[bobbotron]

Too busy yesterday, no photo from me!

[babywriter]

Too busy yesterday, no photo from me!

Same here. Also the weather sucked. Should be better today.

[womble]

I've been falling by the waywide the last few days. I'll try and get back on track tomorrow. K.

[Sandy Hancock]

I fell off the rails after the 21st. Yes, there was a selfie taken on that day, but I decided not to post it despite being reasonably happy with it on a technical level.

Since then, nada. So I'm wrapping it.

The lens is great. It provides unique rendering at a rarified aperture, and it's very well behaved stopped down. I enjoyed the angle of view more than I expected to. I won't be getting rid of it anytime soon.

However — my presbyopic eyes struggled with the rigours of manual focus with such a shallow DoF. As a result, in the last couple of days I have acquired a magnifying eyepiece, and I have realised my left eye really is better; I have been training myself for a couple of years to use my non-preferred right eye for ergonomic reasons, but careful testing now suggests this was a bad move. I think it will make a big difference. We'll see.

Sorry I dropped off the RADAR, but in recent months I have consistently tired of Single In Challenges well before time. Maybe it's time to bow out.

[babywriter]

Single in February thread is up:
Single In February 2018 - PentaxForums.com

Sorry I dropped off the RADAR, but in recent months I have consistently tired of Single In Challenges well before time. Maybe it's time to bow out.

If it helps, I always enjoy seeing your stuff; you have a talent with the camera and lots of deep knowledge about Pentax gear. I'd be sad to see you go.

[iheiramo]

My first manual lens. Impressed me with it's rendition right from the first shot I took with it and got me hooked with M series. So I knew I had a good lens going into this month and it didn't let me down. It's sharp, pretty fast, but especially it has lovely bokeh and beautiful rendition. As there is plenty of this lens available it's really under priced for it's quality and therefore I see it as a perfect choice as a first manual lens for anybody. I've had DA50/1.8 and thought it's probably sharper, I think M is a much better lens due to other qualities.

My personal goal is not just to take a shot everyday, but to put together an album with great diversity of shots showing different sides of the lens. I'm really pleased with my effort this month, thought last days shots were just for filling it up, as I felt that I had already done my best. My album for M50/1.7. Some highlights:










I think I learned something about post processing this month, which made the landscapes in the later part of the month even better. If we look at this, I like the colors in the sky, but the clouds look musty. Too dark. Missing that glow there is supposed to be.



Therefore I made a new version of the shot which to me is much closer to the reality I saw. Instead of being dark the clouds now have subtle tones in them.



Previously I have started landscape editing by adding some contrast to it, but I found that reducing it and then adding plenty of clarity to the shot I end up with much more pleasing results. At least to me. In Capture One I typically now reduce contrast about -20 points (almost half of the slider) and then add clarity about 50 points (half of the slider). And I've noticed that for nice bokeh it's good to do the opposite.

[bobbotron]

I did well for the first half of the month, but submission and commenting has dropped off over the last week, got sick, work trip, generally work got crazy.

I had fun with the DFA 100mm. It's a nice lens, will give you great detail if you give it enough light, and avoid camera/subject shake! Had some problems with the K01 at landscape distances, the view screen on the K01 is not good enough for fine / neurotic detail focusing, the K3 is a significant leap ahead for this kind of focusing.

My favourite photo for the month from it.

[repaap]

time to wrap up. Samyang 14/2.8

I'v had this lens for quite long for now. I had earlier this month the Idea of having 15-30 to get 15 and 20-35/2.8 in one, and also I have had that lens in my mind (LBA) for Loooong time. well. Let's say that this month cured me from that. I did do some shooting with 20-35 and I thing that that lens will do. with this 14/2.8 for what I need to shoot when I want wide. I'm not if I have mastered this lens yet, or not, but I think that I know what I should use it for. I can see why some one could be obsessed whit these, but for me, it is not obsession, just fun.

Technically this lens has a lot of lackings, everyone knows them, by looking at reviews. Also that goes for the strengts. I actually did not mind some times that moustash distortion. And sometimes correcting it did take that 'pop' away from the shot be cause it went straight. wide angle lens needs some distortion actually, at least IMO. It is lens, that is quite a lot of fun to shoot with, and really good bang for buck. Dial f 8 and shoot away, you'll be good. Edges leaves something to wish for as does flaring. That is the price that you pay for when you go for better lens. But IF you use this wide lens just every now and then...this will do. My fingers are itching for after my limiteds now.

all in all, great lens. If I would look for wide lens now and I would not have this already, I'm not sure if I'd buy this lens again. I actually bought it for my K-3 when I wanted something more wide than 16 mm. I think that I'm back in square of finding 18-20 mm prime to have light option and then something more narrow than that. I had lot's of fun too at this month. So this lens is not going anywhere. I will use it when needed. Thank you all for this month!

here is couple of my favorites from this month.

[TedH42]

OK, so how does the latest version (PLM) of the DA55-300 perform? Quite well - better than my expectations, actually. The edge sharpness is better than either of my earlier DA55-300 (a non-WR and a WR version) lenses. It seems to be in the recent "sharp to the edge" tradition of modern lenses. I was never disappointed in the overall sharpness in the frame. The KP camera seems to be an IBIS wizard with its 5-axis stabilization. I could handhold 300mm shots in good light with no problem. Only the 2 moon shots were on a tripod or equatorial tracking mount. All other shots were handheld.

The AF is vastly faster than either of the other 55-300 lenses, which was expected. Note that I'm not shooting any bicyclists coming at me. AF tracking was never tested. AF was precise, but I wasn't stressing it, as I usually shoot at f8, unless there is a reason not to, and let the ISO go up, but not too high (no more than 3 digits, if possible). For my style of shooting, the lost of a bit of aperture across the focal length range was never a problem. Ghosting was never a problem, but flare certainly occurs if the sun is in the field of view or very near it.

Bokeh was unobtrusive for all my shots. Nothing amazing or swirly. Just pleasant. Colors were in the Pentax tradition, matching my other lenses. Contrast was very good, and added to the perceived sharpness.

The retraction mechanism was never a problem, and allowed stowing camera and lens, with hood in shooting position, in my ancient small Lowe Pro Mini-Magnum bag. Very convenient.

Manual focus felt a bit sloppy, and it was not easy to nail precise focus for the moon shots, especially when the 1.4X teleconverter was added. The focus-by-wire operation is just not as precise as focusing on lenses with real mechanical focus linkage, such as my F* 300mm lens. I'm not recommending this lens for attempting astrophotography. The focus is muddy, and difficult to lock down without affecting the focus, and the aperture is lacking.

A focus quirk is that the camera must be ON to do ANY kind of focusing. Can't just grab the camera/lens out of the bag and look through the viewfinder to see what a shot might look like.

I'm quite pleased with this lens, and it will be my long lens on a Galapagos trip later this year. Its overall sharpness, fast focusing, wide focal length range, light weight (compared to my DA* 60-250), and small size are a winning combination. Adding it to the KP camera makes for my selection for the long lens. The K1/DA* 60-250 combo stays home this time.

The favorite shot of the month:



The First Magpie Of Spring?

[babywriter]

Some notes on the Tamron SP 17mm f/3.5 (Adaptall-2):

The pros:
- Holy crap, does this lens love sky! Blue skies just explode off the frame, which is a really good thing for a lens designed for landscapes.
- Wide-angle landscape and nature shots are a joy with this lens. I found out, about 10 days in, that all I really had to do was set the focus on infinity, the aperture at f/8, and the rest would take care of itself if the lighting was sufficient. I know this is true of pretty much any ultra wide angle lens, but it was my first time experiencing it firsthand.
- at f/8 and above, sharpness was excellent. I didn't notice much falloff toward the edges, sharpness-wise, at those apertures.

The cons:
- Whoever designed the hood (which is affixed with two set screws, top and bottom) needs to be hung by their toenails. The hood is the only way to mount a filter on the lens, and so using it is kind of a necessity for protection's sake. But the hood itself is easily the most awkward design I've ever worked with - it tends to fall off, and putting it back on is a fiddly, time-consuming exercise. The hood also gets in the way when you use a flash - serious vignetting - and so flash work gets done with the lens unprotected.
- The lens is noticeably prone to flare. Sometimes the flare is attractive, but sometimes not. Of course, with the weird hood attachment, getting a longer hood to accommodate APS-C sensors is a nonstarter. So you live with it as best you can.
- forget about anything below f/8 if you care about sharpness at all. f/3.5 is unusable, as is anything up to f/7.1 (which is reaaaallly borderline, sharpness-wise).

That being said - this lens is a keeper. It's the only ultra wide angle prime I own, and within its limitations can deliver stunning photos.

Some of my favorites from the month:

[robgski]

I have a 17mm Takumar that I love on the K-5 as UWA or the K-1, where it shows its fisheye side. It has built in Orange and Yellow filters, but no hood.

[babywriter]

I have a 17mm Takumar that I love on the K-5 as UWA or the K-1, where it shows its fisheye side. It has built in Orange and Yellow filters, but no hood.

I've seen those up for sale from time to time. Would love to have one someday, if timing and finances permit.

[robgski]

I've seen those up for sale from time to time. Would love to have one someday, if timing and finances permit.

Mine was used, and cost $350, which seemed to be the going rate. I feel it was money well spent, it is an M42 mount, so it is effectively manual only, but the quality of the pictures is first rate!

[dngr]

Man, what a long month. Got a few explores out of this lens, but I was really struggling and not really putting out a good effort for the last half of this challenge.

[bobbotron]

I think everyone that participated this month should be proud, there were some fantastic images made!