Ricoh Watches

WG Watches: http://news.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/rim_info/2014/20140911_005805.html

Other Ricoh Watches: http://store.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/c/c3916/



Ricoh now becomes Seiko? :-o

How Choice of Camera Brand Says About You

Read this somehow old article, that is interesting and funny!

http://shutterfinger.typepad.com/shutterfinger/2010/10/what-your-choice-of-camera-says-about-you.html

"Pentax owners
 
You’re the sort of person who would buy a $1500 DSLR body so your stash of thread-mount, K-mount and M-mount lenses from decades ago (collectively worth $75.00 at a flea market or yard sale) won’t go to waste; either that, or you’ve never heard of a Spotmatic, Pentax LX or Takumar, you just think you look cool sporting a day-glo red camera that takes real pictures. You think people are laughing with you, not at you."

Wow, it is well said, I think! ;-D

Italian Navy Officer Uses Pentax Gear

Source: Navy.81.cn (in Simplified Chinese, Goggle-translated English page here.)

The body and lens combo seems to be a FA*24/2 on a K-5.


Read Also:- 

Pentax Weapon Used by an US Soldier at Afghanistan

The Pentax Coffins! >:-o

The K-30 is in the Chinese style, for its top/head/front! :-o





On the other hand, the K-7/K-5 is in Western style! :-D



* All the pictures above are searched via Google Pics and linked directly to their respective web links as posted.

Now, I know why Pentax needed to hire Marc Newson to design the K-01! Otherwise, their own designers seemed to get no idea on what to do, so that they finally decided to copy ideas from something ordinary, which are yet much related to real-life! So, after all, as a Pentax user, would you prefer a "brick" or a "coffin"? Your take! Lol.. ;-p

Pentax Launches the Next Generation of HD+ and i10 Series Products!

For details, see the latest news reports by Reuters, PR-Inside.com and Business Wire and etc.

The following official web-page shows a summary of all the new products, at the Pentax Europe website, for instance:-

http://www.pentax.de/en/hi_line.php
(in English)

Btw, it seems that those guys at Pentax are loving the name of i10 and HD very much, so that they have to use it over and over again, even though actually they are now two different companies that sell completely different products, but yet with the same name, which they share as the "same" make of their products, and the "same" website domains as well! :-o

Pack a Gun to Protect Camera Gear from Airline Theft or Loss!? (in USA Only)

See:-

http://lifehacker.com/5448014/pack-a-gun-to-protect-valuables-from-airline-theft-or-loss

Sometimes, I do find that some US laws are funny. I just wonder why firearms could be transported legally so easily after all?! Yes, owning guns are human rights in the States, but how about the living rights for those innocent people who have been killed from year to year just because of this stupid policy? >:-(

This Film Accessory is Nice!

http://www.sirobako.com/smartphone/detail.html?id=005003000018

Who says "film is dead"? I really want to buy one!


Related:-

When the Super Pancake Meets Different Bodies~

"Film is Dead"! ;-)

What is This?

Touchy (English) via Jimmy Yen's Blog (Chinese).

Well, it gives those lonely boys a good excuse to touch on girls otherwise they could see nothing!

But the next problem will then be that the camera will continue to shoot after every ten seconds of touching! Interval shooting?

Have nothing better to do and interested in this product? Here are more product photos and its full technical specs!


View Also:-

True Fanboyism!

The Hoax Continues? Pentax K-z?

Further to the last story, the rumour continues!



Via: Photo Rumors.

But, the grammar is still wrong! The word "colors" should be "color" this time, in order to make it correct, as noun adjective should be singular! :-o Moreover, the word "select" is not a noun. As such, if it is used as a verb, it should be placed at the beginning!

It seems that someone has just read my last comment and intentionally added back the "s" but he has not been aware that it is yet incorrect in this case!

Nonetheless, if this is really true but not a hoax, those Pentax marketing guys should really go back to primary schools to re-learn the ABC of English and grammar! :-o And, in Germany, I'm afraid that they have to create another name for the same camera, too, as KZ simply means Concentration Camp over there! :-o

Update (3-22):-

Just seen this new post by Adam, owner of the Pentax Forums:-

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-news-rumors/179741-pentax-k-z.html

It is told that "more details about this will be revealed tomorrow...".

Now, I believe that this new camera should be real. It is because it has already been quite a long time for Adam for working closely with Pentax as well as other business partners like B&H and other camera dealers. As such, he could be considered as an insider essentially and his words about unrevealed new Pentax stuff could be treated more seriously.

K-01 Now Becomes Fashion Accessory!

See:-

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.222275714536798.45830.178088692288834&type=3

http://guestofaguest.com/paris/events/pentaxmarc-newson-and-darcel-15015-opening-at-colette

http://www.lofficielmode.com/2012/03/01/marc-newson-pentax-colette/

http://www.vogue.it/people-are-talking-about/parties-events/2012/03/marc-newson-pentax

http://www.puretrend.com/rubrique/fashion-week_r19/fashion-week-de-paris-morceaux-choisis-1er-pus_a62982/1 (Video)

Via: http://bbs.kakaku.com/bbs/K0000340246/SortID=14256193/ (Japanese)

Simplest is the Best?

The John's Phone seems to one of the simplest mobile phone designed ever. Similar to the K-01, it is a "designer" gadget as claimed and it offers you no more than a 2G phone that supports quad GSM frequencies. The full specifications is here.

The most interesting thing of it is that now the phone/address book and games are now back to paper and that the "stylus" of the phone is actually a ball pen! :-o ;-) The phone is cheap enough, though. For US$100, what do you want and would ask for more?

This is the design concept and rationale behind the John's phone. After all, to further appreciate this product, you can watch this YouTube unboxing video. And yes, it actually does have a monitor! But I don't think it would be easy enough to use for its position as placed on the phone's top.



(URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVuZxbsNwtQ)

Nonetheless, I don't like that glossy white colour version. It looks and feels too much like a toy. I think if I am really to get it, I would probably get the brown colour version, which looks far better to my eyes.


Related:-

My Idea of a K1000D

The *Sharpest* Pentax Ever! ;-p

http://www.pentax.it/

Who said that Pentax produced stuff are not sharp enough?! :-o ;-p

And, it seems that Italians like much the brand name of "Pentax", just read also the last related story below! :-)


Last Story:-

"Where There's Water There is Pentax"! :-o

Off-Topic Videos: Snooker 147 Breaks

This is off-topic but it's really amazing and fantastic, for a recent 147 maximum break in the latest Haikou World Open 2012! :-o Go watch yourself if you are interested. :-)

But speaking of those 147 snooker breaks, the following set the world record, for the faaastest 147 break ever achieved! After watching it and then back to the above, Macro Fu actually did it rather slowly~ ;->

The Super Large and Super Sensitive CMOS Sensor on Earth!

Canon really made it, they did no paperware at all!


(Above: the 202 x 205 mm, i.e. ~8 x 8 inches, Canon CMOS sensor (Left) Vs a 135 CMOS sensor (Right) - The 135 "Full Frame" sensor just looks like a dwarf in comparison!)

via http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20110915_477641.html

(Excite English Translation Here)

It is told that this new super large Canon CMOS sensor is of very high sensitivity that it can record the image of a shooting star at lightness/brightness level as low and as dim as 10th magnitude for an example work as below:-



Just for information, human eyes can see stars as dim as 6th magnitude at best and thus this sensor see much much things in the deep sky than we human do. Do note that the star brightness magnitude is of the same scale as EV steps of which each grade is of double/half of the brightness against the adjacent grades.

Some Pentaxians would then think that we have the 645D that has a "much" larger sensor. In particular, this is the official comparison:-



via http://www.pentax.jp/japan/products/645d/feature_1.html

So, as we can see, the 645D sensor is actually not that much larger after all.

"Where There's Water There is Pentax"! :-o

After using Pentax for more than twenty years, I've just realised today that Pentax actually makes water pumps and is indeed renowned for that! :-o

See: http://www.allpumpsdirect.co.uk/pentax-pumps;

and also (for example):-

http://www.cheapapumps.com.au/convertible_jet_pumps.html

http://www.chinayaqin.com/pentax.htm
(in Simplified Chinese; It is a large company and has large factories as told.)

A quick search on Google Image will find many more product images of the "Pentax", here are just some of the web images:-



I actually like much the slogan of "Where There's Water There is Pentax"! I now even know why our Pentax needed to create those weather-resisted DSLR bodies and WR lenses! And I do hope that the water is not a trouble(some) one, at least not as "trouble" as me in our Pentaxland!! Lol.. ;-D As for the colourful Pentax products, e.g., those in bright red and yellow colours (see above), I yet know where the idea was originally copied from!~

Btw, the "Pentax" has their official web-pages, but which seems to have been down or for restricted access only as there is always an error shown up when trying to access:-

http://www.pentax-pumps.it/ (Italian home)

Or http://www.pentax-pumps.it/en-US/website/index.aspx (US/English page, I suppose.)

But I just wonder why this direct link for yet a Pentax pump product catalogue (in pdf) hosted at their official site does work! This officially proves the existence of the Pentax pumps on this planet at least! ;-)

As Time Goes By.. (II)

Cameras are used to record life memories and history. Have you ever taken photos at the same place for the same subject over decades?

Saw this post before and I was touched..

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1036&thread=38240689



I have something similar to share this time, below are a set of photos which I took over decades, at the Victoria Peak of Hong Kong (Island) for the view of the Victoria Harbour, with different cameras. Click any of the thumbnail photos below to enlarge and view in a new window/tab.



Above both photos were taken with my Canonet QL17 GIII with different generations of the Kodak ISO 100 colour negative films, back to 1978 and 1987 respectively. The printed photos are then re-copied by my K-x in only 3R size. Yes, the first one is a colour photo! But the fading of colours is not only caused by time, but also at that time the very first generation of colour films were just producing very subdued colours.

Recently, I have re-visited the place at the Peak and took some evening/night scene with my K-r, actually exactly at the same place as the above second photo that was taken in 1987. Lens used is a DA16-45:-



Below is a slideshow of all the above four new and two old photos. Well, the changes for the views over the sunset time and over years can be seen more clearly, thanks to the bonus transitional effect of the slideshow!

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v313/RiceHigh/Gallery/Victoria_1978-2011/?albumview=slideshow


Read Also:-

Cameras, Photos and Memories - As Time Goes By..

My First Camera

The World First / Pentax First: My (Obsolete) Pentax Collection

Over Hong Kong: Serious Problem of Air Pollution Caused by Industrial Over Production :-(

An Online Photo Magazine with Photos Taken by Ladies Only

This magazine is in Traditional Chinese and should be originated from Hong Kong (I am not completely sure about it, though). Articles are in Chinese but there are many photos inside. The photos speak themselves and many of those are quite nice! (Some girls are quite nice, too! ;->) And, if you read Chinese, some articles are also quite interesting. Enjoy~

http://www.fillens.net/

There are 9 volumes published so far. Each volume is huge (in 100+ pages per issue, including some Ads). In fact, viewing magazines online is environment friendly, as it is almost green, as it seems to be. But yet, most of the online magazines are still somehow bandwidth hungry. After all, Earth resources are still being consumed!


Read Also:-

Vanishing of Traditional Printed Photo Media?

Over Hong Kong: Serious Problem of Air Pollution Caused by Industrial Over Production :-(

Japan Semiconductor/Imager Fabs and the Earthquake (and the End of the World, as It Could Be!)

I have seen people of the photo community have been worrying about the cease of production of the Sony (and Canon) sensors and imagers after the big earthquake. One of the readers at the Image Sensors World Blog has actually made an analysis and a nice summary on the situation. See the following location map of the major fabrication facilities in Japan:-

http://image-sensors-world.blogspot.com/2011/03/japan-fabs-and-earthquake.html



Btw, the Sony factories are all at the very southern part in the Japan main island and territory. But however, since now the radioactive particles have been flying in the sky all over Japan now and the emission has been increasing. This is somehow yet another disaster to Japan and actually to the Earth. As the half-life of those radioactive raw materials could be as short as 30 years. I think the soil of the Japanese main island would inevitably be polluted and the health of the people who live there are seriously endangered.

In fact, the Japanese government should allow the assistance from the US government for the cooling of their nuclear plants in the very beginning, which the US offered, but not only at the current stage, which could avoid this terrible disaster to happen. In fact, the foreign medias have started to doubt that the Japanese government had some secrets to hide which they just do not want to disclose these in the course of stopping the nuclear crisis if US is involved.

When one tragedy is happened one after another and the following one is more serious than the previous, this is really rather sad. Indeed the nuclear leakage is partially caused by human but not solely a natural disaster, which only triggered it. It has far more prolonged effect and more serious impacts even than the terrible earthquake and tsunami, which just happened "one-off". Sometime, we just have to sigh, stupid mankind is just the one who will destroy themselves at the end of the days when we or our predecessors will extinct eventually, just because of that we destroy the world and kill ourselves as a result! >:-(

Lastly, I just want to ask our buddies who have worried much just about the production of photo gear, what to worry about actually when the Earth will be destroyed and human cannot live on it anymore?! :-o Yes, the sky is falling! Yes, it is! +_+


Read Also:-

Statuses of Japanese Camera/Lens Plants After the Big Earthquake & Tsunami

The Power of the Nature: Strong and Cruel

Over Hong Kong: Serious Problem of Air Pollution Caused by Industrial Over Production

Statuses of Japanese Camera/Lens Plants After the Big Earthquake & Tsunami

Statuses of the Japanese camera gear factory plants after the Japanese historic earthquake and tsunami:-

1. Nikon high-end camera production halted with no expected resumption date:

http://www.asahi.com/business/update/0313/TKY201103130135.html
(Japanese Asahi News, in Japanese)

The damage to the factory is reported to be minimal, but both supplies of electricity and raw materials are in shortage and thus production must be halted and production resumption date cannot be expected at the current stage. The Agata Miyagi, where the Nikon factory is located, is actually one of the most serious stricken area and it is reported that at least one ten-thousand of people are lost at one almost completely destructed city (mainly by fire resulted from the earthquake).

2. Canon high-end lens plants in Japan ceased production:

http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0312/TKY201103120436.html
(Asahi News, in Japanese)

It is reported that several Canon factories have been damaged and the top of a factory has collapsed. Tens of the factory staff were injured and production was ceased.

3. Sony halted production and evacuated six factories in northeastern Japan:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-11/toyota-other-japanese-companies-assessing-damage-from-miyagi-earthquake.html

4. Workers at Panasonic's Lumix camera factory in Fukushima have been injured in the earthquake:

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/news/Panasonic_Lumix_plant_shaken_by_quake_Minor_injuries_news_306245.html

5. Production of Fuji X100 has been halted and marketing of the X100 will be delayed:

http://photorumors.com/2011/03/14/fujifilm-finepix-x100-production-halted-lens-hood-available-for-pre-order-and-more/


It is quite sad afterall. But human lives are far more important than all those asset losses anyway. I hope all the affected people are still well and they will recover soon.

As a side note, as most of us should have known, Pentax/Hoya has no camera/lens factory in Japan locally now and production should not be affected.

The Power of the Nature: Strong But Cruel

(Photo: Reuters, via SCMP.com)
(Photo: AP, via SCMP.com)

As we saw from the news yesterday, ferocious tsunami hit Japan after massive earthquake that caused serious damages and life loss. The photos and videos recorded for the disaster scenes during and after are indeed shocking, which faithfully showed us the reality of what's happening, which is rather cruel.

I wish to sincerely express my deepest condolences to all those killed, lost, hurt and their family members. Furthermore, it is really sad to see all those hard-worked efforts were destroyed within seconds. Yesterday was indeed a sad day to all Japanese and mankind. Sometimes, those natural disasters let us realise and think about again that how tiny we actually are.