[er1kksen]

My M 50mm f1.7 is probably on my K-5 90% of the time. I spend a lot of time making portraits of interesting small plants, which this lens excels at since it's quite acceptably sharp wide open, such as this one:


But my real obsession is making portraits of trees. These being a bit larger than wildflowers, it's tough to get similar relative DOF in a single frame, working at a greater distance- but the M 50mm f1.7 remains the perfect piece of glass for taking a whole bunch of frames wide open closer in and stitching them to simulate a larger capture medium.


On that note, this nice nifty fifty even does a stand-up job as a wide-angle landscape lens.


I periodically look at wider-angle lenses in the marketplace and always talk myself out of them on the basis of how well this lens does for me. The only improvements I can imagine would be rounded aperture blades and a slightly closer minimum focus distance. In every other way, I am of the opinion that this little lens is as close as possible to perfection.

This is for the best, since the stitched images really don't quite look right on a small screen or as small-to-medium sized prints, and I've got to put that money into printing instead of LBA!

[Jonathan Mac]

But my real obsession is making portraits of trees. These being a bit larger than wildflowers, it's tough to get similar relative DOF in a single frame, working at a greater distance- but the M 50mm f1.7 remains the perfect piece of glass for taking a whole bunch of frames wide open closer in and stitching them to simulate a larger capture medium.

This is commonly known as the Brenizer technique and there's a thread devoted to it here: Brenizer Method photos - PentaxForums.com

I usually use my M 85mm f/2 for this type of work but have also used my 70/2.4 limited and SMC Tak 105/2.8, even a 55/2 Tak.

[er1kksen]

Jonathan, that's great, glad to know it has a name! Nice thread. I'm always fascinated by the possibilities for technique and technology to expand the capabilities of old pieces of glass. I have a Sears 135mm f2.8 that I thought about trying it with, but it's honestly pretty bad open wider than f8. So far the M 50 is the star.

[Jonathan Mac]

Jonathan, that's great, glad to know it has a name! Nice thread. I'm always fascinated by the possibilities for technique and technology to expand the capabilities of old pieces of glass. I have a Sears 135mm f2.8 that I thought about trying it with, but it's honestly pretty bad open wider than f8. So far the M 50 is the star.

I think you'd find 135mm too long - you'd need a huge number of shots to get a wide field of view. Wide open performance is not that important - if you use a lot of shots then at normal viewing sizes the overall picture appears sharp. The 85mm f/2 lens I use for these shots is soft wide open with a lot of blue fringing, but that's not visible in the final image.

[iheiramo]

This is commonly known as the Brenizer technique and there's a thread devoted to it here: Brenizer Method photos - PentaxForums.com

Interesting technique and thread. Have to try it sometime. Also got me download MS ICE which seem to be an upgrade to my previous program to do panoramas. I couldn't put this together last November, but here it is now. M50/1.7:



And a tighter crop from the mist in the valley:

[er1kksen]

I think you'd find 135mm too long - you'd need a huge number of shots to get a wide field of view. Wide open performance is not that important - if you use a lot of shots then at normal viewing sizes the overall picture appears sharp. The 85mm f/2 lens I use for these shots is soft wide open with a lot of blue fringing, but that's not visible in the final image.

Yeah, it's more the fringing I'm wary of. I've actually used it for traditional stopped-down panoramas of wetlands that would be impractical to access on foot. I figure I'll need a longer than usual focal length to apply the technique to a subject like a large tree.

[onlineflyer]

Managed to catch some icicles before they melted away. M 100/2.8 on a K-5iis.

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[paulh]

One of my favorite M's - the M35-70/2.8-3.5 on an *ist D:

[iheiramo]

Up north again. It's not cold and dark anymore. The good part of the winter usually starts around mid march and last for about month. After that spring comes with force and snows melt fast. Noticed nice light on side of the hill and went to get my camera. In B&W it came out as I had hoped. M100/2.8:



Once I had the camera I made my first experiment with Brenizer technique. Also with M100/2.8. 10 frames combined to final image:



Also tried to make telephoto panorama landscape with M200/4. As the visibility was perfect I wanted to get a picture of the unlocked cabin on top of the hill, but M200 didn't really have as good reach as I had wanted. The cabin is free to use for anybody.

[Cabessius]

SMC Pentax M 50mm f1.4 fully open.
The first M lens I bought, remember falling in love instantly with the build quality.
Since then, no "modern" glass any more. Sold the few AF lenses I had just to get funds for more manual lenses.

[ivanvernon]

I am sure liking my newly acquired Pentax-M 200mm f 4.0. The 4.0 maximum aperture is causing no problem, what with the K-1/K-3 ISO capabilities. Here are a few night photos of my daughter's school violin concert which was staged in a large basketball gym. Performance was noticeably much better on the M200 than a 70-300 Tamron also used that evening--no surprise really since the M is a prime lens and the Tamron was being used at its farthest reach of 300mm where zooms usually show falloff in image quality.

[Jonathan Mac]

Some nice old abandoned and rusted farm equipment on a chilly morning in the golden hour a few days ago. All taken with K3 and M 50mm f/1.4.


IMGP7140a by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr


IMGP7153a by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr


IMGP7152a by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr


IMGP7147a by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr


IMGP7145a by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr

This is a Brenizer method photo using the M 50mm f/1.4, the first time I've used that lens for a Brenizer.


Lago de Sanabria Brenizer 1b by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr

[iheiramo]

Weather was very close to perfect today. We used some of the day taking photos on the slopes. Here is a collection my friend took with my K-30 and M28/3.5. This time I was riding my race board.







My trial on Capture One 10 ended last weekend. Had to buy it. I just couldn't accept the IQ of my old RAW editor anymore.

[Jonathan Mac]

M 50mm f/1.4


IMGP7038a by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr


IMGP7030a by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr


IMGP7026a by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr

[jcdoss]

Weather was very close to perfect today. We used some of the day taking photos on the slopes. Here is a collection my friend took with my K-30 and M28/3.5. This time I was riding my race board.....My trial on Capture One 10 ended last weekend. Had to buy it. I just couldn't accept the IQ of my old RAW editor anymore.

Very nice images... The M28/3.5 is an underappreciated lens, don't you think? What were you using before Capture One?



O'Malley's Pub taken with Pentax K-1 and M20/4 by Jason Doss, on Flickr