Shooting the moon. (*ist DL & P850)

This is the first full moon (and clear skies) since I got the DL. This afternoon I bought a Pentax DA 50-200mm lens and thought this would be a good test.

Here is a 640x480 crop of that picture. No other PP has been done.

ISO - 200, 1/500, f/8, AWB at 200mm (300mm, 35mm equiv.)



And one from the P850, once again a 640x480 crop, no PP.

ISO 50, 1/128, f/8, AWB, full optical zoom (432mm, 35mm equiv.)



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Ken - Johnstown, PA

Interesting comparison Ken, the *ist did a pretty good job, retains lot of details.

The P850 shot however seems wrong. A bit out of focus and fuzzy. Don't think this pics can fully justify the P850. I've seen better moon shot from 850 from other member in the forum.

Thx for sharing the comparison.

chiue

A full moon and me with no camera..:-( Keep them coming, Ken, they just get better and better..
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Chris
P850

http://photobucket.com/albums/a157/pcchris01/Favorites/

chiue said:

Interesting comparison Ken, the *ist did a pretty good job, retains
lot of details.

Click to expand...

Yes it did. I can't wait until I have the money for a really long telephoto.

chiue said:

The P850 shot however seems wrong. A bit out of focus and fuzzy.
Don't think this pics can fully justify the P850. I've seen better
moon shot from 850 from other member in the forum.

Click to expand...

I've taken better shots of the moon myself with the P850. I don't understand what happened. When I took the picture it did show focus lock.

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Ken - Johnstown, PA

Well Ken, I went and had a look at the Pentax *ist DL2 and was very very impressed with the camera. Its now 349 UK pound now, I guess because it will be replaced with the K100 model without the IS. I like the AA batteries..and the long life they have. Pentax have done extremely well in keeping lenses compatible with these new cameras.

I had decided on a D50, because it feels good in the hands ( black model! ) but think now I've been won over by the *ist because of all my old pentax lenses.

Pentax doesn't seem to be highly rated in the US..is that right? When I was there hardly saw any in stores...mainly Canon and Nikon.

In the DL2 they have a preview mode that is both electronic...ie preview on screen and a selectable optical preview ( stops down for DOF analysis ) something that the reviews have missed. I guess because the reviewers don't do proper reviews now..don't bother to read the manuals. I hope Dpreview does review these cameras soon. I guess they will miss the DL2 because of the newer K100 and K110 models.

congratulations on your new lens Ken, first shot is great in the
Amazon.com Product Description it says 76.5mm to 306mm
in the 35mm format, but factory says 75mm-300mm anyway
looks like a nice lens, on second shot did you take more than
one even with the IS it still hard to hold still on long shots
no matter how good the IS is & you only have one subject
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Ðаvε here☺

Wow Ken those are very good for no PP work on them.Im impressed Cheers Bob.
Former Jarhead Semper Fi
http://senior-bob.smugmug.com

Phil Loughran said:

I like the AA batteries..and the long life they have.

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The most pictures I've taken at one time was at my sisters bridal shower. After taking 300+ shots the battery indicator was still showing a full charge.

Phil Loughran said:

Pentax have done extremely well in keeping lenses compatible
with these new cameras.

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Yes, every one of my old lens work with the DL, albeit in manual mode. Even in manual mode it is real easy to set exposure, just set the aperture and press the AE-L button and the camera sets the shutter speed.

Phil Loughran said:

Pentax doesn't seem to be highly rated in the US..is that right?
When I was there hardly saw any in stores...mainly Canon and Nikon.

Click to expand...

I think the reason is lack of marketing. You see ads for the Rebel on TV, but none for Pentax. I bought the camera at Curuit City and the clerk said he was recently at a training semenar where they learned about the new products. Before going he had a low opinion of the DL, but after handling it he felt it was a better value than the Rebel.

The only complaint I have is that my wife won't let me buy all the goodies for the new camera.

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Ken - Johnstown, PA

I am so impressed with it... I think the Pentax range is a little confusing..the *ist DS seems to mainly differ from the *ist DL in the use of a pentaprism rather than a penta-mirror... The handling in my hands is so much better than the canon 350, but not quite as comfortable as the D50, but the *ist DL2 seems better specified than the D50.

...is how do you pronounce the name of the Pentax?

Seriously, what do you call it? I don't know how to pronounce . I usually use that when I want to curse.

Seriously....
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Russ

P850, Kodak 1.4X TCON, Kodak 0.7X WCON

(and my wife uses the V530)

Russ Houston said:

...is how do you pronounce the name of the Pentax?

Seriously, what do you call it? I don't know how to pronounce .
I usually use that when I want to curse.

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I don't pronounce the , I just call it the I-S-T or just the DL. I read somewhere that Pentax said the * can stand for what ever you want such as hobbyist, etc.

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Ken - Johnstown, PA

KenJr said:

KenJr said:

I don't pronounce the , I just call it the I-S-T or just the DL. I

Click to expand...

read somewhere that Pentax said the * can stand for what ever you
want such as hobbyist, etc.

Click to expand...

Thank you! I feel much better now. Your answer makes sense.

Do you find that the *ist takes better low light shots than your Kodak? I've seen the Digital Rebel at work do some nice low light shots. I just assume that all dSLRs do the same due to the larger image sensor.

Russ Houston said:

Do you find that the *ist takes better low light shots than your
Kodak?

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Yes, I think so. I just took a picture today at ISO 3200 just to see how it would come out.

This picture I cropped and resized.



This is a full resolution crop.



And this is the crop after running it through Noise Ninja. I cleaned up rather well with very little lose of detail.



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Ken - Johnstown, PA

That's amazing at 3200! Thanks for posting (I think.... Now I want one! And the shine isn't even off my P850 yet.

Oh well, I like p&s for the video as well.

Moonshot with the p850 could be better. One of mine below....not a full moon but i think it's nice to see the craters (?) on the moon in this one...

Thanks Ken....maybe you can do the Pentax reviews for DPREVIEW ;-)

It takes great shots at that ISO...it makes me want one more and more. Know anyone who wnats a P850 with Tcon, Flash, filters and bag????? Only whay my husband will let me buy another camera is to sell the one I have. (
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Diane
-P850-