Are you a photo provocateur?
Best of Pentax Forums Newsletter April 2, 2026
Are you a photo provocateur?
I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with Diane Arbus’ Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, NYC. On the one hand, it’s a great photo that captures the intense emotions of childhood and the war like nature of boys. On the other hand, that didn’t happen. Arbus’ contact sheet shows she followed the boy around the park, fussing with him until he had enough. I’m afraid I cannot get past my years as a photojournalist, for better or worse. I photograph the world as I find it, a polite observer, doing my best to remain unseen. How about you? Are you a sniper with a camera? Do you photograph birds from a blind? Or do you send your dog in and flush them into flight? Do you wander the streets with a telephoto and an unobtrusive camera? Or are you in people’s faces with the biggest flash you can carry? Vote in this week’s poll, and let us know in the comments how you do that voodoo you do so well!
Elsewhere in this week’s newsletter, Veteran Member traderdrew takes a long look at the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6 ED DC AW; New Member DarrellLarose looks at the even longer Sigma APO DG OS HSM 150-500mm F5-6.3; and Site Supporter ritter326 says the Pentax LX is the King of the Ring!
If you’ve been forwarded this newsletter, please take a moment to join the almost 1,600 Pentaxians who have subscribed to our free curated compendium of the hundreds of great images and post shared each week in our Pentax community. Please let us know your thoughts here in the comments and on our Pentax Forums, and have a perfect Pentaxian week!
Threads of the Week:
March 30, 2026 • General Photography • 11 replies • 455 views
reniart said — I consider myself a generalist, with the exception of taking photos with people (which I do not like). I love my Pentax Camera and lens. I attended my first Air Show at the weekend. At the time I thought I had all my settings correct Read more »
March 27, 2026 • Pentax K-3 III Monochrome • 6 replies • 192 views
cjfeola said — Hi everyone, The Online Photographer had a piece about Paul Outerbridge, who I haven’t thought about in many years. Reading about his carbro colour printing process reminded me a lot of the discussions led by our own acoufap and BertieK about their work with the Trichrome process. Read more »
March 28, 2026 • Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories • 38 replies • 407 views
OrchidJulie said — These weird rigs have been showing up on neighborhood power poles recently. I have no clue what they are, so I’m doing two things... asking for help from the forum’s collective experience and exptertise, and starting a new thread for all y’all to post Read more »
Pentaxian User Reviews
Pentax Lenses
HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6 ED DC AW
Reviewed by Veteran Member traderdrew
Review Date: March 26, 2026 Recommended | Price: $1,500.00 | Rating: 10
Pros: It’s a well rounded zoom lens Cons:
Sharpness: 9 Aberrations: 9 Bokeh: 9 Autofocus: 9 Handling: 6 Value: 8 New or Used: Used Camera Used: K-3 iii
This is a very good lens. I’ve used the Sigma 500mm F/4.5 for years but I wanted a zoom for a limited amount of situations. When competing against the Sigma, the Pentax seems to have a better minimum focus distance, about 8 to 9 feet. The Sigma is about 12 feet. The autofocus seems to be a bit better than the Sigma. I would possibly redesign the autofocus buttons on the lens. Make them ergonomically offset in different positions and possibly oval in shape rather than circular.
When competing directly against the Sigma at 450mm, the only problem you start to run into, other than losing only 50mm is when the sunlight disappears, you will lose at least some of the fine feather details seen on smaller birds. I’ve heard a similar complaint from a Nikon user (I think it was the 80-400mm lens) from the DSLR era. I can’t fault Pentax for that, it’s just physics I guess. I rate this lens at least a 9.
Third-Party Pentax Lenses
Sigma APO DG OS HSM 150-500mm F5-6.3
Reviewed by New Member DarrellLarose
Review Date: March 31, 2026 Recommended | Price: None indicated | Rating: 9
Pros: Gives me the reach Cons: heavy
Sharpness: 9 Aberrations: 8 Bokeh: 9 Handling: 8 Value: 10 Camera Used: K-3 and K-3II Autofocus: 8 New Or Used: Used
Lens was a used bargain, lightly used. It provided more reach than my SMC Pentax-M* 300mm f:4 I looked online at the Pentax 150-450mm, but as a pensioner I could not justify the price. I have used Pentax since I bought me Spotmatic II in 1972, my two LX bodies in the 1980’s, my *ISTD, and now my K-3II and back-up K-3. If you get a chance to buy a nice clean Sigma APO DG OS HSM 150-500mm F5-6.3 snap it up.
Pentax Cameras
Pentax LX
Reviewed by Site Supporter ritter326
Review Date: March 26, 2026 Recommended | Price: $300.00 | Rating: 10
Pros: Excellent viewfinder, metering, handling, film advance
Cons: No spare parts available, There are hardly any workshops in Europe that can repair it anymore.
It’s a pleasure to use the camera. wonderful design Yes, certainly not as robust as purely mechanical cameras, like the KX or MX. But for me the king of the ring!!!
Comment of the Week:
Site Supporter Nico13 on Are your portraits people? Trees? The Best of Pentax Forums March 26 Poll: I guess I've done all the usual portraits of family and friends etc and while they can be difficult enough at times it's probably the challenge of animals that I like.
Animals are not pretentious and show completely natural emotions.
Having said that, majestic trees have always caught my eye as a worthy subject and something special to be admired both close up with a wide lens or from a distance with a tele lens picking a solitary tree out of a vast background. attached is an early digital with my *istD and 12-24 f4 showing what the lowly 6meg *istD was capable of.
Are you a photo provocateur?
The Best of Pentax Forums April 2 Poll
I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with Diane Arbus’ Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, NYC. On the one hand, it’s a great photo that captures the intense emotions of childhood and the war like nature of boys.
On the other hand, that didn’t happen. Arbus’ contact sheet shows she followed the boy around the park, fussing with him until he had enough. As a photojournalist this is not a way I could ethically shoot. Yet Arbus was no photojournalist.
I was reminded of Arbus’ photo this week when a YouTube video came up in my feed on “one of the most controversial street photographers” — some dude who gets in people’s faces and blasts them with a hand-held flash, then photographs their shocked faces. I’m afraid I cannot get past my years as a photojournalist, for better or worse. I photograph the world as I find it, a polite observer, doing my best to remain unseen. How about you? Are you a sniper with a camera? Do you photograph birds from a blind? Or do you send your dog in and flush them into flight? Do you wander the streets with a telephoto and an unobtrusive camera? Or are you in people’s faces with the biggest flash you can carry? Vote in this week’s poll, and let us know in the comments how you do that voodoo you do so well!
This poll closes April 8
And here are the results of last week’s poll:
Weekly Photo Challenges
Posted By: TyBabbie, Welcome to Weekly Challenge #735: A Face. Thank you noelcnm for selecting my photo as the winner of last week’s contest! The last portrait contest seems to have been Yaki’s Portraits in Color in April 2025, so maybe it’s not too soon for: A Face. Post a photo that is “about” a face. Portraits are very welcome, as are creative interpretations of “a face.” The challenge will run until midnight next Saturday, April 4th 2026 at midnight PST.
And here’s the face submitted by Loyal Site Supporter jacamar:
A Walk Down Memory Lane
Pentaxian Profile: Peter Charles
Professional Photographer - Fly Fisherman
By PF Staff in Pentaxian Profiles on Feb 19, 2012
Like a lot of kids my age, my first camera was a Kodak Brownie Starlet and I still have it though it’s long past its best days. Film for it was a different matter so it probably only ever had a dozen or so rolls through it. Still, it gave me a taste for what was to come next.
PentaxForum Front page stories March 26-April 1:
The Making of “Moonrise at Hartman Rocks”
How the winning photo of the “Telephoto Landscape” contest was made
By mattb123 in Photo Contests on Mar 29, 2026
This photo was taken in May of 2021 at a location not far from my home called Hartman Rocks Recreation Area. It’s a cluster of granite formations scattered around 14,000 acres of rolling sagebrush-covered hills. The thing I do most frequently here is mountain biking but it is also popular for hiking, climbing, running, motocross, 4 wheeling, and even skiing.
Available Dark Requires a Light
A clip-on light with a red night mode perfect for photogs
By cjfeola in Hands-On Tests on Apr 1, 2026
I wondered if anyone had gotten around to a clean-sheet design for rechargeable flashlights. Good news! They have, and they are perfect for photographers! The RECHOO Flat EDC Rechargeable Flashlights weigh less than a pair of AA batteries, have a clip for hands-free work, a magnet in the bottom for even more hands-free options, a regular flashlight mode with the LED in the top, and a lantern mode with the LED on the side.