PhotographyBanzai.com

I received a message recently asking for some suggestions about a new lens to supplement his 18-55mm kit lens. Check out the conversation below because it might be helpful to you as well. I like helping people out, so feel free to send me messages if you have similar questions and think I would be able to help. I might feature it on the site as well. His initial message: Hello Scott Great reviews. I purchased the Kr Pentax and the 18-55 DAL lens came with it. Can you please recommend a lens for Portraits. I think taking portraits will help me make the money I would need for a better lens. Right now I would like to spend no more then 200.00 US Thanks again My first response: Are you only interested in new lenses? If so, you options are limited at $200. Pentax has a DA 35mm f2.4 AL around $200, but that is too wide angle to be considered a true portrait lens (zoom your current lens to 35mm to get a feel for the focal length). If that focal length agrees with you, the DA 35mm would...

I just finished editing my first collaboration video titled “A Low Cost Camera Flash or Lens First?” It’s not live on Youtube for your viewing enjoyment. 🙂 Youtube video link : This was one of my larger projects video wise. We shot the video portions on Sunday and I’ve been spending a good deal of time since then putting all of the pieces together. Here is a simple work list: Extract the audio from the recorded clips and clean it up. I did a good deal of audio editing this time to remove unwanted background noise as well as equalising the voice levels. I also fixed a few words, but missed one where I said “TLL” instead of “TTL” … Post-process the sample photos in Adobe Photoshop and create all of the still frames that the video needed. Do voice over work for the result photo descriptions and clean the audio up too. Create additional graphics like the name bars that show up at the beginning of the video. Edit everything together and adding all of the text as overlays. Review the v...

After doing some testing with the Chinon 55mm f1.7 I was really wanting to take the lens out. So after a meeting today I took the lens and the K-7 out for a stroll at one of the local parks near the Rock River. I’m pretty enthusiastic about the results considering I probably paid a pretty small amount for the lens quite a few years ago. Considering it’s an M42 without any data connection to the camera body, it’s extremely easy to use out in the field.  My setting overall:  Highlight correction on and shadow correction +2 on. User mode set to (P)rogram, I have the camera control the shutter speed and ISO while I handle the aperture. Switched primarily between f1.7 and f5.6 throughout the walk. The aperture setting f1.7 is surprisingly sharp and contrast-y.  Here are a few of the photographs ( full set on Flickr . Smugmug Flickr free accounts are now limited to 1000 photos, so these might not be available.): Using the manual focus ring with this lens is a dream compared...