Winter Surfing Down Under

[wombat666]

Well, not entirely!
I thought I'd sneak off and catch a couple of breaks, weather and waves too good to pass up.
Of course, if I'm MIA for too long 'Her Indoors' has an uncanny sixth sense when it comes to catching me out!
I just happened to have a 'quick look' at the Sorrento SLC back beach and decided those rollers were so perfect.

https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1622x1077q90/923/mu7YLr.jpg

Obviously the usual suspects were thinking along the same lines.

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It's a very social sport.

[wombat666]

Shot with my trusty old Pentax K-5 - Sigma 18-200 lens combo.
By my wife!!!!!!

https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1622x1077q90/923/MxBloh.jpg

St. Andrews Beach was less than pretty later in the day.

https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1622x1077q90/924/Iz5vKS.jpg

[Tako_Kichi]

Nice shots. I never knew you were a Pentaxian too :wavey:.

I've had at least one Pentax camera in my bag since 1979. Currently I have a K-70, K-30 and K-1000 plus a few Limited primes and a couple of zooms. My youngest daughter has a K-50 and a K-10D plus a few older lenses (mostly my hand-me-downs).

[wombat666]

Had a couple of Pentax units over the last decade or more Larry.
This one is far from the sierra hotel gold standard but it suits my rekindled enthusiasm.
Chatting with my 'new' camera retailer has been interesting, Steve suggested I look at Olympus if and when I upgrade.
In his opinion Canon and Nikon are Ford and Holden...........:biggrin-new:

[Tako_Kichi]

Olympus make good cameras, I've had two over the years, in fact I still have them but never use them now. The first was an Olympus Trip compact 35mm, basically my 'pocket' camera when I didn't want to lug my Pentax SLR and lenses around back in the mid 80's. The other was my first digital camera bought in 2001, a C2040 that I bought specifically because of it's f1.8 lens (unheard of on digital cameras at the time).

Don't be too eager to jump brands yet though. Pentax has a world beating camera in the full frame K-1 body and they are due to release a new 'flagship' APSC body to replace the aging K-3II at some point soon. Any new Pentax body would still use all the lenses you currently have for your K-5 too. Another thing to remember if you are out and about in the salt spray regularly is the legendary Pentax weather sealing which is standard on even entry level cameras, other brands require you to pay a lot more to get weather sealing on the body and lenses or don't offer it at all. Talking of costing more Pentax lenses will always be cheaper and lighter than the competition due to the fact that their image stabilization system is in the camera body and not in the lens. You buy it once (in the body) instead of having to pay for it in every additional lens you buy. In-lens IS means the lenses have to be bigger and heavier due to the additional mechanisms required.

This is a great source of info on Pentax gear and has a fantastic membership on the forums where everyone is extremely helpful and enthusiastic....... https://www.pentaxforums.com/

[wombat666]

Thanks for the wise words and the link.

The primary reason my interest in Olympus was piqued came from their work in Medicine, apparently (my better half is surgeon by trade) Olympus are at the forefront of those ultra miniature lens and camera systems used in keyhole surgery.
Sofie can really surprise me when she comes up with sort of information!
:dizzy:

I'm not doing anything for several months, at this moment I'm only checking out the how, where and why re a wide angle lens, I don't like 'stitching at all.

And yes indeed, lot's of Salty air.
One of my favorite hidden bays, another reason Summer will be very welcome.
I'm off to check out that forum, thanks again for the link.

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[Tako_Kichi]

The primary reason my interest in Olympus was piqued came from their work in Medicine, apparently (my better half is surgeon by trade) Olympus are at the forefront of those ultra miniature lens and camera systems used in keyhole surgery.
Sofie can really surprise me when she comes up with sort of information!
:dizzy:

Ahh but, don't forget Pentax were pioneers in the medical field, they had dedicated dental cameras/lenses decades ago and the original Pentax parent company (Asahi Optical Corp.) made lenses for microscopes way back in the WWII era. They are still competing in the keyhole surgery and endoscope fields to this day.

https://www.pentaxmedical.com/pentax/

Hope you enjoy the forums, I am on there using the same 'handle' as here.

[wombat666]

Indeed I'm in!
Thanks for the welcome.
I'm about to trawl the local Camera retailers re the Pentax lens.
Imagine how much better (relatively speaking) this would have looked shot through a decent wide angle!

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[lefty]

I just love those photos of all that Great White bait !

Re cameras - I'm an Olympus man - the OMD-EM1 is a wonderful bit of kit and there are some seriously good lenses available in the Pro range...

My first serious camera was a Pentax Spotmatic II purchased in Hong Kong in the Good Old Days.....seems like a hundred years since I put a film into a camera !

[Tako_Kichi]

My first serious camera was a Pentax Spotmatic II ......
My first serious camera was a Spotmatic bought used in 1979, I traded it in on a used Spotmatic II a couple of years later as I wanted a body with a hot-shoe instead of having to use a L-bracket and sync cable with my flash head. I still have the Spotmatic II body but it is now FUBAR'ed sadly. Those Spotmatics were great cameras, simple to use, rugged and took great pictures.

[wombat666]

'Great Whitebait' lefty?
I do like Whitebait cooked in the Mediterranean style, but I've never come across any 'Great Whitebait'.
:biggrin-new:
On the subject of first serious cameras, mine was a Canon Eos (V I think) that I bought in the Melbourne International 'Duty Free' around 1984............... IIRC.
It served me very well at the Australian F1 Grands Prix held in Adelaide between 1985 to 1995, but the motor drive could blow a complete roll of Fujifilm 'Green' in a few seconds.
Sadly both Kodak and Fuji shut down film manufacturing in the late 1990s and my trusty Canon was retired.
I did buy a Canon Powershot SX100 IS in about 2007 to record our restoration projects but never really liked the 'shoot through the LED' at all.
Nice group of enthusiasts on the Pentax site Larry.
:encouragement:

[Tako_Kichi]

Nice group of enthusiasts on the Pentax site Larry.
:encouragement:

Yes they are.

They are very much like the membership here, very polite, very knowledgeable and very helpful to anyone with questions. It's rare to get a 'whack-job' on there who just blows steam for the sake of it and if one does turn up the Staff are quick to squash the issues.

There is always something to see that's interesting and I really like some of the sub-forums dedicated to specific bodies or lenses and the ones dedicated to various challenges, many are amusing and seeing how people interpret the various challenges is enlightening at times. They also run a monthly photo competition with prizes which is voted on by the membership and each month has a different theme. They also have give-aways from time to time (usually bodies or lenses that they have had for review or gear donated by manufacturers/vendors), I was lucky enough to win a brand new K-50 body in a free raffle earlier this year and I passed it on to my youngest daughter to replace/augment her aging K10D that I picked up used for her 21st birthday gift (I was already planning on buying a higher level body for myself when I won the K-50).