PhotographyBanzai.com

Two friends and I visited another restaurant in the area. This time it was a Japanese style restaurant with various foods like yakisoba, udon, bentos, and sushi. For this site I will focus more on the media part of my excursion, you can see more about the restaurant in the link above. Equipment: Pentax Optio WG-2 digicam Nikon D7000 with the Nikon 50mm f1.8g lens I used the WG-2 for my video clips. The setting used was 1080p 30fps and with electronic SR on. As always, I need a lot more practice to make higher quality video captures. Simply put, move slow and brace your arms to avoid as much camera shake as possible. When editing the videos, I extract the audio from the clips and edit them in Audacity to make the mono recording into stereo as well as attempt some basic noise reduction.  For the photos, I used the Nikon D7000 in my U2 custom setting mode. This mode is set to aperture priority and -0.3 exposure compensation. I have automatic ISO selection on and set to 1/60th mi...

I went to a Mediterranean restaurant with a friend to try a place neither of us had been to and to take some food photos. I brought with me the small yet dependable Pentax Optio WG-II camera for some video and photos.  A few photos I had taken: Here's a copy of my food review:  I went to a Mediterranean restaurant with a friend to try a place neither of us had been to and to take some food photos. I brought with me the small yet dependable Pentax Optio WG-II camera for some video and photos. The restaurant was nice and simple with a few adornments that fit the theme. We checked that out before going there to see what was on the menu and noticed the statement "All our meat is 100% Zabeha/Halal."  That being unknown to me, I did a search on the Internet without much luck.  Or total order consisted of... Baklawa   A sweet multilayer pastry with honey and nuts.  I've had this occasionally from another place in town.  If you have never tried it, I suggest you do.  Simple, ...

The Pentax WG-2 has a special macro configuration that allows some unique images. In addition to the lens being capable of a 1cm macro mode, the camera comes with 6 while LED lights that surround the front element of the lens. This allows these extreme close ups to have sufficient light.  Here is a picture of the camera’s lens and macro lights: The white circles surrounding the lens glass are the LED lights. This function can be turned on or off at will. Getting a photo of your own eye isn’t the easiest thing to do. Especially with large cameras that are more capable of doing that from a technical standpoint. DSLRs are heavy and macro lenses on DSLRs are not always the best at auto-focus. With the WG-2, it’s pretty simple. Get the lens as close to your eye as possible and take a picture. There is some trial and error involved, but keepers are easily possible. Results are very impressive considering the equipment being used. Here are a few examples: The best photo of the set...

I recently consigned my last DSLR camera body. While I am still hanging onto some lenses for a potential local sale, I wanted to move forward with selling as much of my equipment as possible. I do have a very old digicam that I mostly used in 2006, but I thought something low cost, yet new, would be a good idea. The Optio WG-II line just dropped in price at my local camera shop, so while I was there, I picked up a solid black unit.  This of this article as basic overview of the camera before I’m able to do something more extensive with better equipment. Taking quality product shots and video for a detailed review isn’t really possible at the moment. Using it with one hand modification. Being taken seriously with a small camera. Get a second battery (especially with small digicams). How to hold a small camera. Optical fisheye effect with the WG-II (not the digital filter). As you can tell… I’m pretty enthusiastic about it so far. Of course, the results are not of a DSLR level, but ...

Pentax USA just recently offered a few rebates on their cameras and lenses. While I won’t go into the issues regarding fluctuating lens prices here (making the rebates utterly pointless), I will say a few of the camera bodies did see some decent price reductions. The Pentax 645D is only $8,799.95 now, a $1200 price reduction (It just so happens the 55mm f2.8 lens is $1200…). My guess is that they will be announcing a replacement this month at Photokina. 645D I had the pleasure of using one for a short time a few years ago. I was generally impressed with the camera, but even at that time saw a few issues that should have been better considering the level that camera is at. The thing was slow and didn’t have all of the features a normal 35mm SLR would have. Keep in mind the 645D was more targeted to this side of the market than it was to those ludicrously expensive medium format back and systems. While I’m not currently financially capable of owning one of these, it would be a gre...

I did a quick test on three lenses that I have to see if they are Parfocal or Varifocal. If you are unfamiliar with those terms, Parfocal is a type of zoom lens that does not have focus shift when the lens is zoomed throughout the focal length range. This is a great feature for video work because the photographer can achieve focus and zoom without the need to refocus.  It is also helpful in general photography where a photographer can zoom in, achieve focus, and then zoom out to take a more wide angle image. Varifocal lenses are basically the opposite in that as the focal length changes, the focal point will move. These tend to be easier to design and construct, so most photography lenses are Varifocal. I tested the Pentax 10-17mm Fisheye, the Pentax DA 50-200mm f4-f5.6 WR, and the DA 18-55mm f3.5-f5.6. The results were mixed. While depth of field shouldn’t be too much of an issue, it was still difficult to detect a significant enough change or no change at all to say whether a len...

I was able to have a brief hands on with the new Pentax K-30 camera body at Camera Craft Inc. in Rockford, Illinois. EDIT, they closed down when the owner retired.  My overall impressions: The camera feels a lot more solid than I expected it to be. Of course, the casing is all plastic, but it has a solid feel to it. From what I can recall from the K-x and K-r, they feel cheap compared to the K-30 by a good margin. The grip is probably one of the better ones to come out from Pentax. It isn’t as soft as the K-5, but is actually a bit better in fitting all of my fingers on the grip (instead of the pinky being off the camera. It still isn’t tall enough for my entire hand to be completely comfortable, but a bit better. The design reminds me of the K-10/K-20 and I can’t say I like that. I think Pentax’s best design from the Digital age would be the K-7/K-5 as well as the *ist D. There are some embellishments that I think might have a little bit of function to them, but their primar...

I went on a big excursion recently where I used off-camera flash and full manual setting control. The nice thing about Pentax cameras is that you can have a few conveniences in manual that make setting changes faster and more accurate.  Cameras and  Cactus V5  flash transceivers. For example, changing the green button functionality from “P Line” to “Av Shift” allows you to get a quick exposure reading that changes the aperture, but not the shutter speed. This is important when you are limited to the flash sync speed of your camera, because you don’t want the green button to select a shutter speed that will be too fast for the flash to function with. “P Line” (aka. Program Line) bases your sampled exposure on a number of simple options. There is one for maximum sharpness (MTF), one for maximum background blur, one for action, one for landscape, and so on. The flash sync speed is the fastest shutter speed that still allows for your camera’s sensor to be completely visible w...

The K-01 comes after the K-5 and K-r series of DSLRs. It was also proceeded by Pentax’s first mirrorless camera called the Q, however that camera was a completely new system. The K-01 appears to have a mixture of components from the K-5, and in some simple aspects, the Q camera.  The Pentax K-01 camera. It has an improved imaging engine that shares a few features of the Q such as manual video control with MPEG4 encoding and full time live-view, but primarily takes components and features from the K-5 series such as the 16mp sensor and K-mount. It is certainly a unique concept in the camera world being the first mirrorless to use an existing SLR system mount.  Personal appeal. I bought the K-01 as a replacement for my K-7 camera that was having issues. If you have visited my site before, you probably know by now that I frequently use two cameras at once. Each camera has a prime lens attached and serves a different purpose from the other. This allows me to have a nice range of poss...