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Whilst not doubting the sincerity of the views expressed here, nor challenging the right of the individuals concerned to hold them, it is important to remember that the spread of the current pandemic is a consequence of the widespread, uncritical adoption by governments and trading blocks of unfettered, global, free-market economics.
The last time I checked, the Chinese were not responsible for the formulation and export of this 'one-size fits all' economic model, although they have become highly skilled at exploiting its more obvious flaws to their advantage with, it has to be said, the active, and in many instances craven, collusion of successive world governments, including our own.
Jon
The last time I checked, the Chinese were not responsible for the formulation and export of this 'one-size fits all' economic model, although they have become highly skilled at exploiting its more obvious flaws to their advantage with, it has to be said, the active, and in many instances craven, collusion of successive world governments, including our own.
Jon
Wonderful, Chris. Great colour, detail and devoid of the blown, highlights resulting from the combination of water and sunlight that often blight pictures of this type
I have watched and photographed dragonflies engaged in similar activity, but rarely with the degree of success seen here
Jon
I have watched and photographed dragonflies engaged in similar activity, but rarely with the degree of success seen here
Jon
Comment by prsjnb posted on Broad Bodied Chaser at 22/05/2020 - 11:22
Two possibilities come to mind:
1, Insufficient potential market size to justify tooling costs .
2, Licensing restrictions imposed by Ricoh-Pentax
Of course, a combination of the above is also a possibility.
Paradoxically, the first of these does seem not preclude Ricoh-Pentax using other lens manufacturers (including Tamron and Tokina, I believe) as OEMs for their own custom designs or KAF-mount derivatives.
On the positive side, we Pentaxians fortunate in that essentially all lenses ever manufactured in the M42 - or various K-mount iterations remain useable, albeit with varying degrees of limitation, on any Pentax DSLR.
Now retiring to the bunker to weather the storm of corrections likely to follow
Jon
1, Insufficient potential market size to justify tooling costs .
2, Licensing restrictions imposed by Ricoh-Pentax
Of course, a combination of the above is also a possibility.
Paradoxically, the first of these does seem not preclude Ricoh-Pentax using other lens manufacturers (including Tamron and Tokina, I believe) as OEMs for their own custom designs or KAF-mount derivatives.
On the positive side, we Pentaxians fortunate in that essentially all lenses ever manufactured in the M42 - or various K-mount iterations remain useable, albeit with varying degrees of limitation, on any Pentax DSLR.
Now retiring to the bunker to weather the storm of corrections likely to follow
Jon
Comment by prsjnb posted on Third party lenses at 18/05/2020 - 15:34
RobL wrote:
Excellent, much better than the usual crop(!) of dandelion head shots. There are other weeds which make similar but different heads, one of my favourite being Salsify or Goat’s Beard, always worth checking them out first before blasting with Roundup!
Seconded wholeheartedly Excellent, much better than the usual crop(!) of dandelion head shots. There are other weeds which make similar but different heads, one of my favourite being Salsify or Goat’s Beard, always worth checking them out first before blasting with Roundup!
Comment by prsjnb posted on Clock Images at 18/05/2020 - 14:12
67mm Marumi DHG Achromat Macro 330 (+3) - to improve the close-focus capability of the Pentax DA* 50-135.
The Raynox DCR Macro Adapters, whilst of excellent quality, are too small to be of practical use with the 50-135 (requires a 43 - 67mm stepping ring). A quick search turned-up some promising reviews (link; link) and examples of the Marumi used in combination with the 50-135, but the clincher for me was the availability of the 67mm 330 (+3) for £60.00 inc p&p from Microglobe, which was a good price when compared with all the other UK-based stockists I considered.
The following early examples give an idea of what can be achieved. With the exception of the last two images, which were developed in LR 6.0 from the original Raw files and were shot with flash, all are direct from camera (handheld K5) jpeg files that at most have had the levels tweaked, limited noise-reduction applied and then been cropped and resized for upload. Importantly, none of the latter had additional sharpening applied.
Manual focus was used for most of the above although AF is possible once the subject is within range.
Whilst not as sharp or as versatile as a dedicated macro lens, my experience thus far has led me to conclude that the outlay for the Marumi was worthwhile and that it more than adequately overcomes the oft criticised close-focus limitations of the DA* 50-135.
Jon
The Raynox DCR Macro Adapters, whilst of excellent quality, are too small to be of practical use with the 50-135 (requires a 43 - 67mm stepping ring). A quick search turned-up some promising reviews (link; link) and examples of the Marumi used in combination with the 50-135, but the clincher for me was the availability of the 67mm 330 (+3) for £60.00 inc p&p from Microglobe, which was a good price when compared with all the other UK-based stockists I considered.
The following early examples give an idea of what can be achieved. With the exception of the last two images, which were developed in LR 6.0 from the original Raw files and were shot with flash, all are direct from camera (handheld K5) jpeg files that at most have had the levels tweaked, limited noise-reduction applied and then been cropped and resized for upload. Importantly, none of the latter had additional sharpening applied.
Manual focus was used for most of the above although AF is possible once the subject is within range.
Whilst not as sharp or as versatile as a dedicated macro lens, my experience thus far has led me to conclude that the outlay for the Marumi was worthwhile and that it more than adequately overcomes the oft criticised close-focus limitations of the DA* 50-135.
Jon
Comment by prsjnb posted on What's your latest acquisition? at 18/05/2020 - 14:10
Gwyn wrote:
I use Firefox and DuckDuckGo. I hate having to have an Android phone. Can't afford an iPhone.
+1 Mannesty wrote:
The latest Microsoft Edge is built on Google Chrome, why not just use the best?
Because not everybody wants Google knowing everything about them?The latest Microsoft Edge is built on Google Chrome, why not just use the best?
I use Firefox and DuckDuckGo. I hate having to have an Android phone. Can't afford an iPhone.
Comment by prsjnb posted on New Edge Browser at 16/05/2020 - 16:59
Gorgeous little birds.
Being newly arrived, and hence totally 'cream-crackered', would account for them remaining still long enough for you photograph them
Will they be spending the next 14 day in isolation chez vous?
Jon
Being newly arrived, and hence totally 'cream-crackered', would account for them remaining still long enough for you photograph them
Will they be spending the next 14 day in isolation chez vous?
Jon
Comment by prsjnb posted on Whitethroat at 13/05/2020 - 10:50
David
Are you sure that you wouldn't be better of with a Gimbal Head? I have both the GH-2 (full) and RH-M1 (monopod) from the LensMaster (link) and have found them excellent.
Jon
Are you sure that you wouldn't be better of with a Gimbal Head? I have both the GH-2 (full) and RH-M1 (monopod) from the LensMaster (link) and have found them excellent.
Jon
Comment by prsjnb posted on A little help required - Pan Tilt heads at 11/05/2020 - 23:21
In my case it is an SMC Pentax-DA 16-45 F4 ED AL. Purchased in 2008, it was the first 'non-kit' lens I had ever owned. It saw regular use until 2015 when something (plastic) evidently snapped inside, resulting in inner barrel lens droop at all focal lengths save 45mm. Repair, I was reliably informed, would prove uneconomic and so, being unable to part with it (strange the things that one can become attached to) I squirrelled it away and largely forgot about it: until today, that is. The time had come, or so it seemed, to attempt a DIY repair of the lens or, failing that, to pass it on as a challenge to another with more courage and/or technical nous. Before doing so, however, and given that it was such a glorious day, I thought I'd give it an outing in the garden for old times' sake with my K5. With one exception, all of the following were shot handheld at f/4 (mixture of AF and MF) using available light and, apart from being cropped, are jpegs straight from camera. The one exception is the that of the Welsh poppy, which was shot at f/6.3 then edited in PSE (healing tool) to remove some distracting brown blotches on the petals.
This exercise has served to remind me what it was I found so appealing about the 16-45: the way it renders colours and its acceptable sharpness, even when used wide open. So, if any of you out there are prepared to adopt this 'mutilé de guerre' and cover the cost of p&p, PM me
Thanks, as always, for looking.
Jon
This exercise has served to remind me what it was I found so appealing about the 16-45: the way it renders colours and its acceptable sharpness, even when used wide open. So, if any of you out there are prepared to adopt this 'mutilé de guerre' and cover the cost of p&p, PM me
Thanks, as always, for looking.
Jon
Comment by prsjnb posted on The defective/broken (but I couldn't bring myself to throw it away) lens thread at 09/05/2020 - 19:47
I hope John Riley will allow me to answer this point from an economic rather than a political perspective whilst acknowledging that the two are deeply intertwined.
The Spanish flu of 1918 killed 50 million people worldwide. Free market economics as we know them today were but a dream in that time.
The current (but set to change drastically I feel and hope) free market economic model has brought millions out of poverty, given most in society a better standard of living and equally importantly improved the health of us all. Like most things that are "free", this means that the pendulum has swung too far in the free direction and I feel that in the decade to come we shall move a little back toward the "control" side of said pendulum especially with regard to public sector employees (NHS; care workers; emergency services etc), and that is essential in my mind.
The Chinese government have simple aims. To use the free market of the western world to grow their economy, enrich their population, and to increase their standing as a world power. They have achieved all this in the last 20 years without changing their political demographic at home. They are playing the west's game without having to answer to their people.
China has become incredibly wealthy as a result. Unlike N Korea or Russia for example who both have appallingly bad economies. I agree that the west has bent over backwards to assist China in these goals, and to a large part have benefited enormously from it. However they have also created a monster and there is no turning back.
As you rightly point out, the philosophy of global, free market economics had yet to emerge at the time of the 1918 H1N1 flu pandemic. Like COVID-19, however, the truly, at that time, unprecedented scale of the H1N1 pandemic was linked to the mass movements of peoples from essentially all continents to sustain a global war effort followed by their incarceration in high density encampments with, by current standards, inadequate sanitation and health care facilities and their subsequent repatriation to their places of origin.
In the context of the discussion that has taken place in this thread, it is worthy of note that, whilst acknowledging that it cannot be proven with absolute certainty, the most likely origin of the the pandemic was North America.
Reading even a selection of the articles published in 2018 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the H1N1 flu pandemic proves a salutary experience. Especially with regard to the oft repeated claim by our elected representatives that the consequences of the current Covid-19 pandemic could not have been foreseen, let alone prepared for.
The following may prove of interest to all that have contributed to this thread and, given the primary focus of the forum, include contemporaneous photographic images.
link
link
link
Best
Jon