[Andrew_Oid]

Salutations! I've been away for awhile, busy with retiring and relocating. I have been following this thread, however, and have been impressed. I moved from Texas to Thailand where it's actually cooler although the humidity in my estimation is brutal, currently 70-90% everyday. We're transitioning from the hot season to the rainy season, which is influenced by the monsoon. This is followed by the dry season (which is also supposed to be cool, but what "cool" is remains to be seen). I'm only hoping the humidity will be more tolerable then. Anyway, I brought my cameras and lenses, including the fifteen Takumars. Until now, I've been shooting with a Panasonic Lumix LX-7, because of its portability, versatility, and inconspicuousness, not to mention its excellent image quality. Today, however, I noticed a flower, a variety of rose I would guess, growing next to my apartment. That seemed to warrant breaking out the Sony a850 and 50mm f4 Takumar, the 1:2 version. The picture seemed a bit flat out of the camera so I pumped the color up a bit to more accurately represent what I can see. I've not noticed this before with the Sony cameras or the other Takumars, so I'm thinking it might be this particular lens that's producing desaturated color. Not a big problem, certainly, as it's so easily corrected. Both before and after PP images are attached.

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[tim60]

Salutations! I've been away for awhile, busy with retiring and relocating. I have been following this thread, however, and have been impressed. I moved from Texas to Thailand where it's actually cooler although the humidity in my estimation is brutal, currently 70-90% everyday. We're transitioning from the hot season to the rainy season, which is influenced by the monsoon. This is followed by the dry season (which is also supposed to be cool, but what "cool" is remains to be seen). I'm only hoping the humidity will be more tolerable then. Anyway, I brought my cameras and lenses, including the fifteen Takumars. Until now, I've been shooting with a Panasonic Lumix LX-7, because of its portability, versatility, and inconspicuousness, not to mention its excellent image quality. Today, however, I noticed a flower, a variety of rose I would guess, growing next to my apartment. That seemed to warrant breaking out the Sony a850 and 50mm f4 Takumar, the 1:2 version. The picture seemed a bit flat out of the camera so I pumped the color up a bit to more accurately represent what I can see. I've not noticed this before with the Sony cameras or the other Takumars, so I'm thinking it might be this particular lens that's producing desaturated color. Not a big problem, certainly, as it's so easily corrected. Both before and after PP images are attached.

I have been away, for an entirely different reason that you - going to the US for a conference and taking photos for them (as a sideline). They even gave ma plaque for that (been doing it for a few years). There are two of us who do that. I use Pentax and Takumar primes and he uses Canon and new glass, and he always has a flash on the box.


But to the point of why I responded - I have noticed that the further one goes from the equator the higher the temperatures seem to get. Consistent with your observation. Cannot help you with the weather in the dry/cool season, except that everything is relative.


And I got some buds of roses that look just like yours to graft onto standard roses in my front garden. I got them from some Koreans around the corner a short time before they moved out after selling to some China Chinese. The leaves are small like yours and the flowers have a small number of petals, like yours. The way to check they are roses is to look at the leaves - they have 5 leaves on each stem, the distinctive stem shape at the base of the leaf structure, and of course some thorns. These types of roses only have a small number of thorns. Those flowers are quite common.


My camera got some really interesting conversations at the conference (full of engineers). Screw mount lenses and digital pictures was a combination they were surprised by. One even recognised my K3 and complimented it. He had a couple of friends with them in UK.


Sitting in the plenary speech hall (in the bowels of some casino) I used the ST 300/4 and the ST 85/1.9 for pictures of plenary speakers under the harsh but low illumination of the spot lights. All hand held, I find I get a reasonable hit rate of acceptable pictures at 1600, open or almost open aperture and as low as 1/30 sec. And then the aesthetics of the lenses take their own. The K3 took some pressure off me doing the job - first time I used dual cards, so I handed over jpg for fun display at the conference. Later I will PP the RAWs and send them a disc.

[chuck_c]

Little pole barn house on the prairie about to be consumed by a big storm a few days ago.
ST 35/3.5 @f8

At work at the airport several hours earlier with the ST SMC 50/1.4

Beautiful cloud shots dunerunner. I like them both, the dark dramatic storm clouds and the puffy cumulus clouds against the deep blue sky.

[Andrew_Oid]

I have been away, for an entirely different reason that you - going to the US for a conference and taking photos for them (as a sideline). They even gave ma plaque for that (been doing it for a few years). There are two of us who do that. I use Pentax and Takumar primes and he uses Canon and new glass, and he always has a flash on the box.


But to the point of why I responded - I have noticed that the further one goes from the equator the higher the temperatures seem to get. Consistent with your observation. Cannot help you with the weather in the dry/cool season, except that everything is relative.


And I got some buds of roses that look just like yours to graft onto standard roses in my front garden. I got them from some Koreans around the corner a short time before they moved out after selling to some China Chinese. The leaves are small like yours and the flowers have a small number of petals, like yours. The way to check they are roses is to look at the leaves - they have 5 leaves on each stem, the distinctive stem shape at the base of the leaf structure, and of course some thorns. These types of roses only have a small number of thorns. Those flowers are quite common.


My camera got some really interesting conversations at the conference (full of engineers). Screw mount lenses and digital pictures was a combination they were surprised by. One even recognised my K3 and complimented it. He had a couple of friends with them in UK.


Sitting in the plenary speech hall (in the bowels of some casino) I used the ST 300/4 and the ST 85/1.9 for pictures of plenary speakers under the harsh but low illumination of the spot lights. All hand held, I find I get a reasonable hit rate of acceptable pictures at 1600, open or almost open aperture and as low as 1/30 sec. And then the aesthetics of the lenses take their own. The K3 took some pressure off me doing the job - first time I used dual cards, so I handed over jpg for fun display at the conference. Later I will PP the RAWs and send them a disc.

Thanks for the lesson in botany! I can always stand to learn something else.

[dunerunner]

Beautiful cloud shots dunerunner. I like them both, the dark dramatic storm clouds and the puffy cumulus clouds against the deep blue sky.

Thank you Chuck_c

[micromacro]

Super smooth, and only slightly radioactive.

My copy is yellow. First I wanted to get rid of yellowing, but it gives such a nice skin tone! I will keep it "radioactive"

[dunerunner]

Summer afternoon walk through the mustard weed, there is a whole lot of it around this year!
ST 35 3.5

[Andrew_Oid]

Summer afternoon walk through the mustard weed, there is a whole lot of it around this year!
ST 35 3.5

Very nice!

[dunerunner]

Very nice!

Thanks,
and now for something completely different....
Angry Male blackbird defending his territory, threatening me using the old fighter pilot trick coming directly out of the sun
ST 50 1.4 SMC, uncropped

[tim60]

Thanks,
and now for something completely different....
Angry Male blackbird defending his territory, threatening me using the old fighter pilot trick coming directly out of the sun
ST 50 1.4 SMC, uncropped

Pretty good use of the flare forced by that extreme lighting.

[dunerunner]

Pretty good use of the flare forced by that extreme lighting.

Thanks, thought the lens did a good job of providing detail of the bird in those extreme conditions

[Pepe Guitarra]

Thanks,
and now for something completely different....
Angry Male blackbird defending his territory, threatening me using the old fighter pilot trick coming directly out of the sun
ST 50 1.4 SMC, uncropped

Hard to tell it is a black bird. great exposure, which provide great detail considering the light source.

[k0og]

I was taking a few minutes break and browsed the auction site for Pentax lenses, and came across this SMC Takumar 55mm f1.8 lens + caps + UV filter + leather case + shipping for $15 total. Now tell me, how could I NOT pull the trigger on this one! I don't need another 50mm-class lens, but this was too good to pass up! LBA??? Note to self: "Quit browsing for lenses!"

-Joe-

[tim60]

I was taking a few minutes break and browsed the auction site for Pentax lenses, and came across this SMC Takumar 55mm f1.8 lens + caps + UV filter + leather case + shipping for $15 total. Now tell me, how could I NOT pull the trigger on this one! I don't need another 50mm-class lens, but this was too good to pass up! LBA??? Note to self: "Quit browsing for lenses!"


-Joe-

Looks nice. My last acquisition was like that: ST 85/1.9 with generic caps and no case or hood: BIN USD200 on the famous site. Only way I could afford one of those, so I got it - only a short time before the offer was closing. Had been looking for one for a while though. That completed the set. My equal most expensive - the other USD 200 lens was the 20/4.5.

[Jorgario]

Hi people, I do not have lots of Takumars but I will be please to join this thread. I was using last month my Takumar 35mm f2.0, which is not one of the best Tak, but I liked what I got:



And also this: