I'm pondering

Ivar Dahl-Larsen

Well-Known Member
on buying a Pentax K30, brand new for 450£. Why, well maybe because it has the toughness, the lightness, the smallness, the water resistance, the good ISO levels, the fantastic dynamic range and because I can use my Pentax 50mm/1,7 together with my X-E1 with 18mm and the other with 35mm. It'll turn out to be more like the ones I know here with Merrills. Fast primes on each and no changing of lenses and lastly because it cost less than half of an XT1. Still pondering mates, but not for long. I'll skip the water resistant kitlens though. Any viewpoints are welcome......:) And did I mention stabilisation in the camera effecting any lens on?
 
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Shoot film or go home! ;)

Just kidding Ivar. I know next to nothing about the digitals, but I support any decision you make. :)
 
The Pentax output has always impressed me, for a while I wonder if I aught to have got one over the Olymous OM-D at the time of the Olympus purchase. Though I went for the smaller size which is why I chose what i did. The colours and tones are attractive to me so I can hope to see some images soon Ivar.I may be wrong but I think Rense uses a Pentax?
 
Thank you Julian. It may look a little foolish of me bringing this pondering out here. I should certainly be able to make up my mind after all the reviews being posted by almost anyone about this one. But again, it's interesting to see other peoples viewpoints and especially here. The K30 kind of impresses me and I guess I,m inclined towards that decision within a short time.
 
I meant buy a Merrill (all three in fact), the XT1 and the K30. Problem solved, although it might lead to other problems..............

Seriously, I understand why you are considering the K30 but I have never used a Pentax camera ever.
 
I meant buy a Merrill (all three in fact), the XT1 and the K30. Problem solved, although it might lead to other problems..............

Seriously, I understand why you are considering the K30 but I have never used a Pentax camera ever.
There's always a first time Paul. Which it isn't for me. Pentax is unfortunately underrated and this one is very, very good. I have actually decided on buying the K30. It can take its own lenses from way back as well as Nikons, Canons, Leica etc...with an adapter. Cheers mate.
 
How dare the summon me here without any offering ...

;)

I'm so out of touch with digital cameras now to be honest... Though the people I know who shoot pentax speak of tem very highly. They always seem to work in sensible ways though.
 
Well Hamish, blame it on Pete, he summoned you and obviously for the wrong reason;). I guess I'll have to trust myself again when it comes to it:rolleyes:. Thanks anyway, and you are right. The best car you have and always had is the one you are having now or are about to buy, as they say. But it is a good camera, on par with XT1 with optical viewfinder and not pentaprism. So much for the commercial.:D Thanks for your comments mate.
 
On the other hand....If you care to read all this from an Ikon;
"
“Photography hasn’t changed since its invention.” How many times have you thought your photography would improve if you had that bigger better camera or that faster lens?

If the art of photography hasn’t changed since the day it was discovered then to improve our craft we need to move away from climbing the equipment ladder and focus on improving and developing our photography eye.

1. Focus on Capturing the Decisive Moment
The great photographs don’t capture a view they capture the emotion of a single second. Take a look at the photographs you have taken over the last year how many of the images do you engage with emotionally?

Our passion shouldn’t be for photography but the desire to capture that decisive moment. Defining what we mean by the decisive moment is virtually impossible but I do think we know when we miss it.

How many times have you missed that shot you know would have been the perfect capture. You get the second before and the second after but you know there was one photo that you missed?

2. Engage in Photographic Reportage
I love the phrase ‘photographic reportage’, a single photographic capture should tell a story. The photograph shouldn’t be contrived or meticulously set up but be a natural moment that contains enough information for the audience to read the preceding moments and decide themselves what happens next.

3. Engage with your Subject
The concept of subject is all around us, we can’t escape it. The challenge is learning to select those ‘essential’ subjects that we need to communicate our story. Contrived photographs cannot capture the true reflection of a person’s world, something I will most certainly have at the forefront of my mind the next time I lift my camera to capture a portrait.

4. Be Pre-occupied with Composition
Composition is the recognition of a rhythm; it is the true art of photography. Moving the camera a few millimeters towards a subject can completely transform the resultant capture. Cartier-Bresson was a true master of composition.

Composition should be our focus and preoccupation. In many ways it is where the photograph is made and a badly composed image can seldom be rescued by reconstruction or cropping in postproduction. It is said Henri Cartier-Bresson shot solely with a 50mm lens. Perhaps the best way to master composition is to know a lens so well that is almost becomes an extension of the photographer’s eye?

5. Be less concerned with Technique
Henri Cartier-Bresson admitted that new chemical developments and processes brought with it new techniques but it was up to the photographer to decide what they did with them. In fact the book almost ignores technique altogether.

“I am constantly amused by the notion that some people have about photographic technique”……… “but there is a whole group of fetishes which have developed into the subject of technique”..

Having read how important Cartier-Bresson valued the concept of the “subject” the idea of the technique becoming the subject should be a wake up call to us all.

Over the last few months I have become obsessed with trying to master long exposure photography. My engagement with photography had become the desire to discover new locations where I could capture my long exposure images rather than actually engage with the location as a subject.

In Conclusion : The Hope
My photographic priorities for the incoming year have been considerably simplified having read Cartier-Bresson’s ‘Mind’s Eye’.

1. Subject
2. Reportage
3. Composition

Better still focusing on Subject, Reportage and Composition doesn’t require a new camera body, more megapixels or a new lens. What they require is a change of attitude and a desire to capture that decisive moment," end of quote.
Now there goes my purchase, - I think:D
 
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