While idly looking through the viewfinder before heading for home, a head popped up in the corner. It would have been rude not to press the shutter button. A few seconds later its human appeared, phone to head and oblivious to me, surroundings and possibly even the dog.

Taken with K3 and FA77. There was time to focus but not to change from f2 as well. The result works for me, but would you have changed to wider DOF and risk losing the shot?




And now a crop.



Steve

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest dog of all...?

Interesting to read this in conjunction with what Ricoh/Pentax have recently said about their future direction and decision not to develop mirrorless.

Mind you, I can't help thinking that it's less about finding the perfect camera and more about finding out what you really want from a camera.

Steve

Science becomes art.... Love it!

Steve

Impressive. How many years had those photons been travelling before they hit your sensor??

Steve

I bet you end up doing reflections of dogs...

Steve

Superb set once again. No. 5 stands out for me - eyes, face, composition. And strangely, when I scroll down on the tablet the eyes in No. 5 flicker as if they are alive - spooky!

But it makes me wonder what sort of place you live in that attracts so many flies!!

Steve

Another fine set that gets under the skin of what the place is all about. The Outer Hebrides (and no doubt Sandwood Bay too) is the sort of place where looking down and looking small is just as rewarding as looking up and looking large.

Impossible to pick favourites, partly because some remind me of similar pictures in my own collection! But if I was allowed to have just one with me on a desert island it would be No. 19 - a total abstract, a picture that has a lot to give and a reminder of happy hours looking downwards through a lens on a beach while keeping a close eye on the tide!

Steve

Back to the original question. What Ricoh/Pentax said sounds like they are positioning themselves as a high quality brand within market sectors which they believe to have a good future and in which they know/believe they have strength and reputation. They will not be working in areas which would require lots of investment, where others have a headstart or where they believe the market will weaken significantly. Sounds like a sensible business strategy to me.

Ricoh/Pentax definitely won't be doing mirrorless, so the message to people who need/want mirrorless is clear: it won't be a Pentax. At least you know for sure now.

They believe that APS-C, FF and MF each have strengths, so they will support all three, make use of technical synergies across the formats and thus offer a upgrade path based on technical capabilities. To me, that suggests the message that Pentax is aiming at people who take photography seriously rather than at casual shooters. Again, that sounds sensible to me, given the phone camera revolution and what other companies are doing.

Whether Pentax can make it work is another matter. But I'd be worried for their future if they were trying to do everything rather than focus on what they are good at. They are not, though, so they'll probably outlive me!

Steve
PS: I do use mirrorless, it's called a Q, like all cameras it's got strengths and weaknesses, so just a matter of playing to its strengths (like putting a body and couple of lenses in a pocket).

I was wondering how you'd found a high vantage point in Norfolk!

Steve