More leaked pictures of the Pentax K7

Pentaxforums is these days having a huge traffic, and there is a particularly long thread discussing the new Pentax K7. There are coming different bits of information, some people bragging big time about supposedly actual specs thay got to know, and from time to time there are new pictures. Here you have some of those, apparently spotted at a Russian forum, posted by someone under the nick of Om81.

As usual, take your required dose of grains of salt, since we don't know if these are real pictures or faked ones. They look authentic to me, but contrary to other prophets of the interneet who claim to have access to inside information, I honestly confesss that everything I posted here comes from other places, where I am following closely the leaks of specs/images of the new K7. BTW please notice that, while the name "K7" seems for real, the presence of the "D" is unclear at this point.

Just a few comments:

- The presence of a microphone input seems an obvious evidence of video mode in this camera. And the HDMI output seems another obvious evidence of high definition (1080 p) video, which seems a logical next step in the current context of dSLR cameras.

- The grip is different from the one used with the K10D/K20D, as was to be expected given the overall differences in size/design. Yet I can't avoid to see this as a negative aspect, as many users who purchased the K10/K20 grip won't have to possibility to use it with the new model.

- The battery status is shown with 3 levels, which is good news; but the key point is that it should be more progressive than the one used in the K10D, as in my hands, when you saw the first sign of battery at mid charge, actually it meant it was almost empty. So in a few cases, I had to stop using the camera because I had not been warned when it was ACTUALLY at mid charge.

- The K7 seems truly compact with respect to the K10/K20. This has to be confirmed when comparative pictures are shown, or when the actual measures are available (instead of fancy figurations from rices of the web). But if such compactness is confirmed, I think users will be happy, given the usual major reason not to use a dSLR is its size/weight. And if you have large hands, you can always get a grip.

- The green button remains even in such a flagship camera, suggesting it is useful even to professionals. The playback and delete buttons have been moved to the top left part of the back of the camera, which is a strange position if you come from a K10/K20. It remains to be seen if, from a purely ergonomic point of view, this is a good or bad idea.

- I'm glad there is a front dial (see second picture below), like in the K10/K20. It is very useful and once you get used to it, is hard to miss it.

All pictures shown below are taken from posts at the thread mentioned above, in Pentaxforums, and most were originally posted in a Russian forum.

Spring in La Mancha: the Alcudia valley

The following pictures were taken at the Alcudia Valley, a beautiful region which shows its best look this time of the year.

Spring in La Mancha: near the Guadiana

I had the pleasure to visit my hometown on Easter holidays, and did some walking around. Here you have some pictures, taken as usual with my Pentax K10D and standard 18-55 lenses. Hope you will enjoy them, as this spring is being particularly glorious in my region, La Mancha.

The first pictures were shot at a small river near the big Guadiana.

Another outstanding interview with Wendy & Lisa

This time in video, posted on youtube. A truly fantastic finding:

The art and business of song

Some further hints on the new Pentax K7

I received some bits of insider information regarding the K7, which I consider reliable, thus I am posting this; of course the old sentence about grains of salt should be considered.

According to these informations, the camera DOES HAVE a flash, contrary to prior comments posted in this blog. Besides, a movie mode is planned, although no final specs are established yet. Apparently beta testing is underway but there is still quite some work to do.

I'd like to thank the source of this information (who shall remain anonymous for obvious reasons).

Outstanding interview with Wendy & Lisa posted at Out

In Princeland, a territory which will be no surprise to many readers of this blog, sometimes a new piece of information pops up that is truly interesting. Only sometimes.

And recently, a really excellent interview with Wendy & Lisa appeared in the magazine Out. So if you are interested in Prince music, do yourself a favour and read it:

Out interview with Wendy & Lisa

Recommended dSLR by The Online Photographer

Anybody seriously interested in photography must be aware of The Online Photographer (TOP), these days. I've praised that site, run by Mike Johnston, often before, and they continue doing a great work. It's one of the sites which deserve a daly visit in my opinion.

TOP is publishing this week their list of TOP 10 cameras, which is a most interesting read. But I found particularly attracting their TOP 3 entry, which is a cop-out recommendation of dSLR cameras. If you are looking for information about your first dSLR camera, this article is a MUST read, so don't miss it.

UPDATE: the new dSLR from Pentax is called K7

UPDATE: This entry was posted some days ago, and from that date, Pentax Germany has denied that any Walter Geissler work for Pentax. Therefore the confirmation inferred from his post is untrue. 29th April 2009.

As posted by Walter Geissler (from Pentax Austria) here, the name of the new Pentax dSLR is K7D, as previously suggested by different sources. The embargo of the informations concerning this camera ends on the third week of May 2009, so I bet we will see a number of leaks before that date.

Thanks to Pentaxforums members Blende8 and Flaconeye for the information.

To continue showing some of the leaked pictures of the camera, the original blog entry showing them removed those I posted before, but there remains one which, albeit with some funny disguise ("TAMPAX"), still shows the dial:

More information about upcoming Pentax K7

According to information published in Spanish site DSLRMagazine (a very respected site), the new, upper range dSLR camera from Pentax (K7, although the name is not confirmed at this time) is being currently subjected to beta testing. Here I translate the main content of that article.

It will be a APS-C camera, in order to remain compatible with the current line of lenses. Besides, it will have the possibility of using (with adaptor) the new lenses developed to the forthcoming Pentax 645 Digital (medium format). Among them, the Pentax-D 645 55 mm f/2.8.
Other informations that seem to be clear: the new K-R will be the top of the line and will have a optical glass pentaprism (via Hoya), upper LCD and dial to choose professional modes, with central lock. There will be no built-in flash (as shown in the picture shown in the previous entry of this blog) UPDATE: Since this comment was posted, it is confirmed that the K-7 DOES HAVE BUILT-IN FLASH, INDEED, as previously stated in this blog).

Besides, it might incorporate one of the most interesting patents from Pentax, i.e., the possibility of showing simultaneously, on the optical viewfinder, information about other functions, such as live histogram or even... Live-View and video with the mirror lockup!!

The article is written by Michael Wardson and I thank him and DSLR Magazine (a web magazine devoted to photography, run by the very reputed photograph Valentín Sama) for the very interesting hints.

The first picture of the new model, spotted by Desmond.young, a member of Pentaxforums, is this one:



Please notice that the two images posted thus far come from the same Asian blog, and that the original heads up about the first picture came from Desmond.young. Besides the information translated above was written by Michael Wardson. So THOSE are the actual sources of information, not some rices of the web.

K7: New, upper range Pentax dSLR just around the corner

After months of speculation, some actually new meat appeared recently regarding the new Pentax dSLR that is expected for introduction before summer, whith the name of K7.

This picture, appearing at another blog, shows the first evidence of an all new model whit a design different from the K10D/K20D:



The camera in the left part is the new model. As you can imagine, any other information is missing at this time, although I'm pretty sure further leaks will happen in the next weeks. Stay tuned as I will try my best to keep you updated.

In the mean time, bashers a la RH can sharpen their razors in order to showcase, once again, why Pentax is (according to them) doomed and why it is so bad as a company, by comparison to allmighty canons.

And we, Pentax lovers, can forget about their nonsense and instead enjoy taking pictures with our all noisy cameras which have so few megapixels and stuff.

By the way, I plan to upload later some pictures I took with my Pentax K10D recently at my hometown, in a glorious spring afternoon, when we walked around a small river.

A comparison between Prince and other black musicians at 50

I have recently read a text posted elsewhere by a friend called Cooper. I found it so interesting that I requested his permission to reproduce it here. So I'd like to thank him for agreeing and for writing such an insightful article:

A comparison between P and other black musicians at 50

I'd like to share this, since it was a curiosity of mine and it may interest some of you. I don't like the way some reviews treat Prince's work (both by fan and critic), not because they don't like it, but because of some of the reasons.

I find it a little bit ridiculous that Prince is still expected by some (not all, mind you) to release "groundbreaking" music. Actually I think he still does once in a while (the last time he consistently did so was with parts of The Rainbow Children, personal opinion obviously).

But I also think he's always been releasing good albums, with rare exceptions, and the latest LF and Mplsound are some of his best work of the decade. I think what clouds some people's minds is the fact he's not being groundbreaking as he was during his heyday. As if Bruce Springsteen or U2 were expected to still break new ground (which I think they never did, by the way).

So, being quite knowledgeable in music history from the last century (not at all true for contemporary music I admit), especially jazz, I decided to compile this list of recognized top-level musicians (they're all black, because Prince is black and because I think black music was the biggest new cultural movement of the 1900s) and examine their activities at or around 50.

Miles Davis: at 50 he had left the musical scene for some time. He had health problems related to drugs and alcohol. He came back in the 80s with some good and many bad records (mostly depending on the level of his collaborators).

Jimi Hendrix: he never reached 50 (died at 27).

Charles Mingus: at 50 he was mostly releasing live records, rehashes of his repertoire. They are very interesting, but add nothing to his songbook.

Thelonious Monk: he was living his Columbia years, during which, right at 50, he released only one truly great record, Underground. This is truly a masterpiece though, especially for the track Ugly Beauty (which will be played in church at my wedding: I'm the ugly part obviously).

John Coltrane: he never reached 50 (died at 41).

Muddy Waters: at 50 he was keeping quite a low profile, releasing only some live records and collaborating on a few records with other artists

James Brown: at or around 50 he wasn't releasing original material. He released the mediocre Gravity at 53 (containing the even more mediocre Livin' in America).

Charlie Parker: he never reached 50 (died at 35).

Louis Armstrong: at 50 he had already been touring 5 years with his reduced All Stars band, releasing mostly records of his live or radio shows.

Duke Ellington: he was past his peak as a composer, although he wrote his masterpiece Black Brown and Beige at age 44. At 57 he released one of his best live records though, Live At Newport.

Chuck Berry: there was no release in his 50th year, 1976. In '75 he released an lp titled "Chuck Berry" containing interpretations of blues, rock 'n' roll and country standards.

Sly Stone: at 50 he was in semi-retirement after being arrested (and released after some time) for possession of cocaine in 1987.

Billie Holiday: she never reached 50 (died at 44).

Ray Charles: he released "Brother Ray is at it again" during his 50th year. He was singing like a demigod as usual, but the material was barely average, with some disco inflections. It was the prelude to his country period.

Marvin Gaye: he never reached 50 (died at 44).

Stevie Wonder: he was in the middle of a 10 year gap between his last two albums, one released at 45, the other at 55 more or less. Good albums, but not remotely comparable to his 70s works.

I chose these artists based on my personal taste of course, and/or because I consider them to be creative forces who can be compared to Prince. Extraordinary composers and/or instrumentalists/singers, all of these. There could be many others, but I think the trend here is quite clear. Actually it is quite a shock to see that so many of my favorite artists died before reaching their 50th birthday... And the others weren't surely breaking any new ground at 50, and most of them hadn't done so for many, many years.

If I look at this list my first thought is "Yes, he's not the way he was at his peak, but he's not keeping up so bad either".

But it may spark completely different thoughts or opinions. Or none of both.

Missing Buba and the passing of time

I just called home and there was nobody. And I said to myself "damn, then Buba must be howling now".

Then I realized (once more) that Buba is not with us anymore. When Buba was at home, if he was alone and the phone started ringing, something weird happened to him so that he started howling in a very annoying manner. Thus we tried to avoid phoning home when it was probable that nobody was around.

Now you can phone home, no problems, regardless on who's there.

Today after lunch I got my toothbrush and paste, and realized that the tube is about to be finished. Since I work at the current place (back in 2000), I have finished a few of those toothpaste tubes, which are used only by me. Time is passing quickly and silly things like this remind you of it. In my little world, my grandparents are missing, as is Buba.

It's time to carpe diem.

Never let prejudices dictate your opinion on anybody (II)

A few days ago, I posted about prejudices. Yesterday a friend pointed out this stunning performance, which is the best demonstration I have ever seen that one should NEVER let prejudices influence your opinions on anybody (sorry, I can't embed the video as embedding as been disabled in this case):

Susan Boyle performing at Britain's got talent 2009

Absolutely STUNNING and a good lesson for everybody. So let me quote myself:

Think freely, think by yourself.

Federico Jiménez Losantos about to leave the COPE radio

This is strictly related to Spanish politics, but it's relevant enough to deserve a note:

Federico Jiménez Losantos, a famous Spanish journalist with a marked profile in the extreme right side of politics, is about to leave a radio station owned by the Spanish catholic church, named COPE.

I respect everybody's opinion regarding politics, provided everybody express his opinion within respect towards the others. In this view, we have in Spain a large range of politics trends in different media, and I am proud to buy several newspapers, covering the full spectrum, when something truly important happens in Spanish politics.

But I can not respect people like Federico Jiménez Losantos, who needs to insult and offend other people, and this includes everybody who disagrees with him, even if they belong to the right party (Partido Popular) or to the hierarchy of the catholic church. Tolerance is a word of unknown meaning to him and he's been seeding the hate for a longtime from the waves of that radio.

So I'm happy to report that, according to latest news, it seems the bosses at COPE decided to fire him (together with a few other, similar colleagues). It was certainly about time. I hope the replacement teams is enabled to express their opinions (as extreme as they might be, in the right side) with the same respect utilized by other media, be it from the right or the left.

Mplsound review

Ok, so let's start with the Pro-Tools Prince divertimento, entitled Mplsound. Spanish music critic, Diego A. Manrique, often writes that Prince's music is best when he gets in combustion with other musicians. I partially agree, and in that view the contrast of this album (made pretty much by himself) with respect to Lotus flow3r does not look promising. But on the other hand, if one remembers that Sign O' the Times was also basically a solo effort, mmmhhh... who knows.

Anyway, bad news first: this album includes two strong contenders of worst song from Prince ever: they are called Chocolate box and No more candy 4 U. The first is a miserable attempt to sound current, but all it makes is a tricky sound which I would doubt to qualify as "boring" or "ridiculous", or somewhere in between. The fact that this song has been highlighted by many music critics is impossible for me to understand, unless I read the definition of "payola" in the dictionary. The instrumental remix entitled Discojellyfish is somehow an improvement, but improving on Chocolate box is not difficult business.

Then we have No more candy 4 U, which I had the "pleasure" to discover without knowing the title nor paying attention to lyrics; awful is the definition here, there is no damage limitation. How such a talented musician can go this low is a mystery to me, and if besides he puts childish lyrics addressed (seemingly) to "haterz in the internet", we have really a horror. Prince is my favourite musician, but yes, sometimes he makes songs like this who would be a shame for Paris Hilton, let alone for the best musician of our generation. And by the way, once more I will restrict my comments on lyrics to this one, as frankly they are embarrasing and I won't bother describing them.

No on to the good news: contrary to the expectations of many fans (including me) whose hopes were mostly put on Lotus flow3r, this album is not bad at all. Yes, I know two bad songs out of nine does not smell good, I admit it. But then, much to my surprise, it seems that this technologic trip of Prince riding on the ProTools gave indeed some fruits.

The best song here, by far, is another surprise: the remake of U're gonna c me. The rendition he did in One nite alone, on piano alone, was beautiful and one of the highlights of the album. Yet he manages to make a completely new sound here, which being far more complicated, is probably more charming. It attracted me on first listen of Mplsound and I confess it remains stuck in my head. Prince uses his most seductive voice to make a true interpretation in his classic style: passioned, convincing, detailed, professional (and I use this word in its best meaning). Hats off to Prince: contrary to Mae West manner, when he's bad, he's reeeeal bad (see boxes and candies); but when he's good, he's REEEAL GOOD!. And U're gonna c me shows Prince excelling, once more, in a fantastic vocal performance with inventing rhythms by using a known melody.

The rest of songs don't reach such level, but still there are good companions: "(There'll never be) another like me" is without doubt Prince trying to sound like Prince, and for that he should be blamed, as he shouldn't need to demonstrate who is Prince in 2009. Yet, in spite of it, the song is catchy, both in the instrumental snippet that surfaced first, or in the full version of the album. Ok, the sound is prince-by-the-book, but I surrender and immediately forget about considerations on its originality to start tapping with my fingers and to enjoy the music. It's all about music, right?

Dance 4 me (hallellujahs put apart) is a sticky song that could have worked great in the radio charts (back in the days when people with good taste heard the radio, that is). Not a great song, but good evidence that there remain nice grooves in Prince's house. Remixers have good stuff to play with here (instead of wasting their work with Chocolat boxes).

Valentina is possibly the second best song of Mplsound: I think the structure is quite creative (if not groundbreaking) and the melody sounds more modern (again, in the good meaning of the term) than most music made by Prince in recent years. Whether Salma's husband likes the lyrics or not, I don't know, but I know this song might be one of the hints suggesting Prince could produce truly outstanding songs if he keeps on finding fun behind the ProTools. A remarkable appearance here is Santana, whose guitar is not credited in the album (or maybe Prince's abilities to get into other musicians sound are just stunning, to the point of make impossible to differentiate who is playing that guitar).

In contrast, Ol' skool company is again Prince-by-numbers, but in this occasion, inspired-Prince-by-numbers. I prefer the live version played on tv, yet the album version is also good and, together with (There'll never be) another like me, one can't deny that good ol' Prince is better (when muses help him a little bit) than 99% of his peers.

Here is the mysterious track in here; in spite of repeated listens, still I don't know if this is a slightly-enjoyable-but-eventually-forgettable song, or if it might become a jewel sleeper song whose quality becomes evident after a few months. At this point I like it, but I don't look for it when putting back the CD in the CD player. But it's one of the songs here, together with Valentina, which shows some progress in the sound (compared to previous efforts).

Finally, there is Better with time, another of those melting ballads from Prince. It's not Nothing compares 2 U, although it is crafted in the usual, meticulous Prince fashion when doing slow songs, and so I can't avoid to like it. It remains to be seen, though, whether I will use it in future compillations, as there are many brilliant examples in previous recordings.

All in all, I repeat I was positively surprised by the music included in Mplsound, and the best of all is that I see better stuff coming in next recordings, once Prince makes fully his the gear used here.