To SLR or not to SLR – Pentax K-01?

I have become fascinated with the Pentax K-01. Having used an SLR since the 1970’s I just naturally always assumed that an SLR or DSLR was necessary for “serious” photography but I recently discovered that Pentax has come out with a new non-SLR interchangeable lens camera that may offer serious photographers another alternative.

Most photo reviewers so far have compared the K-01 to other non-SLR interchangeable lens cameras but unlike most of them the Pentax K-01 uses the same full size APS-C CMOS sensor that is used in the K-5, Pentax’s top of the line DSLR.  To be fair Sony, Fuji and a couple others also make interchangeable lens cameras with similar sized sensors and some of them even have viewers so that are almost 21^st century rangefinders.

Now the ASP-C sensor is not the same size as a 35mm negative of course. Sensor’s that big are only found in a handful high end “professional” DSLR’s costing thousands of dollars but the APS-C sensor has become the new standard for most DSLR’s. With 16MB resolution these sensors are capable of producing images approaching the state of the art for 35mm film produced images. 

Technology being what it is I would expect to see 20+ MB APS-C sensors become commonplace shortly. At that point pictures produced by these sensors should be every bit as good as those produced by the best 35mm cameras.

What that really means is that the Pentax K-01 may be considered a viable tool for the professional photographer looking for a smaller lighter camera.

The K-01 has a couple other things going for it too. Because Pentax designed it to use the K lens mount it can not only utilize the wide selection of lenses available for all the Pentax DSLR’s, it can also use every K mount lens produced for Pentax K mount cameras over the past 40 years. Naturally legacy lenses can only be used in manual mode

The K-01 is also smaller & cheaper than comparably equipped DSLRs, doesn’t go “klunk” every time you push the shutter and if all that that isn’t enough, it’s unique design is the work of the world famous designer, Mark Newson.  Frankly, I never heard of Mark Newson but I do kind of like the look of the Pentax K-01. I think I’ll take mine in basic black instead of his “signature” yellow though.

No, I’m not going to rush out and buy one. I still shoot film (remember), but I am going to try to find one in a store somewhere to play with and if it feels as good as it looks I may end up with one eventually, especially if Pentax comes out with an upgraded 20+ MB sensor for it. After all, as I have said on this blog over and over I am not anti-digital I just haven’t found the right digital camera yet.

The Big Day Arrives

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day finally arrived Sunday and my home made cardboard pinhole camera was ready and waiting for me. I loaded a roll of Kodak Portra 160 into it and started taking pictures.

The above picture is “my rig,” complete with tripod, among the spring flowers. 

Everything seemed to go pretty much as expected except a couple of unexpected events prevented me from going on the “photo safari” I had planned. Instead I was limited to photo subjects I could find around the old homestead.

Hopefully at least a couple of them come out and later in the week I will have something to upload to the WPPD web site and share with you here too.

Another Photographer Switches to Film!

Street photographer Erick Kim, experiments with film and gets hooked. Visit his web site and read his  informative and entertaining article using the link below.

Pick up a few tips on street photography while you're at it.


http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2012/04/why-digital-is-dead-for-me-in-street-photography/

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day!

Here’s a picture of my very own home made pin hole camera just minutes after I completed it.

My adventure into the world of pinhole photography began last year when my son gave me a pinhole camera kit for my birthday.  I had been working on it here and there whenever I had a little time to spare but once I found out about Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day (WWPD) being held this year on April 29^th, I decided to finally finish it so I could participate.

This event was organized for the first time back in 2001 and has become an annual world-wide celebration of pinhole photography. All over the world workshops and gatherings are organized to help people build and experiment with pinhole cameras. Pictures taken on the last Sunday in April are submitted to WPPD following the directions on the web site.

This is not a contest. Every picture is a winner and shows a unique composition the photographer thought was special enough to share it with the world.

By using the link below and visiting the web site you can find out more about WWPD and the world of pinhole photography. There are also eleven years (soon to be twelve) of pictures for you to enjoy in the web site galleries.

http://www.pinholeday.org/

Soon I hope to have my own pinhole photographs to share with you here and with the world on the WWPD web site.

Portra 127 Lives!

Mark Twain is reported to have said that “the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” Well I suppose the same may be said for Kodak’s Portra 127 film (ISO 160).

Perhaps I jumped the gun on this one blogging that Kodak Portra for 127 was no more when in the same week I got a note from The Darkroom saying they could not process my latest roll and couldn’t find any more film to buy from any of my usual sources. I even checked the Kodak web site and couldn’t find it. Of course, for those of you who have never visited Kodak on the web the organization of their site is somewhat mysterious, to me at least.

Anyway, I am exceedingly happy to report that not only has The Darkroom processed my 127 film but I have found my usual supplier restocked with the stuff! Happy days are here again!

The picture above was taken with my 40+ year old Brownie Bullet shooting Kodak Portra 160. I have only shot a couple comparison rolls in each camera but so far the Brownie 127 which is more like 50+ years seems to take much better pictures than the Bullet. Go figure!

This shot also adds to my “Feet” collection. This one was taken at the pool of the Battleship Inn in Alabama.

Really Long Exposures (...like 2-3 years long?)

I have experimented a bit with long exposures but Michael Wesley a German photographer, has everyone beat in this category. This guy has developed techniques and experimented with exposures that last years. He has taken pictures of buildings being built and recorded the entire construction in one exposure.

Check out this fascinating Michael Zhang article about him that I stumbled across on Petapixel with the link below.


http://www.petapixel.com/2012/03/16/photographs-captured-over-years-with-an-open-camera-shutter/

ISO 400 B&W Revisited with HP-5

The above picture was taken with the Promaster 35mm body and the Pentax 135mm lens using Ilford HP-5, ISO 400 black & white film with the lens wide open (f2.8) and a shutter speed of 1/250.

In an earlier blog post I complained that the Kodak 400TX film I used was super grainy and displayed way too much contrast. It was nothing like the “old” Tri-X 400 I used in the last century when I was shooting nothing but film for obvious reasons so I decided to try my second favorite film, Ilford HP-5. This one acquitted itself much better. It’s still a bit grainy but with much better gray tones. This looks more like the old black & white film I used to use back in the 1970’s and 80’s when I shot as much black and white as anything else.

I even had my own darkroom for a while. I eventually decided that I liked taking pictures a lot more than I enjoyed being locked up in a dark chemical laden environment for hours at a time. Besides, for a few bucks I could pay someone else to process my film and prints while I went out in the fresh air and enjoyed taking more pictures.

Anyway, back to the black & white film discussion. I still have some Kodak TX-400 to experiment with some more. I also have some slower ISO 125 and 100 films to play with and I’ll be sure to report my results here.