[Jonathan Mac]

Madrid by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr

[kcjonez]

Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Maine, Dec. 3, 2019

After a nasty little ice and sleet storm last night, the world was covered in white slippery stuff today.

No, I didn't fall in.....almost. :-)

[rayallen]

Beautiful windows in the Queen Victoria Building, Sydney. K-3 + DA 15mm.

[juristkostya]

[ivanvernon]

I have certainly enjoyed the images posted on this thread with the magnificent Pentax-DA 15mm f 4, and I am considering acquiring a copy. For most of my photography, however, I am using the full-frame K-1, and I am presuming that to use the DA 15mm on full frame it would be necessary to use the crop mode. I have considered several approaches:

1. Get the 15mm and hold on to the K-3/K-5 in order to use the lens in its native environment. Use it in crop mode on the K-1 depending upon the results

2. Get the 15mm and use it on the K-3/K-5 and buy a different wide angle lens for the K-1, a lens which would produce a FOV as close as possible to the 88 degree FOV of the 15mm. What full-frame lens would that be, maybe the FA* 24mm f 2.0? (FOV of 84 degrees on the K-1 according to the Forum review of the lens).

3. Forget the 15mm and purchase a lens for the K-1 (the FA* 24mm or something else) which produces great IQ and offers FOV close to that of the 15mm.

I know this may be like pouring gasoline on the fire for dedicated APS-C 15mm devotees. However, I suspect that it may also reflect a quandary that has been faced and resolved by others, and would greatly appreciate the benefit of your reflections.

[UncleVanya]

K1 users found the DA 15 works well in square crop mode.

[juristkostya]

I have certainly enjoyed the images posted on this thread with the magnificent Pentax-DA 15mm f 4, and I am considering acquiring a copy. For most of my photography, however, I am using the full-frame K-1, and I am presuming that to use the DA 15mm on full frame it would be necessary to use the crop mode. I have considered several approaches:

15 ltd is a very weak lens in the corners of the image, even on the crop. Use it on a larger sensor - meaninglessly thrown money. My option is number 3

[ivanvernon]

15 ltd is a very weak lens in the corners of the image, even on the crop. Use it on a larger sensor - meaninglessly thrown money. My option is number 3

Thanks for your thoughts. Will examine the alternatives, and appreciate any guidance along those lines.

---------- Post added 12-05-19 at 11:02 AM ----------

K1 users found the DA 15 works well in square crop mode.

Thanks for your comments. I am wondering how wide the resulting FOV becomes with the DA15mm on K-1 crop function.

[juristkostya]

Thanks for your thoughts. Will examine the alternatives, and appreciate any guidance along those lines.

a year ago, I did not find a good wide-angle option for k-1.
And solved this problem through grIII + wide-converter.

[UncleVanya]

Thanks for your thoughts. Will examine the alternatives, and appreciate any guidance along those lines.

---------- Post added 12-05-19 at 11:02 AM ----------


Thanks for your comments. I am wondering how wide the resulting FOV becomes with the DA15mm on K-1 crop function.

Square crop uses apsc crop width and then expands height to equal width. So it has the same width. As far as how wide simply look in the chart on the lens database/reviews for angle of view. In simple terms between 22 or 23mm (15 x 1.52) in full frame perspective.

[nocturnal]

The DA15 on FF has hard vignetting all around the frame so a 1:1 just removing both sides with full FF does not work. Therefore to get 1:1 you need to remove the top and bottom bits too, it doesn't expand much more than native APSC at the sides, more play in the height.

Thd DA15 only has weak corners open wide or if you haven't learned how to focus it properly. Other mistakes are blaming the lens for not having enough depth of field which is easy done with UWA. It does have field curvature, again you need to know this and forget about brick wall photographs.

It is my mistake if I get weak corners using DA15, not the lens so don't blame your equipment. :-)

[nocturnal]

Just one of the film settings for Game of Thrones, and because of this damn TV programme it is getting too many tourists... 20 tripods queueing up in one place and I'm the only local.

It is dark under the tree canopy, hence why they used this location. 0.8sec at f11 during daytime but may have had a polariser on!

[juristkostya]

Thd DA15 only has weak corners open wide or if you haven't learned how to focus it properly. Other mistakes are blaming the lens for not having enough depth of field which is easy done with UWA. It does have field curvature, again you need to know this and forget about brick wall photographs.

in short, it has a number of serious disadvantages, forcing to look for a replacement.

[house]

in short, it has a number of serious disadvantages, forcing to look for a replacement.

I tend to agree. Rayallens photos above (though scaled down) look pretty good perhaps some copies arebetter than ours. Im testing mine against the 12-24 at the moment with strangely inconclusive results so far.

[nocturnal]

in short, it has a number of serious disadvantages, forcing to look for a replacement.

What like? You seem to use it a lot and post a lot of photos here with it. I can't see any serious disadvantages in the photos you have been posting and I often press the LIKE button.

---------- Post added 12-06-19 at 09:31 AM ----------

I tend to agree. Rayallens photos above (though scaled down) look pretty good perhaps some copies arebetter than ours. Im testing mine against the 12-24 at the moment with strangely inconclusive results so far.

Rayallen has learnt the best way to use it and where to focus it. You can find discussions exactly like this one online going way back to when the DA15 came out.

For anything other than close ups (where I want OOF and bokeh besides thd main subject) I use manual focus and magnified focus peaking in Liveview checking focus in all areas like any landscape photographer would do.

Talking of close ups, most people don't know or use the DA15 for this but it is brilliant for this! It has short minimum focus distance and the HD version has nice bokeh too.