Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Moon Photography Tips

Digital Photography School posts a great set of tips to make moon photography simple.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Photokina 2008 Is Upon Us! Pentax Has New Toys

So here's a slew of links from DPReview, as Photokina 2008 is now upon us. Pentax has delivered a few new items, according to the newsfeed, here are some of the more interesting ones:


  • The K-m (AKA K2000), an entry level, 10mp system which is probably based on a stripped down K10D. The hands on notes how it's engineered to be lightweight, has newly engineered "DA L" lenses (24g lighter). Compared to the K200D it's got a lower end AF system (5 vs 11 areas), goes to ISO 3200 vs 1600, and has slightly faster FPS. It is also 2.3oz lighter.
  • The new Pentax smc DA-L lenses got their own entry as well, showing off the new DA-L 18-55 and 50-200. Super lightweight blah blah (7.1oz and 8.3oz respectively). Not particularly exciting, though I'm interested in seeing some IQ tests comparing the DA-L lenses to their DA counterparts.
  • Along with the DA-L lenses comes Two New DA* Lenses, a 60-250/f4 and a 55/f1.4. The 60-250 would be the complement to the 16-50 (though it'd be nice to fill in that missing 10mm in the middle). The 55/f1.4 will turn into a 75mm(ish) at 35mm, making it a nice portrait lens, but this doesn't excite me that much, but I like that Pentax if fleshing out their DA* lineup.
  • Last and definitely not least is the ultra-wide lens and 1.4TC announcement. Is a 15mm/f4 confuses me a bit, they have a 12-24/f4 already and the 10-17mm fisheye. I suppose this is case of ensuring that they have the DA* line in each of the "areas" already hit by the rest of the DA line.


So all in all not bad! I'm still happy with my K20D (even though my posting lately is proportional to my shooting lately), but seeing Pentax up the specs on their entry level models is nice. I can't quite afford any of the DA* lenses yet so I can't comment on the other ones (other than "donations accepted" :)


One thing I do note is that they are putting a lot of investment into the DA[*] line, which says to me that Pentax is not working on some imminent full frame camera. If they were, I would guess we'd see less of the DA format (APS style) lenses and more of the "F" series full frame ones appearing.


Who knows though, really what they have up their sleeves. Wonder what the rest of Photokina will bring?!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Tweaking nVidia Cards for Lightroom 2.0

Yea, so I've had a bit of a downtime photography wise lately, I've been searching for inspiration and am working on getting back in the saddle as it were. Still browsing the blogs for nifty bits of info to share though, which is where I found some nVidia tweaks for Lightroom 2.0 which are supposed to speed up the adjustment brush and previews. I'll be playing with this tonight to see how well it works, as right now Lightroom 2.0 feels way slower than it should :\