Are you a pure Pentaxian?
Best of Pentax Forums Newsletter February 5, 2026
Are you a pure Pentaxian?
Are you a Pure Pentaxian? Do you only shoot Pentax cameras with Pentax lenses. Or do you use third party lenses on your Pentax cameras? Maybe you use your Pentax lenses on your third party cameras!
Or do you — gasp! — sometimes shoot third party lenses on third party cameras and just leave your Pentax gear at home? Vote in this week’s poll, and let us know how you do the voodoo you do so well in the comments!
Elsewhere in this week’s newsletter, Junior Member toodas takes a look at the SMC Pentax-Q 06 Telephoto Zoom 15-45mm F2.8; New Member renecko digs into the Greater Pasque Flower; and Site Supporter ramseybuckeye digs out after a big snow.
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:
February 2, 2026 • Photo Critique • 0 replies • 35 views
renecko said — Characteristics: The Greater Pasque Flower is a typical harbinger of spring. The entire plant is covered in fine white hairs that protect it from early spring frosts. The flowers are bell-shaped, featuring a deep violet color with bright yellow stamens in the center. Read more »
February 1, 2026 • General Photography • 29 replies • 682 views
35mmfilmfan said — No, not the one you wish you owned, nor yet the ‘perfect camera’ which incorporates all the features you need or desire. Cameras actually in dreams. Last night, I dreamed I was at a car boot sale - summer, short grass, blue sky. Many stalls selling bric-a-brac, ladies (or others') dresses, general household clutter, tatty carboard boxes of highly overpriced vinyl LPs, etc.
Then, on one stall, I saw a black Nikon F Photomic, f1.4 Nikkor lens, looking in good condition - very minor brass showing, but no obvious dents, and no visible dust, indicating it had been well looked after. I picked it up, saw it had a film in so didn't open it, but removed the lens (dream me even remembered the direction the bayonet mount turned) and looked inside. Mirror looked OK, again dust-free, aperture moved freely. Read more »
February 1, 2026 • General Talk • 10 replies • 114 views
ramseybuckeye said — We got the snow now. Here in Hampstead, North Carolina, the average snowfall is listed as One inch per year. Mother nature blew that away overnight. I measured the snow on top of a concrete bench at 9 inches, I knew there would be no drifting on that. ...Read more »
Pentaxian User Reviews
Pentax Lenses
SMC Pentax-Q 06 Telephoto Zoom 15-45mm F2.8
Reviewed by Junior Member toodas
Review Date: January 30, 2026 Recommended | Price: $180.00 | Rating: 10
Pros: Compact, wide aperture, sharp Cons:
Sharpness: 9 Aberrations: 10 Bokeh: 9 Handling: 7 Value: 8 Camera: Pentax QS-1
I started my photography journey with the Pentax Q, more than 10 years ago, but never bothered to buy the 06 Telephoto until recently. What a mistake! This lens transform my QS-1 from a fun camera to play with, to an absolute telephoto beast to carry anywhere. Having the equivalent of a 70-200 in my pocket is so convenient, I can take street photos of stranger without being noticed, or I can bring it to a concert where “pro” camera are forbiden. It really give a new sense to the expression “the best camera is the one you have with you”. It cannot compete with the K1 + 70-200 in terms of pure image quality, but it’s good enough when I cannot take my bigger camera.
It makes a perfect daily camera that easily surpass any smartphone in my opinion.
The F/2.8 aperture is a bliss, specially with the Q small sensor limitations with “high” ISO (high is over 400 on the Q series), giving enough light to handle complex situation like concert, while offering a decent bokeh. Overall, sharpness is good, even wide open and I never noticed any vigneting or chromatics aberration.
Accessories
Velbon Sherpa 200R/600R tripod+PH-157Q pan/tilt head
Reviewed by Site Supporter marcusBMG
Review Date: February 1, 2026 Recommended | Price: None indicated | Rating: 8
Pros: Light, quality, well designed, user friendly
Cons: On the pricy side new, limited height, proprietary QR plate.
I picked this up from the recycling centre, the head had a broken QR plate lock, and it was missing the QR plate. Plug for Velbon: they supplied both a new part and a new plate without charge. Now that’s customer service.
This has quickly become my “grab and go” tripod. Does all I need with non-telephoto set ups, although having said that it also does fine with my opticron scope. Quick and easy to set up. To reach eye level height most will need to extend the centre column with decreased stability. The pan and tilt head is all metal, operates smoothly.
Only quibble is that for the price of a new one you can get a carbon fibre one.
Officially discontinued c 2021.
Comment of the Week:
Pentaxian LeeRunge Will dSLRs rise again? The Best of Pentax Forums January 29 Poll
I've thought how hard it's going to get for manufacturers to sell these new mirrorless models into the future, we already have Sony A1's, Nikon Z8's and Canon R5's used coming down in price towards 2000 USD and falling, give that a few years it'll be 1000, then 600 in a decade. Those will compete with anything new and for most, do you really ever need more than those models? Or the sub models that will fall even faster. At some point if 20 FPS is always reliably getting the job done, who cares if they offer 40/60/120/10,000 FPS. Enough hits enough. EVF's are good enough etc.
They'll need to figure out some kind of computational technique like the iPhone and bring that into sensor use to give 20+ stops of dynamic range, or something to entice people. I'm sure something will happen. Even then, will that be enough?
It's only going to get more difficult for them to continue, and with falling sales numbers I don't see how they don't increase prices. Most have.
One interesting stat I found for Nikon is the volume of units and market share declined a bunch for them after DSLR sales, but actual value of units sold is about the same, because they're number 3 in the market, but the least expensive camera is a lot more than the D3000/5000 models they used to sell and overall average is much higher unit sales price. So that is probably the model all of them will move too, higher average unit sale price as unit volume declines when people reach each individuals "that's enough" moment and then use until the camera wears out.
Wearing out could take a long time, the Z8 I have doesn't have any moving parts other than the buttons and dials, which last a long time and a shutter curtain/dust shield which could just be removed. There is no shutter to wear out and I suspect a sensor can last millions of activations before that would wear out.
We may see Ricoh follow that higher unit sale price vs way less sold units into 2500-3500 dollar range as some new model as well, more like how Leica sells a lot less units at a lot higher prices. If people will be willing to pay that much to use a new DSLR. There's a lot less used rangefinders out there than used DSLR's. Leica is half status symbol now while Pentax is not so that aspect is missing.
I do wonder how much people love OVF to be willing to pay those prices.
Are you a pure Pentaxian?
The Best of Pentax Forums February 5 Poll
Are you a Pure Pentaxian? Do you only shoot Pentax cameras with Pentax lenses. Or do you use third party lenses on your Pentax cameras? Maybe you use your Pentax lenses on your third party cameras!
Or do you — gasp! — sometimes shoot third party lenses on third party cameras and just leave your Pentax gear at home? Vote in this week’s poll, and let us know how you do the voodoo you do so well in the comments!
This poll closes February 11
And here are the results of last week’s poll:
Weekly Photo Challenges
Project 52-14-5: Breakfast, until 2-08 (Sunday)
In German, the root word for "Frühstück means "the first piece of bread." The English word "breakfast" describes more—also hinting at its meaning—the "breaking of the overnight fast." There are often more than 10 hours between the last evening meal and the first morning meal.
Show us what you have for breakfast around the world. Whether it's about your energy intake during the workday or your family breakfast at the weekend, a whole breakfast table or parts of the preparation, it's entirely up to you.
Post your best shot, but most of all, have fun!
I'm looking forward to seeing many old and new participants in Project 52 and waiting for mouthwatering breakfast inspirations.
And here is the offering from Site Supporter noelcmn: If past breakfasts is anything to go by, this is going to be a difficult exercise for me, probably a burning failure
A Walk Down Memory Lane
Predictable, Not Particular
When autofocus can let you down
By Kryscendo in Columns on Jun 7, 2014
Pictured above is the earliest camera model with which I began my work: the venerable Pentax MX. The times have since changed. When rebooting in digital, I felt a little strange adjusting, particularly with respect to the viewfinder. When I picked up the white Pentax K-r as my first digital SLR, I had to relearn the basics. With a tighter field of view, a viewfinder covered in metadata rather than a light meter, and an autofocus system, the digital K-r was a big change.
With time, I had figured out what was bothering me. Instead of doing the split image manual focus in the center of the frame like many film-era bodies including the MX, I found my K-r being very responsive with its autofocus. It was perhaps even unwieldy as a little AF unpredictability caused me a lot of concern.
While some appreciate the jackrabbit AF systems of modern cameras, I did not. Parsing through the manual, I found what might have been the setting to make me feel back at home: autofocus point adjustment. I could choose from an 11-point auto mode, 5-point center cluster, or center-only, which is what I desired. Changing to center AF was such a massive improvement to how I use the camera, that it was among the first things I had done with my encore, the K-5IIs.
PentaxForum Front page stories Jan 29-Feb 4:
Announcing “Telephoto Landscape” - Our February 2026 Photo Contest
Win prizes in our official monthly photo contests
By PF Staff in Photo Contests on Feb 1, 2026
We’re herewith announcing our monthly photo contest for February. The theme for this month is Telephoto Landscape.
Most often we use a wide-angle lens for landscape photography. But this month we want to see landscape images shot with a longer focal length. To qualify your image must me shot wt 83 mm or longer (full frame), 55mm or longer (APS-C), 100mm or longer (645D/Z), or 15mm or longer (Q series).
Remember our relaxed rules for 2026: You may submit images shot with any brand of digital camera as long as the lens is a Takumar or Pentax, or with any Pentax or Ricoh camera (film or digital) regardless of the brand of lens used. Images shot with a compact Pentax or Ricoh camera also qualifies as long as the focal length is 83mm or longer in full-frame equivalent terms.
First prize is a $50 gift card to B&H Photo, second prize is a one year forum account upgrade, and third prize is a box of photo paper form Red River.
The official contest rules are found here. Click here to submit a photo for the contest.
Peak Design Pro Tripod Review
By bdery in Review Announcements on Feb 4, 2026
Today, we are happy to release our in-depth review of the newly released Pro Tripod from Peak Design!
In 2019, Peak Design launched its first tripod, simply named the Travel Tripod. We had tested it extensively and found it to be an excellent product, with few limitations and flaws. Still, a travel tripod comes with a few compromises and is not for everyone. This is why the company launched a new tripod, which is not a replacement but a separate product. Larger while still compact, much sturdier, and more feature-packed, the Pro Tripod caters to photographers and videographers who need a full-featured tripod that’s still compact enough to be carried to remote locations. How did the Pro Tripod perform in our tests? Read on to find out!