...the Pentax Q, maligned or muy bien !

...I like reviews, there entertaining and just plain fun (thank you reviewers, let's catch a beer after work).

 Recently I perused a number of Pentax Q reviews and quickly decided that this must be the most maligned current production camera in the market...so, I immediately ordered one... As, the one "quiet" thread I had noticed in the reviews was a brief mention of fun and competent, hmmm !

The Q arrived and was quickly un-corked. First off, the supplied lens was an 8.5mm (50mm approx.) f1.9. I mean, how bad could that be, as a 50mm prime lens seem to be quite fashionable these days, and oh yes, I believe Pentax has a reputation of making some outstanding glass. The lens is about the size of a ping-pong ball and maybe just a tad heavier.

Moving on to shooting functions I was surprised to find the Q had a ton of functional capability similar and or exceeding  a majority of the dslr market, sweet ! Plus it had a couple of fresh show-ponies. This is were the fun comes in. Blur Control (BC). The Q has the ability to shoot a sequence of 3 immediate pictures at different focus points, it then combines them magically to create a background/foreground blur similar to a shallow DOF. This diminishes the lack of DOF associated with very small sensor cameras...interesting... another "fun" feature is the ability to apply digital filters either prior to or after exposure ...its' like an availability of 70 various combinations of these weird, wacky and or very useful filters, you slice'em, you dice'em ! ...

...I'm sure at this point you've noticed that I am not maligning this camera. I am Impress-o.

Is it, the one camera you could live with for all your day-today shooting...ummm, probably not, but maybe...say a sports-action camera...naw...how about an arctic expedition camera, nyet, well maybe a pro camera of comparable ability to canon 5d, ninski... but I rate this camera as Muy Bien ! ...as long as you are aware of the specialty nature of the beast...buyer beware, but I am well pleased and with the recent price adjustments to the $500 range with the 8.5mm lens, why not ?

I took the Q to the studio a few days ago and managed to snap off a few shots using a wireless trigger mounted to the hot shoe and triggering a couple of elinchromes and a background flash (the background flash could be a bit problematic). You be the judge, but I would say the Q did Muy Bien !

...I did NOT see that banana peel coming !

...it surprised me, I did not see it coming ! I had been pleasantly shooting along with my C* equipment when I suddenly noticed, I had a need. What more could I want ? ...it goes like this

I had been shooting a large number of animal stock shows. The main theme was to bring the animal on to the stage and shoot 6 or so pix, real time and real quick...as these animals can become most impatient, and may need a toilet...well, the best camera setup was atop a tripod set at its' lowest height...yes, you guessed it, that left me sitting on a milk stool...and doing the dippity-doo in order to view and compose the shot...think, lots of dippity-doo's

... I spotted the Sony SLT A33 and A55 and promptly ordered one of each, a roll of the dice. But today, I shoot everything except outdoor shots with "live view" and it completely changed my paradigm of photography. No, I do not miss the glass view finders of yesteryear...it's all about live view !

...so there we have it, the beginning of a number of paradigm shifts that I will discuss in upcoming posts

...the above JPEG pix shot with Sony SLT A65, Sony 16~50mm f2.8, Studio Flash, and settings un-recorded