[iheiramo]

A day early, but I write the wrap up, as I have better time for it now than in following days. This has been a productive month and I shot a plenty of more keepers with this months lens than I needed in the challenge. Drawback from this was that I've been missing inspiration on some days and I have reshot old ideas already used with other lenses a few times. The more months I have under the belt the harder it is to be creative.

M100/4 was the first of the two M series macros for me in the SIC, but I've been taking macros with extension tubes every month. Working with real macro lens is easier. Finding the right framing is much harder with extension tubes. Lens is nice to handle as typical for M series. Focus ring rotates a lot as can be expected. The slow aperture is a bit limiting feature and often ISO needed to be raised or tripod taken out. On the other hand it took surprisingly good images under the hard midday sun.

Rendering is lovely. Well, we are talking about M series lens, so that is to be expected. Sharpness is good enough. Not the best in series nor the worst. Somewhere in the middle. Usable wide open, but gets sharper stopped down. F8 is the sweet spot. On APSC I don't see any weakness in corner sharpness. Lens isn't at its best at infinity. For telephotolandscapes there are better choices.
Contrast is lower than typically in series and I add a bit more contrast in post than normally. Quite little purple or green fringing. These things make the lens good choice for high contrast situations.
Bokeh and transition are beautiful and lens produce nice, thought hexagonal, OOF highlights.

This lens will definitely stay in the pile of lenses I use. Not sure yet when I will carry it with me, but macro feature make it more versatile than standard tele lens, so might carry it with me also when traveling. Of the two 100mm lenses in series I prefer this one.

Wide open:


Macro:


OOF highlights shot in midday sun:


Extreme contrast. I pushed and pulled a lot in post:


Bokeh:


F8 and base ISO on tripod:


And this just because I like it:

[iheiramo]

And I'm done. Thanks for all for the company. See you in July.

[robgski]

Well, I did not really do much this month, but I did learn about stitching using Microsoft Ice, and I'm enjoying it. IT does so neat things with stills from video, too. Today, my town has the parade and fireworks to celebrate Independence Day. So I'll have a few shots for the end of the month.


The 40mm in both LTD and XS forms, produces incredible results in a compact and agile package. I am glad I own each.

[pepperberry farm]

another great month of shots, this time with the HD DA 35mm f2.8 Macro Limited...

I bought my copy on a lark; I was hoping that this lens would stave off the interest I had for the DA20-40 Limited zoom, so I was watching/waiting for an SMC copy of this lens to show up at my price-point, when an HD copy on eBay turned up: I can't tell that it was ever used, but that's fine with me...

firstly, as a Limited lens, it's all you would expect: small, metal-build, exquisitely machined, but with red highlights rather than the green I've become accustomed to (HD vs SMC) - it does give the K-3 a bit of snarkiness, but all Limiteds do that...

the built-in hood is well-executed, as is the bespoke push-on front cap, especially when compared to the DA 40 Limited... no WR, but since I've switched to BBF, the quickshift has rapidly become useful for me...

overall, the color rendition, sharpness, bokeh, and the general usefulness of this lens is amazing - and the fact that it is a true 1:1 macro lens only increases its utility for me, even if that macro ability increases the size of the lens from what you would normally expect from a Limited lens... in shooting all month, I've noticed that subjects are captured with a distinct 'pop', a true separation from the background, and its ability to render fine details borders on the amazing...

I thoroughly enjoyed shooting with this lens (Esmerelda) all month, without the normal third-or-fourth week doldrums settling - I will probably revisit this lens as a Single In lens later in the year....

in fact, the ONLY negative I have found in the last month is the macro facility of the lens: in order to pull a true 1:1 macro shot from this lens, you have to be quite close to your subject... while inanimate objects aren't a problem, frogs & insects may not sit still while you invade their personal space... beyond that, there is absolutely not reason to not have a copy of this lens in your bag...

some of my favorite shots of the month:









and the rest of the month's shots:

Single In June '18 | Flickr


(and it worked - this lens has laid to rest my interest in the DA 20-40mm Limited zoom)

[dngr]

This month felt pretty lacklustre for me with one or two shots that I really liked.

The 50-135 is a stellar lens, no fault there. My first zoom lens for both Single In and in general. I'm not counting the third party zoom in my collection from the film era nor the kit zoom that came with my k-50 but I'm enjoying it so far

[rjbrett]

I've actually written a bit about the little Cosina 50mm f2, as I'll probably put this in the review section once I've done a few more of these challenges. I found the Cosina 50mm f2 to a good, well balanced lens that was sharp enough when I needed it, and capable of producing some really nice pics in everyday or general use.

Wide open the lens gave a soft but sharp enough rendering at the centre for portraits and flower close ups, and only softened gradually towards the edges. This sharpened on closing the aperture down to very sharp at f8, softening a bit at f11 and then a fair bit more at f16. I did also repeat one shot with the SMC A 50mm f2, and looking at the pics close up think the Cosina is a touch sharper, the Pentax 50mm a little contrastier. I think this sharpness and a fairly flat field were a big help in putting together my first panorama, and I’d quickly think of this lens if doing another.

Like many 50mm stock lenses of the time the minimum focus distance was a bit longer at 50cm, but I was also able to get some nice close ups using good quality close up filters. It did rely on color for a lot of it’s contrast, and in B&W benefited from contrast/color filters. I wasn’t so impressed with performance on a KAX 2x teleconverter, and this may have been due to the loss of contrast – I have noticed it when using the tc with other lenses.

The Cosina 50mm f2 gave good natural color, generally handled highlights well, and produced just a little glow or bloom wide open and at f2.8. Bokeh wide open included round specular highlights, giving way to hexagons from f2.8 that then begin merging into a slightly busy then smooth blur at higher aperture settings. I was also able to get 6 point starbursts at f8. I only noticed slight fringing wide open on high contrast edges.

Mechanically the lens was easy to use, and felt solid and reliable. The focus throw may have seemed a little long at times but by the same token I was able to get quite fine focus with the lens. I was pretty dismissive of the little plastic Cosina slip on caps that come with these lenses at first, but am finding them easy to use and quite adequate for my gentler amateur use, and am looking for them now to match up with the lens when I’ve had them off. They do fall off sometimes in my messenger bag, but the front lens element is usually set far enough back into the lens it isn’t a real worry.

[gifthorse]

IMGP5540 by Miles Shaylor, on Flickr
Last month I used the Super Takumar 200mm f4 for the SiC. This month I used the Komine built Vivitar 200mm f3.5. The Vivitar is a little longer than the Super Tak. Both are heavy and sturdy. The Vivitar minimum focus is about 6 feet. The Super Tak is about 8 feet. The Vivitar is as sharp (to my old eyes) as the Tak. Any blur is operator malfunction. The Vivitar has a built-in hood. Both have an Auto switch that opens the lens wide open for focusing. The Vivitar switch is smaller than the Tak and is hard to find. It was easier to just open the lens to focus and then stop down to the desired aperture. The Vivitar color and contrast were good.





Just to the left of the red M is the Auto switch on the Vivitar



The switch is about the same height as the aperture ring and hard to find.


Auto switch on the Super Tak

Where the Vivitar failed compared to the Tak was purple fringing. I was aware of the problem when I bought the lens and the PF is easily corrected in Photoshop or Lightroom.



Atrocious PF on the Vivitar.

[babywriter]

It doesn't feel right to post a review of a lens that I threw together out of spare parts, but I do want to say a few words about "Frankie":

- The heart of the contraption was a Schneider-Kreuznach 105mm/f 5.6 enlarger lens. For the first few days of the month, I attached a 2x macro converter with a focusing helicoid, but I quickly found the f/11 minimum aperture to be too limiting. So I pulled out an old macro bellows and used that instead. It worked much better - surprisingly well, actually - although I ended up with a bunch of sensor dust on the K-01 that I'll have to deal with. Macro bellows are pretty leaky.

- As would be expected with an enlarger lens, "Frankie" performed best in controlled-light situations, preferably shooting close-up subjects. The lens has no anti-flare coating to speak of, so shots with uncontrolled outdoor lighting usually required some post-process fiddling to remove haze and to boost colors. Boosting colors, in fact, became a part of the post-processing pretty much all the time. The lens tended to capture at a bluer color temperature than I liked, so I'd usually warm that up a bit too.

- With all that said, though, this lens was pin-sharp and capable of some surprising results. And i had a blast using it! Every day was an adventure of sorts.

Some of my favorites:

[W412ren]

FAJ 18-35

Yes I know it's a week into July but I'm on holiday in Malta and finally got some down time :-)
This was a difficult month with a lot going on both at work and home resulting in, I think, two missed days. Regardless, the lens was a pleasant surprise overall even though I actually found it hard to use.I think if I had bought it to Malta with me it would have been pretty much perfect. In general i think it will make a great travel lens for city images and some daylight landscapes.

Learning:
It’s wide… and been quite a difficult lens to use every day. What has been a revelation is how wide 18mm is whilst still remaining rectilinear. A lot of my pictures this month went toward 24-35 which is more consistent with my shooting (even in APSC equivalence)

Technical:
Needs -1 ev with the occasional foray to -2 ev as always overexposed on my K-1
Not as badly built as led to believe but don’t try a comparison to the limited or manual primes!!
My copy is pristine - if it had come with a box I could convince myself that I bought it new.
Seems on a par with the “looseness” of the FA20/35/24-90 but not as tightly built as the FA28-200 which is a surprisingly good package.

Plastic mount:
Only one I own. Seems sturdy enough but it’s the only lens I have where the official K mount cap fits loosely and falls off so I resorted to the plastic push on rear lens cap that came with so many of the FA series.

Images:
The lens itself is reasonably sharp and not too bad at all in the corners. Let’s face it, it’s made to be used at f8. I’ve used this for a lot of images this month that it’s not really made for and overall I’m impressed. Can produce some decent starbursts and interesting flare.
Starburst Test by -Wargus-


The bokeh is smooth if not special
Lavender by -Wargus-

The rendering and colours are Pentax all over
Chainset by -Wargus-

Conclusion:
Each to their own obviously but for myself as an amateur I’m genuinely pleased with how the lens has performed. Given that the gold standard DFA 15-30 is currently selling for around £1449 less “up to £225 discount” I’m happy to lose 15-17mm on a £125 lens.
I think I’ll be keeping it, given the useful range for compact and lightweight travel and that it covers a large chunk of ultra wide to wide.
As a bonus it also shares a filter size with the FA24-90 and the DA*60-250; a useful combo for daylight.