I got a new camera !!!!!

[F.Gordon]

Ms F called me awhile back. She found a Pentax XZ-50 with a Tamron 28-80mm lens for about the price of a carton of cigarettes.


It is in mint condition. I don't think it's been used much at all. I ran a roll of Kodak B&W through it and the pics came out very nice. I'd post some but I'm too lazy. So, you ask, if you're not going to post some pixies then "why the hell are you wasting my time with this thread?".

Well, a couple of things. If you are looking for a very inexpensive film SLR and want to learn a thing or three about photo snappin' I'd HIGHLY recommend this camera. I can tell you that I used it in full Manual mode all the time and it was incredibly easy. And it could be that I've had waaaay too much coffee today... that is the reason I'm posting this.

Actually... another reason... I got the instructions on using this camera with infrared film, which include using filters that are the same thread size I already have/own for my Canon. I've really wanted to get into infrared photography so I'm going to throw in a roll and head off to some spooky mountain cemetery...

That's all. I now return you to your regularly scheduled photo group threads....

[CC]

1. Woohoo good find.

You owe Ms.F You will like that camera. Try running a roll of color slide film through it. Terry has an older Pentex that he is never allowed to get rid of because it take the best color slides and the metering perfect. When I say old, nothing but manual on it and you line up the stick with in the circle to know when you have the right exposure.

[F.Gordon]

2. I was surprised how well it meters

And it's easier to read than the Canon. Off to the right in the middle in the viewfinder. Yes, very easy. Set aperture and then check exposure. Adjust the speed with a dial that is right under the shutter button so there's no "hunting" for damn buttons. Just line up the "little circle in the stick", as you say. It's that easy.

I'll run a roll of slide through it. And yes, I owe Ms F. She's always looking for and finding stuff for me. On our little mountain thing I stopped by and visited my filmsie buddy in southern colorado. I bought a 50mm f/2 Pentax lens for 30 bucks from him.

[CC]

3. Someone I knew used to call that

a lollipop meter. Not sure anyone else does but it stuck with me. The buttons are set up pretty much like my Nikon buttons. Part of why I stuck with Nikon, made it easier to switch to digital.
I am going to have to find the people that convert digitals to IF. I am still plan on converting one of the old cameras to full time IF. No filters, and normal speeds for infrared is just to tempting. Have you found someone to develope your IF film? And don't forget to get a changing bag to load and unload that film.

BTW still working on the kitchen but haven't killed anybody. Yet.

[regnaD kciN]

4. FILM...?????

What's that?

Seriously, Pentax made some very good film cameras. Now go out there, grab a few rolls of Fuji Velvia, and start taking some photos of...landscapes.

[Touchdown]

5. What? No pictures? Why the Hell are you wasting my time with this thread?

Looks like a find! Your wife is good to you, despite her bird flipping when you point your lense at her.

[JeffR]

6. 8 hours

Since you posted this, and still no pics?!?!?!

[CC]

7. Well now you made me go and make

this....

mostly for all those yelling for pictures. All are welcome to take it, use it, drive people nuts with it.

[auburngrad82]

8. You have to load IR film in TOTAL darkness

Get a film changing bag and to be safe go into a closet. And to be super-safe, Tape the back of your camera with electrician's tape. Even the slightest light will expose the film.

[F.Gordon]

9. Pixies? I don't need no stinkin' pixies

Geez, I'll never live down my prior misadventures with infrared.

Yes.. I've found a lab and the turnaround time is less than 2 weeks.

And Yes... I've gotten very good at loading and unloading film in total darkness with my Holga's.

I'm lappin' it right now so I don't have any pixies handy but do you really want to see some boring snaps of the F'Troop crib and a few yawn... mountain snaps?

[CC]

10. Good on both learning how

to change the film and finding a lab. Thinking the lab was hardest. And a loud yes to the pixies even if it is the F'troop and nothing wrong with more mountain pics.

[F.Gordon]

15. Found lab in photo mag

Have already used them for some old fashioned B&W print processing technique. They handle all infrared format processing. Everything is done by hand, no "machines", so it's a little pricier than the local Wolf/Ritz camera type places.

[alfredo]

11. Loading a developing tank is fun too. That takes a bit of practice

but it's fun to do with 35mm. 120 film wasn't as much fun to load in the tank.

I still have my Nikon tank and reel.

[F.Gordon]

12. You still have the tank?

I remember all that stuff... vaguely.


There was definitely a certain romance to that whole process, but I don't know that I could ever do it again. Besides... my repuke neighbors would probably call the police and report me for a having a Meth Lab in the basement.

Now the "romance" is waiting 45 minutes for all the RAW files to load from my flash cards.

[alfredo]

13. There must be a lot of images to take that long.

Converting the images to tiff is what takes a long time on this old machine.

I use Rawker for conversion.

My Mac is going on 7 years old.

[F.Gordon]

14. Damn RAW

1 gig holds about 90 snaps, but takes about 15-20 minutes for the flash card to load into the computer per Gig. My old computer recently fried so I have a new fast machine for converting to tiff... once I get the damn snaps off the flash card(s).

I'm still trying to figure out a faster way to do "batch conversion".

[alfredo]

16. I rarely shoot in raw because most of my work is for the

internet and such sharpness is not needed on the net.

[CC]

17. That doesn't sound right,

Specially with a new computer. I use a 4 gig card and always shoot in raw and it takes about 3 to 4 minutes (depending on how much stuff I have running) to upload. I think I would go nuts waiting 30 minutes. Maybe you have an older card?
And well I have to be different, I convert my RAW files to DNG, once in photoshop I leave them PSD unless saving them for the net then they become jpgs.

[F.Gordon]

18. Nikon RAW is tiny. Canon RAW is Large and Mighty!!!!

I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I just put Flash Card in little computer reader slot. Have a couple of "old" cards but I also have "brand new" ones. With little pocket camera I have it takes even longer and that card is brand new.


I snap RAW+Jpeg so I can quickly review the snaps I took to see which RAW files I want to move over into my "digital darkroom" folder. I use Silkypix, but it doesn't read my pocket camera RAW so I have to convert those to DNG which Silkypix will read.

What am I doing wrong? If I have a few/several gig of snaps to load I usually order Chinese, take a walk, read War and Peace, then come back and looksie at what I got.

[CC]

19. Guess the file size is to make up

for the oddly placed controls. More correction needed or something. I just slide everything off the card onto my desktop, then look at them and trash what I don't want. I did look and my cards are ultra 3s so maybe that helps speed things up. The pc is 3 yrs old but I got a speed demon and maxed out the RAM when I got it so that may affect it too.

[Touchdown]

20. Bah! 90 RAWs per gig?

Nikon tiny????? I only get 75 on my Coolpix, and 60 per gig on that foreign D200.

How much RAM you got? That helps. Photoshop Elements 2-4 has Batch Processing, 20 seconds for converting about 25 shots. $90. They got camera RAW plugins...I bet for both of your cameras.

[regnaD kciN]

22. The obvious reason...

60 per gig on that foreign D200

...is that, since it's a European camera, it counts in celsius rather than fahrenheit. Therefore, it only stores ((5/9)-32)th the number of images as a U.S. version. Another reason to hate Prestige Camera...

[regnaD kciN]

21. It sounds right to me...

I have had about the same experience with both Nikon and Konica Minolta images, using a USB2 card reader. Actually, it sometimes takes longer than twenty minutes.

Are you using a USB2 reader as well? I know some computers come with on-board card readers, and can imagine that they would have a faster connection than an external bus.

[Touchdown]

24. Funny. Mine take only about 5 minutes for 50-60 shots.

I only have 1 gig cards. How many are you downloading at a time? What's your RAM? Processor clock speed? Software your downloading to?

Mine...

Apple iMac 2Gh intel dual core, using OSX Tiger. 2 Gh of RAM into Aperture.

[TahitiNut]

23. I'm thinking USB 1.1 vs. USB 2.0

As I recall, if there's anything on the bus that's a (backward compatible) USB 1.1 device then, under some conditions, everything on the bus can run as a USB 1.1 device. Since it's a bus connection, speed is aggregate on the bus, not every device. Thus, if there's another device on the bus competing for bus bandwiddth, all devices on the bus will appear slower than max.

The speed of USB 1.1 (at 1.5Mbps & 12Mbps) is, like, 1/40th to 1/320th of USB 2.0 (at 480Mbits/second).

Word to the wise - The older USB 1.1 is often called "Full Speed USB" in the sales/marketing literature (i.e. user manual). This is an anachronism, referring to the 12Mbps speed. It should NOT be confused with the "Hi-Speed USB" (which is USB 2.0).

Note: "Mbps" = mega bit per second