[Wheatfield]

No one wants to see a portrait of someone who looks like me Dave! They need to get the right model before putting their images up here.

Working on it......

[TwoUptons]

A couple of bokeh shots from yesterday, conditions were a bit poor but really wanted to try out f1.4. Even though it was drab and overcast, the lens produced intensely saturated images. I actually find myself turning down the saturation at times (unheard of for me!).

Slight processing, there's no lens profile available in LR yet, so I have done some manual corrections.
Really enjoying it so far (despite the wallet ache!).

John C

What kind of corrections did you find it needed? for distortion? or something else?

I really liked the tree shot, too... the separation it terrific, and the whole thing works well with the composition.

-Eric

[Kerrowdown]

you're saying there's a lot of chatter and not many photos in evidence of said-new lens.... right?

Was I that obvious? I didn't say that out loud what I was thinking did I?

[johnc]

What kind of corrections did you find it needed? for distortion? or something else?

I really liked the tree shot, too... the separation it terrific, and the whole thing works well with the composition.

-Eric

Thank you, I really appreciate the kind words for this shot!

I didn’t do any distortion correction (though I might have cropped a couple of degrees where I didn’t hold the camera straight). There is so much saturation and contrast available at times I’ve reduced it quite significantly in post. Even more than I find with the FA limiteds and the D-FA* 50mm.

Correction/post has been mostly curves and toning, for some shots I’ve manually corrected a little for LOCA. I would say LOCA is very well controlled (especially compared to FA77) but of course pulling curves around or using lots of shadow recovery on these wide open woodland shots can draw some small amounts out from high contrast areas - if you’re pixel peeping. The colours of the loca are not that typical (seem to be more turquoise and brighter magenta than seen in other lenses?) but they are easily fixed in Lightroom.

As an aside, I’ve found PDAF very accurate in the centre (with +2 calibration in my case). Outer PDAF points seem to be bigger on K-1, and while they are working well with the 85mm, for some scenes (trying to focus in the shadows) the body can go to focus a little on nearby bright foreground when using the outer points. I found that with other fast lenses too on occasion. Maybe something to look out for?

It’s another grey day here but I’m going to take a few more tomorrow hopefully.

John

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Last edited by johnc; 07-04-2020 at 11:28 AM.

[LennyBloke]

I'm not one for doing comparisons (and certainly not properly controlled tests) - but these two photos were taken a few minutes apart with a change in backlighting and at different apertures.

1. Pentax FA* 85mm @ f1.4




2. Pentax D-FA* 85mm @ f2.5



It's not intended to show one as better than the other, and as I said the lighting changed - but thought it was worth showing them!

[house]

I'm not one for doing comparisons (and certainly not properly controlled tests) - but these two photos were taken a few minutes apart with a change in backlighting and at different apertures.

1. Pentax FA* 85mm @ f1.4




2. Pentax D-FA* 85mm @ f2.5



It's not intended to show one as better than the other, and as I said the lighting changed - but thought it was worth showing them!

One is certainly sharper and with less loca than the other!

[Austro-Diesel]

As he wrote ... not comparable ... f/1.4 vs. f/2.5 and different lighting. Would be very nice to see some pictures with identical settings!

[pschlute]

Would be very nice to see some pictures with identical settings!

If it is not raining tomorrow I will try and do some.

[Wheatfield]

The lens does seem to have a bit of vignetting wide open. It's not much, and easy to correct, but it's definitely there. It's gone by f/2.8 as far as i can see.
I'm a little surprised, given how large the rear element is, and how expensive the lens is. It's something I would expect on a wide angle, not so much on a telephoto.
Examples below, shot at f/1.4, f/2 and f/2.8.

f/1.4


f/2


f/2.8

[zapp]

It is a f/1.4 lens and vignetting is straight forward to correct.
You pay for f/1.4 and sharpness. Low vignetting comes further down on that list.

[Wheatfield]

It is a f/1.4 lens and vignetting is straight forward to correct.
You pay for f/1.4 and sharpness. Low vignetting comes further down on that list.

Absolutely correct. I built an action to take care of it, so it's a 1 button fix.

[johnc]

Here is four more from the HD FA* 85mm, finally got some sunnier conditions the other day:









All wide open, except the last - which is at f2.5. And yes it does vignette a fair bit wide open (As you say, easy to fix, and I sometimes add more vignetting in post anyway!)

John

[Parallax]

The lens does seem to have a bit of vignetting wide open. It's not much,

I don't know if others' eyes and perception work this way or not, but I don't ever notice vignetting unless it's really pronounced or someone points it out. Minor vignetting, such as in the top one I probably wouldn't see unless I were doing the PP; that in the second photo probably not even then.
This would be a total non issue for me.

[Wheatfield]

I don't know if others' eyes and perception work this way or not, but I don't ever notice vignetting unless it's really pronounced or someone points it out. Minor vignetting, such as in the top one I probably wouldn't see unless I were doing the PP; that in the second photo probably not even then.
This would be a total non issue for me.

I hardly ever shoot wide open, so it's not really going to bother me. The only reason I noticed it at all was because I did something I wouldn't normally do in that sort of pictorial, which was take a shot at every aperture and there was blue sky right to the corners. Normally I would be shooting a scene like that at f/8 or f/11. I rarely shooting scenics wider than f/5.6. Even portraiture I'm usually stopped down a bit.

---------- Post added Jul 7th, 2020 at 12:13 PM ----------

Here is four more from the HD FA* 85mm, finally got some sunnier conditions the other day:



All wide open, except the last - which is at f2.5. And yes it does vignette a fair bit wide open (As you say, easy to fix, and I sometimes add more vignetting in post anyway!)

John

Well I must say you are making my attempts look pretty pathetic.

[Wheatfield]

This was shot at f/5.6, 1/400 second. Much like it's shorter 50mm cousin, this lens really sings at f/5.6. I haven't quite decided where it's overall best aperture is, f/4 to f/8 are all pretty stellar.
Not that is slouches at any aperture, really.