[PentaxPoke]

I've seen pros shooting weddings in pairs with two bodies hanging off each, for a total of four bodies and at least four lenses, and a shoulder bag which presumably would have at least two other lenses for a total of eight lenses.

That's PRO-level service.

And, I'm yet to see anyone shoot a wedding with a lens that isn't a kit lens, basic zoom, or at most a basic prime for set-up portraits. And a huge flash. Guess what? It's better to have four cheap zooms for the price of the 50-135. If it breaks you won't care and will have another ready to go. And the average customer won't know the difference. You get more consistent results wiith a slow lens and flash than a fast lens and no flash. And consistency is the name of the game when you can't ask the couple to exchange rings again because your camera didn't focus right.

If you think spending $1,000 on lenses makes you a pro you're so, so mistaken. It may make you another sort of pro, but definitely not a pro wedding protographer.

Now you complain that your lens failed. But how would you handle the following situations:

- someone spills wine all over your equipment
- some kid thinks it's funny to make you trip and you twist your ankle
- while backing off for a shot you fall, drop the camera and break a lens

Huh? Would spending $1,000 on lenses have you covered?

What point are you trying to make?

[tokyoso]

I have to admit I drool for DA* lenses.

But knowing SDM failures abound, its very hard to make a $1000 commitment.

[PentaxPoke]

I have to admit I drool for DA* lenses.

But knowing SDM failures abound, its very hard to make a $1000 commitment.

Save your drool for Limited lenses. DA* lenses are not worth the saliva.

[Wheatfield]

What point are you trying to make?

I was trying to figure that out, then decided that there just wasn't anything to figure out.

Save your drool for Limited lenses. DA* lenses are not worth the saliva.

I duno about that. The glass in both my DA*55 and DA*60-250 is to die for.
They just had to ruin it with a dodgy AF mechanism.

[Pentaxor]

Now you complain that your lens failed. But how would you handle the following situations:

- someone spills wine all over your equipment
- some kid thinks it's funny to make you trip and you twist your ankle
- while backing off for a shot you fall, drop the camera and break a lens

Huh? Would spending $1,000 on lenses have you covered?

forgive me for saying this, but those things would only happen to a complete idiot. who in the right mind would be so careless about his equipment during a wedding shoot? even an ordinary non-professional guest with a P&S camera who's taking pictures during event doesn't even break a sweat on taking care of his/her camera. you are just assuming that the photographer is a 5 year old child.

just to make things a lil more clearer, having a back-up is pointless if your back-up lens is doomed to fail after a few months. these are not some $10 dollar disposable non-rechargeable batteries that you can simply throw away when it runs out of power. we are talking about a $1000 dollar professional gear here that you expect to use for a long time.

and for the record, the rechargeable DLi-ion batteries can even last longer than those DA* lenses. how embarrassing.

[Wheatfield]

Now you complain that your lens failed. But how would you handle the following situations:

- someone spills wine all over your equipment
- some kid thinks it's funny to make you trip and you twist your ankle
- while backing off for a shot you fall, drop the camera and break a lens

Huh? Would spending $1,000 on lenses have you covered?

Spilling a drink on my equipment means I get to go home early and the client gets to pay for the repair.
It's in my contract.

Some kid thinks it's funny to trip me? I think it's funny to fall on top of him.
Then I go home early.
It's in my contract.

Backing up and falling down, breaking something?
I get to go home early.
It's in my contract.

At some point, a real pro will just admit defeat.
I carry 2 camera bodies and about half a dozen lenses to a wedding.
I carry one hammerhead flash and a shoe mount as a back up.

In almost 40 years of wedding photography, I've had one camera quit working during a wedding (a Pentax MX), and one flash go down (a Metz 402 that I whacked into a pew).

When I was shooting Nikon, I never worried about equipment failure. It was simply unheard of, and I never had a Nikon fail me.
It wasn't until I started shooting with Pentax that I had to start buying multiple camera bodies, and now with SDM, it looks like multiple lenses as well.

Pro level photographers should carry back up equipment, but pro level equipment should be robust enough to not require a photographer to go onsite with an entire camera store.

In general, I love my Pentax gear.
The DA* glass that I have, or have used (I got to use a 16-50 and 50-135 for a weekend prior to their release) is of superb quality, but I have absolutely no belief that the DA* lenses are built to "Pro Grade" standards.

[benjikan]

As I have a major shoot for VOGUE in just over 2 weeks, I am sending in my 16-50 for a major check up. You guys have gotten me Very Nervous.

[PentaxPoke]

As I have a major shoot for VOGUE in just over 2 weeks, I am sending in my 16-50 for a major check up. You guys have gotten me Very Nervous.

Bring a backup.

[LeDave]

As I have a major shoot for VOGUE in just over 2 weeks, I am sending in my 16-50 for a major check up. You guys have gotten me Very Nervous.

Think Pentax will return it in time? Looking at your lens list, looks like it should be no problem.

[Wheatfield]

As I have a major shoot for VOGUE in just over 2 weeks, I am sending in my 16-50 for a major check up. You guys have gotten me Very Nervous.

I would be. My 60-250 has been in the shop for just under 5 weeks, and now they are telling me that they have to ship it to Japan, which will take another 4-6 weeks.
Junior technology, junior quality control and now a junior repair department.

[PentaxPoke]

I would be. My 60-250 has been in the shop for just under 5 weeks, and now they are telling me that they have to ship it to Japan, which will take another 4-6 weeks.
Junior technology, junior quality control and now a junior repair department.

Peter Zack, who is a moderator here, and a pro wedding shooter had a thread that outlined his frustration about the DA* 16-50 failing during a pro shoot. It was a very interesting and helpful thread. However, I can't seem to find it now or I would link to it for you Ben...

[little laker]

As I have a major shoot for VOGUE in just over 2 weeks, I am sending in my 16-50 for a major check up. You guys have gotten me Very Nervous.

With your knowledge and experience you can pull the shoot off with a toy camera Ben. So I'm sure that you'll do just fine.

[Russell-Evans]

I don't even know what this sentence means.

One beer too many.

Thank you
Russell

[Oggy]

One beer too many.

Thank you
Russell

More to do with one idiot to many. There is no excuse for the behaviour of some people around here. Disagree by all means, but keep it civil.


I am an engineer and as such deal with facts such as force = mass x acceleration. In the absence of facts I resort to well proven theories such as Pythagoras’s theorem (cannot be proved, but has not been wrong yet).

The whole SDM thing has got blown out of all proportion. No doubt some of these lenses have failed and those who own them feel aggrieved and need to publish about it.

On the other hand, people who have had nothing but excellent results from them, myself included. Very few of these people are going to post to say theirs haven't broken. They tend not to bother replying to polls which cannot be representative anyway.

In this way, the appearance is generated that there is a high failure rate, and it quickly degenerates into frenzy.

I am a member of 3 Pentax fora, and of the other two, one has two or three mentions of this in the eighteen months I have been there, and the other has zero.

This leaves me curious. Why are so many allegedly breaking on this forum and virtually none on others? Geographical or climatic considerations? Mis-handling by some importers? Slewed perception? Abuse of the lenses?

I have noticed sometimes logic escapes this forum - for example when someone asks is a lens any good and others say that it isn't sharp even though they have never tried them, then someone else posts sharp pictures taken with the lens but the OP decides that he has heard that it isn't sharp so he's not going to have it. Furthermore, without intending to offend, some of the "science" talked around here has me rolling on the floor - I would have known better when I was 12 years old.

Now - back to the frenzy---

[blind-bat]

[COLOR=#4d4d4d][FONT=Verdana]Onthe other hand, people who have had nothing but excellent results from them, myself included. Very few of these people are going to post to say theirs haven't broken. They tend not to bother replying to polls which cannot be representative anyway

Real input from people that have lense failure versus imaginary people who chose not to comment?