- Joined
- Jan 16, 2006
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- 5,903
I mentioned in one or two other threads that I traveled for a cousin's wedding a couple weekends ago... well, what better way to celebrate than by acquiring some old and something new myself? 
(Sorry, nothing borrowed or blue!)
I'd been kind of hoping to pick up a 300mm F4 before my next WDW trip... the current DA* lens is a bit out of my price range but the early ones are also highly regarded. Then I saw this one on eBay, a bit older than I was planning (being not an SMC or even a Super Takumar)...
A little older, a little heavier (that pic is at max length with the built-in hood extended, but it's no pancake lens under any circumstance!)... but there are 18 reasons why I could not resist grabbing this one!
That is like camera porn to me - I looooove a lot of aperture blades.
You want a round opening, there ya are!
Here's the first shot I took, with it mounted on my K20D, at my son's swim lesson. Not too bad IMHO for a handheld shot at 450mm equivalent at 1/100th.
I will say - focusing such a beast just right is tricky! Your DoF is pretty small, and you do need to hold it very steady.
Here's another shot... you can see how it is missing the rubber for the aperture ring, which is at the front of the lens. Other than that, it's in very nice shape.
Now for the new... notice anything different about the camera it's attached to in that shot? Here's another view.
I bought myself a K-7! The prices had dropped a tiny bit, close enough where I decided to go ahead and pull the trigger. I'm glad I did - because this baby is simply awesome. I recently read DPReview's review of it, and while it was certainly a glowing review, it was typical DPReview in that it was overly technical, had a few errors, and totally missed some of the cool stuff about it, especially my first two observations:
It is really fast and it is really quiet! The shutter blackout is extremely quick; I haven't seen actual numbers but it has been called the fastest in its class, and I can certainly believe that. The entire camera is amazingly quick and responsive. And the sound! It sounds totally unlike most DSLRs, with a very quiet shhk-shhk sound instead of the usual clack-clack. While I was shooting during the wedding, it was like a whisper next to the racket of the D3 shutters going off nearby. People standing nearby won't even know that you're taking a photo.
There's a ton of other cool things, too:
The electronic level is great and works in portrait mode, too; that along with the automatic horizon leveling means that I have had no problem getting perfectly straight horizons.
The dust removal is now a quick and quiet piezo-ceramic element, as opposed to the K20D's relatively loud and violent sensor-shake.
The video capability worked wonderfully, I was able to take some F1.2 movies at the wedding with really nice quality. I plugged in a cheap external mike and my son had a great time singing into it while I took video.
The high-rez 3" screen is great, but pretty much par for the course now.
It is surprisingly small and light - I didn't notice as much but after almost 1k shots already, when I picked up the K20D for some of these shots, the extra weight was immediately obvious. The smaller size means that I might need to pick up a battery grip for my big hands, though.
The focus is once again improved a good bit over the K20D and by most indications is pretty much on-par with the competition - possibly a tiny bit slower in very low light but clearly more consistent at getting it right.
The 77-point metering works extremely well; for much of the time, I haven't even tried to use center-weighted or spot.
The new white balance is very effective in tough light (and again, typical DPReview - they're complained for years about poor AWB performance and this one gets it right and they hardly pay any mind.)
The metal body feels even more sturdy than the already-very-tough K20D.
That being said, nothing is ever perfect...
I miss that they got rid of the dedicated bracketing button of the K20D, meaning that it's a couple extra button-pressed. Nothing major but would still prefer a dedicated button - on the other hand, we do get a dedicated ISO button and the 4-way controller gives direct access to options, rather than pressing Fn first. (You also get very nice in-camera HDR if you want to output a jpg.)
The Live View mode is really very effective now but zooming in and out requires hitting the Info button to go between about 4-5 levels of zoom. Not horrible but it feels a little clunky. Actually, there may be another way; I'll have to check the manual. (One of my other annoyances was quickly remedied as soon as I realized that I could turn off the "status screen" that was showing my settings on the rear LCD after every shot!)
ISO performance seems to be about the same as the K20D, maybe even a tiny bit worse... but I do have noise reduction completely off, and it is quite film-like. It's also more consistent; I occasionally got more noise at the top and bottom of the frame in certain circumstances with the K20D; no sign of that here.
Finally, there's the trick of learning a few new button placements... not such a big hassle and I've got most of them down now. I should be all set for January!
All in all - it's really an amazing, no-excuses DSLR, which has many uniquely appealing elements and can really stand toe-to-toe with any APS-sensor DSLR out there. Yes, I am very happy!
Now, that's two things off my "to get before next trip" list... now on to the R-Strap! Oh, and since this had a wedding-related title, here's one of my shots from the wedding.
(Sorry, nothing borrowed or blue!)I'd been kind of hoping to pick up a 300mm F4 before my next WDW trip... the current DA* lens is a bit out of my price range but the early ones are also highly regarded. Then I saw this one on eBay, a bit older than I was planning (being not an SMC or even a Super Takumar)...
A little older, a little heavier (that pic is at max length with the built-in hood extended, but it's no pancake lens under any circumstance!)... but there are 18 reasons why I could not resist grabbing this one!
That is like camera porn to me - I looooove a lot of aperture blades.
You want a round opening, there ya are!Here's the first shot I took, with it mounted on my K20D, at my son's swim lesson. Not too bad IMHO for a handheld shot at 450mm equivalent at 1/100th.
I will say - focusing such a beast just right is tricky! Your DoF is pretty small, and you do need to hold it very steady.
Here's another shot... you can see how it is missing the rubber for the aperture ring, which is at the front of the lens. Other than that, it's in very nice shape.
Now for the new... notice anything different about the camera it's attached to in that shot? Here's another view.
I bought myself a K-7! The prices had dropped a tiny bit, close enough where I decided to go ahead and pull the trigger. I'm glad I did - because this baby is simply awesome. I recently read DPReview's review of it, and while it was certainly a glowing review, it was typical DPReview in that it was overly technical, had a few errors, and totally missed some of the cool stuff about it, especially my first two observations:It is really fast and it is really quiet! The shutter blackout is extremely quick; I haven't seen actual numbers but it has been called the fastest in its class, and I can certainly believe that. The entire camera is amazingly quick and responsive. And the sound! It sounds totally unlike most DSLRs, with a very quiet shhk-shhk sound instead of the usual clack-clack. While I was shooting during the wedding, it was like a whisper next to the racket of the D3 shutters going off nearby. People standing nearby won't even know that you're taking a photo.
There's a ton of other cool things, too:
The electronic level is great and works in portrait mode, too; that along with the automatic horizon leveling means that I have had no problem getting perfectly straight horizons.
The dust removal is now a quick and quiet piezo-ceramic element, as opposed to the K20D's relatively loud and violent sensor-shake.
The video capability worked wonderfully, I was able to take some F1.2 movies at the wedding with really nice quality. I plugged in a cheap external mike and my son had a great time singing into it while I took video.
The high-rez 3" screen is great, but pretty much par for the course now.
It is surprisingly small and light - I didn't notice as much but after almost 1k shots already, when I picked up the K20D for some of these shots, the extra weight was immediately obvious. The smaller size means that I might need to pick up a battery grip for my big hands, though.
The focus is once again improved a good bit over the K20D and by most indications is pretty much on-par with the competition - possibly a tiny bit slower in very low light but clearly more consistent at getting it right.
The 77-point metering works extremely well; for much of the time, I haven't even tried to use center-weighted or spot.
The new white balance is very effective in tough light (and again, typical DPReview - they're complained for years about poor AWB performance and this one gets it right and they hardly pay any mind.)
The metal body feels even more sturdy than the already-very-tough K20D.
That being said, nothing is ever perfect...
I miss that they got rid of the dedicated bracketing button of the K20D, meaning that it's a couple extra button-pressed. Nothing major but would still prefer a dedicated button - on the other hand, we do get a dedicated ISO button and the 4-way controller gives direct access to options, rather than pressing Fn first. (You also get very nice in-camera HDR if you want to output a jpg.)
The Live View mode is really very effective now but zooming in and out requires hitting the Info button to go between about 4-5 levels of zoom. Not horrible but it feels a little clunky. Actually, there may be another way; I'll have to check the manual. (One of my other annoyances was quickly remedied as soon as I realized that I could turn off the "status screen" that was showing my settings on the rear LCD after every shot!)
ISO performance seems to be about the same as the K20D, maybe even a tiny bit worse... but I do have noise reduction completely off, and it is quite film-like. It's also more consistent; I occasionally got more noise at the top and bottom of the frame in certain circumstances with the K20D; no sign of that here.
Finally, there's the trick of learning a few new button placements... not such a big hassle and I've got most of them down now. I should be all set for January!
All in all - it's really an amazing, no-excuses DSLR, which has many uniquely appealing elements and can really stand toe-to-toe with any APS-sensor DSLR out there. Yes, I am very happy!
Now, that's two things off my "to get before next trip" list... now on to the R-Strap! Oh, and since this had a wedding-related title, here's one of my shots from the wedding.
I am waiting to see if anything comes out between the K-x and K-7 and also waiting to see if Samsung does anything interesting, but I am wanting to upgrade. Just waiting to see what will fit the budget. FYI for you... teenagers are expensive!!!!!!! and pre-teens are not much better! 
At least my other hobby, bodybuilding, only costs me about $15/month. 
I've even started thinking about a VG but don't really want the added weight and bulk. That feature (and many other things on the camera) sound terrific. 
The K20D is going up for sale; I think that the Katz-Eye screen should help it get a pretty good price. (I need to decide if I'm going to put one in the K-7... probably will but have to let the wallet cool off first!) My wife is still using our K100D occasionally; we will probably pick up a colored K-x for her in the future. (The high ISO performance of the K-x is apparently really impressive, maybe the best yet seen from an APS camera... so maybe I'll have to borrow hers when doing dark ride shots. 
)
).
