California K-7 Tour Dates & Locations

Here are the final dates for the upcoming K-7 tour stops in California.

Thursday, August 6th
5:30pm to 7:00pm
THE PORTOFINO Hotel & Yacht Club
Pacific II Ballroom
260 Portofino Way
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
310-379-8481

Friday, August 7th
5:30pm to 7:00pm
HILTON Irvine/Orange County Airport
Crystal D Room
18800 MacArthur Blvd
Irvine, CA 92612
949-833-9999

Saturday, August 8th
2:30-4pm
Hilton San Jose – Santa Clara Room
300 Almaden Boulevard
San Jose, CA 95110
408-287-2100

Sunday, August 9th
10am to 11:30am
Marriott San Francisco Union Square
480 Sutter Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
415-398-8900

Attendees will be able to try out the K-7 along with an assortment of PENTAX glass. Meet and greet with other photographers and enter to win a K-7. One camera body will be given away at each event.

Our featured photographer at all the California tour stops will be Mark Dimalanta. Mark will make a short presentation showing his work and share his experience to date shooting with the K-7. For those not familiar with Mark, here's a brief bio and links to his sites:

"Preferring to choose lifestyle over his profession, Dr. Mark Dimalanta of Huntington Beach, California left a promising career in medicine to chase a lifelong passion for surfing and photography. At present, He shoots surfing lifestyle images to share his world through the eyes of his Pentax. Mark travels the world over to chase perfect waves, and dreams of one day getting lost in the beauty of the Philippine Islands, the last bastion of pristine surf..."

Mark's website
Surfdoc Blog

John Carlson and I will be at the Orange County events (Redondo Beach and Irvine) and we look forward to meeting those SoCal Pentaxians who will be able to join us.

DA 35mm Macro - A Year Later

I posted some of the first sample photos from the DA 35mm Macro lens over a year ago (May 08, 2008) taken while on vacation in Mexico. At the time, I was quite pleased with the results and really liked the philosophy our engineers had taken in designing this lens. There was a need for a small, lightweight normal focal length lens with good optical performance, as well as the ability to offer close focusing capability. In essence, this was a lens designed to satisfy those photographers who wanted a nice walk around lens they could use all day and not need to switch lenses.

It was interesting that the initial reaction to this lens fell firmly into two camps...those that "got it" immediately and those that criticized Pentax for calling this a Macro lens and dismissed it as having no value in anyone's camera bag.

Unfortunately, most of the confusion and criticism of this lens (by folks who had not even used the lens) was semantics driven by our decision to call this a "macro" lens. I know our engineers debated over the naming of this lens realizing that some people would assume by the name that this lens was a dedicated "macro" design. In retrospect, the "macro" moniker was probably the simplest way to identify the additional close focus feature of this lens.

A year has passed, and with the 35mm Macro now in the hands of many Pentaxians, I'm glad to see the increase of posts by photographers who are really pleased with this lens. It's a great example of why our Limited lens are unique in the industry. Much credit goes to our engineers who really think about the way photographers shoot and then design a lens offering the form and function that will best enhance your particular shooting style.

These 35mm Macro photos shot with the K-7 in RAW at ISO 400. Processed with CS4 to produce JPEGs for posting here on Blogger. Click on any thumbnail to see a larger file.

K-7 Brochure (US version)

Here's the final copy (pdf) of the K-7 brochure.

Pentax K-7 Brochure

Ritz Camera Update

A truly unfortunate chapter in the ever-changing retail landscape. To read the entire PhotoReporter article, click here for Ritz Files Auctions Plans

FA 77mm f/1.8

I was rummaging around some equipment drawers at work last week and came across this FA 77 lens which we'd used for media and PR opportunities. The FA 31 is without a doubt my favorite piece of Pentax glass, and a lens I am very familiar with. Since it's been several years since I shot with the FA 77, I decided to borrow this "silver" sample to see how it renders light with the new K-7.

I didn't have much time over the weekend to test this lens, but I brought it along with me when we went to our local farmer's market on Sunday to pick up some vegetables for a family get together.

(Note: All FA 77 images shot at ISO 400 in RAW in AV mode and processed by CS4 into JPEG's for uploading here at Blogger. Click on any thumbnail to view a larger file. All images as shot with no cropping. Photo of the K-7 with FA 77 was shot with a K20D and DA*55)

K-7 Multi-exposure mode

There are always one or two features in a new product that seem to get glossed over or in some cases not even recognized until initial production units are out in the hands of early users. I'm not sure if the Multi-exposure mode in the K-7 falls into this category, however here's a simple test I did using this mode in Live View.

Multi-exposure can be set by going to the 2nd screen in the Record Mode Menu Settings. You can select the number of shots from 2 to 9. You can also select Auto EV adjustment, which if "on", adjusts the exposure based on the number of shots you're combining.

When shooting in Live View, you will see an instant review of the shot just taken.

Immediately after the shot is displayed, you can start composing the next shot. The first or previous shot is greyed out and you can now move the full color view of the next shot around until it aligns or overlaps the way you want.

You can repeat this until your last shot in the specified sequence (2-9 shots) is recorded, at which point the camera generates a composite image using your multiple exposures which you can review on the K-7's sharp and detailed 3" display.

It should also be noted that during review you can delete an image and start the multi-exposure sequence again. The K-7 will save the composite image as one file, and the multi-exposures as separate files. Although I did this quick experiment using JPEG file format, you can shoot in RAW mode.

(Note: The lens used to produce these images was the FA 100mm Macro. Action hero figures used for this test provided courtesy of my grand kids.)

First K-7's Arrive in US

As reported on pentaxforums, Creve Coeur Camera, founded in 1974 in the St. Louis suburb of Creve Coeur, has confirmed they have their first 20 units of the K-7. Almost all accounts that placed initial orders should have their units in the next couple of days. For those that are canceling their pre-orders or jumping to another dealer, my advice would be to sit tight, if you can.

Since shipments to the US have begun, I thought this would be a good opportunity to point out that your K-7 package will come with a "valued PENTAX customer" thank you card. Similar to the program we tested with the K2000, every K-7 package has what's called a bounce back card. As a thank you for purchasing the K-7 the card entitles you to savings if you purchase other PENTAX accessories. (Note: if you click on the above photo of the card, you'll be able to view a larger image and confirm which lenses, flashes and binoculars are included in this offer).

This "thank you" promotion is identified by a red dot on the outside of the K-7 package that states "Exclusive Offer Inside. Save up to $100."

And to pre-emptively eliminate any confusion, since none of you have had a chance to open a K-7 package yet and read the card, here are a few important considersations.

First and most important, you must include the printed four color thank you/bounce back card that came with the K-7 (along with copy of sales receipt, UPC barcodes etc.) For obvious control purposes, we will not accept photo copies of this thank you card.

Second, you must have purchased the qualifying product after 6/1/2009. So technically this means that if you have purchased, for example, the DA40 which is a qualifying product, after June 1st but before you actually received your K-7, it will be honored as part of this K-7 thank you promotion.

Third, this promotion will not use traditional rebate checks. You will receive a Prepaid PENTAX VISA card that can be used everywhere VISA is accepted. The only exception is you will not be able to go to an ATM and withdraw cash.

Fourth, this offer is only valid for US customers who purchase cameras from authorized US PENTAX resellers.

While I am sure the majority of you awaiting your new K-7 are far more interested in the camera and not this card, I hope this additional information is helpful.