Best products from r/pentax

oh boy, might want to rethink your wording or you could get some very bad and very NSFW advice :)

So first off, WELCOME!! Tell us about your K-50. Conservative black? Shocking pink? Storm trooper white?

Resources (beside here):

/r/Photography - great place for general advice. Check out the right side for links to how to's, buying guides, etc.

PentaxForums - best source for lens data and reviews from actual Pentaxians.

Pixel Peepers - second best source about lenses. Not reviews but actual pictures taken with the lenses you might be interested in. If you think you might be interested in a lens, go here to see what it can do.

Pentax Photo Gallery - See what other Pentaxians are shooting. Post your best shots. Get feedback.

The Strobist - All things off camera flash. Lots of great photography advice here too.

Ok so all of those are general resources and with the exception of Strobist won't really teach you how to shoot. My recommendation? Shoot a lot. You learn by doing…..up to a point. When you get to that point, get some help. Scott Kelby's Digital Photography Boxed Set, Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 is a great place to start. Its on sale right now for $63 which is an incredible deal - $12.60 a book. They are more like cookbooks than traditional photography books. One or two pages to teach one technique to get a certain picture. I bought them one at a time from 1-4 and by the time I got to 4 I wasn't learning much but I was at about 40K on my shutter count by then.

As for /r/Pentax - I think I can safely say we work more on a "got a question, ask a question" basis than a "todays tutorial" basis. If there is something you need help with, ask and someone will answer.

Again, WELCOME and good shooting!! Cant wait to see what you pick for your first subjects!

Great call on the camera, had my K50 for about a year now and loving it. As others have said, the Prime 35mm n 50mm lenses are fantastic. 50mm is prob the way to go if you have to choose one due to his background. A softbox for his flash like this one is great. That's the model I purchased, and its been great, highly rated on reviews as well, but can find others cheaper too. A light stand/umbrella combo is awesome too.

K-70 is a great camera and honestly Pentax cameras are easier to learn than others.

This guy writes E-Books for Pentax and I got one for my K50 and it helped a lot.

https://ebooks4cameras.com/shop?olsPage=products%2Fk-70-book

Also check out this book by Tony Northrop

How to Create Stunning Digital Photography https://www.amazon.com/dp/0988263408/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_I3WWDb2CDSHXJ

Huh, I have over 10,000 shots on my K-30 and haven't had any problems. For future reference, Pentax cameras come with a one year warranty and you can extend it to 3 years with a free sensor cleaning for something like $25. I bought it and tucked it away in the box.

Hopefully it gets fixed. Sorry you missed out on those Easter photos. It's a good idea to have a cheap point and shoot as a back up. I picked up a ruggedized Canon D20. I use it for risky situations like the pool, ocean, and very humid or muddy climates. It is a decent little camera and this type can be had on sale for less than $200. Here is a Panasonic that won't break the bank. http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMC-TS6D-Enabled-Adventure-Camera/dp/B00RBG61G8?psc=1&SubscriptionId=AKIAJM4NKIQGABP2PIRA&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00RBG61G8&tag=thewire06-20&ascsubtag=WC23436

The Pentax Optio is also a good option, but when it comes to point and shoot, I don't have very much brand loyalty.

The real question is whether or not your money would be better spent on a Go Pro instead of a point and shoot depending on just how adventurous you are!

There are lots of photography videos on YT for beginners and plenty of good books and I can recommend this one. The make of camera should not make any difference as they all have the same basic functions.

The K70 is a great camera as I have the same model bought it a few years ago and it's pretty damn good.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Read-This-Want-Great-Photographs/dp/1780673353/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2LGKL8ZRUGMS0&keywords=read+this+if+you+want+to+take+great+photographs&qid=1573052581&sprefix=read+this+%2Caps%2C152&sr=8-1

Most if not all of your example images could have been taken with a 18-55 lens - the kit lens. The main difference between the kit lens and "better" lenses in its focal length range is the last 5 to 10% increase in image quality (IQ) will cost an additional $400 to $1000.

Here is a link to some images from the kit lens.

• http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/122-lens-clubs/45425-kit-lens-club.html
  
  Here is a link to a lens focal length simulator
  
  
• http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/lens/simulator/
  
  In your example images, I am going to guess that a lot of them were taken at around 24 to 28mm.
  
  I am going to go out on a limb here a bit and say the only two lenses you are going to need (for quite a while - several years), are the DA 18-55 WR and the DA 55-300 WR. Between the two, you can cover everything. They are as small as you can go and as light weight as possible, and both WR (need to have the WR or AW designation as there are non WR models also available). Using stitching will give you wide angle shots. Long exposures will give you low light shots (the longer the exposure the greater the need for a tripod).
  
  Tripods can induce sticker shock too. Removing the last ounce becomes VERY expensive. Here is a good overview.
  
  
• http://hikeitlikeit.com/2014/lightweight-tripods-for-the-hiker/
  
  
• http://www.jmpeltier.com/2015/02/24/5-lightweight-backpacking-tips-for-photographers/
  
  Note - all tripods usually come with a center column. The shake that the legs remove, if you use the center column up - it will put back in. So, keep the center column down, and since you have the tilt screen on your camera body, use it in LiveView to frame the shot and shoot the image.
  
  I took a look at the Ks2 user manual, and it does not support a cabled external shutter release. You have your choice of an IR shutter release, or a WiFi (smart phone) app tethered capability. See pages 61 and 91 of the manual.
  
  
• http://us.ricoh-imaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/KS2-OPM-EN.pdf
  
  The Pentax OEM battery is very good. It takes about 6 hours to charge and is good for about 600 shots. A good third party battery costs 1/4 and is good for 3/4 of the shots and charges in a bit over an hour or so. Check out a Wasabi battery on Amazon.
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Wasabi-Power-Battery-Charger-D-LI109/dp/B00598PMY2
  
  

Thanks for the quick reply, may i ask you about the website ? i'm interested to purchase one :)

i found those 2 deals don't know which one is better ?:s

http://www.adorama.com/IPXK50W1855C.html

http://www.amazon.com/Pentax-Digital-Camera-18-55mm-f3-5-5-6/dp/B00DBPKAA6/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1412527045&sr=1-2&keywords=k-50

> Very good price. Two memory cards is more than enough to begin with. Always wait as long as possible to buy memory - prices will always go down over the long term. There was a time when a 64GB card cost over $500. In three years you will be able to get 256GB card for $25 so until you NEED a bigger card, wait.
> Lexar is a good brand. Amazon house brand cards are good too. I have pqi and Sony ones too. Look for UHI cards, class 10.

I bought the Samsung Pro 64gb at $30 :DDD

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-64GB-Class-MB-SG64D-AM/dp/B00IVPU6BY

You guys should check it out!!!!

I bought one of the Vello models (this one exactly: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00653AJ7U/ref=pe_385040_30332200_TE_item )

I had problems with it from the get-go... turns out it was the remote battery that was dying from when I first opened the package. Their customer service was infinitely less than helpful over email... telling me to call them when I took great care to describe the problem in writing, as well as my troubleshooting attempts and the unit's feedback during that process. I never called them - why? To repeat what I had carefully worded already? To have them not pick up on details because they're listening? To risk timewaste with forced call center conversation flowcharts? I'd rather figure it out myself.

And their advertised range of 300'... way less. 30 feet is about the most I've gotten out of it. And there are times where I've been less than 12 feet away and it doesn't work.

If you want something you can depend on, I would encourage you to find another product. And maybe in the writing of this post, I've crafted an Amazon review of the product.

I'm not doing professional work, I'm a hobbyist, but without a way to change the flash settings remotely I'm hindering my creativity on where I can place the flash and how many flashes I can use at once.

As a hobbyist I regretted buying the RF603 once I was limited and I now recommend the TX over it because of the frustration of limitations with it for creative lighting.

Again though, I've done self-portraits and used a cheap $10 wireless trigger. I have this one specifically and it works well enough.

Another cheap alternative is to buy a set of extension tubes. You put these on between the camera and a lens you already have. The lens' quality isn't degraded at all, and since you move the lens away from the sensor, you're able to focus closer. If you use a 50mm lens and 50mm worth of extension tubes, you achieve a 1:1 ratio.

I once borrowed a set from a friend and got some cool shots with them. The cheapy ones don't allow for a lot of auto-features, so you may have to set the aperture manually and focus manually, depending on which ones you use, but in true macro photography, you'll find that you use manual focus anyway. You also lose light, so you may have to bump up the ISO to get a shutter speed fast enough to not blur (if you're not using a tripod).

An example from amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-Macro-Extension-Cameras-Close-ups/dp/B003Y5T46Y

Wasabi power lithium batteries from Amazon. Paid something like $12 each versus $45 for OEM ones.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00598PMY2/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1421866704&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SY200_QL40&dpPl=1&dpID=51z1%2BRCBmHL&ref=plSrch

This $7 3rd-party remote has been working fine for the last month.