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10-22-2019, 10:25 AM   #16
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QuoteOriginally posted by stevebrot Quote
Any of the Asahi or Pentax f/1.4 fast 50s.
I fall into that same boat and I still own a number of them, even the 8 element super takumar. However I love the SMC A 50/1.2 so it isn't the focal length. I think it is because of how the render textures on things and I like how the 50/1.2 renders them which is very similar to the 77 ltd.

10-22-2019, 10:36 AM   #17
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Any 70-200mm zoom, but particularly the f/2.8 versions. Whenever I see someone lugging one of those monsters around I just shudder with revulsion. Way too big, way too heavy, way too limited zoom range, and way too expensive.

70-200 just isn't useful range for me.
10-22-2019, 10:42 AM - 1 Like   #18
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QuoteOriginally posted by photoptimist Quote
Second, the advancement of digital sensors has reduced the value of big fast lenses, The big ones are only a stop or two faster that the slow ones but today's camera bodies are easily 4 or 5 stops faster than film cameras or early-model digital cameras were. Add IBIS and the value of fast lenses drops more. Why spend $$$$ and carry all those extra kilograms to get a stop or two of light when a modern body like the K-1 gets great shots with a smaller lens?
While I understand your reasoning for a lot of the shooting I do, astrophotography, the need for that extra stop in wide open aperture is needed. Add in that those bigger better lenses don't need to be stopped down as much compared to other ones and instead of it being a one stop difference it may be a 2 stop difference in a very punishing situation. The 560/5.6 is one that needs a lot more stopping down for astro shots so it isn't one I would consider and am very please with my 400/2.8 for what I do with it. However as you say lugging that monster around through the woods is not something I would do and in more normal shooting to just use my 300/4 as it is plenty sharp and I can throw ISO at the problem in most cases without issue to get the shutter speed I need plus I can hand hold a shot with the 300/4 without problem.
10-22-2019, 10:43 AM   #19
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I've decided to not like zooms of any persuasion, because they are slow and optically compromised. I also don't like telephotos because I don't do wildlife, sports or cruise ships, and thus have no use for them.

Other than that...

10-22-2019, 10:55 AM   #20
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Usually the lenses everyone likes are indeed quite good in my experience. The only exceptions would be the DA*55 and 60-250. They're fine lenses and all but were meh for me.
10-22-2019, 11:00 AM - 1 Like   #21
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-D FA 100mm macro. Is an old optical design and renders like one: loses contrast very easily in harsh light, massive purple fringing through all the apertures, meh rendering when outside of the macro range. Excellent as a macro, mediocre for everything else. I sold a 35mm macro ltd to get it, and feel remorse every single second I think about it.

70mm limited: another lens that renders like a vintage, old lens. Also got plenty of flare, busy bokeh and at 2.4 isn't particularly fast. Sold it and got a Zeiss 50mm f1.4, couldn't be more happy. Immensely better.
10-22-2019, 11:06 AM   #22
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QuoteOriginally posted by ChristianRock Quote
To balance out the thread about the lens that you love that everybody else doesn't seem to care much about, how about that one lens that everyone seems to love, but you never really felt tempted to buy?

To me it's the DA 16-85... of course it's a sharp lens, and I have seen great landscape pictures taken with it... but I don't think it would suit my style. Something about the colors and rendering seems a bit un-Pentax to me... I don't know what it is but I can't seem to look at any of the pictures that have been taken by it and go "wow, I need to have that lens!". Instead, they look almost too clean and with not much character...

How about everybody else?
I didn't like the 16-85 at first. I complained about it on the forums and got a bit of a talking to about it, haha, but it didn't grab me, initially. But over time, I found myself reaching for it more and more and now it's my default lens.

10-22-2019, 11:20 AM   #23
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For me it’s the DA 40 limited. I liked the size and build just never really enjoyed the focal length. Funnily enough I loved the fa43 on APSC though. Just those extra few mm I guess.

---------- Post added 22nd Oct 2019 at 19:20 ----------

For me it’s the DA 40 limited. I liked the size and build just never really enjoyed the focal length. Funnily enough I loved the fa43 on APSC though. Just those extra few mm I guess.
10-22-2019, 11:26 AM - 2 Likes   #24
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QuoteOriginally posted by MossyRocks Quote
While I understand your reasoning for a lot of the shooting I do, astrophotography, the need for that extra stop in wide open aperture is needed. Add in that those bigger better lenses don't need to be stopped down as much compared to other ones and instead of it being a one stop difference it may be a 2 stop difference in a very punishing situation. The 560/5.6 is one that needs a lot more stopping down for astro shots so it isn't one I would consider and am very please with my 400/2.8 for what I do with it. However as you say lugging that monster around through the woods is not something I would do and in more normal shooting to just use my 300/4 as it is plenty sharp and I can throw ISO at the problem in most cases without issue to get the shutter speed I need plus I can hand hold a shot with the 300/4 without problem.
Excellent points! DSO (deep-sky object) astrophotography really does benefit from the biggest possible chunks of glass. The only substitute for the light gathering power of a huge physical aperture is a painful amount of stacking.

Even in the astro arena, I've tended to stay non-telephoto, first with a Sigma 12-24 f/4.5-5.6 (a slow lens but higher ISO fixes that) and now with a Rokinon 14/2.8 which is so sharp that it outresolves the sensor @f/2.8. The high ISO performance of modern cameras and IBIS also opens some new frontiers such as hand-held astrophotography with a 50/1.2.
10-22-2019, 12:31 PM   #25
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Helios 44. Not sure why, but I never use it. I wasn't tempted to acquire one because I inherited one from my grandfather. So it definitely stays. But I never use it. Like EVER. Maybe it's because Helios 44 has some tough competition (Takumar 2/58, Primoplan 1.9/58 and Helios 40 for that swirliness).
10-22-2019, 12:57 PM - 2 Likes   #26
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Well this is an easy one. The lens everyone seems to love but I never liked?

Autofocus lenses. All of them. I've tried them again and again, and every time I've ended up either selling them or sometimes just throwing them away. They seem to give me only two choices: either I hope that the camera will randomly select a focus point that's somewhere close to what I want, except that it usually isn't so I have to waste time correcting it, or I have to focus and recompose. Either way, it slows me down and I miss shots that I'd get easily with a manual focus lens.

The only good thing about autofocus is that at least you've usually got some way of turning it off.
10-22-2019, 12:59 PM   #27
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For me its probably the DFA* 15-30 f2.8. By almost all accounts its a fantastic lens with a very useful focal range and a fast f2.8 aperture. But for me it just looks to big and heavy (not to mention expensive) and even though I would really like that focal range - I just know I wouldn't be lugging it around often.

As far lenses I have owned... probably the lens I most disappointed with while still being a popular lens at the time, was the Sigma 17-70 f/2.8-4.5. Not sure why exactly but I just never clicked with it (pun intended).
10-22-2019, 01:03 PM - 1 Like   #28
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QuoteOriginally posted by photoptimist Quote
The only substitute for the light gathering power of a huge physical aperture is a painful amount of stacking.
Even then there is a lot of stacking but then astrophotography of DSOs is its own special case where gear is often the right solution.

QuoteOriginally posted by photoptimist Quote
The high ISO performance of modern cameras and IBIS also opens some new frontiers such as hand-held astrophotography with a 50/1.2.
I actually want to try some of this as I do happen to own a nice 50/1.2. What I really need is a second body to run different lenses on. I would love to go wide with one camera and deep with another but with only one astro capable body (the K2000 really doesn't cut it) I keep chasing DSOs with the limited clear nights I've had this year but keep wanting to do more. I want to find a K50 with the aperture block failure and even a failed af would be fine to run as a second body since neither matter for astro.
10-22-2019, 01:32 PM   #29
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I think having a pragmatic approach and no "emotional" response to the da 16-85 has actually been beneficial for me to learn to use it to it's strengths and versatility. It's not as much as the thread title says, I certainly don't dislike this otherwise capable lens, but it's not up there with the GR III or the da limited primes.
10-22-2019, 01:45 PM - 2 Likes   #30
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Sigma 150 500 HSM. I could never coax results as good as what I had previously gotten with the Sigma 120-400 HSM OS, which I now regret selling....Sort of. I figure now I just need to save up for the DA*150- 50 instead!
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