[heatherslightbox]

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With my recent acquisition of a film body, my interest in older manual lenses has been reawakened, so in the last week, I've picked up a M28/3.5 from KEH and a K55/1.8 from Fleabay (RARE SMC Pentax K Series 1:1.8/55 NEAR MINT 55mm f1.8 - eBay (item 360139898154 end time Mar-24-09 18:31:17 PDT)). I would've waited until the lenses actually show up (tomorrow for the 28 and most likely the end of the week for the 55), but I'm so excited that I had to share the news now.

At any rate, I'll be posting pics taken with both lenses and the K20 once I get them and have a chance to go shoot with them.

Heather

[monochrome]

With my recent acquisition of a film body, my interest in older manual lenses has been reawakened, so in the last week, I've picked up a M28/3.5 from KEH and a K55/1.8 from Fleabay (RARE SMC Pentax K Series 1:1.8/55 NEAR MINT 55mm f1.8 - eBay (item 360139898154 end time Mar-24-09 18:31:17 PDT)). I would've waited until the lenses actually show up (tomorrow for the 28 and most likely the end of the week for the 55), but I'm so excited that I had to share the news now.

At any rate, I'll be posting pics taken with both lenses and the K20 once I get them and have a chance to go shoot with them.

Heather

Heather: The moratorium didn't last for you either, huh. We get down to a reasonable number of lenses and it just creeps back up before we know it!!

I looked at that lens - but I have the SMC Tak version so I let it go by. I bought a K2 in 2004 that came with one attached, but I sold the lens before I knew what it was.

Trust me, you'll love it.

[jsherman999]

Make sure you shoot that 55 wide-open a lot, that's where the magic is! Congrats.


.

[axl]

Hi Heather,
can you keep us posted on the 55/1.8?
I'd surely like to see som shots from it

BR

PS: of course congrats on the purchase and welcome back in LBA camp

[vinceloc]

Congrats on your FleaBay purchase! I also got this lens late last year and don't regret it. However, the lens seems to overexpose one to two stops, so what I do is after stopping down with the green button, I increase the speed by either another one or two flucs, depending on the amount of light in the scene. Watch out for this. If you think that you don't get a well saturated shot, it might just be this tendency to overexpose.

Anyway, have fun with the lens, I know I do

[gokenin]

Good hunting there still looking for either a 50 or 55 from the K series to finish of my K lineup. post some pics when you got some

[vinceloc]

I'd like to share some of my pics using the K55/1.8 WHILE yours still hasn't arrived.

That will make the wait even more excruciating

All taken with K200D+K55/1.8

[heatherslightbox]

VinceLoc, those shots are great--great color and sharpness. I have to say, though, that one of the things that encouraged me to go for this lens was Jay's flower shots in his review in the lens review section: Pentax Lens Review Database - 55mm F1.8.

It won't be long though. At least the 283.5 is supposed to come today.

Heather

[jeffrey r]

Congrats--the M28/3.5 is a beautiful little lens. I picked one up from ebay for $50 earlier this year, and it is well worth it. Enjoy.

[heatherslightbox]

As expected, the M28/3.5 came today and it is in excellent condition; it's hard to believe that KEH classified the condition as "bargain"--I was the one who got the bargain. Anyway, here are a few of the first pics with the K20D, all straight out of the camera with the exception of RAW to JPG conversion.











This is one sharp lens. I'm looking forward to seeing what it'll do on the film body.

Heather

[jsherman999]

Good hunting there still looking for either a 50 or 55 from the K series to finish of my K lineup. post some pics when you got some

Gokenin *should have a K 55 1.8 now, but I screwed up in my big sale last month and mailed him the Tak 55 1.8 (and sent the K to the Tak guy)

Gokenin, once & a while I run across one here on a camera body, if I find one real cheap I'll send it to you for shipping cost only. Still very sorry, it was a crazy shipping day, but that's no excuse.

VinceLoc, those shots are great--great color and sharpness. I have to say, though, that one of the things that encouraged me to go for this lens was Jay's flower shots in his review in the lens review section: Pentax Lens Review Database - 55mm F1.8.

It won't be long though. At least the 283.5 is supposed to come today.

Heather

Thanks Heather! And looks like you hit the ground running with that 28, good job! That's going to be about what, 13mm (D-equiv ) on film? Should be fun to play with.

[Canada_Rockies]

With my recent acquisition of a film body, my interest in older manual lenses has been reawakened, so in the last week, I've picked up a M28/3.5 from KEH and a K55/1.8 from Fleabay (RARE SMC Pentax K Series 1:1.8/55 NEAR MINT 55mm f1.8 - eBay (item 360139898154 end time Mar-24-09 18:31:17 PDT)). I would've waited until the lenses actually show up (tomorrow for the 28 and most likely the end of the week for the 55), but I'm so excited that I had to share the news now.

At any rate, I'll be posting pics taken with both lenses and the K20 once I get them and have a chance to go shoot with them.

Heather

I have owned both of those lenses in the past. They are superb. No doubt about it.

[ajuett]

Congrats Heather, the M 28mm f/3.5 is a gem on either a SLR or dSLR. All examples from the M28 f/3.5 on Super Program here; http://www.pbase.com/ajuett/wcp

[gokenin]

Gokenin *should have a K 55 1.8 now, but I screwed up in my big sale last month and mailed him the Tak 55 1.8 (and sent the K to the Tak guy)

Gokenin, once & a while I run across one here on a camera body, if I find one real cheap I'll send it to you for shipping cost only. Still very sorry, it was a crazy shipping day, but that's no excuse.

Hey Jay , No worries I actually picked up a K55 f2.0 off of ebay last night its not the exact same but from what I can tell the optical formula is pretty close to the 1.8 and its only a half stop slower i think. the seller advertised it as a M series but the pictures of the lens just say SMC PENTAX not SMC PENTAX-M so pretty sure its a K series

[Just1MoreDave]

Hey Jay , No worries I actually picked up a K55 f2.0 off of ebay last night its not the exact same but from what I can tell the optical formula is pretty close to the 1.8 and its only a half stop slower i think. the seller advertised it as a M series but the pictures of the lens just say SMC PENTAX not SMC PENTAX-M so pretty sure its a K series

The K55/2 is someone's weird marketing idea. It is exactly the same as the 1.8 version, except there is a metal ring that limits the aperture from opening to 1.8. The same idea was used in Super-Takumar, Super-Multi-Coated Takumar and SMC Takumar versions. I guess the idea was that the cheaper cameras were sold with the f2 "kit" lens and the more expensive versions could offer the f1.8 upgrade, without an entirely new lens design. The f2 version might have slightly better OOF highlights at f2 than the f1.8 version at f2, since the ring is perfectly round and the f1.8 version's aperture will have a rounded hexagonal shape.

When Pentax came out with the M series lenses, they dropped the 55mm length and instead had 50mm lenses in f1.4, f1.7 and f2.0, and continued selling the K50/1.2. All of these are optically different. That makes more sense to me but is the same marketing concept.