We all celebrate Halloween our own way - Taken with the Pentax K-5

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

 Hi Photographer friends,

The Pentax K-5II and K-5IIs will be shipping this Month. The K-5 e-book has been updated for the K-5II and K-5IIs.

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com 

 Hi Photographer friends,

The Pentax K-5II and K-5IIs will be shipping this Month.

Both versions of the K-5II and K-5IIs are built around a new high-sensitivity CMOS sensor, paired with the latest PRIME II imaging processor. That gives it a native ISO range from 100-12800, but it can be xpanded down to 80 and up to 51,200. The AF sensor has also been upgraded with an operating range from -3 EV up to 18 EV.

High quality LCD monitor with outstanding visibility outdoors

The K-5 II includes a 3.0 inch, wide-view, air-gap-free LCD display with approximately 921,000 dots for excellent visibility when outdoors. Situated between the front glass panel (which is coated with an anti-glare film) and the LCD screen is a unique resin layer that alleviates the reflection and dispersion of light to effectively prevent ghost images and maintain image brightness. The LCD cover is also made of tempered glass to keep it free of scratches and abrasions.

Anti-aliasing filter-free feature of the K-5 IIs

The K-5 IIs is offered without an anti-aliasing filter, which is commonly found in many DSLRs to smooth computer generated imagery by decreasing high frequencies and distortion, but adversely reduces detail resolution. Without this filter, the K-5 IIs creates deeply rich, detailed imagery at supreme resolution levels.

Pricing and Availability

The new PENTAX K-5 II will be available at retail outlets nationwide this Month with a suggested retail price of $1,199.95 for body only, $1,349.95 for the K-5 II kit including the DA 18-55mm WR zoom lens and $1,549.95 for the K-5 II kit including the DA 18-135mm WR zoom lens. The K-5 IIs will also be available at retail outlets nationwide and online in October with a suggested retail price of $1,299.95 for body only

The updated version of our K-5 e-book will also be available this Month, to coincide with the availability of the K-5II and K-5IIs. The price of the e-book will remain the same as the K-5, at $14.95. It will be available on our e-store.

Example image from the K-5 II and the K-5 IIs

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com 

 Hi Photographer friends,

I did not have a chance to see or test the new K-5 II and K-5 IIs.
However, my e-book for the K-5 is available and is still accurate for the K-5 II and K-5 IIs. The operation remains the same as for the K-5. Pentax e-books, including the K-5


However, Wesley Wong is to be credited to the test below. He posted that on DP Peview:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/50081949

I see a big difference myself.

Thanks for reading,

Yvon Bourque

There's a new kid in town...known as "Smart Camera". Things will change as the kid grows up.

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

 Hi Photographer friends,

There's a new kid in town...known as "Smart Camera". Things will change as the kid grows up.

You might be wondering where I'm going with a title like that?  It's no news that the "Smart Phones" have progressed immensely in the last decade, and even faster in the past few years. Smartphones all have the capability of taking still pictures and video. I know, I know, they don't produce the best pictures yet, but they are getting there.

I don't think they will replace the DSLR cameras in the foreseeable future, but one day, they just might. It is so easy to take pictures and send them immediately to your friends, Facebook, Twitter, Image galleries, etc. It's no wonder that apps such as "Instagram" have gotten so popular. It makes you wonder where this is all going when Facebook paid one billion dollars to acquire the small company.Not only can you take pictures, but you can manipulate the images on your cell phone. Adobe has a version of Photoshop that runs as an app for the iPhone, and maybe Droid phones as well. I 'm not sure because I use an iPhone 4. Snapseed is another app that does wonder with image files.

I blogged about the smartphones this past July, and the new kid in town just might take a bite at the cell phones.

Samsung recently announced the Samsung Galaxy Camera, that runs on Android 4.1. This is actually a camera that has the capability of taking pictures and video, then send them over a wi-fi connection or 3G/4G.

The Samsung Galaxy Camera is a new Android camera that has been introduced with a premium level specification, as both a high end Android device, as well as a high specification digital camera - it has the largest screen available in a digital camera, at 4.8 inches and also features a high speed quad-core processor. The camera will be available mid-October priced at around $650.00 U.S.

Key Features

• 16.3 megapixel BSI CMOS sensor
• 21x optical zoom lens, f/2.8-5.9, 23mm wide angle
• Optical image stabilisation
• 4.8inch 16:9 touch screen 1280x720 HD resolution
• 1.4GHz quad-core processor
• P/A/S/M Manual controls
• ISO100-3200
• 8GB memory built in
• Photo wizard, Best Group Pose
• Smart Content Manager
• Google Play Store - download apps etc
• 3G / 4G / Wi-Fi / GPS / Cloud backup
• Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)
• MicroSD/SDHC memory card slot

Samsung say that the smart phone market is an extremely important market for them with 660 million units sold each year, compared to 120 million digital cameras sold each year, so they believe that the best way to grow the camera market is to bring the two together. In a lot of ways this makes sense, particularly if you are used to Android smartphones and want the same kind of applications and creative options on your camera.

Apple will likely follow with a camera based on their  iOS, and Microsoft could be next. If this is accepted by the public, (and I think it will), we could soon see bigger sensors and who knows...future APS-c or Full Frame DSLRs could be equipped with similar capabilities.

Although the Galaxy camera cannot be used as a cell phone, I don't see why future models couldn't have that capability. Maybe one day, we will be able to alternate between a cell phone and a camera/phone, depending where we are and what we are doing.

Pentax has always been on the forefront of technology and I would be so proud of them if they could come out with a DSLR that also has Internet access and even phone access. Dreams do come true...sometimes.

Thanks for reading,

Yvon Bourque

Please stake a look at my e-books for all Pentax DSLR cameras.

Quick Specifications

Good looking small camera

Auto Mode

Shutter Priority

Aperture Priority

Emails

Mini Tablet

References of this post are from Ephotozine. Click here to read the entire review..

My friends, document your life, as it goes by a lot faster than you can imagine

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

 Hi Photographer friends,

I have been involved in photography, one way or another, since I was a teenager. I've always used Pentax cameras from the get go. I was looking at my shoe-boxes of print the other day, as I want to put my pictures in order and leave them to my two grown daughters, while I'm still kicking. I worked hard all those years learning the craft of photography and I think I succeeded in shooting fairly good images regularly. I shouldn't toot my own horn, and I'm not. I judge my images by the compliments I received.

Never-the-less, while looking at these pictures, I realized that about 90% of them were about scenes, places I visited, landscapes, beautiful sunsets, rare cars, and all kind of "people-less" images. Since I was often the picture taker, I have practically no pictures of myself. I have some pictures of my loved ones and friends, but that's about 10% of the pictures.

It's a little late to go back, and the precious moments I missed are only stored in my memory. I can't share them with anyone. Beautiful images of places, landscapes, sun sets, etc, are a dime a dozen. Pictures documenting your life are priceless.

My friends, document your life, as it goes by a lot faster than you can imagine. Take pictures of your children, your parents and your friends. You will cherish them later on in your life. Don't just take digital images, and  save them on your computer. Gather the images you like best and have them printed, then do it the old fashion way by storing them in albums or shoe-boxes.  There are no electronic in paper prints and unless your place burns down along with the pictures, you should be able to keep them for all of your life and pass them on to your children who could pass them on to their children, and so on. These are irreplaceable and actually in case of a fire, you need to save the people and pets first, immediately followed by your photo albums / shoe-boxes.

The current generation does take more pictures than any generation that preceded them, but they share them on Facebook, emails or saved them on  volatile hard drive, DVDs, memory sticks, or web sites that may not be there next week.  Trust me, the old way of making prints and putting them in albums is still the best way to conserve your precious memories. Computers will continue to evolve and the SDHC cards or DVDs and hard drives you use today may not be compatible with what will be available twenty years from now. Computers and storing devices will crash for sure, sooner or later. That is a fact, as mechanical and electronic devices all fail eventually.

I am using this blog to encourage my own daughters to listen to my advice. They do send me images of them and my grand children all the time, and I love that. I am making a printed album of them, but I urge them to get prints made out. There is so much joy in looking at photo albums or sorting through shoe-boxes full of old pictures. It brings family together. Twenty years from now, those pictures will be priceless. If you think twenty years is a long way ahead, just wait till you get there. You will be amazed as to how fast you got there. When you look forward, time seems to go so slow, but when you look backward, it's amazing how fast it went.

Here's some images of my daughters and some my girls sent me, not necessarily taken with a good ole Pentax camera, but mostly on their cell phones. Some images are from my shoe-boxes, when they were little girls.  (I will post about the cell phone phenomenon versus DSLR cameras in a future post.)

My girls at a very young age. (Scanned prints)

My girls a little older, showing sisterly love.  (Scanned prints)

My girls not so long ago. (Electronic file)

The following images are all priceless, but I don't think they were made in prints.

Will they still be available twenty years from now?

(Electronic file)

(Electronic file)

(Electronic file)

(Electronic file)

(Electronic file)

 (Electronic file)

(Electronic file)

Thank you for reading,

Yvon Bourque

Take a look at my e-books for Pentax Cameras. 

http://www.alettaphoto.com/categories/e%252dbooks/

They include the Pentax K-5, K-01 and the K-30.