[wolfiegirl]

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I have a strap that lets you sling it across your body diagonally and a d ring at the bottom so you can slide your camera up and around. I got it off ebay. I don't have the exact link, but it was something like this: Neoprene Fast Utility Sling Strap Camera Belt Dynamic Shooting FOR Nikon D7000 | eBay and i'm pretty sure it was this brand. It does the job for me as I found the neck strap was too short and not suited for shooting with a little one in tow. Especially when she was younger and I had her in a babybjorn at the front. These days, she's too big for me to do that, but I still find it handy to have the camera across the body.

[utak]

my sharpening workflow

This is very helpful, thanks for taking the time to post this.

I dropped my K1000 Sunday

Yuk. Sorry to hear this, I emphasise after dropping and shattering a lens's glass last year...it was very upsetting.


Time for my feedback on the Takumar 50/1.4s....

For the first half of the month I used a Super Takumar ('ST'), early 8 elements version. A lens designed to rival the best Zeiss/Leica lenses from Europe. Legend has it was so expensive to manufacture it was soon discontinued in favour of the 7 elements version. (This is now disputed by people involved).

For the second half, a Super-Multi-Coated Takumar ('S-M-CT'), 7 elements version. This lens is infamous for being radio-active, with thorium coatings producing a yellowing of the glass that can be reduced by UV light. In case you don't know how radio-active this lens really is, have a look at this video! The highest radio-activity is by the eye. Other yellowing radio-active lenses include the Zeiss Pancolar 50/1.8 zebra 8 blades, and the Takumar 35/2.

You Tube

You Tube

Performance wise from this month's photos I found my ST slightly sharper wide open than the S-M-CT, with creamier bokeh, but less vibrant colours. Stopped down the lens delivers a 3D look that owners rave about, especially for portraits. I think this is because the centre is sharp while the edges and bokeh are softer, and overall the colours across the frame are cooler, so the background does not stand out. Downsides? May need PP to bring out the colours and minor PF sometimes.

My S-M-CT is even sharper than the ST stopped down, with better flare control and such vibrant colours. Indeed the colours this lens produces on digital sensors are exceptional, some of the best I've seen from any lens. The yellowing glass (if not cured) delivers wonderful black and white images. The S-M-CT is also the last version with the gun metal focus ring, something of engineered beauty in its own right, and great to use. Downsides? A bit unfair but as a manual its not the best walk around/take a quick snap lens, and its too long on a crop sensor for my liking.

The better lens?

When the internet first started to fill with lens reviews the S-M-CT was, on balance, rated as the better lens. These early reviews are interesting to me because they tend to come from camera enthusiasts with good personal experience, not overly influenced by the myths and legends now re-cycled on forums/blogs. More recently, the cult status of the early ST version has grown and grown.....driven by the story of a lens "too expensive to produce", and the love affair with bokeh-delicious photos, where wide open sharpness plus smooth bokeh is more highly valued.

Personally, I'd buy the S-M-CT for its exceptional performance...it is one of the greatest lenses anyone has ever made, period. See this for example My Favorite Lens . It's the fast fifty I always take on holiday, and optically is better IMO than (say) the FA50/1.4. But as an investment, and for its lesser coatings, I'd buy the early ST if you can find a good one at a reasonable price - under US$175, although I was lucky to find mine mis-listed for under $100 this year. The relative lack of coatings gives photos a special rendering and glow that I happen to like a great deal.

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Many thanks for all your great photos and comments this busy month, and best wishes to you'all for 2015.

[Sandy Hancock]

Review(s) time.

Double in December was tough. I don't think I will be taking that one on again in a hurry, but the arrival of two new highly sought-after lenses prompted me to give it a go.

I envisaged the FA*24 as being a DA15 replacement if the Full Frame Pentax ever materialises. What I found was that the focal length works very well on APS-C, which I guess is hardly surprising as 35mm is a classic FF angle of view. It is a well behaved lens, well corrected for distortion and chromatic aberration, and although not small it handles well with the manual focus clutch mechanism becoming quite intuitive with practice. The hood is secure but is a little fiddly to mount reversed for storage.

As far as being a full frame DA15, it is two stops faster (but quite glowy wide open) and far sharper across the frame than the DA15. It is however nowhere near as flare resistant, and the eight blade diaphragm will not give quite the same starburst joy as its little cousin. The bokeh can be a bit busy, and at worst quite distracting, but that is pretty common for ultra-wide-angle lenses.

Is it a keeper? You bet.
Do I like it on APS-C more than my DA21? No.
Will I sell my DA15 the moment a FF Pentax arrives? Hell yes.

---------- Post added 31-12-14 at 11:06 PM ----------

And now the K135/2.5

Better men than I have produced magic with this lens, and after a month with it I can see where it comes from. It's pretty good wide open and fantastic stopped down. The bokeh is very nice indeed, but most decent telephotos can make the same claim. It is beautifully constructed and everything handles as it should.

BUT....I'm too lazy to use stop-down metering all the time. I don't like the lack of a hood. And when all is said and done, it is only 1/3 stop faster than my DA*50-135, has far more CA, doesn't autofocus, and isn't a great deal smaller or lighter while sacrificing the versatility of a zoom. If I'm going to keep a 135mm prime, it needs to bring something unique to the table. A*135/1.8 anyone?

[severalsnakes]

Sorry for my silence since Christmas. I'm sure you've all been swamped as well. I've been taking daily pictures and will post them eventually. I will catch up with commenting this evening, after a half-day at work and before our NYE celebration with friends. :-) I'm volunteering for DD, 'cause I'm cool like that, and so I can take pictures of everyone else as they get more and more inebriated. Hilarity.

I've also been playing around, minimally, with the little flash I received from my Mother- and Father-in-law for Christmas (it's the Vivitar DF-383), and wow! I am impressed! I never really utilized the on-body flash because of the nasty shadows, but... just being able to bounce the light off the ceiling might change my indoor shots forever! It's wonderful to learn new things and have new tools. :-) I'm looking forward to getting more from this flash, although it might have to wait, since I'm doing the fish eye in January - I can only imagine the weird shadows.

I'll be back later to add my review of the SMC Takumar 55/1.8!

Happy new year to you all! Be safe and have fun!

[mtux]

This is very helpful, thanks for taking the time to post this.

My pleasure.

Do I like it on APS-C more than my DA21? No.

May I ask why? (Just out of curiosity) Is it because of the size? the FL? the starburst? or sharpness/image quality?

and far sharper across the frame than the DA15.

You haven't yet tested it across the frame of a FF sensor where it belongs and designed for.

[dngr]

Pentax SMC DA15

I first came across this lens when I started to browse PF as a lurker. Truth be told, it was the starbursts and vivid colours in the photos in the user reviews that drew me in. Two and a bit years later, I finally pulled the trigger and picked up a used copy from a PF member in Aussie-land. So far, I couldn't be happier, even with the one or two niggles I've found.

As Sandy has mentioned before, the edge-to-edge sharpness leaves something to be desired, even at narrow apertures. The screw on lens cap is a bit of a pain to use, and so I've been using a spring cap pretty much exclusively.

That being said, the bokeh at f5.6 is smooth, at least to my eye, and quite pleasing. The all metal construction is beautiful, and the retractable hood is an excellent touch. It is a bit on the heavy side, but I'm okay with that.

Anyways, I've had a lot of fun this month showing you guys a view into my life on the ships. I won't be participating next month or the one after as I picked up some work on another ship until mid-Feb (hopefully no later as I have a trip planned at the end of Feb!) and I don't want to overload everyone with photos of ships and water-scapes haha.

Happy New Year from the Algoma Montrealais!!

[wolfiegirl]

smc Takumar 50/1.4

It's been an interesting month for me with this lens. It's sat in my kit long neglected and I was pleased to have a chance to give it a run - finally. On the k100d it produced beautiful images of wolfiepup, with vivid colours and lovely bokeh. In daylight it was wonderful, however all shots were limited by my camera body, which was an interesting lesson to learn. At night or in less than optimal conditions where shooting open wide wasn't sufficient, there was so much noise!

In comparison, shooting with it on the k-50 was a dream. There is an interesting 'glow' in images shot open wide, that I only noticed recently when shooting on the k-50. Colours remain vivid, but there's just that something... a bit of that famous 1.4 pixie dust? That seems to make the image more than it is. And with the k-50, even in low light, the lack of noise is a wonder, after dealing with it for over half a month. It certainly made it more liberating to shoot at night or in less than optimal conditions.

I've enjoyed the 50/1.4, and for now it will remain in my kit. However, not sure that it will get that much of an outing, in spite of my positive review. To be honest, with so many fast fifties in my kit, it's hard to believe I would go back to any of them on a regular basis..... too much love to share around... damn LBA...!

[Sandy Hancock]

May I ask why? (Just out of curiosity) Is it because of the size? the FL? the starburst? or sharpness/image quality?

Smaller, lighter, nicer construction, awesome hood, infinitely better flare resistance, quick shift, nicer colour rendition, less nervous bokeh, slightly wider field of view....

You haven't yet tested it across the frame of a FF sensor where it belongs and designed for.

I was going to add that caveat, but omitted it for the sake of brevity
My DA15 falls to pieces way before the edges, and the FA*24 is pretty good all the way to the corners, so I suspect it will be OK on 24x36

[OzzRod]

Double in December was tough. I don't think I will be taking that one on again in a hurry, but the arrival of two new highly sought-after lenses prompted me to give it a go.

Prodigious effort taking on two in one month and still getting so many nice shots.

[blackcloudbrew]

Yes, I have to admit, that I'm impressed with that as well. I was considering doing something like that in 2015, perhaps I should re-think that. Anywho, well done Sandy.

[severalsnakes]

Alrighty. SMC Takumar 55/1.8

My very first experience with a screw-mount lens, using a genuine Asahi Pentax adapter on my K-30.

First of all, the lens is tiny. Minuscule. Build quality is excellent, as expected. The lens is fully functional and appears to be very clean, but there is some grittiness towards the infinity end of the focus throw.

I loved the real-time aperture effect through the viewfinder. Yeah, the viewfinder darkens as you stop down, but it really wasn't too much of a hassle when the ambient light was bright enough, and I could just flip the switch between Manual and Auto to jump back and forth between wide-open for focusing, and whatever aperture I thought was appropriate for DoF.

Focusing was easy and fast; f/1.8 seems to be a good aperture for easy focusing. I was satisfied with the lens' performance at infinity and minimum focusing distance (about 18 inches).

The IQ from the lens is stellar. Great contrast, nice colors, very sharp. The bokeh was good, but it wasn't knocking my socks off. I'm not a junkie for "creamy dreamy" backgrounds, so it's not a deal-breaker for me, and the isolation from the shallow DoF was perfectly sufficient. I don't recall noticing much of any CA/fringing at all, and the colors all seemed true-to-life. There really wasn't a whole lot that needed to be done in PP, but I like to try different things once I get the images on my computer, anyway. It seems to be a flattering lens for portraits, and is a good length for such. I thought it would be "too long" for Christmas snaps, but it turned out to be pretty perfect in a moderately-sized family room.

The lens' performance didn't really blow me away; I've been using normal/short tele lenses since July and I'm kind of burnt out on them... BUT: After it's all said and done, I enjoyed using the lens very much for December. I can tell that I enjoyed it because it didn't really cross my mind to change it. Today I put another lens on to get a shot, and I had totally forgotten that this was a screw-mount with an adapter. I was standing there, looking out the window at the sunrise, idly pressing the lens release button and turning... and... Oh yeah! Ha! I doubt I will have such a month in January with the fish eye. :-)

It is a great all-around performer with better than average IQ. I really enjoyed the focal length, and the manual aperture was a joy.

[Sandy Hancock]

I should probably also post a mini-review of the K-S1....

Like so many new release cameras, it attracted a lot of negativity from the internet haters. Stupid LED's! No grip! Slippery sides! No interval shooting! Only aimed at selfie-shooting hipsters! You know what? Screw the haters.

This is a great little camera. The grip is small, but perfectly ergonomic and very secure pinched between thumb and middle/ring finger. The slippery sides are irrelevant as they are not used when holding the camera - anyway they make getting it in and out of a camera bag even easier. I turned the LED's off on day and haven't felt the need to use them. The rear mode dial is well designed and the control buttons are easy to press even with my fat fingers. The main button layout is excellent - rear AF/AE lock, exposure compensation and especially the green button, which is right behind the shutter release so stop-down metering is a snap: soooo much better than my K-01.

AF is good - not K-3 standard, but much better than the K-01. The sensor is excellent. Really excellent. The images have an almost CCD quality to them.

Did I mention it looks really cool in Moon Silver?

Bottom line: I'm moving my K-01 (with the kit zoom which came with the K-S1) on to a friend of wolfiegirl's and I am seriously considering selling my K-5 IIs as my need for two pro-level bodies has decreased substantially.

[Tsuken]

Review/summary time, I guess. This was my third month using the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC (not HSM). I think I'm finally starting to "get" it, to be honest. The auto-focus is quite convenient. But no quick-shift - which I've already found myself using a bit with the DA 50-200, making its absence here quite noticeable.

It is sharp, and the image quality is good. Overall it doesn't have a character that really grabs me though, when compared to my other lenses. However, on that, and somewhat oddly, it treats mrs tsuken very well, whereas my various pentax lenses definitely make better pictures of my kids. Weird.

It's quite versatile; this month I've gone from landscape to birding, by way of people.

It's big and chunky; way bigger than my 28mm takette, for instance; not much shorter than the DA50-200, and a bit wider. Heavier too.

Worth getting (it had better have been, given the hassle I went through to get it), but not my favourite by a long shot. It's good to have a normal AF lens, and the nuuuuuge aperture is most useful indoors for avoiding use of the flash - but I prefer my 28mm takette around this focal length.

And thanks for the KS-1 review, Sandy. It certainly seems to be serving you well.

[mtux]

Thanks a lot guys and gals for another great month of shooting and talking together.
As always, I appreciate all the critiques and comments.

Review time:
My lens for this month was the so much praised and hated DA15 limited,
DA15, DA15, DA15, hmm, You know everything about it! but since this was my first single in with it, here is my take on it:
No need to speak about its sharpness, It's fantastic in center, normal/crap on corners. (Comparing to other UWAs)
During this month, I had a love/hate feel about it, some days I hated it's image quality in 1/3 of the frame towards corners, and some days I loved my results with it.
So at the end, I think I'm going to keep the lens for now, specially for it's size and performance for what it is! and one main reason is that when I selected my favorite 10 shots in 2014, guess what? 3 of them were shot with DA15. and my beloved DA35ltd and DFA100WR came second with 2 shot each one.
And someone had compared his DA15 to Tamron 10-24 recently, and corner performance of the DA15 was way better than the Tamron, based on his shots.

and I picked up a silver K-3 at the end of November, and shoot December exclusively with it.
I'm still struggling to get sharp photos out of the K-3 with my lenses. Probably there's some focus issue, but it's getting frustrating.

[Sandy Hancock]

I'm still struggling to get sharp photos out of the K-3 with my lenses. Probably there's some focus issue, but it's getting frustrating.

Stick with it, Mehrdad. Once you get the K-3 sorted it will really start to sing.

Excellent month mate. I feel your pain with the DA15 - it's a frustrating little beastie but it's so pretty I can't bear to part with it. I may have to bite the bullet and send it off for re-alignment - only problem is I'm not sure if I can trust CRK to do a decent job.