[Tsuken]

Ok. January. My first full month with my lovely HD Pentax-DA 21mm f3.2 ED AL Limited.

Wow. If you don't have one, get one.

Review done.

I am seriously in love with this lens; it has hardly left my KP since I got it on Christmas Day. A few times, of course, I've had the "damn I wish I had a tele" when something far away presents itself. In no other way have I wished for anything else. It's sharp but not retina-slicingly so, and it imparts a really appealing look or feeling to many scenes. (For the sake of comparison I turned on lens "corrections" in Lightroom ... and immediately turned them off again with extreme prejudice; the character of images was mightily diminished.) There's a really nice sense to the contrast: not too heavy, but there's somehow more depth and oomph than I've noticed with any of my other lenses most of the time. Colours are great, focus is quick (more on that in a sec) and accurate - at least through the viewfinder - even in low light; the other day in low light in live view the camera missed Sully and kept focusing to the chair or deck behind him ... but I guess that's the camera, not the lens - and certainly as soon as I knelt down and used the viewfinder it focused where I wanted.

As to the more on the focus that I mentioned... I was concerned at first, that when it focused to or close to MFD, it wouldn't then move focus back out: the focus motor would whirr; there would be a little go at moving; it would pop back to MFD. manually focusing to longer than 25cm or thereabouts allowed it to move freely again. That's totally freed up now, as far as I can tell. That seemed to me to correlate with a couple of times when I just spammed the AF button until it finally moved. Whatever, it's great now, so I don't care whether it was that, just time, or something else I can't think of.

Having decided (quite early on) to use the lens all year, I'm glad my feelings towards it have not changed.

I hope to have more to report over the next eleven months...

21 in January 21.

This I think gives an example of the character of the images; there’s just a je ne sais quoi that really feels right to me:


Sully by -Occasionally Focused-

Ok this is cropped, but still, you can get some really good close detail:


Damselfly by -Occasionally Focused-

I like something about most of the photos I posted - so I count it a good month, and won’t re-spam them here.

Onwards!

[iheiramo]

All shots posted, so wrap up time. I did back to back M/F50/1.7 to get the feel of their differences. Handling and build quality goes for M, so I'd prefer it for slow tripod work with manual focus in live view. Handling feeling of F is real crappy. Therefore I used manual focus only a few times and was mostly happy with AF. No complains in it. K1ii AF produced at better rate than I can do manually even with catch in focus. I believe both AFS and AFC are good enough for my needs. Not every frame is perfect, but spread a little and you get enough. Wide open sharpness goes for F. This is the major IQ difference between the lenses. I have a feeling that there is a small difference in bokeh quality, but which one is better depends on the case and it's so small that in reality doesn't matter. If there are other differences, they are something I didn't notice during 2 months of daily shooting.

So these lenses are practically the same. The choice between them is decided more by the way you want to shoot than by IQ. The main reason for me to get the F was to upgrade IQ from DA18-135 to something better with AF as cheaply as possible for my wife to use with K3. I got this for about 120€ and it has been clear upgrade in her horse pics, so mission acomplished.

Personal performance was an other succesfull month with shots taken and delivered each day. Some really good shots, some where I put real effort into photography and some safeties or otherwise not special shots that can be forgotten. The weighty eighty cut my enthusiasm of F50 a little. It was hard to get exited about my results with F after first test shooting with DFA*. I'm little worried that I'm spoiling my self and I might not be able to accept anything less in the future, but boldly into February and worry later how much it will cost me to get all the future DFA* primes that Pentax will release. Still wondering if I should do wide open February or actually stop down that lens some day

Few favorites from the month:

[garywakeling]

Another month done and dusted, lots of fun with the QS1 and 02 lens. Basically the equivalent of a 24-70 on full frame. A classic angle of view and versatile little combo. I normally use my original Q with this lens, the original lens hood showed slight vignetting with the QS1 and so I splurged on the updated hood with cutouts on the corners, that seemed to fix the issue. The small knob on the front of the QS1 that serves as a grip always looked more style than useful grip to me, I was wrong, the camera feels really nice in the hand and I never felt that it was hard to find a grip and it was comfortable. Maybe all that talk on the story of the K3 iii about the position of the third finger being the key to the grip may be correct.
The 02 lens proved versatile and the zoom range worked well. It has had reviews saying that the bokeh is hard to produce, however I found that it was pretty easy to get the subject isolated against a nice soft out of focus background.
The little Q system is so easy to use, all the menus of the larger cameras feel similar, the colours are very Pentax and I still wish this mirrorless system was still being invested in.

Some of my favourites from the month

[robgski]

The first real snow of 2021 is occurring as I type, I am glad I woke up so early to find everything already coated in white, with more flakes falling. Once I finish this coffee, I will put on some warm clothes and put the DA 21mm to good use for this last day of SIC for January.

Wow. If you don't have one, get one

I agree, and the images prove it.

[Cerebum]

Ok. January. My first full month with my lovely HD Pentax-DA 21mm f3.2 ED AL Limited.

Wow. If you don't have one, get one.

Review done.

I am seriously in love with this lens; it has hardly left my KP since I got it on Christmas Day. A few times, of course, I've had the "damn I wish I had a tele" when something far away presents itself. In no other way have I wished for anything else. It's sharp but not retina-slicingly so, and it imparts a really appealing look or feeling to many scenes. (For the sake of comparison I turned on lens "corrections" in Lightroom ... and immediately turned them off again with extreme prejudice; the character of images was mightily diminished.) There's a really nice sense to the contrast: not too heavy, but there's somehow more depth and oomph than I've noticed with any of my other lenses most of the time. Colours are great, focus is quick (more on that in a sec) and accurate - at least through the viewfinder - even in low light; the other day in low light in live view the camera missed Sully and kept focusing to the chair or deck behind him ... but I guess that's the camera, not the lens - and certainly as soon as I knelt down and used the viewfinder it focused where I wanted.

As to the more on the focus that I mentioned... I was concerned at first, that when it focused to or close to MFD, it wouldn't then move focus back out: the focus motor would whirr; there would be a little go at moving; it would pop back to MFD. manually focusing to longer than 25cm or thereabouts allowed it to move freely again. That's totally freed up now, as far as I can tell. That seemed to me to correlate with a couple of times when I just spammed the AF button until it finally moved. Whatever, it's great now, so I don't care whether it was that, just time, or something else I can't think of.

Having decided (quite early on) to use the lens all year, I'm glad my feelings towards it have not changed.

I hope to have more to report over the next eleven months...

21 in January 21.

This I think gives an example of the character of the images; there’s just a je ne sais quoi that really feels right to me:


Sully by -Occasionally Focused-

Ok this is cropped, but still, you can get some really good close detail:


Damselfly by -Occasionally Focused-

I like something about most of the photos I posted - so I count it a good month, and won’t re-spam them here.

Onwards!

These shots have been superb. I love the 21mm, the detail throughout the image is exceptional. Did you find it got better as the days passed? Fabulous month

---------- Post added 01-31-21 at 04:21 AM ----------

Well, that was a revelation. I love limited lenses but the 40mm is astonishingly sharp. @tsuken add this to next years Christmas list! Its amazing just how cheaply you can buy this lens. My copy came from France. I love it when a lens has a back story (my 35mm limited and 18-135mm came from Japan), you wonder what it has seen before. One thing is for sure, this lens will be staying with me for the rest of my photography life.This has made it to my favourites list along with the 35mm & 21mm limiteds. Next month I get to play with the last of the DA limited primes, the 15mm!

330 shots in the flickr album, choosing my favourites was really hard

[Chris_K]

Thanks to everyone for the comments and critique on my pictures.
It was a hectic month for me, and I sometimes had to struggle for the time and the energy for photography. The lens - Pentax-A 35-70/4 - was kindly given to by the forum member here
The lens is a good performer; nothing more but also nothing less. The image quality is reasonably good and even wide-open it is quite decent - I got some very satisfactory results with it. Below some of my faves from this month.

[pepperberry farm]

Thanks to everyone for the comments and critique on my pictures.
It was a hectic month for me, and I sometimes had to struggle for the time and the energy for photography. The lens - Pentax-A 35-70/4 - was kindly given to by the forum member here
The lens is a good performer; nothing more but also nothing less. The image quality is reasonably good and even wide-open it is quite decent - I got some very satisfactory results with it. Below some of my faves from this month.

is that the beat-to-death lens I sent you?

[mattt]

I'm not inclined to do lens reviews because the exercise of "single in" has always been one of learning for me. My first challenge was back in July of 2011. I shot the SMC Pentax A 100mm ƒ4.0 Macro for a month in April 2012.

Why do I single in?

-personal stories from abroad
-virtual site/sight seeing
-exposure to new techniques or thoughts on photography
-a genuine curiosity
-discipline

So while maybe I might not of have added constructively in some comments over the month, I've enjoyed the bits of your self that you've chosen to share. And I know, you may have seen a bit too much of me personally, I hope you will recover from the grotesque subject matter, and enjoyed a bit of the chatter we've shared. After all during a pandemic lockdown, it's tough to find a variety of humans to fill the frame with.

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you."
~ Dale Carnegie ~

Now that January is in the rearview, I need to focus on whats in front of me...

[zubzubadoodle]

This has been an interesting month using the Ernst Leitz Dimaron 10cm f2.8 Projector Lens, and I even managed to get pictures most days. The depth of field is so thin that I had to tape a piece of card with a hole cut out onto the front of the lens to give it a smaller aperture. A card lens hood was added later as the lens suffers from flare. It seems to get better images when underexposed by a stop and then played with a bit in photoshop. A couple of my favourites from the month:

[Chris_K]

is that the beat-to-death lens I sent you?

Precisely
It looks like it has seen places :P but still works fine!

[Riggomatic]

This has been a great learning experience! By the third day of January, I was running out of ideas, but looking at other photos and others comments in the group helped fill the inspiration tank enough to get to the 31st.


I've not really shot a lot of wide angle lenses, and the 28mm was a great way to dip my toes into that pool.

My copy seemed to be pretty sharp wide open, and I was able to crop in when needed without adding too much sharpening to the image.

I appreciate all the comments and suggestions I received throughout the month, and look forward to another challenge in February.

Thank you

[Cerebum]

I'm not inclined to do lens reviews because the exercise of "single in" has always been one of learning for me. My first challenge was back in July of 2011. I shot the SMC Pentax A 100mm ƒ4.0 Macro for a month in April 2012.

Why do I single in?

-personal stories from abroad
-virtual site/sight seeing
-exposure to new techniques or thoughts on photography
-a genuine curiosity
-discipline

So while maybe I might not of have added constructively in some comments over the month, I've enjoyed the bits of your self that you've chosen to share. And I know, you may have seen a bit too much of me personally, I hope you will recover from the grotesque subject matter, and enjoyed a bit of the chatter we've shared. After all during a pandemic lockdown, it's tough to find a variety of humans to fill the frame with.

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you."
~ Dale Carnegie ~

Now that January is in the rearview, I need to focus on whats in front of me...

Your work has been a joy. So much imagination and humour, I have loved it. I hope you are coming to play next month, there are several ultra wides (lenses, not photographers ..... Although....) So it should be fun

---------- Post added 01-31-21 at 02:42 PM ----------

This has been a great learning experience! By the third day of January, I was running out of ideas, but looking at other photos and others comments in the group helped fill the inspiration tank enough to get to the 31st.


I've not really shot a lot of wide angle lenses, and the 28mm was a great way to dip my toes into that pool.

My copy seemed to be pretty sharp wide open, and I was able to crop in when needed without adding too much sharpening to the image.

I appreciate all the comments and suggestions I received throughout the month, and look forward to another challenge in February.

Thank you

Riggo, what's the lens for next month?

[Riggomatic]

Your work has been a joy. So much imagination and humour, I have loved it. I hope you are coming to play next month, there are several ultra wides (lenses, not photographers ..... Although....) So it should be fun

---------- Post added 01-31-21 at 02:42 PM ----------



Riggo, what's the lens for next month?

K series 35mm F2. I'd like to keep it somewhat wide angle for another month

[pepperberry farm]

K series 35mm F2. I'd like to keep it somewhat wide angle for another month

wide?

come on, go wider..... I think there are three of us (so far) running at 15mm.....

[Riggomatic]

wide?

come on, go wider..... I think there are three of us (so far) running at 15mm.....

My wide choices are pretty slim.

K series 24mm
Or
Tamron 17-35.