Pentax Q USB external battery & vertical grip

Updated the proof of concept.

Now using a much neater and smaller screw (from a spare that comes with a mini Manfroto folding tripod) to replace my previous chunky tripod thread attachment. The battery box is firmly mated to the Q’s base. I can comfortably fit a pair of 3.7v 2200mAh 18650 Lithium cells wired in parallel for far longer battery life. The battery is directly feeding the Q and charges via the powerbank circuit via USB. It would be excessive hereto buy expensive higher capacity 18650’s as it already runs for so long as it is now.

Added a removable IR remote to the front and with a short length of clear fishing line as a light pipe to feed the signal to the Q’s front IR sensor window. The 3rd party remote is one that has separate buttons for focus function and shutter release. It works! I can wield the unit firmly gripped in just my right hand and take a picture in portrait mode using the remote buttons. A nice bonus on top of having the now stupendously long battery life!

Now I’m sure this is all functional, I can later consider wiring an index finger friendly clicky shutter button to the side of the battery case and another button for dedicated back focus. Also on the functionality to-do list is to fit a female tripod thread. 

The endgame would be to have a black 3D printed version of a mini Pentax DSLR vertical battery grip that is housing the IR remote board and buttons, the twin Lithium cells and charger circuit and 2 tripod mount points to cater for both landscape and portrait orientations.

Yes... this is getting ridiculous...

https://youtu.be/gY1Vc0D8i-I

Holga pin hole for Pentax Q HLP-PQ

There are very few lenses with a PQ mount in existence and it appears Holga made 3 of them!
Here we examine the plastic pinhole AKA the HLP-PQ.

The HLP-PQ is entirely plastic. You might imagine being able to turn the barrel as if focusing but it won’t turn. The construction is such that the focus wheel, indeed screws into the rear half’s thread with the PQ mount, but the 2 components are glued together. Don’t bother twisting it apart with your hands or even with tools, it simply would not shift. To disassemble, I needed to apply considerable force with a well placed thin flathead screwdriver to pry it open at the thinnest point at a join between the rear mount and the front half of the lens body. I unfortunately ended up breaking away some of the side wall before successfully levering the 2 halves apart. With more care you might be able to avoid a similar mishap.

 

Look at the generous helpings of glue that was applied on the threads! Whoever put this together did not intend for us to get inside it. Note also on my copy, the inside rear half has revealed  some leftover broken parts around the aperture. Something was certainly cemented there but later forcibly removed. We’ll never know what it was, not something I did to it.


Seeing as the threadless outermost sidewalls did nothing but prevent the lens from closing down further than it otherwise could, I trimmed it away. Now not only is it a slimmer package but also provides more latitude for getting closer to the Q’s sensor. I could prune even further later if needed.

Interestingly, as this is pinhole, turning the focus wheel acts like a zoom ring! The closer the pinhole is positioned to the sensor, the wider the field of view and vice versa.
To satisfy my curiosity with the widest possible FOV, I pushed out and separated the pinhole plate that was otherwise glued to the the front half of the lens body. Taped the pinhole plate to the rear mount to see what an image would look like.
I’d say the blurriness is even worse than before but for sure the view was much wider than it was out of the factory. Perhaps the pinhole needs to be smaller to work better with the Q?

I will probably not use the pinhole plate component again to be honest but will put it to one side should I want to come back to it later. More likely, the lens body will be more immediately useful for housing real lenses (the Pentax 07 glass element perhaps) as this provides potential for an easy precise live manual focusing ring!

 

Out of the box and wider view after hack... both blurry.

Without the front and with the slimmer front adorned.

Small inexpensive 40mm optical viewfinder for Pentax Q

I bought this very compact 40mm viewfinder to use with Pentax Q.
This cost me only USD14 from Chinese Site ToaBoa that is I suppose equivalent to Amazon for China. I see it also on eBay but for selling much more. If it interests you shop around for the best deal.


It weighs next to nothing. Simple black plastic body is pretty robust IMO. Doubt it’s waterproof but it is sealed fairly well otherwise. It just slides into the Q hotshoe with a very low profile so should not be prone to accidentally being knocked off vs higher sitting viewfinders. I don’t see it being broken off the hotshoe any time soon. It provides a good approximation to what you will see shooting with the 01 standard prime lens. You can then turn off the back LCD completely and shoot via the optical viewfinder instead! Conserving batter power as a positive side effect. Shooting this way gives you a Holga-like shooting experience which is a novelty I enjoy. The best reason to get this gadget is for a bright sunny day when the Q’s LCD risks being washed out so an optical viewfinder like this is a nice to have thing in your kitbag.

Optically, it is very basic with good clarity to my eye and bright too. Maybe a little blurry at the very outer edges and that I can see the sides of the viewfinder inside is a small downside  when held really close to the eye. If I can open it up, a bit of flat black paint would help I think.
There is no internal markings to assist you with framing but you can easily make a mental note after using it a few times. Framing is of course dependent also on the subject distance from your lens. It reminds me of the old days of using disposable film cameras. I consider this product probably similar to you DIYing the viewfinder out of such disposable cameras and fitting it to the top of your camera but saving you the manual effort.

For the price I paid I think it’s quite fine. Certainly a very affordable  alternative to the official product or even any other optical viewfinder from Voigtlander or Leica or Sony which I refuse to pay so much for. I will only be using it occasionally at first, but if I find it more useful than expected, I may consider trying one of the more expensive optical viewfinders out there.

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