For the way I shoot, using a new lens is, in some ways, like learning to shoot all over again. My trusty M-28 has served me well for street shooting for nearly a year, and that lens has become almost like an appendage, feeling completely natural and comfortable. Heeding the advice of some fellow Pentaxians, I decided to try a wider angle and procured a DA 20-40, with the intention of shooting mainly on the wider end of that spectrum for maximum DOF.

I tried out the new lens this past Friday on the streets of NYC. I took over seven hundred frames, using various settings, and I am still going through them all. I definitely made some compositional mistakes with the automatic exposure. I shot mainly in TAv mode, but I let the shutter speed slip too low sometimes, and other times I didn't pay attention to how hi the ISO was going. I will learn from my mistakes and make better photos this week. I think maybe I will go back to completely manual shooting.

Here are four with which I am relatively pleased.

[gavinhw]

They look damn good to me.

Are most of your subjects aware of being captured? Hyperfocal distance and auto exposure, I assume, with the DA. As for the M, I guess you would choose an aperture/ shutter speed and leave it at that unless/until the lighting conditions changed. Please share.

Thanks!

[CreationBear]

Good use of the new lens...#3 especially sets the bar pretty high technically speaking (though Holly up from F.L.A. in the last deserves her own photoessay, though it be a bear to process.)

[Kerrowdown]

like learning to shoot all over again

Aye this lens has taken you out of your 28mm comfort zone, but you seem to be getting the results, it just takes a while to get familiar with a new lens.

[oculus]

Are most of your subjects aware of being captured? Hyperfocal distance and auto exposure, I assume, with the DA. As for the M, I guess you would choose an aperture/ shutter speed and leave it at that unless/until the lighting conditions changed. Please share.

With the M, my modus operandi is ridiculously simple. I choose aperture, ISO, and focus distance (usually F8, 800, and 1.5m) and vary the shutter speed according to lighting conditions, but trying never to go below 1/500. One of the mistakes I made with the DA was lowering the exposure time or shutter speed below 1/500, which, for my style of shooting, seems to result in blur. I shoot subjects as they are moving, and I am also moving, so the speed has to be high enough to freeze the action. As far as whether they are aware, I suppose that depends on their awareness!

hough Holly up from F.L.A. in the last deserves her own photoessay, though it be a bear to process.

This made me laugh out loud for a good 20 seconds.

Aye this lens has taken you out of your 28mm comfort zone, but you seem to be getting the results, it just takes a while to get familiar with a new lens.

Indeed. The 20mm FL takes in a lot more of the city. What I need to do is practice shooting at specific focal distances so that I am aware of the precise distance of a subject.

[Kerrowdown]

What I need to do is practice shooting at specific focal distances so that I am aware of the precise distance of a subject

It's these sort of challenges that helps to keep your imagery fresh, once you've got the 20mm sorted... do it again with a 15mm.