[luftfluss]

Nice to see you back!

Newest acquisition will hit the transportation system soon, FA* 28-70. I have had a yen for this lens so I jumped at it. We shall see how it plays with my KP.

Hey Tom, it's good to be back... although I consider myself more a vagrant to the forum than a resident these days.

Congrats on the new lens... I imagine it may look quirkily handsome on your KP.

[eddie1960]

xf23 f2 wr and xf 50 f2 wr. went to store to look at something entirely different (since i already have the 23 1.4 and 56 1.2) but i have been thinking i need some light travel wr lenses... and its snowimg away today....
another shop had a very good proce on an open 90 f2 wr ... trying hard. not to go back .... lba is a disease in all brands ....

lba won. i picked up the 90 as well deal was too good

[Liney]

Two shots on my first day with the Tamron 500mm - the little bird about 10m (30ft) away is about 4 inches long. The other shot (into the light of a setting sun) is a sub at least 5km offshore - on my screen I can see the radio masts.

Where I come from that sub is lumped into the same category of anything that floats on the water - it's a target...!

But nice picture though

[bobbotron]

Coming in the mail... 2 more 1 gallon plastic bottles for storing darkroom paper stop bath and fixer. I'm pretty excited about them. Currently I store 3L of each chemical in 2 bottles, and it drives me crazy trying to not over fill each at the end of a developing session!

[luftfluss]

I surrendered to both LBA and curiosity today. I found a A 35-70mm F4 (constant aperture) at a pretty good price, $AUD40. There is a bit of dust on the edges of the rings, and a hint of grind on the focus ring occasionally, so I am counting on everything moving more freely with use.

Next is to compare with a few others to choose the best replacement for my Tamron SP 35-80 (which has a bit of ooze on inside of a front element) as a light-weight short tele. The comparison is between:
Today's Pentax A 35-70mm f4
Pentax FA 35-80mm f3.5-5.6
Tokina 28-70mm f3.5-4.5
Sigma Aspherical Macro 28-90mm f3.5-5.6
Old favourite Pentax M 40-80mm f2.8-4

Obviously the oldest ones look and feel the best (the M, A and Tokina) compared to the lightweight plastic of the other two, but the FA scores very well for sharpness on the Forum.

Any advance opinions welcome, comparisons will take a while.

Sorry to read about your Tamron 35-80 - I have one and it's sharp and the close-focus is great. That said I bet your Pentaxes will deal better with flare.


Last August during a walk I had squatted down to look at a crane fly when a fluttering movement to my right caught my attention. A wood nymph butterfly - I had never seen one before - had landed in the brush. Still hunkered down, I put my K-S2 in Live View and estimated the distance to the nymph, adjusted my Tammy 35-80 accordingly, reached out one-handed and snapped a brief burst until the butterfly took off. Considering my unsteady position and having to reach through the brush, I feel the Tamron is the only lens I have that would have succeeded in that circumstance.

[Sluggo]

Just received a nice copy of the DA*200 from a forum member on the PF Marketplace and am thrilled with the first few test shots. I already had a Tamron 70-200 for back-of-the-house concert shooting, and it's optically quite good, but the zhoop zhoop sound of the Tammy focusing is more conspicuous than I want, and its manual focus mode is unfriendly. Giving up the short end of the zoom range that I rarely used anyway, the Pentax lens is an improvement in every way - smaller, lighter, silent and reasonably fast (on the K-1ii anyway) autofocus, and a definite sprinkling of pixie dust in the image quality. I've annoyed the cat enough with it already and am itching to get it out in the world.

[aslyfox]

Just received a nice copy of the DA*200 from a forum member on the PF Marketplace . . . . I've annoyed the cat enough with it already . . . .

annoying the cat

a big plus in my book

good luck with that lens

[ChrisPlatt]

Little Domke F-5XA in olive green, my favorite color for Domke canvas bags:




Buyer's remorse return in like-new condition for $52 delivered from Amazon Warehouse.

Chris

[Davep]

Picked up a D FA 100mm F2.8 macro WR, but more importantly, I finally got frustrated enough with my old Linhof and bought a tank of a tripod. A Gitzo Studex Gilux Performance and put a Manfrotto 141RC head on it. This is definitely not a back packing kit, but I'll have no more problems with tripod movement. The Linhof was a little too light to use with my 300/400 lenses.

[monochrome]

Little Domke F-5XA in olive green, my favorite color for Domke canvas bags:




Buyer's remorse return in like-new condition for $52 delivered from Amazon Warehouse.

Chris

Nice! I like Domke bags.

[Marcus Rowland]

A job lot of 18 lenses - haven't checked them properly yet, but I paid about £3.50 each and they include Minolta, Canon, and Nikon AF zooms, a Rolleiflex-fit teleconverter with lens for the viewfinder, a T-mount 400mm, and some other fun stuff so I ought to make a decent profit. Unfortunately the canon zoom has slight fungus in the front element, but everything else looks OK on first inspection.

Miserable weather today so I decided to give the car boot fairs a miss and get some housework done, also sort through this lot, give them a clean, and find caps etc. for them. I'll need better weather to test them properly:

Sunagor 1:6.3 400mm T-mount PK - Teeny bit of white discoloration on rear element, the usual problem with the glass rather than fungus, but looks like it works well.
Minolta AF zoom 28-80 1:3.5-5.6 - very clean and working well
Optomax f3.5-4.5 35-70mm M42 auto - clean and working well
Taya Aux. Wide angle bayonet 6x6 - not telephoto, no idea how I got that wrong, for Rolleiflex 1, I think. Looks OK but I can't really test it.
Canon EF 24-85 ultrasonic 3.5-4.5 - Working, but there's some fungus between the front and inner elements, and the filter ring is slightly damaged/
Centon MC 50mm 1.8 Minolta MD - Very clean and working well
Centon MC 50mm 1.7 PK - Very clean and working well
Nikon 35-80 AF 4-5.6D - Very clean and working well
Hanimex Automatic 3.5 200mm M42 - Clean and working well, a bit scruffy externally.
Sigma High-speed zoom MC 3.5-4 80-200 PK - Clean and working well but very scruffy
Centon MC 4-5.6 70-210 Minolta MD - Clean and working well
Centon MC 28-70 3.5-4.5 Minolta MD - Clean and working well
Sofitel 135 2.8 M42 - slight fungus, damaged filter ring
Image auto zoom 4.5 80-200 Canon FD - Fungus, for the next job lot of non-working crap I sell.
Prinzflex 80-200 4.5-5.6 MC Macro PK - Clean and working well
Sigma 28-200 3.8-5.6 UC Canon EF - incompatible with digital bodies, can't find an old film body to test it.
2 wide angle conversion lenses, the usual rubbish.


OK, I'll definitely make a profit - not huge, but enough to keep me happy.

[Ex Finn.]

Cheap, on sale for 16.99 Lowe Pro 160II camera bag from Best buy and a Uniden, not so cheap R3... at 399.95

[luftfluss]

One lens I had been wanting for my Adaptall Arsenal was the 52B... but as usual it was one of those "only if I find one at a super-great price" deals. Then last week I saw that forumer @c.a.m. posted such a winsome photo in the Marketplace I couldn't help myself...

[pepperberry farm]

One lens I had been wanting for my Adaptall Arsenal was the 52B... but as usual it was one of those "only if I find one at a super-great price" deals. Then last week I saw that forumer @c.a.m. posted such a winsome photo in the Marketplace I couldn't help myself...

that was a great deal - I'd been watching it myself...


not that I need a 52BB ( with a 52B and a 72B), but always watchful...

[monochrome]

One lens I had been wanting for my Adaptall Arsenal was the 52B... but as usual it was one of those "only if I find one at a super-great price" deals. Then last week I saw that forumer @c.a.m. posted such a winsome photo in the Marketplace I couldn't help myself...

I had to Ignore that FS thread . . . .

One of my favorite lenses, but another member has it now.