Wallace Koopmans Artlog

I performed a little impromptu test between my new Pentax K-3 APSc DSLR and my Rolleiflex 2.8 Medium Format TLR.  I used the DA 35 macro LTD on the K-3 to match the field of view of the 80mm Schneider Xenotar lens on the Rollei.

I wasn’t surprised by the results having used the K-3 for nearly a month now but it is interesting to see that I was able to capture more detail with the K-3 than with the Rollie despite taking great care with both.  It does leave me wondering what more could be wanted from a camera and reaffirms for me that my attention should move away from the camera gear itself and back to making images, although I’m sure I will do a little more as I work with my new camera.

In each of the following images the Pentax K-3 image is on the left and the Rolleiflex on the right

To be fair with the image above the plane of focus is clearly different making the Rolleiflex shot the prefered one in my eyes.  That is not the cameras though that is all me.

I scanned the film at 3200 DPI which created 5200 x 5200 27Mpixel files against the K-3’s 6000 x 4000 24Mpixels but even cropping the K-3 down to a square 4000 x 4000 16Mpixel it still was a more detailed image although shooting square format natively has its advantages with some compositions.

When all is said and done though I still have an affinity for the look of film and often find that I prefer those images over the digital.

If you want a stripped down photographic experience the Minolta A5 gives it. The aperture, shutter and focus are all controlled at the lens using finely machined dials. The Citizen shutter has speeds from 1 second to 1/500 as well as bulb, each one selected with a satisfying click. The focus is silky smooth and easy to see in the viewfinder with its sharp edged focus patch. As with most rangefinders it is excellent for focusing in dim light. The lens is a 45mm 1:2.8 Rokkor built from 4 elements. While a simple design it works very well. With no exposure meter you need to use some other method of determining what settings to use but with that done you can just concentrate on taking pictures.

My mistake its the Big Mini, a great little camera that fits neatly into a camera bag owing to its flat sides without any protuberances when turned off (I had to add that last part when I realized the picture I took of it had it’s lens sticking out). And it’s that lens that makes this camera one to have. I haven’t been disappointed yet when using this camera the exposures have been right on and the image quality great.  More Konica Big Mini

The Limited Edition Fully Automatic See-Thru 35mm Panoramic Camera… only it isn’t. Clearly it can’t be completely transparent, that wouldn’t work with film now would it? That’s not the only thing though, Ricoh used the term panoramic to refer to setting focus to infinity and the flash off, which isn’t what comes to mind when I think of a panorama. The clear plastic showing the cameras inner workings is the most conspicious thing about it but it’s also a decent camera from the time, though a little chunky.

After a week with the new Pentax K-3 DSLR there is one thing that really stands out for me and that is the amount of detail it is able to capture.  There are other things that I think are  genuine improvements over my previous cameras but when zooming into an image on the back of the camera or looking at it on the computer its striking what it renders.

Downsizing images for the web does not convey this well so I’ve created several zoom-able images shot in the last week to demonstrate as best I can my point.  Just click on the thumbnails below to see the zoomable version.  I suggest toggling full screen by clicking on the button at the lower right of the player to maximize the effect.  The zoom is not limited to 100% pixel for pixel view but goes beyond that.

Pentax K-3 ISO 200 f13,   1/200sec

Pentax K-3 ISO 100 f18, 15sec

Here is an image that can be seen as a full size JPEG without zooming, it’s around 11 Mbytes

Pentax K-3 ISO 100 f16, 2.5sec

These images were shot using a very fine lens as well the SMC Pentax- DFA Macro 1:2.8 100mm WR.

The Pentax K-3 is showing itself to be an incredible photographic tool and I find myself looking forward to every opportunity to test its abilities with the ultimate goal being able to create the images I want.

The Nikon Zoom 300’s form was inspired when one of the designers dropped a bar of soap in the shower at Disneyland. I can’t prove that of course but everything points to it. It’s the shape and size of a bar of soap, the lens looks like it has Mickey Mouse ears and its slippery like a bar of soap. In addition I think they showered with the designer of the Canon Prima Mini who picked up the soap after it was dropped. Released in 1994 it is a relatively compact camera considering it’s 35-70 zoom lens rather than a fixed focal length. I can’t find any technical specifications for the lens but you can see that it has coatings that aren’t found on cheaper Nikons and it provides good results in the center of the frame with some coma distortion in the corners. There are a few over rides such as infinity focus and forced flash off which are in my opinion minimums when using this type of camera. The viewfinder though is a tiny little tunnel with a little light at the end of it, not a lot of fun to compose with. The final feature I will mention is that it has a lanyard on the side so it’s more ‘Soap on a Rope’ than Lux.

The multi exposure system of the new Pentax K-3 is much improved over previous iterations. Rather than being buried in the Menu system under the record menu it now finds itself in the more prominent drive menu available at the press of a button. It’s alongside interval composite and other drive modes like high continuous, mirror up and self timer. The number of images that can be combined has also increased from 9 to 2000 and there is an additional method of compositing called bright.

It’s the interval composite mode that is new and so useful for things such as blurring moving water when you can’t set a long enough exposure. With the camera on a tripod you can set it to take a picture every 5 seconds for 10 images and average the exposure. This will generate a single image that appears like it was taken with a single long exposure.  Here you can compare a single exposure against the 10  on the bottom.

If you’re wondering why wouldn’t you just take a longer exposure the answer is that you can’t always get long enough shutter speeds especially when there is plenty of light and you don’t have a neutral density filter.  The interval can be set From 2 seconds to 24 hours.

Additionally with composite interval you can specify a time for the camera to begin taking the images and with multi exposure you can choose single shot, continuous, self timer with mirror up and remote control.

It all amounts to great flexibility when doing multiple exposures and it remains to be seen what photographers will be able to do with this.  Here are a few samples from my playing around.

As a side note the above image is a crop from this 24 Mpixel picture, the amount of detail is astounding.

Previous use of this technique and explination can be seen here Multiple Exposures for atmosphere and Multiple Exposure again, again, again

Despite how much I enjoy shooting film and using older cameras there is a part of me that enjoys new technology as well.  My primary DSLR up until now has been the 2009 Pentax K-7 but I’ve also been waiting for what I felt was enough of a technological advance to spur an upgrade.  The release of the Pentax K-3 appeared to be the progress I had been waiting for so I pre-ordered it as soon as it was announced.  Today I received the camera and have had a brief time shooting with it.  One of the immediately apparent differences with the new camera over the K-7/K-5,K5II models is the method of making changes to the autofocus selections.  Previously it was a 3 position switch (Manual,continuous AF,AF Single) this has been replaced with a 2 position switch between AF and Manual and the addition of a button.  I can not stress enough what an improvement this is.  While pressing the button and turning the front control dial you can select the type of autofocus you want to use and the rear wheel changes the parameters such as the number of focus points, from 27 to zone to spot also when set to select the indicator of focus points on the rear LCD enlarges and the menu buttons can be used to move the point around.  There are more parameters to describe and it is simpler in operation than my feeble attempt to describe it conveys, but it works well and is very intuitive.

There is also a marked improvement in the focus speed and accuracy over my previous camera but I may leave that to others to quantify it as most people will want to compare it to the Pentax K-5II DSLR.

One thing I never saw mentioned and is new to me is that when zooming in playback it lets you know when you are at 100% zoom a nice touch when checking your images.

Another surprise is how much quieter the shutter is and that is despite the K-7 already being incredibly quite.  I will have more to say after I’ve had more time with the camera so for now here are some of the first images I’ve taken with the Pentax K-3.

Pentax K-3 200 ISO 1/80 f3.5 (SMC  Pentax-DA 1:2.8 35mm macro Limited)

100% crop from above image.

Pentax K-3 400 ISO 1/50 f6.3 (SMC Pentax DA 18-55 AL WR)

100% crop from above image

Pentax K-3 1600 ISO 1/200 f5.6 (SMC  Pentax-DA 1:2.8 35mm macro Limited)

100 % crop from image above Lightroom Noise reduction Luimnance +24, Color +20

Pentax K-3 800 ISO 1/50 f7.1 (SMC  Pentax-DA 1:2.8 35mm macro Limited)

100 % crop from image above Lightroom Noise reduction Luimnance +24, Color +15

Pentax K-3 200 ISO 1/125 f7.1 (SMC A 70-210)

100% crop of above image.

Again my initial impression is a very positive one with all around performace improvements over the K-7 especially with higher ISO’s.  In fact here is a shot at 12800  ISO with a little noise reduction in Lightroom, a full stop higher than the K-7 goes let alone performs at.

The K-01 is an excellent camera for using manual focus lenses especially because of its focus peaking feature. On a recent outing with a friend I took a selection of M42 lenses, primarily using the Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 2.4 35mm with a little bit from the SMC Takumar 1.4 50mm and the Takumar 3.5 200mm aka the Bokehmon I would describe focus peaking as looking like the image is severely over sharpened within the plane of focus with a white halo around areas of high contrast. It is best seen when actually focusing as it sweeps across the image. I also used these lenses with my Pentax Z1p and Portra 400 film and I will update this post with a link to those as well.