[pepperberry farm]

I must be out of my mind, I'm in for August.

he's cRaZy!

[blackcloudbrew]

he's cRaZy!

[raises hand in agreement]

[W412ren]

Well that's it, today's image is up so here is my review of the SMC Pentax-A 50mm F1.2:

Four months in a row - I’ve not managed that before but then I “cheated” for this month by picking a very versatile lens.
Although mine was relatively cheap due to a “cleaning” mark (scuff?) on the front element this does not appear to impact the images in any way.
So it was a nice, easy month for me which was ideal as work is very busy and I did fall behind a couple of times. Being able to use tubes, filters, raynox and close up filters was great, as was catch-in-focus upon occasion
There are a lot of 50mm lenses and not many bad ones. For me this lens is worth the extra cash; it’s very sharp at F1.8-2.0 and has great bokeh from the nine blades; being able to open up to f1.5/4/3/2 for the fun of it or for night images is just great though.
A lot of the A series lenses have a similar diameter barrel which is a nice size to hold (namely the 15, 20, 24, 50/1.2 and 135/2.8) and is very close to the size of the FA31.
This lens is a pleasure to use and also hard to remove from the camera. For our week-long holiday in Northumberland this month I came back with 366 images, 131 of which were with this lens

Favourites from the month are:












And I have to include this one - it is a very nice beverage by the way

[iheiramo]

Well that's it, today's image is up so here is my review of the SMC Pentax-A 50mm F1.2:

That is a nice lens. Looking your shots this month didn't help my LBA I'll probably go for f1.2 or fat fifty at some point. Unless I decide to go ltd road with 43. Decisions, decisions... Luckily there's DFA*85 blocking all the other temptations.

[Cerebum]

I bought my mint in box series 1 Vivitar 105mm macro from a friend at the photographic soc. He wouldn't take more than £25. Best bargain ever! I have been wanting to sic with it for some time and finally I got to do it. I soon realised that the KP with its little grip and little battery wasn't going to get the most outb of the lens so I pushed the boat out and got a battery grip. That was such a good decision! The KP with the grip is a lovely camera when you have a larger lens and the battery life, even in burst mode is stellar. I have put a lot of numbers onto the shutter count this month! As for the lens, the throw is quite long but that makes it really easy to get pin sharp focus. Focus beep on the KP was an accurate guide. The sharpness of this lens is immense. It also renders colours quite richly and I was surprised at just how saturated many of the raw files were. My flicker folder has grown by more than 450 lol. I will resist the temptation to upload them all! Despite the weather being for the most part flat grey and damp this has been a very enjoyable month with some fantastic comments here's to next month when I am going from big and heavy to tiny























And next month, its this little sweetypie

[blackcloudbrew]

Time to wrap up my month with the Laowa 25mm 2.5-5x Ultra Macro. This is a hard lens to work with, if I had a real need for this kind of magnification, I’d be happier with it and going forward, I now have a firm base for when this is needed.

Shooting all month, my main problem was subjects. Almost all my images where shot in my home office with the subjects on my desk. I did do a few images outdoor handheld – in bright sunlight. Clearly working on a tripod it the preferred way to go, because the DoF even at max f-stop of f16, is so thin, it is extremely easy to miss sharp focus, I know, that happened more times than I liked. I suppose one could focus stack with it for better results, but I haven’t ever done one of those. Except of one day, I shot all images with my old friend the K-5, I did one with the K-1II and really, I didn’t notice much difference in process, handling, and quality.

Looking back at my images, there really aren’t any I’m proud of, although this amount of magnification reveals much more about a subject that I realized. I think that is kinda cool. As this lens comes with a mini ring light powered by a USB connection, I clearly have found this little light to be a godsend. That’s because you have to get so close to the subject that the lens itself shadows the subject. The LED is not perfect you can get too close where the LED doesn’t illuminate the subject. One tip is that setting a WB with this light was tricky. I have found that 3700-3800K seems to produce something approaching true color (at least to my eye). As with and dumb lens, you have to focus at f2.8 and then shift the f-stop to something more suitable for the image. Somewhere between f5.6 and f8 seemed about right although sometimes gotta go to f16.

As far as build/handling/image quality goes, it’s all what I expect from Venus Optical Laowa gear. The all metal body is nice and focusing while difficult is very smooth.

Finally, a big thank you to all who took the time to view and comment on my images. There was a lot of good work posted too this month. In particular, the macro work was spot on. On to August!

[pepperberry farm]

end of month review - Auto-Topcor 58mm f1.4 (M42)

I could just copy & paste my review from the December 2019 Challenge here, since this lens is essentially the precursor to the Voigtlander Nokton 58/1.4....

I bought this lens after several months of lust - I knew going in that it was a limited edition, collector's lens that I already had familiarity with (but not in M42 mount!)

this lens pretty much does it all for a manual-focus prime that is probably meant to be more of a collector's item than banging around on someone's farm...

the coatings are just a bit different than the Voigtlander's but that is the only difference I found this month - occasional CA that presents as purple fringing in high contrast shots...

it is sharp, it has amazing contrast, gorgeous bokeh, superior clarity, wondrous color rendition.... the build quality is exquisite; from the metal hood, to the engraved/painted markings, everything is meant to convey quality here...

about the only downside I can truly think of is the price, especially when the Nokton is available...


enough about the lens ... the shots:















and the rest of the month's Singles:

Single In Challenge - July '20 | Flickr

the hard part is that I cannot recommend the lens based on price alone, when you could buy a Nokton at a considerable discount....

[Eric Auer]

Nice (but busy) month with the $20 Computar. I had fun.


NYC-7 by Eric Auer, on Flickr


Fish Ladder by Eric Auer, on Flickr


WalkTalk by Eric Auer, on Flickr


Evening by Eric Auer, on Flickr

---------- Post added 07-31-20 at 10:01 PM ----------

I'm out, have a lovely bout of conjunctivitis. Scratchy eyeball and all that. Antibiotics and cream. Hardly been near the PC, or cameras for that matter for a few days now. Will finish up next month, it's not the lens fault.

Speedy recovery wishes, take care of yourself man

[pepperberry farm]

and my rain shot from Thursday just hit 'explore'

[Chris_K]

and my rain shot from Thursday just hit 'explore'

congrats

[W412ren]

That is a nice lens. Looking your shots this month didn't help my LBA I'll probably go for f1.2 or fat fifty at some point. Unless I decide to go ltd road with 43. Decisions, decisions... Luckily there's DFA*85 blocking all the other temptations.

I have the 43 as well; it is a different lens and experience to the 50/1.2 so you would have to get both

[Sandy Hancock]

I have the 43 as well; it is a different lens and experience to the 50/1.2 so you would have to get both

I have the FA43, the A50/1.2, and the Fat Fifty. And the DA*55. Not to mention a FA50/1.4....

You can't have too many fast normals

[Chris_K]

Don't know which lens to buy? Ask in SIC thread!

---------- Post added 08-01-20 at 02:57 AM ----------

I have the FA43, the A50/1.2, and the Fat Fifty. And the DA*55. Not to mention a FA50/1.4....

I cannot see the F-50/1.4 on the list and it's a very decent lens...

[garywakeling]

Don't know which lens to buy? Ask in SIC thread!

---------- Post added 08-01-20 at 02:57 AM ----------



I cannot see the F-50/1.4 on the list and it's a very decent lens...

Oh don't forget the F 1.7 wonderful reviews or how about some screw mount joy , the 7 or 8 element 1.4, a sweet auto takumar......... oh dear is that a rabbit hole I see

[Sandy Hancock]

I didn't suggest for a moment that I have enough....