As disappointed as I was in my last post about the Pentax I recently acquired, I managed to make some decent photos on the day. The small backscreens on old cameras aren’t good enough to determine much of anything about sharpness or focus, so I usually make a few photos of the same subject to have some redundancy in case of faults and errors.
Old bridge over the Broughton River – Pentax K10D
I think sometimes we get too used to the idea that every photo should be as sharp as possible. It’s a common criticism in photography groups, of course. But what constitutes sharpness in a photo? Good focus is one primary ingredient – something I struggled with on the Pentax. Contrast is another characteristic that contributes to the perception of sharpness. Aperture size is also important, as this determines depth of field and just how much of a photo is going to be in focus and acceptably sharp. A fast enough shutter speed if a tripod isn’t being used is also key to avoiding blurry photos.
The old dumping ground – Pentax K10D
I don’t know about you, but my eyesight isn’t good enough to see the world like the best lenses. I can zoom in on a super sharp photo in Lightroom and see all the details. That’s a wonderful thing and I’m often amazed at how much detail modern lenses and sensors can resolve, but acceptable sharpness is also a range within which a photo looks good to our eyes. There are well-known lenses from every manufacturer that aren’t known to be super sharp, yet I’m sure many excellent photos have been made with them.
Free book library – Pentax K10D
Inexpensive kit lenses often receive criticism from people who view the technical quality of gear as primary markers of status and image quality. If you’ve chosen the correct aperture, correct ISO, correct shutter speed, and the correct point of focus for the scene, the rest is down to technique, content, and composition. A lens that’s not super sharp can certainly produce wonderful photos of subjects that are a good fit for the glass. Great content and compostion will always beat out slightly soft photos every time in my books. As I’ve said before, amazing photos were made over a century ago with equipment we’d consider primitive when contrasted to the camera gear of today.
When I was growing up, we’d spend time with another family on special occasions. They’d emigrated at the same time as us to Australia, and we’d maintained the sort of cultural bond with each other that immigrants often do when they’re finding their feet in a new country. Even though my brother and I didn’t have much in common with their two girls, we always found a way to have fun, whether it was hide and seek, boardgames, or exploring the nearby school on weekends.
I have a vivid memory of going to their home one day and looking up to see a large camera I’d never seen before sitting on a shelf in the dining room – a Pentax. Bigger and more professional looking than the usual plastic film cameras I was used to seeing, it seemed to suggest that someone in their family was a bit more serious than most about making photos. I never had the courage to ask, but that bold white Pentax font was burned into my memory.
A few weeks ago, I came into possession of my own Pentax – a K10D. Released in late 2006, it was a nice semi-pro DSLR with some interesting features ~ weathersealing, sensor-based shake reduction, and the same well-regarded CCD sensor as the Nikon D200. It even came to me in a Lowepro Nova 160 AW camera bag that still looks to have plenty of life left in it as a daily shoulder carry. As Ricoh-Pentax has, to me, always seemed a brand doing it’s own thing regardless of the trends, and bearing in mind the curiosity stoked in me since seeing that serious looking camera on the shelf, you can imagine I was quite excited to take it out for a day of use.
Closed up in Redhill – Pentax K10D with Sigma 17-50mm lens
We should be cautious about rushing into what seems like a good deal, especially online. I’ve been pretty lucky with my purchases, but sometimes old gear comes with problems. Despite a body in good condition and a shutter about a third of the way through its average life, my K10D isn’t in the best shape internally. Mine seems to have front and back focus problems, likely related to the dreaded mirror drop issue that plagued so many of these units. It took Pentax ages to own up to the problem officially.
Of course, the soft and slightly out of focus photos could also be due to the Shake Reduction system not playing nice, bad glass, or user error – though you’d expect that making a photo at 1 / 750th of a second in good light with plenty of depth of field wouldn’t be the cause of visual mush. And I know of no Sigma glass that’s so poor as to make everything soft even at an F-stop of 8. Given the inconsistency of the focal plane from photo to photo, I suspect one side of the mirror has tilted downwards slightly, thereby affecting sharp focus. I think this because every single photo comes out with the same tilt no matter how well I frame it: the right side tilted down. It’s easily corrected in Lightroom, but still annoying. The only other culprit could be the interchangeable focus screen being slightly askew – something that’s easier to adjust. Disappointment aside, these are some of the best photos from the day…
Insidethe old farm-house – Pentax K10D
In some ways, I don’t mind slightly soft photos. Whilst I had to do more than my usual sharpness adjustment in Lightroom to compensate, they remind me a little of photos from a cheap old film camera.
Abandoned garage – Pentax K10D
The K10D is a nice camera to hold. The body seems to have more organic curves than the upright and serious looking Nikons I’ve grown accustomed to. The LCD screen is nice and bright, as is the optical viewfinder. It has a different hand-feel to my Nikons – slightly more refined in some ways, but lacking the external controls of the D200. If Nikon is the serious-looking man at the local bar drinking only tap water and green tea in the corner, Pentax is the loose fellow pressing buttons for fun on the jukebox after a few exotic beers.
Shipping container patina – Pentax K10D
Problems aside, it was good to finally use a Pentax after all those years of wondering about the camera on the shelf. Will I get another Pentax? I definitely won’t be rushing to do so. One of the hazards of picking up old cameras is that sometimes there are unreported faults. I have a Nikon D70 that’s very worn, but still makes great photos. The Pentax looks great and clean, but it’s not a trustworthy companion I’m afraid. I was a Pentaxian just for a day, and it was kinda nice. I’ll keep the nice Lowepro shoulder bag though!
The Rusty Ruin Journal 