New entrant to the forum ...

[chetan.dighe]

Hi everybody,

I stay in Mumbai, India, and have been a Pentax user since 1994.

Have one Pentax ME-F and one Cosina C2 body, and recently (2007 May) got my first DSLR - K10D the great.

My reason to stay with Pentax even in the D generation was my lens collection.

My favorite is the Pentax 50/1.4 manual focus, which came with my ME-F. Amazing results, whenever I can focus it correctly.

Others are Pentax 24/2.8 manual focus,

Tamron 28-200/3.5-5.6 Manual Focus (Looking for a buyer for this - nice lens, but now I have the autofocus version, so I guess this one will do better in some other hands),

Tamron 28-200/3.5-5.6 Augo Focus (my latest acquisition, generally good lens on a jungle outing, though a 400 mm / 2.8 giant will give great shots and great exercise for my shoulder and back),

Ricoh 28-105/3.5-4.5 Manual Focus (another one of my beautiful lenses, with great results), and of course,

The Pentax DA 18-55 Kit Lens that came with the K10D body (nothing great, pretty slow, gives good results only with High ISO in low light).

I also got myself a brand new Tamron 2X TC for less than USD50 a couple of months back. Works well, but autofocus fails at extreme end of the range (on my 28-200 and 18-55). I auto focus the lenses at the wide end, and then zoom out. I don't think it is right - with my manual focus, I used to do it the other way round, but this is the only way the TC works. On my 50/1.4, TC works pretty well, especially for portraits on K10D. The light is 2 stops less, which I don't mind thanks to 1.4, and the background blurring is even stronger, which is a good thing. I lose quite a bit on image sharpness, though.

I am trying (for god knows how many years now) to construct a simple 3 element Tessar lens, but the mechanical bit is just not happening. All the best to me ...

I have built a makeshift telescope tube (400 MM / f5) but I need to work on the collimation and internal reflections. Tough finding time and motivation - simultaneously

Any suggestions are welcome.

Regards,
Chetan.

[vievetrick]

Welcome aboard!!! Good luck with your venture