons for this being a good aperture (two stops down on an f/2.8 lens), but I think I have a particular fondness for this setting that isn't entirely based on anything rational. f/8 and f/11 - they're fine, but I'd take f/5.6 any day!

Does anyone else know what I mean, or am I alone in my oddness?

Jonathan

And, as a bonus for any Tom Waits fans, this issue of the BJP contains a full page reproduction of the photograph by Anders Petersen that was used on the cover of Rain Dogs.

Jonathan

Sorry if this has already been mentioned in any other thread, but this week's British Journal of Photography's review of the K7 comes to very favourable conclusions. It's nice to read a magazine that sees a piece of equipment as a tool to do a job, rather than one that is fixated on fitting every camera into some kind of "hierarchy of cameras" like a lot of the rubbish monthly magazines are.

The review is by no means comprehensive when it comes to the K7's features, but it does also mention that Pentax have already produced "a number of excellent digital SLRs". And this is from a trade journal aimed at those in the photographic industry.

The magazine also reviews the 35mm f/2.8 macro, which gets an excellent report too.

Jonathan

Touching on the thread within the thread(!) it is well worth calibrating your LCD screen after having calibrated your monitor.

See http://www.prophotonut.com/2009/05/08/calibrating-the-camera-lcd-screen-techniqu...

The K20D has various options for this, not just brightness, so I presume the K7 will too.

On a related note, the Nikon D200 was criticised in its AP review for consistently underexposing and not many people regard that as a bad camera (plus, as has been mentioned, this is not necessarily a disadvantage). The Fuji S5 has an overly bright LCD, which isn't as adjustable as those on Pentax cameras, but that's still a great camera.

Jonathan

I nearly always shoot in RAW, but one feature I find really useful on the K20D is the in-camera RAW to JPEG development (though I never really thought I'd use it when I bought the camera). It's particularly handy in situations where you are away from a computer - I've used it at friends' houses when someone wants a copy of a picture immediately.

It allows you to change many parameters (sharpness, contrast, saturation, picture style, exposure, noise control etc. etc.) - I particularly like converting to B&W, adding some exposure & upping the contrast to get a high key portrait from a low light situation.

This doesn't replace proper RAW post processing, but it's a great option to have for such situations.

Jonathan

Hi Danny,

I've used a 5D MkII in video mode, and am interested in how stills are taken on that camera while video is being shot. It sounds fantasic for those who may want to video weddings etc. and also take stills during the filming, but it seems that you can't do both without consequence. The 5D MkII's video footage shows a gap of approximately one second whenever a still shot is taken - is this the same on the K7?

Jonathan

And I also found http://www.joesmalley.com/flashes/ which hopefully helps a bit with the original question. It's a chart showing the durations of some speedlights (no Pentax ones, sadly) at various power settings. According to this some are not particularly fast at full power (for instance the Metz 45 CL4 has a duration of 1/300 sec at full power, but 1/1000 at half power).

Jonathan

I did a bit of internet digging on this, as I was confused when people from Bowens & Elinchrom were both telling me the opposite of what I thought I knew on flash durations.

I can't pretend to understand all this completely, but it does seem as if some flash heads work differently to speedlights, and do have a longer flash duration at less than full power.

See http://www.jerrycentral.com/2008/12/18/flash-duration/ for a better explanation than I can give.

Jonathan

I don't normally use studio lights, but I've recently had some training on the new Elinchrom BXRI's and Bowens 500R's. I accept that I may have been slightly confused, but essentially the trainers led me to believe that with these lights the shortest flash duration is at full power, which seems to be the opposite to how it is with speedlights...

Does this make sense to anyone?

Jonathan

To quote the British Journal of Photography of 27/5/09 (referring in this instance to DSLRs):

"Despite a 40% shift in the exchange rate between the Pound and the Yen, camera makers have managed to contain DSLR body price rises to 15% or less, and several announced list price increases have been matched by apparently deeper discounting. It's now essential to study the price and availability for any DSLR purchase as stocks can be found at old and new prices, list and discounted alike. Differences of up to 25% between dealers should not be considered unusual." [my emphasis]

Jonathan