This is where Ian Burley, DPNow's editor and founder, shares his unique thoughts and impressions on subjects that he hopes will be of interest to others on the subjects of digital photography and other related or loosely related topics! You can follow DPNow Editor's blog on Facebook and Twitter, too.
Make your Pentax follow the stars, literally.
Posted 18-07-12 at 11:48 PM by Ian
Pentax UK recently contacted me to demo their new K-30 DSLR and I'm hoping to get hold of one in a few weeks to look at more closely.
In passing, Pentax's Steve Sanderson asked me if I knew about their clever GPS unit, the O-GPS1 (below):
Pentax DSLRs us an electromagnetically positioned sensor as part of the Pentax's in-body moving sensor image stabilisation system. This means the sensor can be positioned extremely precisely and that position can also be adjusted very precisely.
Team up the GPS unit to the moving sensor and you can make the sensor react to the motion of the earth and so you can track astronomical objects in the sky. That may sound like some text from a press release, but here is some proof from the horse's mouth, a picture that Steve took himself:
(Click on the image to view the full-size 8MB Pentax K-5 camera image)
Steve explains:
"It was a 4 minute exposure so that the blurring in the foreground is caused by the relative movement. The long white streak was a single car that drove along a country lane I had not seen before the exposure."
As you can see the stars are fairly distinct and not exhibiting the length of trail that a four minute exposure would have inscribed if the sensor was stationary. Maybe with less light pollution and a very clear sky a dramatic starscape could be recorded with such a system.
In passing, Pentax's Steve Sanderson asked me if I knew about their clever GPS unit, the O-GPS1 (below):
Pentax DSLRs us an electromagnetically positioned sensor as part of the Pentax's in-body moving sensor image stabilisation system. This means the sensor can be positioned extremely precisely and that position can also be adjusted very precisely.
Team up the GPS unit to the moving sensor and you can make the sensor react to the motion of the earth and so you can track astronomical objects in the sky. That may sound like some text from a press release, but here is some proof from the horse's mouth, a picture that Steve took himself:
(Click on the image to view the full-size 8MB Pentax K-5 camera image)
Steve explains:
"It was a 4 minute exposure so that the blurring in the foreground is caused by the relative movement. The long white streak was a single car that drove along a country lane I had not seen before the exposure."
As you can see the stars are fairly distinct and not exhibiting the length of trail that a four minute exposure would have inscribed if the sensor was stationary. Maybe with less light pollution and a very clear sky a dramatic starscape could be recorded with such a system.
Total Comments 2
Comments
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That's interesting Ian, I never realised you could do that.
I look forward to your review of the K30.
Posted 19-07-12 at 06:58 AM by OlyPaul 
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I have a K-5 here as the eval K-30s are only in small numbers and all out with other publications. It maybe several weeks before I get one although I had a short play with one the other day. The K-5 is a solid piece of kit and of course it's dust and splash sealed. I find the AF a bit agricultural but it is quite fast. I also used a sonic focus lens the other day and although that was quiet it was rather leisurely. I guess you can't have it all
Posted 19-07-12 at 11:01 AM by Ian
