Are you photographing fireworks?
Best of Pentax Forums Newsletter July 2, 2026
Are you photographing fireworks?
We’re in firework season, with the 250th Independence Day celebration in the United States and the World Cup…well, all over the world! Are you photographing fireworks? Loading up a camera with film and hope? Hand holding a digicam set to a crazy ISO? Vote in this week’s poll, and tell us in the comments how you do that voodoo you do so well!
Elsewhere in this week’s newsletter, Loyal Site Supporter BertieK shows off her GR IV Monochrome; Senior Member Angus_M89 praises the Rear Converter-A 2x-S; and New Member Fluora takes a sharp look at the Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC Macro HSM (Contemporary).
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!
Comment of the Week:
Loyal Site Supporter BertieK on Do you have levels of Every Day Carry camera gear? Best of PentaxForums June 25 Poll: The one I always have with me is my GRIV Monochrome - because it fits in my pocket I can take it everywhere & it's so competent at high ISO - it's the best compact out there. I have different levels depending on what I'm after. I have no problem carrying around a few different Monochrome cameras. No matter what lens or camera I'm using I always enjoy shooting.
Threads of the Week:
Pentax 67 on CBS Sunday Morning 6/28/26
June 28, 2026 • Pentax Medium Format • 1 replies • 201 views
MXLX said — The headline should be “Photographer Jonathan Irish’” images were featured on CBS Sunday Morning this morning. The identifying shot of Mr. Irish was of him with his Pentax 67, so I’m crediting the images to his skill with our venerable tool. Read more »
June 27, 2026 • Welcomes and Introductions • 5 replies • 68 views
Schipper said — Hi, I am Andr? from Paris. I own a K3 and a Leica M262. I bought recently (18 months ) a K3 III and sold the Leica. The 30 of may, I bought the digitat K3 III book in English thinking I gave a gift to Pentax Forum, and I see know that there is a French edition 15 days after ! I am sorry for that. Read more »
Pentax K-3 III eBook- German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese versions
June 25, 2026 • Pentax eBooks • 1 replies • 190 views
Adam said — Perhaps a long-awaited offering- we now have translations of the K-3 III / Monochrome eBook available in 5 language. These are exclusively available via Kindle: English; Spanish – Pentax K-3 Mark III / Monocromo: La Guía Definitiva; French – Pentax K-3 Mark III / Monochrome : le guide ultime; German – Pentax K-3 Mark III / Monochrome: Das ultimative Handbuch; Italian – Pentax K-3 Mark III / Monochrome: La guida definitiva; Portuguese – Pentax K-3 Mark III / Monochrome: O guia definitivo. Read more »
Pentaxian User Reviews
Pentax Lenses
Rear Converter-A 2x-S
Reviewed by Senior Member Angus_M89
Review Date: June 25, 2026 Recommended | Price: $15.00 | Rating: 9
Pros: Sharp Cons:
I had used a KAX 2 x teleconverter and macro lens for a year. At the macro end it was good but as a tele I felt it dropped sharpness too much. I checked the reviews and was torn between the 1.7AF and this. I ended up picking this version due to the reviews.
I have used this on my SMC Pentax 500mm and F* 300mm. I think the use of a quality lens like the F* really does help versus a standard lens. I took a shot of the moon using the 500 and then the 300 with 2 x converter. The F* just outperformed it by a mile. Sharper, clearer and less artefacts. Build quality is good, size is small. Very happy with this purchase.
Third-Party Pentax Lenses
Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC Macro HSM (Contemporary)
Reviewed by New Member Fluora
Review Date: June 26, 2026 Recommended | Price: $250.00 | Rating: 10
Pros: Laser sharp in the middle, lightweight, affordable, versatile
Cons: Distortion, lack of weather sealing
Sharpness: 10 Aberrations: 9 Bokeh: 9 Handling: 9 Value: 10 Camera Used: Pentax KP Autofocus: 10 New Or Used: Used
When my DA* 16-50 SDM broke, I waffled for a long time on whether I was going to replace it with the newer 16-50 PLM or the ultra-wide 11-18 DC. I ended up going with the 11-18, and while I hardly regret that purchase, I quickly realized my mistake in expecting it to cover all my bases. Not having a decent normal zoom in my collection to bridge the gap between my super-telephotos and ultra-wides, I somewhat hastily grabbed this Sigma 17-70 off Ebay since it was available at a great price and had good reviews for sharpness. The first time I tried it out, I immediately wondered why I’d ever bothered to put up with the fuzzy, slow-focusing 16-50 SDM in the first place. This lens is really, really sharp, even wide open. It’s discernably imperfect at the edges when wide open at its widest zoom, but only with pixel-peeping, and its edge sharpness is easily still better than my 16-50 SDM ever was, even in the center. It’s one of the few lenses in my collection that is consistently sharp enough to cause color aliasing/moiré in the photos I take of repeating patterns with my AA-filterless KP, which is impressive, if occasionally inconvenient. If you buy this lens, you might need to remind yourself where the “AA filter simulator” setting is in your camera, assuming you don’t already use it.
The zoom range of this lens was an instant hit for me. 17mm is not as wide as 16mm, sure, but it’s close enough, and it more than makes up for it by being acceptably sharp out to the edges. The 70mm long end feels like magic compared to the 50 or 55mm maximum seen on other common normal zooms, reaching firmly into the “medium telephoto” range and enabling plenty of shots that just wouldn’t be possible with a 16-50. Whenever I’m going out on an excursion where weight is an issue and I can only afford to bring one lens, I never regret picking this one. Other lenses with wider zoom ranges exist, sure, but this one manages its 4x zoom while being compact, lightweight, and top-notch sharp, which is a winning combination in my book. Being affordable enough to replace if something happens to it is a big plus as well.
Autofocus is more than fine - maybe not quite impressive, but I wouldn’t say it has any major weaknesses. The HSM drive is precise, quiet, and decently fast, much less disruptive than a screwdrive lens like the 18-55 AL II kit lens (and unlike many other ultrasonic motors, its operating frequency appears to be actually outside the hearing range of young ears). Unlike every other autofocus lens I own, this is not a “quick shift” lens; the AF/MF switch on the lens body is not just a redundant electronic control and actually mechanically engages a gear inside the lens, so you have to set it to MF before the focus ring becomes possible to move by hand. I occasionally bump into this, but I find that I don’t mind it, since it makes it hard to accidentally bump the focus when in AF mode. The only time it annoys me is when the camera is locked onto something at the wrong end of the range and I want to jog it back to the subject by hand. On a quick-shift lens, that’s just one motion, but here it’s a whole process that requires flipping the AF/MF switch twice.
One minor problem this lens has is distortion. It’s at its best at around 18 or 19mm, with barrel distortion below that and pincushion distortion above, often enough to be distracting if left uncorrected. Correction profiles work wonders, of course, but this being a non-OS version of a lens that has OS on all or most other mounts, I’ve run into issues with editors not having a specific profile available for it. Fortunately, the Lensfun profile for the OS version seems to work perfectly for the non-OS version for both distortion and CA, so I’ve just configured my raw editor to use that. The camera’s onboard profiles are no help, though - it’s a third-party lens, after all - so if you’re shooting straight to JPEG and not developing raws yourself, that might make this lens less appealing.
I strongly recommend this lens if you shoot raws, are chasing sharpness on a budget, and want a comprehensive upgrade to a normal-range kit zoom lens. It may not have all the bells and whistles of a high-end lens, but no one who looks at your photos afterwards will be able to tell.
Photo taken at 17mm f/8, with distortion and CA correction applied.
Are you photographing fireworks?
The Best of Pentax Forums July 2 Poll
Are you gearing up to photograph fireworks? The United States is gearing up for an extra-large celebration this weekend for its 250th Independence Day.
Meanwhile the rest of the world is busy with a little quadrennial party called the World Cup, which traditionally includes wild celebrations featuring fireworks.
So are you gearing up for some nighttime pyrotechnics? Are you going old school, locking up the mirror on your film SLR for bulb shots and then waiting for the film to come back to see what you caught? Or are you cranking up the ISO on your digicam and handholding? 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 July 8.
And here are the results of last week’s poll:
Weekly Photo Challenges
Weekly Challenge #745 - “Boats”
Posted By: BertieK: Thanks to gibikote for picking my picture as the Winner of the Indoor Mundane Challenge. There were so many cool entries.
This week the Challenge is “Boats” & by this I mean anything that floats on water - cruise ships, canoes, kayaks, sailboats, motorboats, barges, tugboats, etc. etc...
The Challenge will run until midnight next Tuesday July 7th, 2026.
And here’s the entry from Loyal Site Supporter CristiC: sunken boat on a foggy winter day; Rowboat, stern below, lower Danube river, Rollei RPX 400 in HC-110, half-frame, digitized with Pentax DFA100mm
A Walk Down Memory Lane
Pentaxian Profile: Michele Cati
Night photography with the 645Z
By PF Staff in Pentaxian Profiles on Aug 6, 2016
Michele Cati (Teknuccio) was born in 1982 in Bologna, Italy. He began his photographic activity back in 1997, pointing his Fujica AX-3 first at the Hale-Bopp comet and later at the total solar eclipse in 1999.
In the digital era Michele switched to the Pentax brand with a K-5, a camera which was able to satisfy the requirements of Michele’s favorite shoots. He works with natural light, mostly in low light conditions and at night pointing the lens at the billions lights dotting the night.
PentaxForum Front page stories June 25-July 1:
The Making of “Monochrome Ford”
How the winning photo of the “Monochrome” contest was made
By david94903 in Photo Contests on Jun 26, 2026
“Monochrome Ford”
Thank you to everyone who nominated and voted for my photo. I am humbled, thrilled and stunned to be the winner, especially since there were so many amazing photographs in the May 2026 photo contest. I am truly honored to have been chosen from the excellent pool of submissions.
Announcing “Weather” - Our July 2026 Photo Contest
Win prizes in our official monthly photo contests
By PF Staff in Photo Contests on Jul 1, 2026
We’re herewith announcing our monthly photo contest for July. The theme for this month is Weather. The task is to illustrate the Many Faces of Weather: Capture the beauty, drama, and diversity of weather, from golden sunshine and misty mornings to powerful storms, snowfall, rainbows, and everything in between. Good luck!
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.