[stemked]

I am NORMALLY a K mount enthusiast for travel. I shoot nature and travel images and would typically carry lenses ranging 15mm-300mm with a macro. I had picked up a Q7 several years ago mostly for fun including the 01, 02, and 06 (I figured I'd wait on the 08 after the price went down, boy was I ever wrong on that thought). Anyway a shoulder injury and surgery has left me with the inability to take my normal travel K camera gear (I am limited to just a few pounds/couple kg of stuff I can bring on a trip to Europe. I decided to reacquaint myself with the Q7.

My major limitations in photography seem to be on the wide side, macro and any bird photography.

Macro: It does seem the Q lenses focus fairly close, so I may use that for my pseudo-macro. Alternatively I could bring a small 35mm macro lens, Kilfitt 40mm f3.5 or 50mm f4 Takumar.

Wide: I got a wide angle Vivitar filter; it doesn't really seem to be particularly useful as it has bad vingnetting.

Telephoto: I am thinking about using my long LONG neglected K mount 80-200mm A f4.7-5.6. The reason is this lens is super light and with the magnification factor it ends up something like a 280-800mm lens. I have the adapter for it.

How's my logic working so far?

I cannot say I'm a fan of a screen for photography, especially when it is bright. Any good remedies for that?

[reh321]

I am NORMALLY a K mount enthusiast for travel. I shoot nature and travel images and would typically carry lenses ranging 15mm-300mm with a macro. I had picked up a Q7 several years ago mostly for fun including the 01, 02, and 06 (I figured I'd wait on the 08 after the price went down, boy was I ever wrong on that thought). Anyway a shoulder injury and surgery has left me with the inability to take my normal travel K camera gear (I am limited to just a few pounds/couple kg of stuff I can bring on a trip to Europe. I decided to reacquaint myself with the Q7.

My major limitations in photography seem to be on the wide side, macro and any bird photography.

Macro: It does seem the Q lenses focus fairly close, so I may use that for my pseudo-macro. Alternatively I could bring a small 35mm macro lens, Kilfitt 40mm f3.5 or 50mm f4 Takumar.

Wide: I got a wide angle Vivitar filter; it doesn't really seem to be particularly useful as it has bad vingnetting.

Telephoto: I am thinking about using my long LONG neglected K mount 80-200mm A f4.7-5.6. The reason is this lens is super light and with the magnification factor it ends up something like a 280-800mm lens. I have the adapter for it.

How's my logic working so far?

I cannot say I'm a fan of a screen for photography, especially when it is bright. Any good remedies for that?

I have personally found the 02 lens to be most useful. Because of my age - I’m over 70 - I’m using the “Q” more days when my wife and I go walking. I got a Sigma 70-300mm for birding shots, but manually focusing it remains a big problem; I use a monopod to steady the camera then - it doubles as a walking stick, which doubles its usefulness. I’m now trying an old 35mm 50mm lens to use where the 06 lens is inadequate but the Sigma is more than is needed. I was using a “Hoodman clone”, which helped me see in the sunlight, but then I accidentally lost the eyepiece, which made it virtually useless, so now I have an actual Hoodman on order, which should arrive tomorrow.

So, in general, think you’re on the right pathway.

It’s just unfortunate that Pentax never seem to have thought of the Q line as being general purpose, and apparently gave up on it as smart phone cameras improved.

added: I have found those add-on lenses which add on like a filter to be less than useless.

[caliscouser]

I love the Q system for travel.
Some thoughts on your thoughts..

Macro: the 04 Q lens has pretty close focusing (7cms), not razor sharp, but with some PP can be decent. Adapted K mount macros lenses on the Q will mercilessly expose any lens weaknesses, particuIarly things like CA and fringing

Wide: the 02 does a great job but if you need wider the 08 is the only game in town. It's expensive, but it's worth it.

Tele: Again adapted K mount glass will amplify the lenses inherent weaknesses. You would need to find a K mount lens with minimal CA and fringing. For example the DA*200 is fantastic on K-mount, but put it on a Q and it is CA fringe-fest. The DA*300 on the other hand looks good on the Q.

[reh321]

I love the Q system for travel.
Some thoughts on your thoughts..

Macro: the 04 Q lens has pretty close focusing (7cms), not razor sharp, but with some PP can be decent. Adapted K mount macros lenses on the Q will mercilessly expose any lens weaknesses, particuIarly things like CA and fringing

Wide: the 02 does a great job but if you need wider the 08 is the only game in town. It's expensive, but it's worth it.

Tele: Again adapted K mount glass will amplify the lenses inherent weaknesses. You would need to find a K mount lens with minimal CA and fringing. For example the DA*200 is fantastic on K-mount, but put it on a Q and it is CA fringe-fest. The DA*300 on the other hand looks good on the Q.

You can never really know how a K-mount lens will work on a “Q” until you try it.

[wadge22]

There do exist third party macro extension tubes for the Q mount that you could try out. From what I've read, only the shortest one in the set is very useful, and then only with the 06 lens. Still, it's something.

If $50 is the kind of money you can say "why not" about, they might be worth a look.

[lytrytyr]

There do exist third party macro extension tubes for the Q mount that you could try out. From what I've read, only the shortest one in the set is very useful, and then only with the 06 lens. Still, it's something.

If $50 is the kind of money you can say "why not" about, they might be worth a look.

We had a whole thread on those things:

New auto extension tubes for K and Q mounts - PentaxForums.com

Plenty of details there, but the bottom line (at least for me) was that they would be worthless.

I've found that the 01, 03 (!), 06 and 08 are pretty good for close range shooting. My copies of the 02 never did well at that.

Remember, with the smaller sensors of the Q system, you don't need as much of a reduction factor for a given size of subject.

[kwb]

For lightweight close up solution you might want to consider a close up lens (sometimes called "filter" instead of "lens") attached to 06 lens. I posted three examples in MaQro thread including this one.
The MaQro Qlub! - Page 8 - PentaxForums.com

For me, screwing a piece of glass in/out of the filter thread of 06 lens is more awkward than mounting/unmounting a dedicated macro lens on Q's body even though close-up lens is much lighter than, say, my Pentax M 50mm F/4 macro, so I haven't used the close-up thing for some time.

You can also see many examples of macro and telephoto lenses on Q series in the reference thread. Adapted lenses tested on the Q : the reference thread - PentaxForums.com

Not many choices if you want to go wider than 02 lens unless going for a fisheye. 08 is excellent. Forum member 2old4toys posted an example of Theia CS mount lens (Let's share shots with Q! - Page 441 - PentaxForums.com) but the caveat is that you must make your own adapter.

[wadge22]

We had a whole thread on those things:New auto extension tubes for K and Q mounts - PentaxForums.comPlenty of details there, but the bottom line (at least for me) was that they would be worthless.

Looking through that thread, there's not much at all on the Q tubes; just a mention of availability at the beginning, several dead links, and one person saying they ordered the Q tubes with no followup post about their experience. And a lot of discussion of the K tubes (branded Kooka) not being great (note I have a set of Kenko Af tubes for K mount that are very nice).

The ones I linked to are branded Movo (of course they may be the same as Kooka Q tubes), and the thread I linked talks more about them. It describes them as being functional, but the longer two being unusable with the native Q lenses because they are too long (move the point of focus back so far it's inside of the lens). Someone mentions the longer ones work well with adapted lenses.

There is more info in this thread, especially posts 49, 76, and 81.

[bladawiec]

Hello,

Yes, The Q7 is the great camera for travel .

1. I often use Q7 for insects macro photography. For macro I recommend you to use the Raynox DCR250 or DCR150 macroconverter attached to Q06 lens. Here two of my photos taken with this set:
Dragonfly - PentaxForums.com
Pentax q3!!! - PentaxForums.com

The marco extension tubes for Q are uselles. They are too long for this camera and only with the shortest you can take some photos. But still with limited possibilities.

You can of course use macro K-lens but the lens may be heavier than camera .


2. For telephoto: You can use K lens (see topic Adapted lenses tested on the Q : the reference thread - PentaxForums.com to select the best for you). But you can also get the very small C-mount Tamron lens (see Tamron c-mount lens 75mm f3.9 on Pentax-Q7 - PentaxForums.com). It has 75mm (only 50% more than Q06) but it is very small and lightweight.
But the lack of AF will be a limitation for birding with any non Q-lens.


3. For wide: I think that the only best solution can be expensive Q08 because of the quality. It can be hard to find other good wide lens for so small sensor camera.
The Q03 fisheye is also funny but with little limited quality.
The wide end of Q02 is not so bad. On Q7 it is wider than on original Q because of greater sensor.


4. For screen in bright conditions: I sometimes use the "V5" magnifer eyecup for Nikon V1. I bought it some years ago on ebay. But it was version with mount screwed onto the tripod mount. I see that now on ebay there are only version with a mount glued to the screen .

But you get used to shooting with the screen. Especially if it's such a cool camera as the Pentax Q .

[garywakeling]

With the 80-200 zoom, how are you thinking of keeping it stable, do you have the extra foot for the KQ adapter otherwise it will be shake central, perhaps a 24-70 lens might give you enough telephoto range. With the Q. Macro tubes , as stated above only the no 1 tube really is useful and then only with the 06 lens. Another thought on the viewing is to use the external viewfinder, not cheap but perfect with the 01 and with a little practise/trial and error, you can use it as a sighter for the other lens and only use the screen to review, very K style of working that I find useful. Enjoy the trip

[stemked]

Y'all are awesome! Thanks for the pointers. I hadn't known about the fringing and CA issues. I will see what works well with the body. I have a pretty extensive K and M42 set of lenses to check out but at a minimum I would like to be able to get out to close to 400mm. The old A 80-200 actually wasn't too bad, but I may just try out a few of my smaller macro 100s (A and DA).

bladawiec-fantastic images.

I appreciate everything!

[reh321]

I have an actual Hoodman on order, which should arrive .

My Hoodman did come today. Regrettably, it’s frame gets in the way of tripod mounts, which includes my only FD-to-Q adaptor, so for now I’ll have to limit myself to lenses which work with certain adapters.

[UncleVanya]

Can anyone comment on using wide angle accessory lenses in the q native lenses? Only really high quality ones are ever any good and there are some make for high end enthusiast point and shoot cameras with small sensors and fixed zoom lenses.

[reh321]

Can anyone comment on using wide angle accessory lenses in the q native lenses? Only really high quality ones are ever any good and there are some make for high end enthusiast point and shoot cameras with small sensors and fixed zoom lenses.

I don’t understand.
The only ‘wide angle accessory lenses’ I am aware of are too big to use with Q native lenses.

[UncleVanya]

I don’t understand.
The only ‘wide angle accessory lenses’ I am aware of are too big to use with Q native lenses.

You could try something along these lines but there are many many more options some better and lighter:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/227155-REG/Raynox_HD_6600PRO_43_HD_66...981&

This one comes in either 43mm or 37mm threads that could be adapted to the 40.5mm threads but the weight might be too much. Some P&S cameras had clever adapters that held these accessory lenses in a way that wasn't directly hanging off the front of the lens. There may be a way to fashion something like that. A 0.66x adapter on the standard zoom would be quite wide but the distortion might be too much.

There's a Sony one: VCL-MHG07 that has 52mm filter threads also. It's 0.7x and pretty high quality.