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| 08-05-2019, 09:34 AM | #16726 |
 Originally posted by Jome  Finally at home: 1 Lot of pentax M + bellows and the cactus set. I had to clean the lenses but otherwise, they are in good shapes (just missing the yellow dot on the 50). The cactus elements are like new. Steve | |
| 08-05-2019, 10:30 AM | #16727 |
| Originally posted by stevebrot Ohhhh...nice bellows... Steve  | |
| 08-05-2019, 03:06 PM - 5 Likes | #16728 |
|
I've been planning to write an article on how we're often too concerned with the performance of our lenses, and how almost any lens is "good enough" if we use it appropriately and skillfully for our intended use case. So, a week ago I started looking on eBay to find a lens I thought would be "bad enough" to use for the article. Of course, old, generic manual focus and manual aperture lenses are really cheap, but I wanted something fully automatic so as not to alienate those members who aren't comfortable with manual operation. I shoot both Pentax K-mount and Sony A-mount (my Hasselblad HV uses the latter), so included those mounts in my search... After very little searching, I came across what I thought would be perfect for my article... a brand new, still-factory-sealed Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 II Aspherical (the non-macro version) in Sony A-mount for GBP £15, which is less than twenty bucks. Just let that sink in for a moment... Less than twenty bucks, for a brand new lens. Unbelievable. But then, it's going to be junk, so maybe not quite unbelievable after all   It arrived three days ago and I've been playing around with it quite a bit. Aside from the optical elements and electrical contacts, it is almost entirely made of plastic (I say almost, because I can't rule out that there's another small piece of metal somewhere inside - though, from the feel of it, I somehow doubt that  ). The body and mount are certainly plastic, though the mount is silver-coloured to give that premium metal look The focusing ring, when used to focus manually, is utterly bereft of resistance and damping. And at the wide end, it redefines the term "vignetting", even stopped down (when photographing a plain white wall a couple of feet away, at least).BUT... The zoom action, whilst betraying the plastic-on-plastic construction, is smooth and (for now, at least) free of any play. The screw-drive AF is remarkably quiet, but better still, it's fast and consistently accurate, even in lower light. The best part, though - and I'm gobsmacked to say this - is the image quality. Centre sharpness, even wide open, is decent at all focal lengths, getting better as the diaphragm is stopped down. This helps even more with the borders, of course - yet they're never terrible in the way some lenses are. Out of focus rendering is rather good... not busy or distracting, and quite similar to the Tamron 28-75 f/2.8. Out of focus highlights have some "grain" to them, and a defined outer ring, but they look pretty good. Contrast is nice throughout - which goes some way to explaining the excellent AF performance - and CA is pretty well controlled (I've seen far, far worse). Distortion is noted at the wide and long ends, but it's relatively minor, easy to deal with and - depending on subject matter - not always an issue. Even the vignetting doesn't seem bad when using the lens to take real photos rather than blank wall tests. The bottom line? This lens - on a 24MP full frame camera such as my Hasselblad HV - produces really nice images that, with a little raw processing, are beyond what I'd expect of a kit lens. Good enough, in fact, that I'd happily use it for general purpose shooting. It's a little gem. On an APS-C camera with similar pixel density (any 10 - 12MP model) it should do just as well, with the added benefit of much less vignetting. I don't know how well it would fare on higher resolution bodies, of course. And so, in one sense, my pocket-money purchase has backfired somewhat - as I really can't use this lens for the purpose I originally intended. It's actually too good. But on a more positive note, I have a super-light-weight, fun little AF lens that I can put to genuine use. New, for GBP £15... Bizarre Last edited by BigMackCam; 08-05-2019 at 03:45 PM. | |
| 08-05-2019, 05:09 PM - 2 Likes | #16730 |
| Originally posted by BigMackCam I've been planning to write an article on how we're often too concerned with the performance of our lenses, and how almost any lens is "good enough" if we use it appropriately and skillfully for our intended use case. So, a week ago I started looking on eBay to find a lens I thought would be "bad enough" to use for the article. Of course, old, generic manual focus and manual aperture lenses are really cheap, but I wanted something fully automatic so as not to alienate those members who aren't comfortable with manual operation. I shoot both Pentax K-mount and Sony A-mount (my Hasselblad HV uses the latter), so included those mounts in my search... After very little searching, I came across what I thought would be perfect for my article... a brand new, still-factory-sealed Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 II Aspherical (the non-macro version) in Sony A-mount for GBP £15, which is less than twenty bucks. Just let that sink in for a moment... Less than twenty bucks, for a brand new lens. Unbelievable. But then, it's going to be junk, so maybe not quite unbelievable after all It arrived three days ago and I've been playing around with it quite a bit. Aside from the optical elements and electrical contacts, it is almost entirely made of plastic (I say almost, because I can't rule out that there's another small piece of metal somewhere inside - though, from the feel of it, I somehow doubt that ). The body and mount are certainly plastic, though the mount is silver-coloured to give that premium metal look The focusing ring, when used to focus manually, is utterly bereft of resistance and damping. And at the wide end, it redefines the term "vignetting", even stopped down (when photographing a plain white wall a couple of feet away, at least).BUT... The zoom action, whilst betraying the plastic-on-plastic construction, is smooth and (for now, at least) free of any play. The screw-drive AF is remarkably quiet, but better still, it's fast and consistently accurate, even in lower light. The best part, though - and I'm gobsmacked to say this - is the image quality. Centre sharpness, even wide open, is decent at all focal lengths, getting better as the diaphragm is stopped down. This helps even more with the borders, of course - yet they're never terrible in the way some lenses are. Out of focus rendering is rather good... not busy or distracting, and quite similar to the Tamron 28-75 f/2.8. Out of focus highlights have some "grain" to them, and a defined outer ring, but they look pretty good. Contrast is nice throughout - which goes some way to explaining the excellent AF performance - and CA is pretty well controlled (I've seen far, far worse). Distortion is noted at the wide and long ends, but it's relatively minor, easy to deal with and - depending on subject matter - not always an issue. Even the vignetting doesn't seem bad when using the lens to take real photos rather than blank wall tests. The bottom line? This lens - on a 24MP full frame camera such as my Hasselblad HV - produces really nice images that, with a little raw processing, are beyond what I'd expect of a kit lens. Good enough, in fact, that I'd happily use it for general purpose shooting. It's a little gem. On an APS-C camera with similar pixel density (any 10 - 12MP model) it should do just as well, with the added benefit of much less vignetting. I don't know how well it would fare on higher resolution bodies, of course. And so, in one sense, my pocket-money purchase has backfired somewhat - as I really can't use this lens for the purpose I originally intended. It's actually too good. But on a more positive note, I have a super-light-weight, fun little AF lens that I can put to genuine use. New, for GBP £15... Bizarre It just goes to show that all the belly aching over "bad" lenses and how every lens MUST BE UPDATED immediately or everything is doomed is more than a bit hyperbolic. Most lenses really are quite decent for most images. It's only the corner-dwelling pixel-peeper or the meticulous measurbator who goes looking for trouble and finds it. I thought I'd never say this to anyone but "best wishes on finding a worse lens!"  | |
| 08-05-2019, 05:14 PM - 1 Like | #16731 |
| Originally posted by photoptimist Most lenses really are quite decent for most images. It's only the corner-dwelling pixel-peeper or the meticulous measurbator who goes looking for trouble and finds it. | |
| 08-05-2019, 05:18 PM - 2 Likes | #16732 |
| Originally posted by BigMackCam I've been planning to write an article on how we're often too concerned with the performance of our lenses, and how almost any lens is "good enough" if we use it appropriately and skillfully for our intended use case. So, a week ago I started looking on eBay to find a lens I thought would be "bad enough" to use for the article. Of course, old, generic manual focus and manual aperture lenses are really cheap, but I wanted something fully automatic so as not to alienate those members who aren't comfortable with manual operation. I shoot both Pentax K-mount and Sony A-mount (my Hasselblad HV uses the latter), so included those mounts in my search... After very little searching, I came across what I thought would be perfect for my article... a brand new, still-factory-sealed Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 II Aspherical (the non-macro version) in Sony A-mount for GBP £15, which is less than twenty bucks. Just let that sink in for a moment... Less than twenty bucks, for a brand new lens. Unbelievable. But then, it's going to be junk, so maybe not quite unbelievable after all It arrived three days ago and I've been playing around with it quite a bit. Aside from the optical elements and electrical contacts, it is almost entirely made of plastic (I say almost, because I can't rule out that there's another small piece of metal somewhere inside - though, from the feel of it, I somehow doubt that ). The body and mount are certainly plastic, though the mount is silver-coloured to give that premium metal look The focusing ring, when used to focus manually, is utterly bereft of resistance and damping. And at the wide end, it redefines the term "vignetting", even stopped down (when photographing a plain white wall a couple of feet away, at least).BUT... The zoom action, whilst betraying the plastic-on-plastic construction, is smooth and (for now, at least) free of any play. The screw-drive AF is remarkably quiet, but better still, it's fast and consistently accurate, even in lower light. The best part, though - and I'm gobsmacked to say this - is the image quality. Centre sharpness, even wide open, is decent at all focal lengths, getting better as the diaphragm is stopped down. This helps even more with the borders, of course - yet they're never terrible in the way some lenses are. Out of focus rendering is rather good... not busy or distracting, and quite similar to the Tamron 28-75 f/2.8. Out of focus highlights have some "grain" to them, and a defined outer ring, but they look pretty good. Contrast is nice throughout - which goes some way to explaining the excellent AF performance - and CA is pretty well controlled (I've seen far, far worse). Distortion is noted at the wide and long ends, but it's relatively minor, easy to deal with and - depending on subject matter - not always an issue. Even the vignetting doesn't seem bad when using the lens to take real photos rather than blank wall tests. The bottom line? This lens - on a 24MP full frame camera such as my Hasselblad HV - produces really nice images that, with a little raw processing, are beyond what I'd expect of a kit lens. Good enough, in fact, that I'd happily use it for general purpose shooting. It's a little gem. On an APS-C camera with similar pixel density (any 10 - 12MP model) it should do just as well, with the added benefit of much less vignetting. I don't know how well it would fare on higher resolution bodies, of course. And so, in one sense, my pocket-money purchase has backfired somewhat - as I really can't use this lens for the purpose I originally intended. It's actually too good. But on a more positive note, I have a super-light-weight, fun little AF lens that I can put to genuine use. New, for GBP £15... Bizarre Mike - sorta like this? Poorly Rated Lenses.....Yet "WE" still like them ? - PentaxForums.com | |
| 08-05-2019, 09:17 PM | #16733 |
| Lens received, died during testing! Originally posted by steamloco76 I jumped back in the fleabay waters and bought an oddball lens. Summatech 200mm f2.8 in PK Mount. The few web posts I could find regarding this lens say it is either made by Sun or Tokina and is the equivalent to the Soligor version. Half of the reviews are positive, half negative. The lens is pristine judging from the large number of photos. We will see if it was worth $75 plus shipping and my state’s 6% sales tax. I’m very fond of the 200mm focal length, so I took a chance. The package should be at my place Monday. A very curious gray catbird followed me around the yard as I shot photos. He became my photo subject in two different trees. Unfortunately, those are the last photos this lens will likely ever take! The focusing action became very tight and gritty, then locked-up completely, stuck at around 12 -15 feet. Will not budge. I am a awaiting a reply from the seller regarding a return. Shame, the glass is nearly perfect. Last edited by steamloco76; 08-06-2019 at 05:15 PM. | |
| 08-06-2019, 12:44 AM - 1 Like | #16734 |
| Originally posted by pepperberry farm Mike - sorta like this? After posting here, I looked online for other users' opinions on the lens, and found a lot of similar views to mine on the Dyxum site. Enough to suggest that it is, in fact, a step above typical kit lenses - optically, at least... | |
| 08-06-2019, 01:01 AM - 3 Likes | #16736 |
| Originally posted by steamloco76 I received the Summatech lens today and it looked great. Soon after, I set up a few test photos using my K3 and the lens seemed to work well and looked reasonably sharp from F5.6 onward. The performance at F2.8-4 would be great for portraits, however it is a bit too soft for other work.. A very curious gray catbird followed me around the yard as I shot photos. He became my photo subject in two different trees. Unfortunately, those are the last photos this lens will likely ever take! The focusing action became very tight and gritty, then locked-up completely, stuck at around 12 -15 feet. Will not budge. I am a awaiting a reply from the seller regarding a return. Shame, the glass is nearly perfect. Originally posted by BigMackCam I've been planning to write an article on how we're often too concerned with the performance of our lenses, and how almost any lens is "good enough" if we use it appropriately and skillfully for our intended use case. So, a week ago I started looking on eBay to find a lens I thought would be "bad enough" to use for the article. Of course, old, generic manual focus and manual aperture lenses are really cheap, but I wanted something fully automatic so as not to alienate those members who aren't comfortable with manual operation. I shoot both Pentax K-mount and Sony A-mount (my Hasselblad HV uses the latter), so included those mounts in my search... After very little searching, I came across what I thought would be perfect for my article... a brand new, still-factory-sealed Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 II Aspherical (the non-macro version) in Sony A-mount for GBP £15, which is less than twenty bucks. Just let that sink in for a moment... Less than twenty bucks, for a brand new lens. Unbelievable. But then, it's going to be junk, so maybe not quite unbelievable after all It arrived three days ago and I've been playing around with it quite a bit. Aside from the optical elements and electrical contacts, it is almost entirely made of plastic (I say almost, because I can't rule out that there's another small piece of metal somewhere inside - though, from the feel of it, I somehow doubt that ). The body and mount are certainly plastic, though the mount is silver-coloured to give that premium metal look The focusing ring, when used to focus manually, is utterly bereft of resistance and damping. And at the wide end, it redefines the term "vignetting", even stopped down (when photographing a plain white wall a couple of feet away, at least).BUT... The zoom action, whilst betraying the plastic-on-plastic construction, is smooth and (for now, at least) free of any play. The screw-drive AF is remarkably quiet, but better still, it's fast and consistently accurate, even in lower light. The best part, though - and I'm gobsmacked to say this - is the image quality. Centre sharpness, even wide open, is decent at all focal lengths, getting better as the diaphragm is stopped down. This helps even more with the borders, of course - yet they're never terrible in the way some lenses are. Out of focus rendering is rather good... not busy or distracting, and quite similar to the Tamron 28-75 f/2.8. Out of focus highlights have some "grain" to them, and a defined outer ring, but they look pretty good. Contrast is nice throughout - which goes some way to explaining the excellent AF performance - and CA is pretty well controlled (I've seen far, far worse). Distortion is noted at the wide and long ends, but it's relatively minor, easy to deal with and - depending on subject matter - not always an issue. Even the vignetting doesn't seem bad when using the lens to take real photos rather than blank wall tests. The bottom line? This lens - on a 24MP full frame camera such as my Hasselblad HV - produces really nice images that, with a little raw processing, are beyond what I'd expect of a kit lens. Good enough, in fact, that I'd happily use it for general purpose shooting. It's a little gem. On an APS-C camera with similar pixel density (any 10 - 12MP model) it should do just as well, with the added benefit of much less vignetting. I don't know how well it would fare on higher resolution bodies, of course. And so, in one sense, my pocket-money purchase has backfired somewhat - as I really can't use this lens for the purpose I originally intended. It's actually too good. But on a more positive note, I have a super-light-weight, fun little AF lens that I can put to genuine use. New, for GBP £15... Bizarre There are good lenses and bad lenses with the former not always being expensive and the latter not always being cheap. Any good photographer can tease decent images out of any camera and lens (while a poor photographer wouldn't consistently get good images even from great gear) but a good photographer would get better images from good gear than he would from poor gear. We also need to remember that the extra money we pay isn't necessarily for extra quality of images at medium apertures when light is good: often what we pay for is the flexibility of still being able to get decent images when conditions are poor, such as needing to open up the aperture because of low light. And we often pay a lot just for that. Then there's the build quality which you mention - like a lot of photographers I get pleasure from handling a well-designed and built lens, and I'm prepared to pay for that. Still, a cheap kit lens can capture the essence of a family or personal moment in good light just as well as an expensive one can, which I think is what you initially wanted to show, and we'd do well to remember that. | |
| 08-06-2019, 05:41 AM - 3 Likes | #16737 |
| The care package. Originally posted by Benz3ne I might well have managed to procure an utter bargain... details when it arrives later in the week (with a bit of luck)  We have... Pentax K-50 (body) - 105 shutter actuations. Pentax-FA SMC 100-300mm f/4.7-5.8. Sigma 100-300mm DL f/4.5-6.7. Sigma 28-300mm DL f/3.5-6.3 'hyperzoom'. Pentax DA-50mm f/1.8. Pentax DA 50-200mm WR. Kenko 2x 'MC7' teleconverter. 3rd-party D-Li109 battery charger. Topmax camera rucksack (black with red piping). Pentax white shoulder bag. And the creme de la creme... Pentax K-70, boxed with all accessories... 12 shutter actuations! Perhaps a replacement for my K-S2 (or, at least, the latter could be resigned to holiday duties only)? I managed to sweep this up for a VERY good price. As in, lower than the lowest cost I've seen of a new K-70. I might also have to ask for some advice with regards to pricing up the remaining items - the K-50 is absolutely surplus to requirements (though it feels nice and dinky, yet fairly robust). The large rucksack I think I'll be keeping, and the 100-300 FA I want to have a quick tinkle with and the hyperzoom feels surprisingly chunky/solid, but the K-70 was the focal point! Edit: I've found another charger, strap and two batteries! Win! Last edited by Benz3ne; 08-07-2019 at 12:20 AM. Reason: Added info. | |
| 08-06-2019, 05:53 AM - 3 Likes | #16738 |
| Originally posted by Benz3ne It has arrived. a 7.2kg 'FRAGILE' box, packed well enough to survive the upcoming Russia vs USA vs China nuclear fallout (tongue in cheek, of course)! We have... Pentax K-50 (body) - 105 shutter actuations. Pentax-FA SMC 100-300mm f/4.7-5.8. Sigma 100-300mm DL f/4.5-6.7. Sigma 28-300mm DL f/3.5-6.3 'hyperzoom'. Pentax DA-50mm f/1.8. Pentax DA 50-200mm WR. Kenko 2x 'MC7' teleconverter. 3rd-party D-Li109 battery charger. Topmax camera rucksack (black with red piping). Pentax white shoulder bag. And the creme de la creme... Pentax K-70, boxed with all accessories... 12 shutter actuations! Perhaps a replacement for my K-S2 (or, at least, the latter could be resigned to holiday duties only)? I managed to sweep this up for a VERY good price. As in, lower than the lowest cost I've seen of a new K-70. I might also have to ask for some advice with regards to pricing up the remaining items - the K-50 is absolutely surplus to requirements (though it feels nice and dinky, yet fairly robust). The large rucksack I think I'll be keeping, and the 100-300 FA I want to have a quick tinkle with and the hyperzoom feels surprisingly chunky/solid, but the K-70 was the focal point! | |
| 08-06-2019, 05:55 AM | #16739 |
| Originally posted by Jonathan Mac The way I look at this is that the quality/price curve of lenses, where an exponential increase in price is needed for a small increase in quality beyond a certain point, starts way down at the bottom end of the market. You have a lens like this that costs £15 and you want an extra stop at the long end - paying double won't get you there, you'll need to pay probably ten times the amount. There are good lenses and bad lenses with the former not always being expensive and the latter not always being cheap. Any good photographer can tease decent images out of any camera and lens (while a poor photographer wouldn't consistently get good images even from great gear) but a good photographer would get better images from good gear than he would from poor gear. We also need to remember that the extra money we pay isn't necessarily for extra quality of images at medium apertures when light is good: often what we pay for is the flexibility of still being able to get decent images when conditions are poor, such as needing to open up the aperture because of low light. And we often pay a lot just for that. Then there's the build quality which you mention - like a lot of photographers I get pleasure from handling a well-designed and built lens, and I'm prepared to pay for that. Originally posted by Jonathan Mac Still, a cheap kit lens can capture the essence of a family or personal moment in good light just as well as an expensive one can, which I think is what you initially wanted to show, and we'd do well to remember that. | |
| 08-06-2019, 05:56 AM - 2 Likes | #16740 |
| Originally posted by pepperberry farm keep the K-50, slap an OEM M42 adapter on it, and make it your fully-manual rig.... Thanks for the input as ever! | |
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