F/1.0

Micro four thirds is still vaporwave, and it seems there is already a competitor.

Samsung is introducing what they seem to be calling a “hybrid” camera system - in other words the “EVIL” (Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens) system we’ve all been drooling over (hopefully!).  Not much said about specs/lenses - hopefully they will at least have a model aiming at a higher level “advanced amateur” feature set rather than the “bridge” market (the folks going from a compact to SLR).

However what makes this really interesting is the fact that Samsung SLRs use the venerable “K” mount.  If they somehow preserved the mount compatibility with this new system that would be *huge*.  Imagine a compact, mirrorbox-less body that was compatible with K mount lenses… drool… of course now then I would absolutely *kick* myself for selling off my DA LTD primes

It’s just an interesting thought, unfortunately I suspect they will likely *not* be using the K mount (registration distances on SLR lenses and all that).  But it’s certainly within the realm of possibility.

After eagerly following the saga of the Radiopoppers, from their vaporware inception to their current production I finally have a pair in my grubby little hands.  Oh happy day

(you want a review?  Here’s my review: radiopoppers rock my face 437 ways from sunday.  Get some.)

Now I got them to use with my newly acquired Canon 5D kit, but as it happens I still have some Pentax gear as well.  Officially Radiopoppers do not support Pentax PTTL, but I figured what harm could it do to test.

I mounted the P1 receiver on a Pentax 540FGZ flash.  Flash was set to wireless pttl slave (SL1).  Note that on the 540 the sensor you need to position the bead over is the lower right corner of the face, as you look at the flash *not* the round part in the middle (that’s just the AF assist light)

I set the K10d onboard flash to wireless controller mode, and covered the actual flash itself to ensure no light was coming out and triggering a false positive.   I fired off a few shots, and sure enough no slave firing - good!

Then I turned on the P1 transmitter, and placed it on top of the k10d.  The popup actually seemed to support it’s weight, and the transmitters fit rested nicely against the top of the eyecup.  I think it would be mountable with a little piece of velcro on top of the pop up flash!

The big moment - I fired a shot and sure enough, the slave popped!  Exposure looked correct too (roughly, just by glancing at the LCD.   I ran through a few apertures from 2.8 to 8 and the flash exposure seemed to remain consistent, indicating that metering info is working!  I could visibly see the difference in light output as the flash popped at different apertures as well.
So it seems that at least the basic functionality of the P1s works with Pentax’s PTTL wireless sytem.  it actually fires the flash, and ttl metering appears to work.   Bear in mind however, that this is far from a scientific test and YMMV.  Further testing will be needed

After drooling over this lens since it’s announcement, I finally got my grubby little mitts on the DA* 16-50/2.8. In my opinion, despite the moaning on the various web forums (*cough*dpreview*cough*) this lens is well deserving of Pentax’s “star (*)” moniker.

Build quality is top-notch, definitely “solid”, what I’d expect in a pro-grade lens. SDM focus is fast and accurate. Image quality is excellent - maybe not quite up to the level of the limited primes, but pretty close - easily as good as the comparable canon/nikon offerings (the 17-55/2.8s) especially when you consider that this lens goes to 16 instead of 17(don’t underestimate the difficulty of engineering that 1mm!) all in all an excellent offering. So without further ado, here are some of the first shots taken with it on the k10d. All were shot raw, minimal post processing in lightroom (just some exposure +/-) (click the thumbnails for larger) Nothing special, just some “walking around” snapshots.

Quite a foggy morning this morning, swallowing up the skyscrapers downtown:

Some fall foliage around Penn’s campus: