[bertwert]

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I was trying to shoot a sort of tradition here in Golden - the Snow King festival.
All my shots were very blurred or extremely noisy or dark.
I probably got 5 keepers out of 75.

F5.6 probably wasn't helping.
Some of the fire spinning shots worked with a low ss, but otherwise the rest was crap!

Since most of my shooting was at 55 I could probably have used my Takumar and MF anyway as AF was hopeless in the dark.

Cheers!

[mee]

DA 50mm f/1.8 -- kind of like your Super Tak but with AF. At 1.8 it is passable by 2.8 it is really sharp... at 5.6 it is another level sharp.

But without any seals... not sure how well it would hold up to being outdoors in a frozen environment. And, once you get those really sharp AF primes, you might hesitate to go back to nice but slow zooms...

[wibbly]

if i were you i'd toss the 18-55 junker and find a bad sdm da*16-50 and screwdrive it. in terms of bang for your buck a broken 16-50 is up there.

[VisualDarkness]

The DA 55/1.4 is crying your name.

[excanonfd]

Your problem seem to have been slow shutter speed, why not raise the ISO so that you can have a decent working shutter speed?

[Jens Lyn IV]

why not raise the ISO

extremely noisy

That's why.

The DA* 55 is a cracking lens, if you can afford it.

[bertwert]

The DA 55/1.4 is crying your name.

I wish!

find a bad sdm da*16-50 and screwdrive it.

I've thought of that what does a bad one run for?

raise the ISO

No point shooting above 3200...

[KC0PET]

Depending on whether you want MF or AF, you might watch for an A50 f1.7 or f/1.4 or the F or FA versions of these. There are good deals to be had on all of these with patience.

Here is one: SMC Pentax A F1 1 7 50mm No 1216665 Made in Japan | eBay Almost 4 stops faster than 5.6 for less than $35.

[wibbly]

I wish!

I've thought of that what does a bad one run for?

i paid i think 250 USD for mine

[excanonfd]

No point shooting above 3200...

Well, if that's your ISO threshold, then that's your threshold. Personally, I think you can shoot at higher ISO than that and PP the image to an acceptable degree afterwards. I unloaded my K20D long before I thought I got my money's worth out of it because I was so impressed with the K-5's high ISO capabilities. Your K-50 should have as good as or better higher ISO capability than my K-5. Search the forums for high ISO images and see whether increasing your ISO threshold would help you or not. If you think faster lenses will help then by all means go for it.

[fg-one]

Depending on whether you want MF or AF, you might watch for an A50 f1.7 or f/1.4 or the F or FA versions of these. There are good deals to be had on all of these with patience.

Here is one: SMC Pentax A F1 1 7 50mm No 1216665 Made in Japan | eBay Almost 4 stops faster than 5.6 for less than $35.

Cannot beat this one for value for money! Recommended.

[edmundrt]

The DA50 is an absolute bargain, you won't regret it in the slightest. If you can find a good deal, F or FA 50s are good too but here in the UK they often work out more expensive than a brand new DA.

[LensBeginner]

SMC-M 50/1.7 @f/2.0, MF, ISO 1600-3200.
I can get all the shots I want, available light even at night, for peanuts.

[BrianR]

There's a Golden Snow King Festival?

The two obvious pieces of advice - don't eat that snow, especially in the dark, and do you have a little tripod of some sort? While it won't help with people, it's nice to have the option of a solid base for longer exposures where you're deliberately showing motion (like the fire spinners).

[csa]

if i were you i'd toss the 18-55 junker

That's pretty harsh! I've had extremely nice photos with the 18-55; it's a good lens that many of us use! Are there better lenses, sure; but the 18-55 is far from a "junker"!