My Favourite Pentax DSLR— "The first shall be last and the last shall be...

Camera Walks. Pentax *istD and Minolta Maxxum 3.

I go for walks around the local block for about 30mins to try and get fit.
I often take pics on my iphone or another camera as I go.
Here are some I have taken recently.
 Today I also took with me a mint condition Minolta Maxxum 3  film camera to try it out.
When I get some pics back I will post them here.
It is a beautifully made compact point and shoot film slr.
It has enough control to be a little creative but you have to rely on the inbuilt programs.

No manual control.

The other cameras pics shown here are from my Pentax *istD Digital SLR.
The first Digital slr Pentax made.
An oldie but a goodie.

 I took some of these same images today with the Minolta Maxxum 3.

Photo Walk With Pentax *istD

Yesterday I went for a walk in my neighbourhood and took my trusty Pentax *istD digital SLR with me.
This is a six megapixel camera and the first digital slr that Pentax made.
Still one of the best in my opinion.
Here are some pics.

TRAINING IN DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY FOR SENIOR CITIZENS (Those over 65)

Myself at Breakaways near Coober Pedy South Australia

No digital camera in sight but well exposed and able to be enlarged almost ad infinitum

I am at week four now of a course I am conducting for people over the age of 65.

I have a group of interested and intrigued, but at times bewildered students.

I say bewildered not because of  whether they can grasp the fundamentals of Digital Photography(Photography in general) but because the cameras they have purchased that may have been recommended by a family member or zealous salesperson, are often too confusing to use to their creative capacity.

There is simply too much  choice on even the simpler mirrorless or compact digital cameras.

If they want to use  all the great features on some of these cameras the symbols,touch screen and hidden menus are a maze to work through.

We did an exercise today to take a light meter reading( I did so with a hand held meter) and then set an array of older film cameras to the correct shutter and aperture settings.

Even though they had not seen these cameras before, and some were pretty ancient, (the cameras I mean) they managed to do that with not too much trouble.

The earlier digital cameras such as my first Digital SLR, the Pentax *istD, were so much more like a real camera and so easier to learn photography on.

Maybe the camera manufacturers should take note as the ageing population is living longer and going on overseas trips and wanting to take photographs and unless someone gives them some clues they can come back with over exposed and under exposed and blurry pictures.

The phone cameras are really useful for the main part but they also have their limitations.

Not withstanding the above it is a great time for any one to get into photography but I reckon everyone starting out should use a film camera with appropriate setting alongside their digital camera to really appreciate the fundamentals and what their modern camera is trying to do and capable of.

That was long sentence.

My Ideal Digital Camera

In looking at some of the top end Digital Slr's and even the enthusiast models I have become less and less impressed with the technology overload.
The other day I met a camera enthusiast who has not been in photography all that long but has some top end Canon Digital equipment.

He was looking  for some basic instruction but was obviously caught up in the technology overload and was showing me all the settings he had his camera on and what he would do to take a basic portrait.

I must confess I was terrified of the world he had immersed himself in.

The menu on his camera was so much more elaborate than my  "lower end" Canon camera.

And he was an amateur enthusiast.

It put me off buying a higher end full frame slr.

There was a time with film cameras when you had a minimum of things to select and think about on your camera and when taking photographs.

1. Film type, Daylight or tungsten  and Iso of film? Colour or Black and white, negative or transparency?

120mm,220mm,35mm.5x4.

2. Camera type. 35mm ragefinder,35mm SLR, medium format SLR or TLR.(6x6,6x4.5,6x7,6x8,6x9)

3.Shutter speed.

4. Aperture

5. Lens type.

6. Flash or available light?

7. Tripod or hand held?

8. Was I producing prints or slides? Enlargements or standard prints.

9. Metering mode.

Any processing and printing and correction of faulty exposures was done by the film lab.

Now all of those things are in reality incorporated in one way or another in the digital realm.

But throw in.

Raw or Jpeg?

High Dynamic range.

Picture styles.

Various flash settings and adjustments.

In camera editing.

White balance.

GPS

WiFi

Full frame or APSc

Image stabilisation

Auto focus or manual focus

Focus selection points

Flash cards

Tethered or un-tethered shooting

Remote control

Slave shooting using on and off camera flash

Photoshop, Lightroom etc.

in camera special effects.

And the list goes on.

The closest I have come to my ideal digital camera was I think the first one I purchased.

The pentax *istD.

It had some basic digital adjusting to do but was effectively a digital version of the Pentax MZS which was the final flagship Pentax SLR film camera.

You could run with the default settings and produce some great pics.

The menu was no where near as confusing as the current crop of digital cameras.

6 mega pixels but still produced a very good picture.

Using it was more like the experience of using a film slr.

In addition it was compatible with my large collection of Pentax lenses.

I still have the camera.

It sufferred at my hands once from having coca cola spilt over it.

It did get it fixed.

There is a lot to be said for cameras that are sealed against such things.

Thankfully this camera is now fully functioning again.

I am being drawn back more and more to shooting film.

It may be more costly per shot but that will help curb the addiction of firing off digital salvos when ever I have a camera in hand and that is often.

It will also cut down on many hours spent "playing" on a computer.

The results will more than likely be purer and better.

So watch this space for some film shooting results in the future but not very often.

There are apparently a lot of photographers returning to film.

http://www.slrlounge.com/9-film-shooting-wedding-photographers-you-should-follow

The author with wedding couple Tidbinbilla ACT. Pentax *istD.Cropped from landscape original.2006.

Sydney Harbour Ferry Pentax*istD

Pentax*istD

Pentax*istD

Pentax*istD

Waiting for the Punt (Ferry) Pentax*istD

A Walk along the Paramatta River

In 2004 my wife and I went to visit our son and his wife  while they were living in Sydney.
We spent and enjoyable day exploring the banks of the Paramatta River near Gladesville where they were living.
Here are some pics from our walk.
It was a typical warm humid Sydney day but you can't tell that from the pics.
The pics were taken on a Pentax *istD Digital SLR.
This was a fascinating walk with good interpretive signage.