S: starting fresh

The S5 has joined me here on the hill-top. One thing was clear from the start: the S1 would be too large for me to enjoy. That was a concern as several S1/1r features that appeal to me did not appear on the S5. To save 300g and extra bulk, I'm satisfied that the right-size camera for me is here. It's definitely larger than the a7r2, more a Pentax K5 in bulk. That was an excellent camera so that's a compliment.

The camera is mostly ready to shoot. I reset time zone and date (finally remembered to do it in that order!), connected cards and 20-60 lens and made a few quick setting adjustments that I've done for years (something between standard and vivid saturation, lower contrast, minimal NR). I added two clicks on the shutter in a dim room to check things out.

Let the S Era begin!

water year wrap-up

 And so much for water year 2024!

The year ended right at 56 inches of precipitation - within two inches of our 30-year average. No massively above-normal months, and July and August were typically dry. It was a damp year compared to 2023 which was our driest year at this location (43.3"). One of our dampest days was on June 2nd; we had higher totals once or twice but that was from rain after snowfall has piled atop the gage from the day before. 

Temperatures were not hugely out of alignment, and August in particular was not a hot month. We managed some 90° days in July but not a single one in August! We had a few periods of decently gusty winds but thankfully a quiet year for smoke; what we had remained high overhead. The 'chance of thunderstorms' for our location was a year-long bust; I can't recall more than one thunder-clap the entire year, while others sat underneath several exciting events.

This past week I saw how desiccated Mt. Hood has become in late summer. My views were not through clearest skies, but I spent most of my life looking at that mountain in all seasons - and the glaciers have definitely become less visible. The Reid glacier faces Portland directly, and I recall hiking above Ramona Falls to high meadows directly in front of the headwall; it would be troubling to be that close and see the retreat from my 1980 photos.

As to 2025.. the El Niño pattern has fallen into the zone of indifference between it and La Niña. That's often the wetter and more volatile signal around here. Time will reveal how the patterns play out.

a shock to the kit|iverse!

I could not afford anything in the L-mount when the S5 came out, having barely scraped up funds for an α7r². That was the best sensor I could afford, and despite the expensive E lenses I felt I could manage it with a few adapted lenses to plug any gaps.

I liked the Lumix S concept at first sight, but the S1/1r was not simply a brick - more like two bricks glued together compared to other mirrorless offerings. 

The S5 made some compromises, added a swivel screen to torment me, and showed me photos that left me amazed. Dual-gain ISO is amazing! Also, the S5 sensor (dxo) rating was a near match ..and won out in dynamic range by a nose. Better yet, it was no longer the new kid: the S5² was out with winning specs that put more S5 bodies in the used bins.

The Lumix S 20-60mm was introduced with the S5 - and I was impressed. It was the first 'normal zoom' to start at 20mm, and it sacrificed f/2.8 for smaller size and lower price. For future backpacking, a zoom beyond the old Pentax 24-50 at both ends, with wx protection and capable of decent closeups, sounds really nice!

I began reading old S5 reviews, most of which compare it to the newer, better featured S5² - and I found several points that were left unsaid about the original yet spoke to me nevertheless:

• The S5 can shoot 96Mpx super images.. but reviewers consistently skip mentioning the 48Mpx option, which I'm more likely to try. 
• The S5² can shoot 3:2 video, something I've been seeking for almost 10 years - but 4k and 6k Photo modes use the same process to do their work. It's not a Video Mode in the original but similar results can be managed 
• The original S5 sucks at video autofocus in continuous-AF mide .. which I hardly ever use. I prefer touch-AF refocus in video.
• The S5 viewfinder was noted as 'dated tech' and down-rated, but I knew that fewer evf pixels = better battery life! The s5² fixed many of the S5 'issues' and gets ~50 fewer shots per charge.

And then I counted the S5 features that Sony did not know in the Jurassic age of the α7r², like 

• 4:3 and 1:1 image ratios (like Pentax)! 
• Both 4k and 6k video>still captures! 
• A touchscreen! 
• Half again as much battery life!
•  USB3 charging! 
• It comes in red!! - oops no, that's the S9. 
• Less resolution to fill your hard drives, but with hi-res modes for times when that sounds like "fun".

So I explored the internet for a bit. Some S5 deals were visible but not quite at α7r² prices. However I found that if I dumped all my α gear I could get an S5 + the 20-60 with a few $$ to spare! In case it took a while to afford an L-mount telezoom, I kept my Minolta 100-200/4.5, ordered adapters for Minolta and Pentax, and I was set.

  On October 1st, the S5 era begins! 

Double victory!!

I finally sat down and performed two camera surgeries - and both turned out very well! A few hours of delicate work has paid off. 

First up was the Pentax K-s2. I bought this a few years back for a great price, only to find it had the dreaded Pentax mid-level body solenoid problem. For several years they put out great cameras that began failing after a few years, sooner if the camera went unused for a month or two. They put out a new body by then, but in a few years the same happened. It turned out their source for aperture-actuating solenoids, causing the camera to determine an exposure but then shooting with the lens fully closed, leading to extremely dark and diffraction-softened images. 

This problem damaged the reputation of every midrange body from K-30 to early K-70s, including the K-59 and two k-s2 models. The K-5/3/1 models did not have the problem. One could work around the issue with older lenses in Manual mode, but it wasn't ideal 

The answer has been to either scout for original cameras to steal the earlier sensor or now using the Kf solenoid. I bought the elder solenoid and .. dithered.  Maybe three years passed before I finally did the work today.

Two hours later, all my lenses are back in play. Hooray! 

I'm very grateful to those at Pentaxforums who went before me and documented the procedure for all the affected cameras, including the K-s2.

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After dinner I decided to fix the GX7, an old Lumix favorite with a bad rear control dial. That's also rather common, and the surgery is documented on several websites. This went a bit faster (no soldering needed) and thankfully it's problem is solved too! That rear dial serves many purposes, and now it controls exposure, clicks for exposure compensation and zooms in playback mode!

Now to decide between the GX7 and EM1, two very good old μ43 bodies that fit me well. The K-s2 probably won't dethrone either of them or the Sony a7r² ..but I'll keep using it a while to ensure its full recovery before deciding its fate.