Pentax K-7 T

Table of contents and Foreword

XIV

Foreword

his book was written for all users of the Pentax K-7. No matter what your

experience level is, you will find something useful in this book.

A few years ago, most amateur and professional photographers alike, were

using film cameras for their picture taking. Within the film cameras, several for-

mats were used. The general public and a good number of professionals used the

35mm format. A select few preferred using medium and large format cameras

mainly because of the size of the negatives. Larger negatives rendered better pic-

tures, better colors and fantastic enlargements. Film cameras were very sophisticated

and took great pictures. It’s no wonder that almost every family owned a 35mm

camera.

When the first digital cameras started to appear, the quality was less than desirable,

but the potential was certainly there. For several years, many photography maga-

zines were debating whether or not the digital cameras would replace film based

cameras. Over time, the quality has so improved, that today, in our opinion, digital

cameras exceed the quality of film based cameras. Of course, we are comparing the

35mm and medium format film cameras with the new breed of Digital Single Lens

Reflex (DSLR) cameras. It has taken more than a decade to get where we are today,

but digital is here to stay.

It wasn’t all that long ago when a top DSLR with a sensor in the 2 megapixels range

was costing the consumers nearly five thousand dollars or more. For a while, as

soon as you spent thousands of dollars for a top-of-the-line digital camera, it was re-

placed within months with a new and better model. I am sure that some of you re-

member these times of tribulation.

The market, as this book is written, has stabilized, and the norm in a non-

professional DSLR is now around the 12 to 15 megapixels, 20 megapixels and

above for professional DSLR cameras. All are enough to produce very good

enlargements up to about 16” x 20” and beyond. Full size (roughly 36mm x 24mm,

or the same size as a 35mm frame) sensors are available on many DSLRs. The per-

ceived advantage of full frame is that you can use your 35mm format lenses without

any correction factor. Pentax is using a smaller sized sensor (APS-C roughly 24mm

x 16mm) requiring a correction factor of around 1.5 to 35mm format lenses. If you