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09-09-2018, 09:04 AM   #91
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QuoteOriginally posted by northcoastgreg Quote
F 85/2.8 Soft:
Have greatly enjoyed the work you're doing with a soft lens.

09-09-2018, 06:50 PM - 1 Like   #92
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QuoteOriginally posted by WPRESTO Quote
Have greatly enjoyed the work you're doing with a soft lens.
Thanks. With all the coastal stratus where I live and wildfires raging further inland, flowers are about the only thing to shoot around here in the summer.

Another F 85 Soft shot:

09-15-2018, 07:05 AM   #93
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Five soft focus floral views

Five floral views from our garden.

KIT: Pentax K-1 with SMC Pentax-F 85mm f 2.8 soft.
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09-15-2018, 08:19 AM   #94
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I like all the flower pics shot with the Pentax-F soft focus.
I used it very little cause I found it more "bland" than the K version.
Now I realise that it's not entirely true. It's all about the light.
These pictures have a beautiful halo.
The level of halation strongly depends on the light. The more it is strong and contrasty, the more soft focus lenses work at their best.
In internals it's better to setup some kind of strong lighting, other way the picture could look washed-out and unsharp.

10-13-2018, 11:36 AM - 1 Like   #95
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Pentax F 85mm f2.8 Soft:

10-22-2018, 02:53 PM - 2 Likes   #96
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From Humboldt Botanical Gardens:

10-23-2018, 12:47 AM   #97
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QuoteOriginally posted by cyberjunkie Quote
I like all the flower pics shot with the Pentax-F soft focus.
I used it very little cause I found it more "bland" than the K version.
Now I realise that it's not entirely true. It's all about the light.
These pictures have a beautiful halo.
The level of halation strongly depends on the light. The more it is strong and contrasty, the more soft focus lenses work at their best.
In internals it's better to setup some kind of strong lighting, other way the picture could look washed-out and unsharp.
Thanks. I should use this lens more than I do as I always enjoy the results. I also need to try it on people.

11-01-2018, 04:36 PM   #98
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Pentax F 85mm Soft:

11-25-2018, 12:14 PM   #99
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Hi to all...
FYI, a couple copies of the 85mm soft are for sale since yesterday in the PF marketplace:

Pentax FA 85mm F2.8 Soft & Pentax F 85mm F2.8 Soft - PentaxForums.com
11-25-2018, 02:14 PM - 1 Like   #100
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QuoteOriginally posted by Weevil Quote
Hi to all...
FYI, a couple copies of the 85mm soft are for sale since yesterday in the PF marketplace:

Pentax FA 85mm F2.8 Soft & Pentax F 85mm F2.8 Soft - PentaxForums.com
I pass
I would be happy to own the FA (which is the only Pentax-made soft focus lens I don't own), but the optics are identical to the F model, so it would be for collection purpose only.
Better to save the money for something more useful...
11-30-2018, 10:08 AM - 1 Like   #101
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It happens that I don't have with me any raw file of pictures shot with soft focus lenses.
I have many SF objectives, but I haven't used them lately... and I have in my laptop only an archive with recent photos.
Cleaning some old jpg's that were of no use but took a lot of space on my laptop's SSD drive, I found a few interesting shots.
The pictures are ugly. No doubt about that. Though they can be useful as reference.
Here is a rock made by some marine invertebrates, shot in rather strong light with a super sharp objective, a rather sharp one, and a Pentax soft focus.
The pictures are resized/resampled at different levels to keep a similar size (the focals and of course the magnification ratio were different).
The three lenses are:
1) Sigma AF Macro 105mm @f/4
2) Tamron AF SP (52E) 2.5/90mm (the AF version of the original Tamron macro f/2.5, very common in Adaptall-2 mount), with Kenko AF-Pz 2x tele extender (real aperture f/8)
3) SMC Pentax Soft Focus 2.2/85mm, shot at f/5.6
I am positively sure the Pentax was used at f/5.6 cause it's written in the filename, and I think to remember the two macros were both shot at f/4 or f/5.6.
I have another shot taken with the soft focus wide open which has way too much halo. So I left it out.





Sorry for the hugely different exposure. I don't have the raw's, therefore I preferred not to mess with the jpg's, and leave the shots as they are.
The point of posting these rather uninteresting pics is the huge difference between a super sharp lens (the Sigma), another macro lens with the IQ affected by a 2x teleconverter, and the old SMC Pentax 2.2/85mm stopped down all the way to f/5.6.
The difference is impressive. The pictures explain, better than any written text, that under strong contrasty lighting a soft focus lens can show a huge amount of halation even when shot at mid apertures.
I was going to erase all the jpg's in a huge folder. Before doing that I decided that these images could be shared as a simple, humble example of how a strong, directional light can affect the rendering of the 2.2/85mm SF.
Please forgive me for the really ugly pics

Last edited by cyberjunkie; 12-02-2018 at 08:19 AM.
11-30-2018, 10:34 AM   #102
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Modified M SMC 50mm f2:

11-30-2018, 02:23 PM   #103
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Sweet ride Cipher! I bet she gives a kick when the nitrous punches in, eh?
Cool image. Love the chrome trails.
What modification to the 50mm? Reverse front element?
11-30-2018, 04:00 PM   #104
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QuoteOriginally posted by kcjonez Quote
What modification to the 50mm? Reverse front element?
I jiggered it a couple of ways, there is at least one element from another lens in there;

I probably couldn't do it again if I tried.
12-02-2018, 07:15 AM - 2 Likes   #105
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Hydrangea still life, K-5 II with EBC Fujinon-SF 1:4 f=85mm (M42) at f/4.5.



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