Hi all, let me just properly introduce myself. Should have done that before imposing my questions about the K2.
My name is Paul Delcour from Hilversum, Netherlands. If you want to know a lot: http://www.delcour.org I started photography at the age of 8 or 9 woth a very simple all plastic camera. I still have those first pictures. Then my father gave me his 6x6 rollfilm camera and I made some really lovely snaps with it. Sensation when I was allowed a colour film. Then in 1978 I did a holiday job and with that money bought the then outgoing K2, a black one, for 780 Dutch guilders. Difficult to say what that would have been in pounds or dollars, let alone euro's. Wonderful camera and I was amazed at having such a fine piece of photographic equipment all at my very own disposal. Did a lot of photography with it for a couple of years. Joined a photography club linked to the university of Groningen. Learned a lot from the teaching photographer there called Ton Broekhuis. He's still an active photographer and I have to say I think he's very good. Bit of an odd one at that, but that can go with being artistic I know from my own experience. Changed studies, found my wife and didn't do all that much photography for a long time. Then in 1992 (I think) I decided I was a bit fed up with being a choir conductor and thought I'd make a serious job of being a photographer. So I started a course in photography at the Fotovakschool in Apeldoorn. Got me a second K2 (silver) and a Metz 60 flash (wonderful) to be fully armed for assignments. Reason I quitted the course: there's a hell of lot of photographers about and who am I to be another competitor. Besides, anybody can push a release buttons. As one of the teachers explained: most people are happy if uncle Bill's head AND feet are in the picture and he's in focus as well. I couldn't see myself being pleased with a lot of that kind of assignments. Apart form that, I simply couldn't master the proper film development and printing techniques. Hated it and still do. I can drool over a wonderfully well measured balk and white picture, but don't ask me to do it. I feel the technique is in my way. Felt the same when playing the piano. As a conductor I feel I have direct control over the singing. Not so over the keys. I can't say that I picked up photography again very seriously, but it's always lurking in the back of my mind. I 'see' pictures everywhere I go. But there's not much point in taking all of them if there's no purpose behind them. So I'm looking for small assignments in my circles of family and friends. To get going again and get some practise. I know this is beside the topic of this list, but I also picked up video. Got a Canon XM1 for the purpose of making a documentary about my father in law who is (since 21st of may was) an exceptional wood artist or sculpter. So I need to skill myself in video and photography both. I already took some pictures of his work: http://www.janvantol.nl They were shot in his workplace with light coming form above from three large windows. I bought a Visatec flashset however, because we would like to make an inventory of as much of his work as we can trace. That means going to people's homes and taking pictures there. In order to get the same result we felt a flashset was needed. Kep you posted on this as I have a lot of trouble of measuring the flashlight properly. My best subjects are those I simply run in to. I did some weddings and parties and those I love best. I am able to be very not present and thus am able to quietly go about and observe and shoot unposed scenes. That's my strongest point: abserve and be ready to click. I do like setting up a scene, especially since we got the flashset. It's fascinating setting up a table top and trying to get the light right. So far, after just 2 testfilms, I'm not that happy, but than I guess this takes some time before I'll know how to get it right. Equipment. I still have two K2's and somehow do not wish to part with not h of them. The black has always been my camera to use and I cannot see a lot of advances if I take up a much more recent model. Sometimes I feel the lack of autofocus as I'm always manual focussing and thus sometimes am simply too late to take the snap I 'saw'. Also 1/4000 would be nice as with 200 and 400 being the standard I sometimes run out of time... I like a large aperture to get depth. I have all Pentax SMC K lenses, except for one: Tokina 17/3.5 (very nice, though clearly softer than my Pentax lenses, but this was simply affordable - use it a lot indoors to get a room in one go) Pentax 24/2.8 (love it) Pentax 35/2 (hardly use it) Pentax 50/1.7 (great for low light, but do not use it a lot) Pentax 85/1.8 (love it) Pentax 100/4 macro (great, though not much in use) Pentax 200/4 (good, but seldom used) Pentax converter 2x (great with the 200 to get 400, but seldom used. I had a Panagor converter once which was terrible compared to the Pentax one) Wishes: fisheye. Nearly had one a couple of weeks ago, but tehy are hard to come by. Also: a zoom from about 24-90 to use at parties where it will simply save me a lot of time with the switching of lenses. I don't know how some of you mange these, but uptill now I haven't had a great problem in having only fixed lenses. Point is, zooms in the 80's were a lot less fast than fixed. Nothing beates the 85/1.8 or the 50/1.7 or even the 24/2.8. Still, for quickness a zoom would be nice. Browsed the web, but all comments are still towards fixed is best, unless you pay a lot of money for a 2.8 zoom. So, I'll try to add a photography page to my website and show you some of the things I've seen and shot during my lifetime. Thanks for all the response on my K2 and now what posting. For now, I'm still very happy with it so unless someone convinces me I should get this or that model, K2's my way. :-) Paul Delcour
