I was just going through all my images from the past year and thought a thread of a few images from a favourite lens or two might be interesting. Pick a few of your favourites and post them. A little data about the lens and the shot would be good. Nothing like some good pics to fuel the LBA!!

So to begin:
1) Bigma (Sigma 50-500mm F4-5.6 EX) , yes I like this lens for many uses.
500mm f6.7 1/125 ISO 100

2) Pentax SMC FA135mm f2.8
135mm 1/320 f8 ISO 400
This is an education in watching the background. I wish the orange flower wasn't right behind the sharp subject.

3)Pentax SMC FA135mm f2.8
135mm 1/100 f9 ISO 400

4)Pentax SMC FA135mm f2.8
135mm 1/1000 f8 ISO400



As I go through the old files (there are a few!) I may add more.

[jsherman999]

Steve - really like how the aqua background sets off the cat's blue/green eyes,
gives the shot an erie 'blue' feeling.

[aegisphan]

At the moment, I use these three quite frequent.

FA* 24/2:





FA 31/1.8 LTD:





VL 125/2.5:

[stevebrot]

Steve - really like how the aqua background sets off the cat's blue/green eyes,
gives the shot an erie 'blue' feeling.

Thanks! There is something about the J-9's color rendition that adds that little extra something. The background was purely accidental. We were experimenting with the Jupiter-9 and taking the odd shots of the cat. The background was my beloved's shirt!

Actually the whole picture was somewhat of an accident. The original was way underexposed even at 1/8 second. But given the magic of PP and the strength of the K10D's sensor I was able to bring the values up. The other magic was actually finding the cat and the camera motionless and in focus at the same time. (Actually, only the surface of the right eye is in focus.) Amazing!

Steve

[roentarre]

Peter, it is so thrilling to see your goose shot being taken by bigma! That bokeh makes me feel bad since I did not utilise the lens to the extent you have achieved. The Fa 135/2.8 shots also stunned me where I was predominantly obsessed with its tendacy to get CA.

Chris, amazing shots from you as usual and really interesting to see your first shot with reflection (I had not seen that series before).

[Peter Zack]

Some great stuff everyone. I expect the thread to get far too big to comment on each shot. But I like seeing actual pictures rather than the threads with "lists" that seem to pop up about every other week. That Jupiter 9 looks great. Hard to complain with shots from the 31mm or 24mm. Love that typewriter shot.

James, the 'Bigma' is one of those lenses that you have to work with. It's not perfect and if you're a pixel peeper then it can disappoint. So those that like to crop a lot will have soft images. With my first one, it took at least a month before I understood how to use it. The FA135 f 2.8 is indeed a CA prone lens. In all honestly I sold my copy to afford the Sigma 70-200 f2.8. I had both for a short while and tested the 2 against each other. The Sigma @135mm is sharper and has almost no CA to speak of. So you need to 'pick your shots' with the FA135mm.
I just sold another zoom and ordered the FA*300mm f4.5. I can't wait to give that lens a go. My bag is slowly becoming silver...
Here's a few more from the Bigma last year.

Not my favourite shot but a great example of the performance. (posted several times before)
@500mm f8 1/500th ISO 100


Not sure of the EXIF on these but I'll look it up.




Another from the Goose session:


@360mm f11 1/400 ISO 100


From the Sigma 70-200mm EX f2.8

[Peter Zack]

roentarre, Lets see those VL125 shots!

[thomasjmpark]

Great thread Peter and really great pics so far

I too dont have many lens' but the one lens I keep going back to is the Sigma 17-70mm. Really love this lens mainly for its ability for some great landscape shots. I prefer the image quality of my Pentax 50-135mm but its not best used as a landscape lens. My next purchase will either be the Pentax 16-50mm or the Pentax 12-24mm, cant quite decide which but both will be at the top of my budget!

Heres a couple of examples from both lens' Some Exif data is missing, sorry.

17-70


17-70


50-135


50-135


This last one is from the 18-55mm, still a great lens that I should use more but it doesnt beat the Sigma.

[dws1117]

Tom, I really like the first one with the 50-135mm. The sharpness of the trees in contrast with the slight softness of the mountains and great light. Nice job.

[hamidlmt]

The FA 31mm 1.8 Limited - on my camera most of the time

[thomasjmpark]

Thnkas dws

[Peter Zack]

That 17-70 does a great job Tom. Great series of shots. I seriously considered getting one, chose the DA16-45 f4 for now. It should be here in a week.

hamidlmt, what more can I say. the 31mm is in good hands with you. beautiful shots, all.

[cupic]

I have to say those shots using the sigma's 17-70-and the fabulous 50-500 are truly fantastic the colour sharpness contrast ( somebody please stop me).

Man Im hanging just to be 50% as these shots are 150%


thanks for sharing great pictures

cheers