Richie's blog

Blinded by the light

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Here's a new twist - a blind camera with no optics. Instead of taking a picture, it records the exact time you press the shutter button and then starts searching Flickr for images taken at the same time which it then downloads and displays - hours or days later.

Useful? Well, maybe as a gift to someone who has everything else, and I mean everything.

Bling-bling!

Pentax K10D LE

Pentax seems hell-bent on milking the K10D for every last drop. Here's a limited golden edition to commemorate the Camera Grand Prix it recently won: http://www.pentax.co.jp/english/news/2007/200748.html

It'll go nicely with the DA* lenses (also with golden trim) but it positively screams "steal me now!".

Leverage

Levers

Today, I was going to try combining a 2x teleconverter, an extension ring and a prime lens to make a 100mm 2.8 macro lens.

First, I put the TC closest to the camera, then the extension ring (20 mm Kenko) and on top the FA 50 1.4. Worked fine, but I didn't get close enough so I figured I'd swap the TC and the ring, so I did. Except when doing so, I managed to dislodge the little spring that actuates the aperture lever on my $1000 K10D camera.

Oops.

Back to the Future

AP50 with Spotmatic

Pentax has unveiled a prototype/design model 50th anniversary edition retro-styled K10D called the AP50:

Linky-linky: http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/other/2007/06/01/6368.html

Low, low, low

K110D front (stock photo)

Low-light, low-weight, low-cost, low-profile.

Back from the dead!

I got it back not five minutes ago. New main circuit board, built-in flash repair (although it wasn't broken I guess mine was part of that first batch with potentially bad flashes so they fixed it pre-emptively) and cleaned CCD. All free of charge. It seems Pentax' International Warranty really works.

Thank you, Pentax! :-)

ARGH!

Dead. Gone to the great beyond. Displaying naught but an "empty battery" icon on the top LCD. Deceased. This camera is no more. It's pushing up the daisies. It has kicked the great bucket in the sky. It has gone to meet it's maker after a mere ~5500 shots.

I am willing to bet real money that as soon as I send it away to be repaired, my back-ordered FA 50 will arrive promptly. Any takers? No? Didn't think so. This is the way of the Murphy.

VPN/HN

I've had my Pentax K10D for just under two months now and shot approx 4400 images with it. I saw a bit of vertical banding in the darkness on a moonshot once as I accidentally pushed the levels way too high in PP, that was it. Since then I've updated the firmware to 1.10 and I was pretty firm in my opinion that those who had visible banding now either had faulty cameras, did something really funky to them, or both. Another issue on the dpreview forums has been the appearance of crosshatch, or horizontal banding when the Pentax D-BG2 battery grip was installed.

First light

That's what they call it when they look through a new telescope for the first time - first light.

I've always been fascinated by it - the speed of, the colour of, and the properties of light. Ever since the first time I understood how RGB worked, how three different coloured lights could combine to create almost all other colours of the rainbow, I've been hooked on light. High on it, almost.

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