Pentax 17 - An Olympus Pen after 60 Years?

The vertical 135 half frame, the purely-guessed manual zone focusing, manual winding and rewinding, automatic electric-eye metering, a slow fixed wide-angle lens, the very limited speed of shutter.. Now I believe that Pen stands for Pentax in 2024. ;-p And recently, I have been able to find two excellent condition Pens (of different models) each of which only costs me about 1/4th the cost of a brand-new Pentax 17, should I still need to go for the 17? :-D The Oly Pens could select the aperture which is impossible for the Pentax. In the mean time, it's time for me to pick my Canon 17 to shoot again shortly. Thank you, Pentax (Ricoh)! At the end of the day, the Canon 17 is a much more precise rangefinder anyway.

The LA-KE1 Monster Adapter is now Put On Sale

The Chinese Taobao website has already had the Chinese made LA-KE1 adapter put on sale (click here for one of the product links).

B&H also accepts pre-orders for this product and I think it will be available in the US very soon.

However, it can be seen in the comment section of the above Taobao product link from the users who have already purchased the adapter about the various issues such as its power hungriness and overheating, not supporting quite some Pentax AF lenses including the film FA50/1.4 and the digital DA17-70 and DA*200, as well as some noticeable delay in AF with the FA Limited lenses (and the AF is not quite smooth, too) and etc.

I hope this adapter will be improved later for better performance and compatibility, by means of firmware update and/or hardware revision. Not until that I shall consider to buy one for playing and use of my existing Pentax glass with my Sony FF mirrorless body.

EISA Awards 2020-21 for Photo Gear

EISA has announced their awards this year for photographic equipment:

https://eisa.eu/awards/photography/

Without any surprise, there is no Pentax gear on the list. Just because there was only one new product of Pentax last year. And even worse, without any innovation, what achievement is expected? :-(

When the X-T4 and GFX 100 Produced Images Look the Same

Via FStoppers

I am afraid that same case applies for the Pentax K-New Vs the 645Z, which they have exactly the same APS-C and 44x33mm sensors respectively and that the final conclusion drawn would possibly be the same. :-P

Direct Comparison of D FA*85/1.4 against Zeiss Otus 85/1.4 (Tested in the Field)

A Pentax user at the Chinese Xitek Pentax forum shares his friend's sample photos for a direct side-by-side comparison made between the Pentax D FA* lens (put on a K-1 body) and the Zeiss Otus 85/1.4 lens (put on a Panasonic S1R). Here we go:

(Left: Pana+Zeiss, Right: Pentax; Click to Enlarge in around 2000 to 3000 pixels in width)












EXIF data are partially preserved in the original samples in the original post. Despite that the Pentax pics tend to be darker (and the tester also made some exposure adjustment by himself for some pics) and that the Pana pics tend to be over-exposed a bit, the resolution of the Pentax lens seems to be better when the lenses are wide-opened but yet the Pentax Star lens does exhibit some obvious purple fringing at large apertures, however.

Btw, I prefer the colour rendition of the Pentax gear over the Zeiss on Pana combo. :-)

For other standalone samples of the D FA* lens (with key EXIF), they can be found in this post in the same forum thread. I just downloaded them all and have re-uploaded them here for fast and easy viewing:

(Click to Enlarge to around 2000 to 3000 pixels for the longer side, without EXIF)

Olympus is Running Out of Camera Business

https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/24/21301460/olympus-selling-camera-division-jip-vaio

Review of 21mm Full Frame Lens Optical Designs

 

Pentax DA 21mm F3.2 (APS-C)

Norton 21mm F1.4

 

Skopar 21mm F4

 

 Ultron 21mm F1.8

Voigtlander 21mm F1.4

Carl Zeiss 21mm F2.8

Comparing the Optics of the Contemporary Giant 85mm Lenses

1. Pentax DFA 85/1.4: 12 elements in 10 groups, 1255g (without hood), 82mm filter thread

2. Canon RF 85/1.2: 12 elements in 10 groups, 1195g, 82mm thread

3. Sigma Art 85/1.4: 14 elements in 12 groups, 1130g, 86mm thread

4. Zeiss Otus 85/1..4: 11 elements in 9 groups, 1200g, 86mm thread 

Well, whilst the new Pentax is similar to the Zeiss in design (but with one additional element), it wins in weight amongst the four, which is actually the heaviest 85mm prime ever made on Earth. Good! ;-P

Who Will Buy This?

Metabones Devil's Speed Booster Q666 0.50x

Any market? I just wonder.. :-o

Does the New DFA50 Look Like the Sigma Art?

BCN Japanese Market Results in 2016

https://www.bcnaward.jp/award/gallery/2017/hard/p2.html

(in Japanese, or Google-translated English page here)

Congrats Ricoh! You've got a 2nd-runner up among 3 players in the DSLR battlefield! Well done! :-P

Btw, it is interesting to note that Nikon has been beaten by Sigma in lens sales. Sigma is really strong nowadays. They had really brilliant marketing, IMHO! Besides, Canon has taken over the 2nd place from Sony for the mirrorless market share, well..

Colour Tendency of the LCD Monitor of K-1 Vs Canon 5Dlll's

http://forum.xitek.com/thread-1633920-1-1-1.html

(in Simplified Chinese)

Related:  Tuning the LCD Display of the K-1

DA*55 F1.4 Vs Carl Zeiss Planar 50 F1.4 Vignetting Test

https://flic.kr/s/aHskARK2YN

Shootout Again! 645D Vs A7R

I think I have been for long not posting shootout test and here it is, for my old cameras! ;-)

Measurbate and discover by yourself, for all the differences! Original photos are available for viewing by clicking the "Download" option per photo under album! :-D

https://www.flickr.com/photos/48733800@N06/sets/72157651768054944

EXIF data is available for all photos. Pairs of test shoots were taken at almost the same time for the same scene.

Lens used for A7R is a Canon EF35mm F2 (AE and AF adapted) and a FA645 45mm F2.8 for the 645D, for almost identical FoV.

Resolution Shootout: K-3 II Vs E-M5 II Vs D810 Vs 645Z

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/pentax-k3-ii/pentax-k3-iiTECH2.HTM

Yet Another Sensor Benchmark Other Than DxOMark - SensScore

http://www.senscore.org/

Canon, Nikon, Sony and Pentax digital camera bodies are tested, further categorised by Full Frame or APS-C. Unfortunately, the FF Pentax is dimmed out, since there is yet no FF Pentax DSLR body of any up till now.

The published scores do look to be more sensible than those of the DxO results as resolution is now measured and at every ISO. However, the detailed formulas are not disclosed, unlike what DxoLabs have done, unfortunately.

IQ Shootout: 645Z Vs D810 Vs 5D3

http://info.xitek.com/product/201411/12-164898.html
(in Simplified Chinese)

Side by side 100% crops on different Field-of-View can be found here, here and here. The lenses used for the tests and respective settings are also remarked.

New Q Lens Patents (F2.8 Tele Zoom Macro and F1.8 Tele Prime)

http://lovepentax.blogspot.com/2014/05/06-telephoto-zoom-macro.html



http://lovepentax.blogspot.com/2014/05/pentax-09-telephoto-prime-lens.html



All Q lenses are designed for 1/1.7" sensors for their image circle, of course, which seems to be the maximum size of a sensor that can be put into any Q body.

Speaking of lens patents, RP has yet got another new lens patent of an ultra-wide lens used with 43 sensors, but what 43 camera and system they have? So, this is mysterious:

http://egami.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2014-08-10



N.B. All the original links above are in Japanese.

Only Pentax is Not Supported but All Other Major Camera Systems

http://www.nissindigital.com/i40_spec.html

"For Canon, Nikon, Sony DSLR System, 4/3 & Fujifilm mirrorless System"

Ony Pentax is not supported and Nissin had no interest to make a Pentax variant for their products! The reason behind must be sound..

Congrats, Pentax! It is noted that Leica is also not supported and hence Pentax has succeeded to become a Leica! That must be great and a really good news for Pentaxians! :-o

Pentax "Negative" Reports Today

Stuck K-3 Vertical Grip: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3679291

HD 20-40 IQ Not Good, 4 copies found the same, i.e., still bad: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3677497

HD 20-40 actually not supporting FF: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3680694

Yet another Pentaxian switched: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3679693

Okay, after all these "negative" news, here is a better one: The originally much overpriced DA560 now has its price cut quite significantly: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3680108

Yes, all these news are read from the front page of the DPR Pentax forum, which I have not visited for long actually.