Thanks, Paul. I just printed the first and third image on SUper-A3
paper. The first image is 12 inches wide x 11 high at 240 dpi (I
cropped it a bit.) The third image is 16.7 W x 12.5 H at 240 dpi.
Technically, they are fine. In terms of composition, only the first is
competent. I would consider it illustration quality for a text book or
magazine if I was still doing stock photography. The third loses DOF
in the abdomen that is quite apparent in a larger print, so it is a weak
shot.
The first image was shot at ISO 125. the third at ISO 250. Noise is not
an issue in either. My initial reaction is that at relatively low ISO's
the Q is comparable to the K7 wrt noise. The really cool thing is the
great reach that the Q gives for macro shots. I was a good 1.5 to 2 feet
away from those subjects. The first spider was about 1/2 inch in length
(body only) and the second was maybe 3/4ths of an inch. I had the camera
on a tripod with incredible working distance from a 100mm. I could not
have gotten those shots with the K5 / A* 200mm macro, because the
subjects were too far into a mass of vegetation. To get close enough to
them to get a good shot would have meant disturbing the plants they were
sitting on, which means they would have run away.
I still have my old 200mm macro and the aperture works when manually
stopped down - it might become a dedicated Q macro lens.
Mark
On 9/1/2012 7:45 PM, Paul Stenquist wrote:
Very nice. Great color and detail in the web image.
How do they hold up at high resolution. Enough there for a 12 x 18?
Best,
Paul
On Sep 1, 2012, at 7:26 PM, Mark C wrote:
My Pentax Q arrived on Wednesday, a full day sooner than expected. I had
planned to leave first thing that morning for a business trip, but was delayed
by a few hours and luckily was able to scoop up the camera and lenses and take
the kit with me as I headed out. I had a chance to test drive it a bit and read
the manual while I was away.
When I got home late last night the K to Q adapter was waiting for me. Earlier
today I went out looking for subjects to try with the Q and D-FA 100mm macro
lens. I was thinking about the striking spider shots in the post that Darren
shared a while back. and by chance my garden provided two large spiders to
serve as photographic subjects.
So - here are my first macro shots with the Pentax Q:
http://www.markcassino.com/b2evolution/blog6.php/2012/09/01/two-spiders
The light today is quite flat as the remnants of Isaac roll through the area,
and this afternoon we had a pretty good rain, so no other chances to take the
system out.
A few comments on the Q:
- It is small and fun and the image quality is quite good. I'm very impressed
at how well it performs. Noise is much less of an issue than I expected. The
small sensor means low magnification of subject and therefore lots of DOF, but
for macro work that is a boon. I would not use this as a portrait camera though.
- The Zoom lens is a joy to work with. Nicely dampened action, quality built. I
wish Pentax would build K mount lenses that are this solid.
- Pentax has done a great job of building a standard interface across cameras.
I picked up the Q and was shooting. Everything made sense. The only thing I
needed to look up in the manual was how to activate the MF assist on the toy
lenses.
- The Q with the kit lens or one of the small lenses is pretty much pocketable.
With the zoom, not so much so...
Regarding the lenses that I have (first impressions here) -
Stock 8mm f1.8 lens: Nice and sharp but barrel distortion is off putting. Yes,
I can enable distortion correction but I wish they had produced a lens with
less distortion. Has decent close focusing ability.
5 to 15mm Zoom - a joy to work with and very good results. Great all round zoom.
Fisheye - I have a hard time focusing this even with MF assist enabled. Looking
at my shots, I always had my finger on the lens's focus ring (and visible in
the shot). Its a super cool ultra wide but takes some getting used to (at
least by me). Its a reminder that ultra wides can be as difficult to work with
as ultra telephotos.
Toy Telephoto - I only took a handful e of shots with this. I did not see any
Holga-like distortions but none of the shots I took were very sharp. I assume
that was operator error - I had not figured out how to use the MF assist on toy
lenses yet when I tried it. I need to give this a more thorough testing.
I'll probably grab the "wide" toy lens and have a full set of lenses - it would
be nice if Pentax came out with some more Q lenses, but I'd be surprised if they did.
Overall - this is a really cool and fun system, great IQ with the attributes
that you would expect from a small sensor re DOF .
Do any Q users have a recommendation re a good bag to carry a full Q Kit in?
This used bundle that I bought came with a case logic bag that holds
everything, but everything is jumbling around in the bag. The smallest 35mm SLR
bag I have is about 2x too big and has partitions for lenses that are many
times the size of the Q lenses.
Mark
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