Toronto Photography Meetup Group

I bought a DSLR!

(I would have put this under "Gear & Equipment"... but being one of the original members of the group, I figured I'd indulge my ego and post this earth-shattering news under "Photography in General.")

Anyway, it's a Pentax K-7.

I chose it based on the specs (relatively light in weight, ruggedness, 5 fps continuous shooting, HD video, in-camera HDR, etc etc.) Also picked up the DA 17-70 mm f4 (25.5-105 equiv.)

I got it at B&H in NYC for a fairly good price.

And no, I am not (totally) abandoning film! I still love film! I will use film for astrophotography exposurs of more than 20 minutes, and probably for occasional artsy B&W stuff.

I intend to use the K-7 for most of my travel photography, rather than my Minolta XD-11 and E6 slide film, as I've been doing for several decades.

There were numerous factors that weighed in the decision... one of them is the issue of carrying 40 rolls of film around on each trip to Europe; but even more crucial is the problem of storage... the sildes from each big trip easily fill a big Grand &Toy plastic storage box... and given the size of my apartment, that simply wasn't sustainable.

I do a lot of night-time urban photography, and until recently DSRs would not have been able to match the quality of film... but the current batch of DSLRs ought to be up to the task (I guess I will find out!)

*shocked*

first it was a volcano, then buildings falling down, and now this...

congrats!

I only had to see the subject line on the index page, and I knew what the post was about!

I'm not shocked.... I knew it would eventually happen. Funny though, I have been shooting more film in the last 2 months than I ever have.

an aside..how do you deal with the reciprocity failure of slide film when doing such long exposures?

Welcome from another Pentaxian. I am sure you have some screw mount or M42 lenses. If you have problem getting them to work plus SR, let us know. It is pretty straight forward now

Daniel

Alright one step closer, but I wonder how you're going to develop your digital negatives drop off at a lab or own darkroom

Congrats, Dan! And it's Pentax! Double yay!!!!

Good to hear you pulled the trigger. Here's to many years of use. I hope you bring it to the next social.

My not-very-scientific answer is that some films are better at night than others. Some, like Kodachrome and Velvia, suck very badly indeed for it; others, like Ektachrome and Provia 400 perform quite well (and not just because they have higher ISO, but also, I presume, because they don't suffer from RF to such a high degree). So when I remember to use one of the "appropriate" films, everything is fine.

Actually (as a former Minolta user) I do not own any previous Pentax gear. Since my 17-70 ( = 25.5 - 105) leaves me struggling at the telephoto end, I will at some point be seeking some sort of lens to handle telephoto shooting. (Preferably cheap, with good optical quality, and light in weight and small in size!)

Oh, I'll be doing more than that: I'll be encouraging you guys to bring your Pentax lenses (AF and old K-mount) to the next social, so that I can play with them!

(Well, I'm not sure if I can make the next social... hopefully the next one... anyway, soon!)

If anyone is bored, and knowledgable about the Pentax line, I've started a thread under "Gear & Equipment" to pick your brains with various lens questions, etc.

I actually thought it was about the volcano in Iceland, when Hell broke through the ice that a photographer who was doing a clothing shoot nearby captured it as it erupted:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1266824/I-saw-earth-explode-How-photographer-shooting-outdoor-clothing-camped-Iceland-s-volcano--witnessed-eruption-closed-Europe-.html

I knew you had Minolta lenses. I thought you had some M42 or screw mount lenses (not K).
I am sure you do not mind manual focus, you will love screw mount/M42 lenses once you get into Pentax camp. They are dirt cheap, light wt, optically superb and SR enabled.

Daniel