Camera Labs

Bonjour,

One of the great novelty introduced by the Pentax K-7 is the ability to make videos.

Well, easier said than done ! Main difficulty relies on the very essence of film: action. The object could move and, at the same time, the photographer could move too.

So I started with an easy subject: an industrial model.

I think it’s time to introduce my other hobby : fischertechnik. It’s a German toy with bricks much like Lego. It also includes motors, statics, electro-mechanics and electronics and more recently, micro-controllers (like the Lego NXT Mindstorms). I’ve been playing with fischertechnik for more than 35 years…

I'm mostly interested in industrial robots and mobile robots. The dedicated fischertechnik section of my website provides more details, with many pictures and videos.

I plan to consider on my review:

• Shooting
• Editing
• Result
• Questions

To be continued...

_________________
--- rei_vilo
Pentax K-5 + BG4 + DA* 16-50 + DA* 50-135 + DA* 60-250 + AF-540FGZ
reivilophotography.weebly.com

Great to hear someone talk about fischertechnik! I absolutely loved it as a kid and thought it was a huge step-up from lego without all the fiddly nuts and bolts of mechano...

Bonjour Gordon,

How incredible

This was one of the first models I played with 35+ years ago. Do you remember


The line has been revamped, and the standard light gray block (front) has turned black (back), not so easy to shoot at


Actually, most of the pictures and videos on my website dedicated fischetechnik section are taken with a Canon IXUS 85IS, easier to handle even inside the models. Quality is enough for posting on the web.

This time, I tried with the Pentax K-7.

_________________
--- rei_vilo
Pentax K-5 + BG4 + DA* 16-50 + DA* 50-135 + DA* 60-250 + AF-540FGZ
reivilophotography.weebly.com

They changed the colour of the blocks?!!

Sorry, I'm going off-topic now - back to you Rei!

@ Gordon,

Yes, they did!

And your remark isn't off-topic

Picturing a model whose main colour is black isn't that easy, not to say it's really difficult

To be continued...

_________________
--- rei_vilo
Pentax K-5 + BG4 + DA* 16-50 + DA* 50-135 + DA* 60-250 + AF-540FGZ
reivilophotography.weebly.com

Come come, quit chatting and start posting the review. It's not fair to tempt us with a review and then not post it!

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PhilipGoh.com

Bonjour,

So let's jump to the conclusion with the HD video

The model is fully detailed here.



I'll post later on the shooting conditions, the editing and the questions around the video.

Enjoy

_________________
--- rei_vilo
Pentax K-5 + BG4 + DA* 16-50 + DA* 50-135 + DA* 60-250 + AF-540FGZ
reivilophotography.weebly.com

Bonjour,

Here's my report.

Last year, I built another model: an automatic warehouse, but I used a Canon IXUS 85IS camera for the videos.

This year, I took the opportunity to test the video feature of my Pentax K-7.


Shooting

The K-7 is heavier to handle, so it was placed on a tripod.

Sure, the industrial line model wasn't the easiest example, because it's mainly macro and the DOF is rather narrow.

The lack of continuous AF during the shooting is the main difficulty. I tried manual AF, but adjusting the AF is a real challenge and LiveView doesn't help so much .

AF is set on pressing the AF button close to LiveView: focusing is obtained by phase detection, which is rather slow.



Editing

Contrary to my previous videos edited with Windows Media Maker, I tried iMovie '09 on my Mac.

I found iMovie more difficult to use than the Windows utility.

Windows Media Maker clearly shows the different steps of process: import roughs, select parts, insert titles and transitions, export.

iMovie is rather messy and much screen real estate is lost by the roughs displayed even during editing or title inserting.



Result

Check by yourself!

In the last sequence, I tried to following the white cylinder with manual focusing.



Questions

May I say I'm not that happy with the whole process?

For me, the main question is about continuous AF during shooting. It's the main issue which makes the Pentax K-7 video feature difficult to use.

Could a firmware update bring this feature

_________________
--- rei_vilo
Pentax K-5 + BG4 + DA* 16-50 + DA* 50-135 + DA* 60-250 + AF-540FGZ
reivilophotography.weebly.com

I've enjoyed the video & I regret I didn't had access to fischertechnik in my childhood. That looks so much more fun than Lego.

Gotta love the DOF control with a DSLR...many many wonderful posibilities,especially for people in media.

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Gear: Nikon D80, 18-105mm, 35mm F/1.8, 85mm F/1.8, SB-600
Visit my work here

Very nice machine Rei!

OOh I saw a video on your site a while back.

About a white-black block organizer.

Bonjour,

Do other Pentax K-7 owners try the video mode

You may have been luckier than me

Please share your experience

_________________
--- rei_vilo
Pentax K-5 + BG4 + DA* 16-50 + DA* 50-135 + DA* 60-250 + AF-540FGZ
reivilophotography.weebly.com

Bonjour,

I built another model, an industrial line with multiple conveyor belts based on distributed computing (one autonomous micro-controller per conveyor belt).



This time, however, I tried my other camera, a nice Canon IXUS 85 IS , to make a video. Watch it here The above mentioned P&S camera features AF during video.

Sorry for this post about Canon on a Pentax thread

But looking for the right tool at the right time is part of the job of a photographer, even if he or she is a hobbyist

Enjoy other videos of the same model available here and there

How do Pentax P&S perform on video recording Do they feature AF

_________________
--- rei_vilo
Pentax K-5 + BG4 + DA* 16-50 + DA* 50-135 + DA* 60-250 + AF-540FGZ
reivilophotography.weebly.com