[garywakeling]

Busy day today, my wife went to the city to pick up her new car, a Jeep photolady, she must have seen the pictures of yours over my shoulder. Then off to her surgeon who has decided a new hip will be put in sometime in the next 2 weeks...... looks like March could be a fun time for photos, bed pans, hospital waiting rooms, doctors waiting rooms. Any hints on lens choices Sandy, what works best with those subjects? I am thinking the Pentax Q with the 08 wide angle, less intimidating to other patients

[photolady95]

my wife went to the city to pick up her new car, a Jeep photolady, she must have seen the pictures of yours over my shoulder.

Happy to know I could entice one women to see the sense in owning a Jeep.

[Sandy Hancock]

Any hints on lens choices Sandy, what works best with those subjects? I am thinking the Pentax Q with the 08 wide angle, less intimidating to other patients

I've used everything from the Q7 to the 645Z, but I guess I get cut a little more slack than the customers
I hope the new hip does the job; it can be a transformative operation.

[Sandy Hancock]

Done! I spent February putting my newly (re)acquired SMC Pentax-FA 1:2.8 135mm [IF] through its paces.

It came through with flying colours.

As I have mentioned before, I had a copy of this lens a few years ago, but although it was clearly good I did not bond with it; the focal length is just a bit tight for me on a crop camera. I sold it not long before the announcement of the K-1 and I regretted that.

On a full frame camera it's a completely different beast. I quickly started seeing scenes through 135mm eyes and thoroughly enjoyed my month. The FA lenses will never win any beauty contests, but I don't mind the clean, utilitarian lines. It is a nicely compact and relatively light carry, and the built-in hood is nifty. Typically of the FA lenses, the focus ring is poorly damped, and this copy feels a little gritty, but I used manual focus often without problems. AF is very fast for a screw drive lens and was consistently accurate. I would have loved quick shift on many occasions though. It is internal focus, which is nice, but the focus ring spins during autofocus, so my big hands on a smallish lens required some vigilance.

Optically it pretty much blew me away. It is sufficiently sharp wide open across the full frame, and from f/4.0 it leaves nothing to be desired. Out of focus rendering is consistently lovely. It does produce a fair bit of LoCA, and purple fringing in high contrast edges, but these always responded to some relatively minor massaging in Lightroom. Flare was never an issue, but most telephoto lenses do quite well in this regard.

As for my own efforts, after several aborted attempts recently, I was pleased to get all the way through the month, and without missing a single day. In nearly seven years of regular participation in these challenges I'm not sure I've ever managed that before without throwing in the occasional mulligan to fill a vacancy. As usual, my work lacked the artistic creativity of some of you, but many images pleased me at least.

I have really enjoyed the group this month - participation has been consistent, and the comments have been greatly appreciated. I have loved seeing the northern frost, the English countryside and the Dutch still lifes as well as my compatriots' work. See you in March with the DA*11-18....

[smf]

Thanks very much to everyone who commented on my photos, and thanks very much to everyone who posted images!
Best wishes to all.
Stu

[willdmo]

Oh no, I am only the second one to write a sum up???

I shot daily but was not able to post every day. Something what probably wouldnt change.
Playing with Pentax 67 lenses can be fun. These lenses were made to a super high standard. Because of that they perform even on much smaller an much more demanding sensors equally well. That said, you always carry the glass and the construction as well which was calcluated for the film format oc 56x70mm² in the first place. If someone owns the new professionals tele-zooms with F2.8 I think the difference is not that big, but compared to a FA 100-300 lens, the Pentax 6x7 300mm lenses are at least double in size. I made it open before the month started to use the lens on different cameras but in the end had only time to run around the house once and filing a slide film with my Pentax 67II. The aim was not for single challenge, but to compare the old 300mm Pentax 67 lenses to each other. Guess what, I handheld shot both lenses at F4 and F8. It was a bright day so no shake. The scans showed me one thing clearly. If I hadn't made notes, in normal conditions, there is no difference to see. So why pay the premium on the newest 300mm Pentax 6x7 lens? The first difference you see is that the ED IF version comes with an own tripod mount. If you start focusing, the IF really stands out. While the older lenses needed to be moved completely, meaning all the glass, you need your whole hand to focus. The if is that smooth, that you can walk with two fingers over the focusing grip and focus. That said, I not perform any comparison on the K-1 with both lenses. The K-1 might be more demanding, but even there I can not imagine that the classis 300mm lens from the Pentax 6x7 system is a complete dog. If there would be some interrest, I might redo the test on the K-1.
Now to the lens. It was a pleasure to use. It is so incredible how small the depth of field is on a 300mm lens on a fullframe sensor already. I discovered much more often that after taking the first shot wide open I had to redo it with a much smaller F-Stop. Regardles that "issue" everything I threw on that lens was handled well. Hard contrasts, extreme colors, shooting in direction of light sources. If I would use that lens on a daily basis, the only thing I wished for was that it was smaller. The closer minimal focusing distance compared to the classical 6x7 version comes in handy if you want to seperate some details from the background. If I want to do it in points (10 is good, 0 is catastrophic)
Lens handling 10
Perfomrance 10
Close focusing 8
Value for money 7 (10 if you own a 6x7 and a 645 because then you will never need a different 300mm)
weight when used on fullframe or smaller 5

[iheiramo]

Took the last shot immediately in the morning to get the shot posted, others posts commended and this wrap up done before I set to do todays work. It's always nice to put a month together and get raedy for a fresh start with new lens.

Plenty of people in the challenge this month. Most I've seen in my time here. It's been fun to see all the work you produce. A lot of great shots during the month. I'm sorry that my commenting hasn't been consistent thru the month. Some days I just didn't have time or energy to go thru all of them. Otherwise I'm happy with my performance. I managed to take shots everyday and I think I also posted them on time every day.

M150/3.5 has been great. Previously I have claimed M120 to be the best tele in M series to cover the focal lengths between 85 and 300, but I didn't have M150 then. I guess after this month I need to tune my opinion to claim that these two oddball focal lengths are the best, as M150 is there on the same level as M120. My current feeling is that M120 is a bit sharper and has better contrast. M150 has slightly better bokeh and is more suitable for portrait work. It feels like longer version of M85 rendering. For some reason both of these lenses are underrated in PF lens reviews. They should stand clearly above 100, 135 and 200mm M lenses.

This is one of the few M series primes that is sharp already wide open. It does get a little sharper stopped down, but change is not as big as it typically is. Therefore I shot quite a lot wide open to get the best out of the bokeh, which is about as good as it gets in M series. Colors are typical M series style, but lens struggles to keep colors when shot against the sun. I had to do a lot of PP to rescue colors in some shots. Also a lot of purple and green fringing if there is strong contrast in OOF areas. Bright sun in the shot came out quite awful, but smaller light sources give out decent six point starburst. 1.8 MFD is a weak point of the lens. Especially indoors it was very difficult to shoot and I often used extension tubes to get closer. On the other hand I feel that this lens is at it's best when not focused to infinity.

M150 is hard to find. It was the last lens I found for my M series collection. I have understood that it's quite rare to start with and I believe that it's quality make owners to hang on to their copies. At least I'm not going to sell mine for a long time.

Full album: SIC 2019 02 Pentax M150/3.5 | Flickr

Wide open at MFD:


Wide open:


F5.6 at MFD:


F5.6:


F5.6 panorama from 7 shots:


F8 with extension tube:


F8:


F16:

[W412ren]

Well, one day to go for me and it's been good to get back into the swing of taking pictures every day. I've wanted to spend some time with the A135/2.8 for a while now - having owned it for 8 years it is one of my most under-used lenses.
The little 135 is extremely versatile - taking to teleconverters, close up filters and the raynox M-150 with ease. TBH it's just as well

The "drawbacks" with the lens are twofold; the MFD is 120cm which in normal use wouldn't be an issue but during the challenge many images were from indoors or trying to get close to plants etc so the CUF and Raynox were a boon. Secondly, the focus throw is so long; if trying to capture birds and they're hopping around.... well, it takes time

Other than that though the lens is superb for such a simple optical formula, as many of the reviews on the forums database will testify; once at f4 its sharp and has some good bokeh - even at f2.8 the lens produces nice, very useable images. I don't know if I have a favourite for the month but perhaps this one @f4 as it shows off the qualities of the lens well.



Thank you all for the comments (and inspiration from your images) this is a lens to keep - will make a good 52mm filter kit with the A24 and A50.

[garywakeling]

I've used everything from the Q7 to the 645Z, but I guess I get cut a little more slack than the customers
I hope the new hip does the job; it can be a transformative operation.

Yes , we are hoping so, she is only 44 and had undiagnosed hip dysplasia until 18 months ago, a periacetabular osteotomy, post op pulmonary embolism, another arthroscopic cleanup and now scheduled for the full hip replacement. I can't wait for her to have it done and she can be out of as much pain. I am sure you see much worse, but that is life.

Another fine month of shots and I look forward to seeing how the new wide angle goes. I finally bit the bullet and the 24-70 2.8 arrived last week, I am looking forward to comparing it with my 28-70 2.8

[photolady95]

she is only 44

Do you have her permission to tell her age, Gary? LOL

[garywakeling]

Well this month was fun, so many more participants with such wonderfully different talent and style. Being able to watch all of your efforts has been wonderful.
Speaking of wonderful, I can say that the lens I have owned since the 90's on my trusty LX, has really stood the test of time. I have the battery grip on my K1 and when the smc PENTAX-F* 300mm F4.5 ED[IF] is mounted with it's foot on, the camera sits perfectly flat. The built in lens hood, works a treat with easy storage on the lens itself.
As for the quality of the glass, I feel humble and not up to showing it off to it's full potential. The sharpness and resolution are to my eye amazing. The 300mm focal length gives plenty of reach and while only f4.5, with the low light abilities of modern cameras, I was able to take many shots in what I thought were very challenging low light conditions. The screw drive focusing locks on quickly and I never found the noise loud, the ability to quickly move from autofocus to manual focus by pushing or pulling a ring on the lens works well. I have the original rectangular lens case which has a compartment to store the tripod foot if you don't with to have it on. The foot, when used with a monopod gives the ability to easily pan along with vehicles , The pivot point just "feels" right.
A special little lens well worth trying if you come across one.

Some of my favourite shots this lens helped me take this month

[Minimonster]

My hedge safety from yesterday got explored. That's 2 this month which is a record for me. Just goes to show that £16's worth of 55 year old glass has still got it. Who needs this super expensive new fangled stuff.

[Sandy Hancock]

Who needs this super expensive new fangled stuff?

Oi! I resemble that remark....

[photolady95]

Oi! I resemble that remark....

Me too, cept, I don't have Sandy's money so I have to buy after someone's used it for years.

My month has been erratic to say the least. Days I haven't been able to shoot because of illness or aches and pains Or just laziness some days.
But I tried to get one as often as I could and I think I did okay. Better than some months where I dropped out completely after a few days in, I stuck to in the end this month.
Thanks to everyone who commented on my photos, and to those who faved my photos too.


I'm not going to post my favorites of mine because your photos were my favorites this month.


As for this lens I used, not real happy with it, it's too heavy matched with the K-5 which is heavy itself, so I'll probably put it in my to sell list. With my tremors, lighter lens are the way to go.

I'm not even sure why I bought this lens to start with, maybe I was hoping it would be good at Macro, but that wasn't the case either. Because I have a confession to make, the macros you saw this month were the result of a Raynox DCR-250 on the end of that lens, not the macro of the lens itself. The macro on the lens is like the macro on a Sigma 70-300mm macro, close focus only. In other words, useless for macro work.


See you all on the flip side, in March were the winds blow and I hope you all come play with me again. I've enjoyed the company this month. Thanks!

[Minimonster]

Oi! I resemble that remark....

It wasn't aimed at you, or anyone, in particular! Just a general observation that excellent lenses don't need to be expensive. And besides, I payed a massive £90 for next month's SMC Takumar 50/1.4... I just hope it was worth it!