I played in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament (called Ultimax) yesterday in Greenville, NC, and while I wasn't playing I managed to snap a few shots. I was testing out the new S-M-C 135/2.5 and 20/4.5 Taks. Mostly using the 135 to capture close-ups of the action on the field. I touched up and cropped the photos in LR.

Some of these were shot wide open with the 125/2.5, others were shot one stop down (i guess 3.5) so I could get slightly sharper images and make it a little easier to catch the focus correctly for moving bodies. The 135/2.5 seems sharp enough wide open, but at 3.5 it's great and still get a pretty nice blurred background. I'm still working on my focusing skills for moving objects, it's no easy chore with the default K200D focusing screen at wide apertures for tele lenses.

Here are a few of my favorites.
For the full set, click Here.

What do you think about framing, composition, and exposure? Keep in mind the harsh lighting of a bright sun.

All below were taken with the 135/2.5 on my K200D unless otherwise noted.

1. Throwing


2. Portrait:


3: One of my favorites


4. Not dropping this one


5. During the bye (taken with 20/4.5)


6. Skying!


7. Chatting (and lens flare from 20/4.5)


8. Three Peas in a Pod


9. Concentration


10. Towards the sun, the 135/2.5 is surprisingly resistant to flare (but not to funny faces)


11. Sleepy, Tongue-y, and Stripy

[stevebrot]

Great work. Goes to show that you don't need AF and 12fps to do sports.

Steve

[arpaagent]

Great work. Goes to show that you don't need AF and 12fps to do sports.

Steve

Yea. When I was shooting some games several weeks ago, I ran into a guy with a nikon setup (Nikon D3 + Nikon 200-400mm f/4 IF-ED AF-S) which was ridiculous. I think it did about 9fps and the autofocus on that lens was incredibly fast. I was out there with my SMC Pentax-A 70-210 f/4 which does a decent job. He did let me try out his setup for couple shots and it doesn't seem fair! That's ok, I've played the game for years now and I understand the flow so I can still get good shots. I'll be content with the challenge of manual focus, so when I do get those great shots, they are all the more worthwhile.

Jim

[axl]

Man, all of those done with MF and some 40 odd years old lenses. Great, and I couldn't agree more with Steve...

[eccs19]

Dude has something growing out of his head in number five. lol

Nice shots. I really like the colors in number 5.

[vievetrick]

Great stuff for a MF lens. Looks like a fun time.