an equal-opportunity soaking

We've had no snow on the hill-top yet, but it's been plenty wet. The forecast is quite boring, except for Saturday's possible burst of wind! Yay for wind!! 

Saturday also promises an inch-plus soaking locally. And not just here - all of the high country along the Pacific crest (even south to the Sierra Nevada and San Gabriel ranges) plan to participate in the coming week's soaking! California can feel neglected in La niña years, but this coming week will be most helpful. This is inches of moisture so multiply by 10 more or less for snowfall. Looks like seven feet more or less for the Olympics and Sierra crest, well over three feet for coast ranges and near Los Angeles. Very helpful for backpackers who hope to fill their 'canteens' next summer.

whiplash

 

After weeks of absurd 'heat' and plenty of tropical rainfall, a storm is sliding down the BC coastline for us late on Sunday. It's the classic alignment for low-level snow, but the heat of the past is definitely a hindrance. Current NWS forecast does manage to drop snow to 900 feet though - which is mighty close to us on the hill-top!

Today's WRF snow forecast shows the Willapa Hills catching measurable amounts - so we'll be watching the deck tomorrow night as the elements clash for dominance. It will be close, and after so many days in the mid-50s and higher it will be a change for certain.

BTW November ended at 15.74 inches, easily our wettest November since moving here. Yesterday was a pretty day with sunshine and minimal breeze, but today is a drizzle festival with amounts crawling slowly toward a half-inch.

a setback

 Well, it's clear now why the K|s2 body was such a bargain. It is already possessed by the defective-solenoid issue that is Aperture Block Failure.

definite underexposure..

It's the demon of the Pentax world, and has wrecked the reputation of the Pentax midrange line since the K30 and has mostly been addressed by the K70. Worse than this - it forces users to buy earlier models to steal the Japan-made solenoid which hastens the early models' demise as well. Hence the high number of 'for parts only' bodies for sale on eBay. 

The single-digit bodies starting with K-7 use a different method to push the aperture lever for proper exposures. For other models including the K|s2, a solenoid fails far too early in the camera's expected life - and the result is all shots are taken with the aperture fully closed. 

Sample: metering at f/4 is done correctly but shot is taken at f/32 = resulting image is both six stops too dark and subjected to diffraction effects at the lens' minimum aperture. If all your metering is done at f/16 you're only two stops underexposed, but diffraction still yields an image with limited resolution. 

Yuk! 😱

Here are consecutive shots, one in normal shooting and one in live view. These are at f/9 with auto ISO - note the underexposed is iso5000, the live-view is 51200. I'm not sure how I got to that number as I thought autoISO was set to top at 8000. Clearly I need to lock down a few other parameters and try again. Not also this is with firmware 1.0; perhaps changing that will yield different results, but perhaps not.

Here's another shot that is overexposed and ISO is pinned at 8000 - so perhaps between these shots is when I adjusted ISOmax. Still not helpful since I have no similar shot in normal mode.

---

I fully intended to return the camera - but life has intervened and I won't be able to do that in time to meet the seller's deadline. I therefore have two options: 

• send in for repair (doubling the camera's price, and likely getting an improved but still inferior K70-era solenoid) or 
• find a donor body and do the work myself. With no spare time right now that could take a while - but I have a K7 in hand so am not desperate for a perfect K|s2 in a hurry.

I've gone with option two, and have picked up a functioning K100d body +18-55mm lens for under $100. Most K100d bodies have two fully-useable solenoids, one on the flash circuit and one for the aperture. In that case I can steal from the flash and still have a working K100d to keep or pass along w/an external flash! Many Pentaxians have done this surgery and posted all the instructions, so if I take my time it should be fairly straightforward.

This brings the K|s2 price to about $360 plus labor, which is a decent price for the feature-set. A 20Mpix stabilized sensor, weather-sealed body with bonus features (pentaprism, flip screen, many famous Pentax features) and one that uses my current set of lenses as they were intended. 

I looked at other options, but this seems the best solution right now. Jumping to other brands could bring me most of these features other than autofocus, but under the budget and circumstances I'm happy with this decision.

bonus time

Although we're over an inch above normal for November (12½" in total), we seem destined to add about three more inches before December finds us. An atmospheric creek, or worse, hits Thanksgiving day (as of today's models). Another decent dump joins in the fun over the weekend, most likely Saturday. Rough times continue in Vancouver, where every eastbound highway is badly damaged from the last set of deep storms.

November is typically the wettest month of the year, with December averaging nearly 1½ inch less. The last three Decembers were over 10 inches wet, and each of them was higher than the November of that year.

We shall see how it plays out to end 2021.

More creatures, great and small

 Unexpected deals overtake me, again - so the kit mutates.

> The µ43 kit is going small: gx850, 12-32 +primes (8fe, 17, 30 and adapted) and a 14-140.ii(a) that has some ..issues.  4k/8Mpx imaging is back in play!

> The Pentax kit will be the K-7, an old but decent Σ18-50 f/2.8, 50-200wr, Σ100-300 + native primes (21Ltd, 28, 50, 85, 135). The Ks2 will arrive next week to compete for the top spot.. and will probably win. Specs aren't everything - neither are they meaningless.

These new items are not free but definitely cheap, so some savings accrue. The PayPal balance rises, but proceeds from selling the eM1 and Olympus 14-150 v.II go to our checking account where we can make use of it. I lose the Live features, but Pentax has wr ibIS and composite shooting so that'll do pig.. that'll do.* 

God help us, every one.

*Wow, and I haven't watched Babe in ages!

ooooooops.

 I won a K-7 auction. Gently used, less than 7500 clicks. And a Sigma 18-50/2.8 from the same seller.

That changes a few things!

The K-7 brings me a tougher body design than the K-s2, a less versatile sensor but controls I know well. It's definitely not a K-5ii-level system - but it came to me at a surprisingly low price. Since I also have a spare Li90 battery sitting around, it immediately has a spare battery (total of three). It also has the curious 3:2 video mode that I envy compared to every modern camera's 16:9 ratio (I hear instagram has made 1:1 a popular video format; I wouldn't know).

The 18-50 definitely changes my need for f/2.8 primes; even the 50/2 has less interest! It won't be quite as sharp as a prime with so much glass in play, but it does do 1:3 closeups - that's nice! Since the longer lens can do the WR times, the 18-50 has a nice speed advantage over the 20-40 Ltd and the 18-50wr. 

It looks like the basic system is here for now:

• K-7 or K|s2
• Σ18-50 + 50-200wr DA|L
• DA21 Ltd
• 85 and 135 smc-M
• bonus items: Σ100-300 slowpoke AF, Rikenon 70-150/4 MF

No doubt more will accrue at some point. For now this is it.

After some contemplation, I expect that I'll allow the K|s2 to arrive and give it a shot to win me over. I still really like what it offers, and if I sell the K-7 and smc-A 28+50 it's nearly a draw.

average days

 This is the time of dampness. In order to hit the 11" average for November, each day should average .35 inches! So a graphic like this one says we're in a week of typical November weather. 

Well OK this is a touch high - but of course one dry day can make a difference! Our home on the hill-top is in the 3-5" band, but quite near to 2.5 and to 5". Another atm-river (atmospheric river not cash flow!) will hit late in the week, so it could be a fine line between 2 and 5 inches somewhere in the region.

Snowpack is impressive for early season, but that too will reset to zero if the at|River comes with its 8000' freezing levels. Local ski areas hope to be running at low capacity for Thanksgiving weekend, so none of this is surprising. 

It's November.