Just before my trip to New Zealand (which was so awesome that I still can’t shut up about it two years later), I got a Pentax K-100 Super camera. It was my first digital SLR, and I learned tons from toting it on my misadventures.
pentax
3 Tips for Picking a Camera Store
I can’t travel without a camera. After all, a good photo is the best souvenir. But I have to admit, shopping for camera stuff is a real bear. The big box stores don’t have the best service (though I admit some individual salespeople are better than others). Ordering online is a crap shoot. And the more specialized camera stores can be snooty and intimidating. I’m pretty lucky to have Foto Forum and Tempe Camera near me. Both are great, though I’d have to give Foto Forum a slight edge for being closer and being even more friendly.
This led me to think that there’s probably a bunch of people like me out there who have a hard time finding a comfortable camera store. You know who you are: You know just enough to actually change settings around. But you might only have a few lenses. Your budget is limited. You rarely ever get paid for shooting. You still can’t remember what ISO stands for, but you know what it does.
In that case, let me present you with a few tips for picking a camera shop.
1. Find one that’s friendly. And I’m not talking oily, corporate suit-mandated courtesy, like Safeway grocery stores. I mean a sales staff that likes taking photos, and helping other people who like taking photos. Nobody likes to look dumb, and the staff should put you at enough ease to ask some of those questions that you’ve been nervous about asking.
2. Look for a selection of new and [...]
Three Shots from the New Pentax
From blog photos
I’m still getting used to my Pentax K100DS. It’s easy as pie with the modern lenses, but shooting with old manual-only lenses is a bit trickier. But part of the reason I picked this camera was its ability to use cool old lenses I could score on the cheap. Sounds like a good way to learn!
We had a cloudy morning here in Phoenix a few days ago, which made for a few nice shots before going to work. I think I need to work on my focusing a bit.
From blog photos
From blog photos
Making the Leap to an SLR
Since I bought my first point-and-shoot digital camera back in 2003, I’ve been getting more interested in photography. After I wore that cute little Canon out, I switched to a Fuji S5200 superzoom. Then, I ran into some of that camera’s limitations: the small sensor, the slow-to-clear buffer, the excruciatingly slow RAW performance, just to name a few.
I began looking at the usual suspects from Canon and Nikon before discovering the nice little Olympus E-Volt 420. Then I got really lucky when a co-worker suggested Pentax.
Granted, Pentax isn’t the first name to pop to mind in digital cameras. And that’s a shame, because I think that they make far and away the best entry-level D-SLR. I wound up with one of last year’s, a K100D-Super. I scored it for $349 for the body only, and added an 18-55 mm zoom lens for $100.
Okay, you must be wondering why I liked the K100D-S better than Canon and Nikon, the industry standards. Here are the big points that stood out:
-Construction quality. Just feel the Pentax. It’s weighty and has a far less plastic-like feel.
-6.1 megapixels. That’s less than a lot of others. For me, that’s a benefit. That means I can get more on an SD card. It’s unlikely that I’d print anything at full 12-megapixel size, anyway. Give me the extra room.
-In-body image stabilizer. This means I can score awesome deals on cheap old K-Mount lenses!
-Relatively small, just slightly larger than the Olympus eVolt and that wild Panasonic Lumix.
Also, I like [...]
Cameras: Just as important as a plane ticket
The best souvenir you can bring home is a great photo. And New Zealand looks like it will give me a lot of incredible photos. There’s just one little problem – my poor old Fuji S5200 superzoom has been through a lot of hard knocks, from deserts to temperatures well below freezing. It’s showing its age a bit, with some shots starting to lose sharpness, and a power button that often gets sticky and balks at firing the camera up. It seems that over the last year, the Fuji has gotten particularly bad at high ISO settings.
The Fuji could probably survive New Zealand, but I don’t want to fly 15 hours and have it die. Or worse yet, just take mediocre shots of stellar scenery. So it’s time for a new one … and I decided long ago that I was ready for a digital SLR. The first one I considered was the Olympus E420, the smallest SLR in all the land (and the one that uses the same xD cards as my Fuji). My co-worker, Alex Scott (who is a most-excellent graphic designer and artist), steered me toward Pentax, which is making some impressive stuff. I gave Canon and Nikon their due, but I just wasn’t impressed with the plastic-like, somewhat flimsy feel of their entry and intermediate-level cameras. Sony wasn’t a consideration since I just don’t like their controls and layouts. I thought about Fuji, but they just didn’t have what I wanted in my price range. Believe it [...]
