Any opinions on the Pentax K100D?

[wkrider]

Ahh, piece of cake. I have that lens myself - very nice little lens. (I only wish mine was autofocus!)

What you want to do is set the aperture ring to the "A" setting - this puts the lens itself in auto-aperture mode and allows the camera to set that. You probably have the ring on another setting, which means that it's forcing the camera to work in aperture priority mode, which is why you've getting the Av setting. The viewfinder says "F--" because when the lens cannot communicate what aperture it's set to to the camera, so the camera doesn't know and just says "--" (this also means that it can't auto-meter unless you press the A-EL button.)

If it's not doing anything when you press the shutter, try putting it in manual focus mode. (I'm guessing this is a manual focus lens?) When the camera is set to autofocus, it won't fire the shutter on a manual focus lens unless it determines that it's focused. In manual focus mode, it'll fire no matter what.

Also, the "193" is the number of shots left on your memory card (I assume you're shooting in RAW on a 2gb card) and the "3" is the amount of shots left in the buffer, if you do continuous shooting. There's a setting in the custom menu to tell it whether or not to show you the remaining buffer shots on a half-press.

Hopefully that helps, let me know how it works. Don't feel bad, I had exactly the same questions when I first got my DL.

BTW, my manual-focus Sigma does not tell the camera the focal length, either. I'm not sure if yours is new enough to do that. I came up with a quick and easy way to add the focal length to exif data, I can give you that info if you like.

Oh, and if your lens doesn't have an "A" setting, there's a trick for that, too.

For reference, here's a shot I took with my Sigma 28mm 2.8...

Not too bad for a lens that'd been sitting untouched in my camera bag for several years!

Being a beginner of DSLR could you explain RAW photos to me please? What is the advantage and disadvantage to taking them?

Thanks

Nice picture by the way!! Hopefully the lens' that have been sitting around in my old camrea bag for years work that well.

 

[Groucho]

Being a beginner of DSLR could you explain RAW photos to me please? What is the advantage and disadvantage to taking them?

Sure thing.

Basically, a RAW file (the Pentax ones are .PEF files) is a "digital negative" - it's exactly what the camera sensor captures, without any modification by the camera's software. You'll get basically the same photo (all else being equal) that any other camera with the same sensor (in the K100D's case, all 6mp Pentax and Nikons) would get. Along with that raw data, it does store the camera's "suggested" information for white balance, sharpness, color levels (bright vs natural), etc.

The raw files are much larger since there's no compression - about 10 megs vs usually around 2-3 megs for the JPGs. Most picture viewers won't deal with the .PEF files and those that do are generally pretty slow in loading them - so you'll have to do some post-processing. If you want, you can just use the software that comes with the camera to process them all using the values (white balance, etc) that the camera suggested, and you'll end up with the photos in ready-to-use JPG format, only slightly larger and better quality than if they were taken with the camera itself.

The big advantage is that you can easily change things like white balance after the fact. You won't have to worry about changing the white balance settings when you're shooting by tungsten light (like most indoor places) - just pick those photos out and use the Pentax Photo Laboratory (or other raw conversion software) and change the white balance then. You also have more dynamic range than with the JPG, which makes it easier to brighten up or darken your photos without losing detail.

It's just one more step but it's worth doing IMHO. I did switch back to JPG mode when taking on-ride photos so that I could take more in succession, as the buffer gives you room for more JPG photos than RAW ones.

Hopefully this answers your question... if not, ask again and I'll try to clear up any confusing part of it.

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

Ahh, piece of cake. I have that lens myself - very nice little lens. (I only wish mine was autofocus!)

What you want to do is set the aperture ring to the "A" setting - this puts the lens itself in auto-aperture mode and allows the camera to set that. You probably have the ring on another setting, which means that it's forcing the camera to work in aperture priority mode, which is why you've getting the Av setting. The viewfinder says "F--" because when the lens cannot communicate what aperture it's set to to the camera, so the camera doesn't know and just says "--" (this also means that it can't auto-meter unless you press the A-EL button.)

If it's not doing anything when you press the shutter, try putting it in manual focus mode. (I'm guessing this is a manual focus lens?) When the camera is set to autofocus, it won't fire the shutter on a manual focus lens unless it determines that it's focused. In manual focus mode, it'll fire no matter what.

Also, the "193" is the number of shots left on your memory card (I assume you're shooting in RAW on a 2gb card) and the "3" is the amount of shots left in the buffer, if you do continuous shooting. There's a setting in the custom menu to tell it whether or not to show you the remaining buffer shots on a half-press.

Hopefully that helps, let me know how it works. Don't feel bad, I had exactly the same questions when I first got my DL.

BTW, my manual-focus Sigma does not tell the camera the focal length, either. I'm not sure if yours is new enough to do that. I came up with a quick and easy way to add the focal length to exif data, I can give you that info if you like.

Oh, and if your lens doesn't have an "A" setting, there's a trick for that, too.

For reference, here's a shot I took with my Sigma 28mm 2.8...

Not too bad for a lens that'd been sitting untouched in my camera bag for several years!

Wooooohooooooo
Thankyou thankyou thankyou. It does work. I had to set thelens to "A" . Funny for a mini wide it's not so widw lol. My pentax 18-55 lens is wider. But it's cool I have another working lens. All I have to do is figure our what i'm gonna use it for.

 

[Groucho]

Wooooohooooooo
Thankyou thankyou thankyou. It does work. I had to set thelens to "A" . Funny for a mini wide it's not so widw lol. My pentax 18-55 lens is wider. But it's cool I have another working lens. All I have to do is figure our what i'm gonna use it for.

excellent, glad to hear that it's working. I did go through exactly the same things when I first tried my old lenses... since my 35mm couldn't auto-meter, I had never used the "A" setting before.

As for width, remember that it was created long before DSLRs existed... 28mm was fairly wide. The kit lens at 18mm is equal to 27mm on a 35mm, so basically the same. The 28mm on your DSLR is now equal to 44mm on a 35mm thanks to the 1.5 crop factor.

For a really wide lens, it's hard to beat the Zenitar 16mm fisheye.

 

[wkrider]

Groucho,

Thanks for the information. I REALLY appreciate it. I hope you don't mind if I throw more questions your way in the future. Tlak later.

Mark.

 

[Groucho]

No problem at all, glad to help!

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

Thanks Groucho.
I do have another question for you. Sorry to hyjack the thread. I'm sure others are courous too. How do you compare optical zoom to mm zoom on a DSLR. I have a 200mm zoom on my pentax what would that be if it was a optical zoom? Another way to ask is. I have a point and shoot that is 10 x's optical zoom. What would that be in mm? I hope that makes sence. I have wondered that for some time now.
Thanks

 

[Groucho]

No problem.

Generally, optical zoom is compared to zoom on a 35mm camera (since DSLRs are inconsistent depending on the crop ratio.) I know off the top of my head that 12x zoom equals 432mm on a 35mm camera. A quick net search reveals 10x = 380mm. 8x seems to have different meanings - I found 280mm, 290mm, and 320mm listed. 6x is 210mm.

If you have a 200mm lens on your Pentax DSLR, you just have to multiply that by your crop ratio, which is 1.5, so it's equivalent to a 300mm on a 35mm... or, approximately an 8x zoom on a PnS camera.

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

Thankyou again.

 

[wkrider]

Well, I went to the local Ritz camera shop and both my existing 35mm lens' fit (SMC Pentax-A 1:2 50mm and the Auto Zoom 1:4.0-5.6 f=70-210mm), I guess that makes up my mind as to which camera I am buying.

 

[Groucho]

Great! I'm sure you won't regret it.

Those pesky Ricoh lenses are pretty unusual. Any lens with a "real" Pentax (including Sigmas, Tamrons, Vivitars, Quantarays, etc) mount will work. Unfortunately it means that the value of used lenses has gone up a lot over the past couple years, as you can see by checking eBay...