PhotographyBanzai.com

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...

One of the nice things about shooting with Pentax is that pretty much every lens that was made for K-mount will work on current DSLR cameras (the same can be said of M42 screw-mount with an adapter). There are probably a few exceptions, but I personally don’t know of any. This lens I’ll be looking at today is a fully manual telephoto prime lens with a large aperture.  The lens has some heft to it! A lens with specifications like this would cost hundreds of dollars if it had auto-focus and current-day lens coating. The reality is that it’s a bargain bin lens that can be had for probably around $50. I had bought this lens quite a few years ago from keh.com expecting a “generic 135mm f2.8” lens, and that’s what I got. From what I can tell, Focal was a brand-name for K-mart or Sears and MC stands for multi-coating. Technical specifications for the lens: Lens Mount: K-mount Lens Construction: black metal with rubberized focus ring Angle of View: 18 degrees (11 degrees in APS-C) Apert...