Do you choose the phone or the camera?
Smartphone cameras are used to take the vast majority of photographs these days. And you’re a photographer.
So…do you pixel peep when choosing a smartphone the way you do when you’re deciding between the HD Pentax-D FA 21mm F2.4 ED Limited DC WR, the HD Pentax-DA 21mm F3.2 Limited, and the HD Pentax-DA 20-40mm F2.8-4 Limited DC WR? Do you race out to preorder the latest flagship phone as soon as its announced? Or do you just buy whatever is on sale when your old decrepit phone finally gives up the ghost? Vote in this week’s poll, and let us know why you do what you do in the comments!
Elsewhere in this week’s newsletter, Forum Member morphost reviews the HD Pentax-D FA 28-105mm F3.5-5.6 ED DC WR; Loyal Site Supporter BertieK shares beautiful color images from the Pentax K-3 III Monochrome using the trichrome process; and New Member TrondA shares thoughts on the Pentax SV (H3v).
If you’ve been forwarded this newsletter, please take a moment to join the more than 1,500 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:
Now that I have THE MONSTER do I really need the Laowa 12 or Irix 11?
October 12, 2025 • Pentax SLR Lens Discussion • 23 replies • 822 views
madison_wi_gal said — The 2.4lb (1.09 kg) MONSTER 15-30 I got for ~ 50% new cost was still an excellent choice for a impulse buy even though my wrist is still a bit sore from the test shots, but now LBA has kicked in and I’m wondering if there is much point in pursuing the Laowa 12 other than the weight. Read more »
What is the ultimate jpg preset for people?
October 12, 2025 • Pentax DSLR Discussion • 38 replies • 1003 views
Fontophagus said — I am a lazy person. And so a bit back I embarked on a path to master the out of camera shooting, especially for people during an event, when I get a staredown from 500 files afterwards. And so here comes the issue of what preset to use. I find the basic “bright, natural, portrait, radiant” ranging from bland to oversaturated and so I grew fond of the Bleach bypass/green Satobi, Gold and recently even Reversal film. What are your favorites? Read more »
“Point and Shoot” is cool now?
October 13, 2025 • General Photography • 24 replies • 458 views
UncleVanya said — I took my Sony RX100 IV to a wedding this weekend. I was shocked when a couple people seemed genuinely envious of it. One said to me, “Wow you have a point and shoot, those are so cool!” As the character Lester Bangs in Almost Famous says: (paraphrased) I am not cool…Apparently my camera is. Read more »
Pentaxian User Reviews
Pentax Lenses
HD Pentax-D FA 28-105mm F3.5-5.6 ED DC WR
Reviewed by Forum Member morphost
Review Date: October 10, 2025 Recommended | Price: $289.00 | Rating: 10
Pros: Easy adaptability
Cons: Needs light
Sharpness: 9 Aberrations: 9 Bokeh: 8 Autofocus: 9 Handling: 9 Value: 10 New or Used: New Camera Used: K-1
This lens is one of my favorites for traveling. It does require light because it’s an outdoor lens for landscapes and street photography. And it fulfills its role perfectly. Given its weight and its 28-105 aperture, it can’t produce amazing bokeh. But it fulfills its role perfectly. Its lens is good, a little soft around the edges. But you’ll have to adjust its focal length to achieve good precision. Given my photos, I can only be satisfied with this lens. It fulfills its role: lightweight, good focal length, fast, and good sharpness.
Third-Party Pentax Lenses
Sigma DL Macro AF 75-300mm F4-5.6
Reviewed by New Member stefan1983
Review Date: October 4, 2025 Recommended | Price: None indicated | Rating: 8
Pros: Quite light compared to other zoom lenses, good results on APSC
Cons: Not as sharp as Pentax lenses with HD coating, slow AF
Sharpness: 7 Aberrations: 7 Bokeh: 9 Handling: 8 Value: 8 Camera Used: K3 Autofocus: 6 New Or Used: Used
Due to the crop factor a 112–450mm on my K3
Pentax Cameras
Pentax SV (H3v)
Reviewed by New Member TrondA
Review Date: October 2, 2025 Recommended | Price: $240.00 | Rating: 9
Pros: Silky soft and solid at the same time. Small, light and well built. Mechanical precision far beyond the price level.
Cons: Hard to find 2nd hand camera with working shutter. Repair more demanding than many other mechanical cameras due to high precision requirements
This is Pentax at its very best. It is by far the best from early production. It is common to brag a lot about the film advance mechanism of the Nikon F3 and Leicaflex SL2. Fantastically smooth... The simple SV is on the same level! It is liberating to look into a viewfinder free of all information sometimes. It gives greater attention to the subject. A light meter from the 1960s can be broken or very unreliable. Then it is just as easy to do without on the Sunny 16 or bring a separate light meter. This way it can be faster to use than Spotmatic’s somewhat cumbersome stop-down metering.
Buy this before everyone understands how good it is and raises the price even further. Already the most expensive, old Pentax and it only gets worse...
Comment of the Week:
Loyal Site Supporter BertieK on Do you keep buying closet queen gear? The Best of Pentax Forums October 8 Poll: Those filters are just waiting for you to slap them on your Mono & do a trichrome! I have a closet full of bags & a few in the trunk of my car - ridiculous!
Do you buy a phone that has a camera, or a camera that has a phone?
The Best of Pentax Forums October 15 Poll
There’s no denying that smartphone cameras are used to take the vast majority of photographs these days. Pretty much everyone carries a smartphone, so it’s very often the camera you have with you when you spot something.
And you’re a photographer. So…do you pixel peep when choosing a smartphone the way you do when you’re deciding between the HD Pentax-D FA 21mm F2.4 ED Limited DC WR, the HD Pentax-DA 21mm F3.2 Limited, and the HD Pentax-DA 20-40mm F2.8-4 Limited DC WR? Do you race out to preorder the latest flagship phone as soon as its announced? Or do you just buy whatever is on sale when your old decrepit phone finally gives up the ghost?
Meanwhile, there’s a really interesting split that has opened up between phones available in the US, and those available primarily in Asia. Most of the units available here — Apple iPhones, Samsung Galaxies, Google Pixels — feature cameras with Even MOAR AI!!!
In Asia, meanwhile, the trend is to throwback to traditional photography. I replaced my dying Sony Xperia Pro-I this summer with a Nubia Z70s Ultra Photographer Edition; it’s main camera is 35mm! It also has a 13mm ultrawide, and a 70mm portrait lens built in.
And Vivo this week announced the X300 Pro Photographer Kit: a new flagship phone that comes with a Zeiss telephoto lens that bayonets onto the phone.
So do you pick out a phone, and just use whatever camera it has? Do you pixel peep, buy a camera, and just use whatever phone happens to be attached? Do you want all the AI help you can get? Or are you importing superphones from Asia? And what is your position on interchangeable lenses for smartphones? Vote in this week’s poll, and tell us why you do what you do in the comments!
This poll closes October 21
And here’s my review of the Nubia Z70s Ultra Photographer Edition. Yes, they are definitely rippling off the Leica look. What do I care as long as it doesn’t have a matching Leica price tag!?!
And here are the results of last week’s poll:
Weekly Photo Challenges
Point and Shoot Competition #211 - Transportation: Anything that gets you from one place to another. This is a wide open category so use your imagination & Have fun! Looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with! Cameras permitted:
Mobile phones, tablets, any camera with a sensor smaller than or equal to 1”
Pentax Q, Nikon 1, Ricoh GRD or Caplio, Ricoh GR. Any so-called small sensor Digicams; Any 110 film cameras (e.g. Pentax Auto 110) or point and shoot cameras that use 35mm film (e.g. Pentax PC35AF and Pentax 17); Cameras you can take with you in a coat pocket. ANY CAMERA BRANDS ALLOWED. Entries will close on October 31, 2025 at Midnight wherever you are.
And here’s the entry from Loyal Site Supporter CODRIVER: I’m going to start with a Pentax Q picture: You gain new freedom with your first bicycle.
A Walk Down Memory Lane
Pentax K to Q-mount Adapter
Introduction
The genuine Pentax K-mount to Q-mount adapter, officially known as the “Pentax Adapter Q for K-mount Lenses“, is in our opinion the best thing that has happened to the Q mirrorless system since the price of the Pentax Q body itself was dropped from $799 to under $349 (in the US).
This handly adapter allows you to mount Pentax (D)SLR lenses on your Q, instantly turning the Q into a robust telephoto solution, minus the bulk and weight that such as setup would normally require. Because of the Q’s 5.6x crop factor, the SMC Pentax 50mm F1.2 lens, pictured below, will produce that same field of view as a 280mm lens would on a full-frame camera. If you happen to own a longer lens, such as a 100mm, 200mm, or 300mm, you can give your Q even more reach without compomising its image quality or effective aperture.
PentaxForum Front page stories Oct. 8-14:
Pentax 17 named to Time Magazine Best Innovations of 2025 list
Fun film photos for a smartphone generation
By cjfeola in Pentax Announcements on Oct 10, 2025
October 9, 2025: The Pentax 17 half-frame film camera that produces “Fun film photos for a smartphone generation” was named today to Time Magazine’s list of The Best Inventions of 2025.
Pentax is the first major camera maker to release a new 35mm film camera in almost two decades. The Pentax 17 is a half-frame camera, so users get 72 shots from a 36-exposure film, and its vertical orientation is ideally suited to a generation whose default camera is a smartphone, Time wrote. “This is a quality product designed to give you many years of pleasure,” says Ken Curry, president of Pentax owner Ricoh Imaging North America. Having to wait for your film to be developed is part of the appeal, Curry says. “Delayed gratification is a novelty these days.”