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12-31-2019, 06:25 PM - 4 Likes   #211
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A good month - the FA77 is as reliable as its reputation would say.
I have had the lens a while but not used it for such an extended period before so it was a worthwhile month for me.
I like it and will probably keep hold of it - looks good on the silver K-1 - but I think I prefer the A*85 - both look of the images and focal length

These are my favourite images from the month:











01-01-2020, 12:34 AM - 1 Like   #212
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QuoteOriginally posted by Tsuken Quote
Interesting pair of posts - as I have the M50 and have been thinking I might want/need the DA 50. I do like the M; it was the first Pentax lens I bought (for use on my Lumix at the time), I quite like the focal length, and some of the images have been nice - but I also share all your gripes with it.

As for the DA 50 - that sounds ever more enticing.
I have experience with both lenses. I recently shot my FF round with M50/2 and that's the end of it in my use. With cheap M50/1.7 around there's just no reason to shoot with M50/2. Rightly handled f2 can produce wonderful images, but looses to faster sibling in every aspect.

DA50 on the other hand made me ditch DA18-135 and zoom lenses. Results just were so far above. Later I sold it as I liked more of the rendering of M50/1.7, but that's a matter of taste. DA50 is the sharper of the two and have AF functions, but I think f1.7 has better transition and bokeh.
01-01-2020, 01:17 AM - 4 Likes   #213
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I write this on the first morning of 2020. Didn't have time to do wrap up yesterday with skiing, packing, driving and party in the evening, but now feels like a good time, as others are still sleeping. Happy new year everyone

I chose M85/2 for December on purpose as I had plenty of travel in program and wanted to have a lens I knew to provide excellent results and it didn't let me down. Plenty of keepers from this month and of course only handfull visible here on the challenge. So photograficly a good month. My performance on SIC, on the other hand, not a perfect ten. I did the main functions of shooting daily and posting pretty much on time, so that's allright. But I didn't have time and energy to go thru the shots from the others. So I apologies my antisocial behaviour and thank everyone who had the motivation to go thru my shots and leave comments. I'll try to do better on January.

M85/2 is the cheapest 85mm in Pentax catalogue and, I believe, also the smallest. I guess this is very much you get what you pay for -situation. I do like my M85, but based on the shots I've seen lenses like A*85/1.4 are even better. But as I don't do paid work, the M85 is budget friendly and perfectly good enough portrait lens that is also easy to carry along on travel. As typical with M's this lens gets softer wide open. I remember avoiding it on APSC, but with FF it looks sharp enough on monitor size and I took plenty of shots wide open this month. There's an old sharpness test available on internet which give this lens really bad results wide open, but I don't believe my copy falls that much in sharpness, so there might be sample variation or K1ii is a real miracle maker

This lens can produce annoying purple fringing and lots of green fringing, which to me is less disturbing. I had to manually desaturate purple out of some shots as the automatic clean up didn't manage to fix it. Stopped down to f5.6 fringing is pretty much gone, so wide open in strong contrast might not succeed with this lens and it's something you need to be aware of.

Otherwise I have no complain. Bokeh is nice, Transition good and sharpness easily good enough for me. Definitely a keeper and will stay on my travel bag also in future. I continue SIC in January with M150/3.5.

Wide open:






f4:


f8:




01-01-2020, 10:09 AM - 3 Likes   #214
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wrapping up the month/year/decade, etc....

my review of the Voigtlander Nokton 58mm f1.4 SL II:


an impressive lens, but that was the reputation going in...

I bought this lens used from another PF member here and it arrived in new condition (boxed, OEM hood and caps) and at a surprising price ($400 US), but remember that, since they are no longer in production, you'll be shopping for a used lens...

having used the Ultron 40/2 in previous months, I expected the quality of a Voigtlander and was not disappointed - engraved markings, tight tolerances, metal build, smoooooooooth focus ring...

but, like the good, you're interested in the bad and the only thing I've gleaned over the last month is occasional CA in super-high contrast shots, and easily correctable either by stopping down or in post...

that's it - that's as bad as this lens gets...

but the good - color, clarity, bokeh, all in spades...

and the shots!











and the rest of the month's shots:

Single In Challenge 12/19 | Flickr


in short - if you are looking for a midrange, manual focus lens with superior optics, this one should be on your short list...

01-01-2020, 10:28 AM - 3 Likes   #215
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My month was a bit of a bust really. The extreme wide angle of the K18 didn't really suit the drab, grey, dull weather. I wasn't able to visit interesting interiors, and landscapes were hopeless. Having said that, the few shots I did take with the K18 were surprisingly soft compared to my other K-series lenses. I'll be interested to see what the film images I took using it are like.

Happy New Year all, and good shooting for the SICs.
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