The Ricoh Pentax Japanese Calendar 2013

It is now available at the official Japanese Pentax Ricoh online shop:-

http://shop.pentax.jp/g/gS0097904/

I've linked the Pentax pictures as follows:-



They are all made with the Q and the K-01, but not anything Pentax else, nevertheless.

Q10 Watch!

Pentax Ricoh is entering the market of watches! Look!



http://www.pentax.jp/japan/news/2012/20121130.html (Japanese)

DC Watch Q10 Quick Samples (Side-by-side Against the Q for Two Sets)

http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/review/longterm/20121130_576137.html
(in Japanese)

The pictures speak for themselves, just read the EXIF to check.

The Mirrorless Party

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO7rxitFLZg

The K-01 wasn't at the party, but he was passing by the house and "collected" the EOS M. The Pentax Q/Q10 had never appeared, though!

Twelve Years of 135 Full Frame Digital Cameras (Timeline 2012->2000)

Reference Source: Dpreview Digital Camera Timeline and individual camera pages.

Time	Camera	Resolution (in MP)	Sensor Make	Screen Size (in Inch)
Sep-2012	Canon EOS 6D	20.2	Canon	3
Sep-12	Leica M Typ 240	24.0	Cmosis	3
Sep-12	Leica M-E Typ 220	18.0	Truesense	2.5
Sep-12	Nikon D600	24.3	Sony	3.2
Sep-12	Sony RX1 (Fixed Lens)	24.3	Sony	3
Sep-12	Sony A99	24.3	Sony	3
Sep-12	Sony NEX-VG900	24.3	Sony	3
May-12	Leica M-Monochrom	18.0	Truesense	2.5
Mar-12	Canon EOS 5D Mark III *	22.3	Canon	3.2
Feb-12	Nikon D800/E	36.3	Sony	3.2
Jan-12	Nikon D4	16.2	Nikon	3.2
Oct-11	Canon EOS-1D X	18.1	Canon	3.2
Jun-11	Leica M-9P	18.0	Truesense	2.5
Oct-09	Nikon D3S	12.1	Nikon	3
Sep-09	Leica M-9	18.0	Kodak	2.5
Aug-09	Sony A850	24.6	Sony	3
Dec-08	Nikon D3X	24.5	Sony	3
Sep-08	Canon EOS 5D Mark II	21.0	Canon	3
Sep-08	Sony A900	24.6	Sony	3
Jul-08	Nikon D700	12.1	Nikon	3
Aug-07	Nikon D3	12.1	Nikon	3
Aug-07	Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III	21.1	Canon	3
Aug-05	Canon EOS 5D *	12.7	Canon	2.5
Sep-04	Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II	16.6	Canon	2
Mar-04	Kodak DCS Pro SLR/c	13.5	Kodak	1.8
Feb-04	Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n	13.5	Kodak	2
Sep-02	Canon EOS-1Ds	11.0	Canon	2
Sep-02	Kodak DCS Pro 14n	13.7	Kodak	2
Feb-01	Pentax MR-52 (Never Marketed)	6.0	Philips	2
Jul-2000	Contax N Digital	6.0	Philips	2

* My Purchased Models

There are a total of 30 models (29 marketed) and 2012 is really the Year of 135 Full Frame digital cameras in which 11 new models have been rolled out! Btw, let's see if we could at least hear some news of a Pentax FF within 2013! >:-o


Read Also:-

Pentax SLR Cameras 1952-2011

Major Canon Cameras 1930 to 2010

Death of My Second Pentax SLR

(Above: My MZ-30 with my FA 43 Limited)

The week before, when I tried to use my MZ-30 for shooting film, the light meter first went nuts and then the mirror locked up after pressing the shutter and it did never come down again anymore no matter how!

I used nearly new Panasonic CR2 lithium batteries and its expiry date is in 2020, which worked completely flawlessly when they were put into my MZ-S. Really too bad.. :-(

And, my SFX did die twice like that, for exactly with the same symptom and for what happened. What an unfortunate "coincidence"! >_<

Btw, can anyone tell me that what has been going wrong with this "mirror locked up" issue? :-o


Related:-

When the Super Pancake Meets Different Bodies~

Can Pentax DSLRs be Made Thinner?

"Film is Dead"! ;-)

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

Extreme Low Temperature Test: Shooting at -30 Deg.C with K-5IIs and DA* Lens

with an industrial grade Apacer SD Card:-



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX15rE7a7SM
(Official test and promotional video carried out by Apacer.)

Really impressive! Finally, I can see some marketing effort by Pentax Ricoh and their collaboration with others! :-o :-)

Taipei Photo Expo 2012 (A Flickr Set)

(Above: I think this is a Cannon, but not a Pentax!)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/digital_trance/sets/72157631812376442/

The poster took a lot of photos of the showgirls, here are some:-

6th Anniversary of My Blog

One more year has elapsed and today is the 6th anniversary of my Blog!

I have been a Pentax user since 1988 and up till now I have been using the Pentax K-mount system for over twenty-four years (before that I was using a Canon). And the amount of time which I have contributed to the Pentax community via my this Blog is only a quarter of my whole time with Pentax.

During these six years, I have seen the rises and falls of some Pentax blogs, which the owners of the blogs have stopped updated theirs for some reasons, no matter how, but a common reason was that they actually switched. Fortunately, I am still here to "serve" the community. I am glad that Pentax is still alive and yet I am supporting the brand as long as Pentax is at least producing something that I am finding them useful and with some values and meanings to me.

As for the "popularity" and amount of traffic to my Blog, this is what the Statcounter shows, for the Yearly roundup:-

So, 2012 is the year with most visits (for more than one million) since the birth and launch of my Blog. I think the above recorded numbers are accurate as the Google data for Blogger generally tallies with the above, but with even a bit more of the traffic counts. I am not completely sure if it is because of that more people are interested in the Pentax gear or that I have gained more and more readership amongst the Pentax community. But from the referral (links) reports that I have been inspecting, I think the latter should be true.

Anyway, I still hope that Pentax will market a FF K-mount DSLR in the next year, which is what I have been waiting for ten years now, since my first *ist D! There is still hope, right? :-)

Prime M Cameras Have Only Electronic SR for Video Recording

Two weeks ago, Blog reader "daedbird" first reported that the video recording quality of his K-01 was greatly degraded when the SR was turned on against off. When the SR was activated, obvious rolling shutter effect was seen.

Yesterday, another Blog reader "kadajawi" has responded and writes that it is all about the electronic SR that is actually adopted for all those Prime M Pentax cameras for the Movie mode, K-30 and K-01 inclusive. On the other hand, the K-5 cameras which have the Prime II processor use the hardware SR, i.e., sensor movement, to compensate for the hand shake during video recording.

To verify this, I have checked the online user manuals of the K-30, K-01, K-5 and the K-5II/s as well. It is found that the SR for Movie is defaulted to On for the K-30 and K-01 whilst for the K-5 and K-5II, it is default to be Off instead. So, the supposition of "kadajawi" seems to be true for that "coincidence". Nonetheless, no Pentax manual has ever told anything about the actual SR method and the working principle of it, which yet looks like top secret of their cameras but which we users should actually know about.

Yes, the electronic SR is noiseless but it sacrifices video quality. The mechanical SR is noisy but this problem can be overcome by mounting an external microphone with a shock mount. So, all in all, this is not a real problem and better sound reception quality is gained with the use of an external microphone (and with stereo sound recording possibility too). In practice, my own experience that is the body sensor SR is very useful for handheld video recording to stabilise the video and this feature is still useful when monopod is used.

After all, I think Pentax should give all the Prime M users an option, in the firmware and user menu, for the choice of the SR method via electronic (software) mean or yet the conventional mechanical one, then that would be the best.


Related:- 

Definite Guide on External Video Microphone Selection for Supported DSLRs (Brand Regardless)

A Not-so-common K-30/K-5/K-01 Comparison of Mine