Camera Labs

Bonjour Bob,

I haven't updated this thread for a while. Sorry

I received an answer form Pentax France beginning of December saying exactly what you said. Tolerance is so tight that the repair department preferred to align the sensor with the viewfinder . However, Pentax France proposed me to carry a second alignment in order to improve the alignment between the sensor and viewfinder with the body.

I kept the camera for X-Mas period and performed some tests in real conditions. Pictures were perfectly aligned and I could trust the viewfinder (and my eyes) again

So I decided to keep the camera, even if there’s a slight misalignment with the body. This is not a problem, even on a tripod. I no longer assume the ground is perfectly horizontal (as I used to do) and I carefully check the horizontality through the viewfinder.

To make things easier, I bought the viewfinder loupe, which provides a 1.2 x magnification

Best regards,

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

Well, this problem is basically twofold for my personal use.
And please note this is MY set of issues and opinions!

I really have to concentrate on holding the cam straight due to the ergonomic grip!
I never had this problem with the old fashioned box style body on my Ricoh KR-5 35mm film SLR, as these old bodies gave a LOT more freedom to hold the camera any way I wanted.
When handling the new style camera body of my K100d (the K10d is not the only one with tilted picture issues), it almost forces itself into my hand at an angle, drooping down to the left, and I have to artificially correct the angle of my hand. I wish the handle were either gone, like on the Oly E410 (sweet to handle!), or it were smaller toward the bottom, as most peoples' outer fingers are shorter than the pointer and middle finger.
The way it is though, and Pentax is not the only manufacturer that builds the grip like that, the bulge at the bottom of the grip means the smaller outer fingers automatically pull the cam's bottom to the right, thus tilting the entire camera leftward.

The other issue is one that is likey to stay and not go away, due whatever stinginess the manufacturers are displaying in build and design, as well as the complaint about not seeing image corners by the many people who wear glasses, aka spectacles in current and former British countries, which almost creates a defacto design dogma for a sub sized viewfinder.

The viewfinders of dSLRs, even EXPENSIVE ones, are DINKY compared to what we used to have.

Taking my old Ricoh KR-5 I bought as a kid is almost painful, when I think I can't use it for digital snaps, because I SO much want that viewfinder on my digi-bodies. .... big sigh .......

With these new subsized viewfinders I find it impossible to frame as well as with the old biggy windows that actually allowed to keep both eyes open and match an open eye's view with the viewfinder image of a 50 to 55mm "normal" lens (would now be a 35mm lens on 1.5 crop cams and 25mm lens on 4/3 bodies)

So, the solution is: never mind, rotate and crop as part of the post processing work flow if needed!

_________________
Owen - born late and still not catching up

"Why is a big piece of glass for a camera called fast? I've never seen any of my lenses run away!"

K100d Super, K100d, lots of "fast" glassy stuff

Bonjour bornlate,

Thanks for your contribution

I do agree with you dSLR viewfinders are not as good as film SLR ones

I remember larger film SLR viewfinders with a central zone where vertical lines were cut when out of focus.

I'm not sure liveview would help and improve dSLR focusing

Best regards,

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

Bonjour bornlate,

The exact name of the film SLR viewfinder I tried to describe in my previous post is split-image/microprism focusing screen.

When dSLR makers will include it

However, I've found some information for K10D compatible focusing screen at Katz Eye™ and Haoda.

Does someone has experienced such a product

Best regards,

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