[MSL]

Time to launch the sixth edition of: Something Special About That Lens 70-100 mm

The goal of this contest is to show off some special feature of a lens, whether it is a fish eye, bokeh monster, super starbursts, perfect for reversing, super sharp, dreamy colors, super fast wide open aperture / narrow depth of field, creative use of vignetting etc. Pull out that hidden gem you haven't used in a while and find how it can enable your creativity. While members are free to like any image they like, ideally voting should be towards images that show off the special feature of the lens. Entrants are encouraged to include a short description with the image to tell what special feature they are trying to highlight.


The formal stuff:

• 1 entry per person per month. Any brand of lens, but the photo should be taken with a Pentax or Ricoh DSLR/SLR camera.
• PLEASE INCLUDE a short blurb explaining the special characteristics of the lens you are trying to show off
• To enter, reply to this message and put your image in this thread.
• The top entries (this will be adjusted based on how much interest there is each round), based on total likes, will then be voted on in a poll for the monthly prize (one 128 GB SD card, or three (3) 32 GB SD cards).
• The 2nd - 4th place finishers in the poll voting each month will be entered into the December contest for additional prizes.
• In the event of a tie, I will cast a tie-breaker vote, based on how I rank the images before voting on the short list begins.

This month: 70-100 mm (absolute lens focal length, don't include any crop factors - no math required!). Zoom lenses set to within this range are allowed.

Entries will close at the end of the month, but voting will continue until September 14 and then the shortlist voting poll will run for about 14 days after that.

If you have any questions and they are specific to this month please put them here, otherwise please use this thread (Something special about that lens - NEW CONTEST series - PentaxForums.com) to learn more about the origins of this contest.


FINALLY: Whether you enter or not, please go view the photos from Issue 6 (Something special about that lens - round 6: 51-69 mm - PentaxForums.com) and LIKE the ones that you think best show off a special characteristic of a lens. To that extent, credit should be given for those who included a short blurb about their images as befitting the purpose of this contest.

[pepperberry farm]

my choice - the Tamron Adaptall-2 SP 72B

this is a 90mm f2.8 macro lens - the optics are still being used today in Tamron's current 90/2.8 macro lenses...

the 72B was the last of the Adaptall lenses, and the last to be manually-focused - after this, Tamron made specific lenses for each mount, and everything was AF after this lens...

for me, this was my first true macro lens and the first lens that made me a better photographer than I am in my own mind; the images this lens produces are beyond my capabilities....

the 72B has a special capability in focusing - with it being a macro, the focus ring has a huge run, but if you are paying attention when focusing - the image will 'pop' into focus, every time....

the 72B is the only lens that I have ever used for more than one month in the Single In Challenge - it's that special to me...

[ramseybuckeye]

For this round I'm going to go with the Tamron SP AF Di 90mm f2.8 macro 1:1 lens (Tamron 272E). This is a nice compact autofocus lens with a focus limiter. I have never used the focus limiter, because I have only used the autofocus a couple of times, in which it seemed pretty accurate. For macro I really don't think autofocus is necessary, but I got the lens used at a very good price. Using as a manual focus, it has a nice long focus throw of about 270 degrees. Of course the lens is sharp, the bokeh is very smooth, and I like the color it puts forth, more than other Tamron lenses that I have owned (I haven't owned that many). It was a hard choice in picking a photo for this, this one may not have a lot of appeal, but I thought it shows the sharpness, bokeh, and colors produced. This is catmint, for scale the blossoms which grow in clusters are each about a quarter inch across

[MossyRocks]

Pretty light this month. I've been lax in things and need to be better about posting. Time to go have fun with a fun and odd 70mm, or possibly be dumb with a 100mm.
Posting so I don't have to try and find this thread again.

[pepperberry farm]

Pretty light this month. I've been lax in things and need to be better about posting. Time to go have fun with a fun and odd 70mm, or possibly be dumb with a 100mm.
Posting so I don't have to try and find this thread again.

yes - it seems the interest has faded in this game....

[MossyRocks]

yes - it seems the interest has faded in this game....

For me it isn't interest it is just having the time. I think I've gone out shooting two or three times in the last 2+ months.

[ramseybuckeye]

For me it isn't interest it is just having the time. I think I've gone out shooting two or three times in the last 2+ months.

Today was the first I've got out to shoot since the 14th, and stupidly took about 400 images, but I finally got through them all, and stupidly kept 181 of them. Way more than I wanted to shoot, and way more than I intended to keep. I guess the cameras need exercised.

[José Mª Coca]

It is the first time that I present myself to Contest Something special about that lens - round 7: 70-100 mm. I have really liked uploaded photographs and I take advantage of the fact that I have rediscovered this lens, to publish one of the first photographs taken with it.
I am sending a white flower of Pelargonium grandiflorum that was in a pot on my terrace, taken with my Pentax K1 II camera, and a Tamrom SP 90 mm objective. 1: 2,5 telemacro 27th BBAR MC 49, which was the last to buy from my film system.
This lens, along with four others, were in a box that I had at my mother's house, for a long time, possibly before I got married. And this year my sister-in-law told me that she had a box that was mine, and please take it, because She was to paint the room.
Thanks to the Pentax converter I have been able to save this lens that being manual focus, it is very sharp and has an optimal focal length that can be used for portraiture. And I am very happy to I have been able to enjoy and to use it to photograph the plants on my terrace and use it as a short telephoto lens

[ramseybuckeye]

It is the first time that I present myself to Contest Something special about that lens - round 7: 70-100 mm. I have really liked uploaded photographs and I take advantage of the fact that I have rediscovered this lens, to publish one of the first photographs taken with it.
I am sending a white flower of Pelargonium grandiflorum that was in a pot on my terrace, taken with my Pentax K1 II camera, and a Tamrom SP 90 mm objective. 1: 2,5 telemacro 27th BBAR MC 49, which was the last to buy from my film system.
This lens, along with four others, were in a box that I had at my mother's house, for a long time, possibly before I got married. And this year my sister-in-law told me that she had a box that was mine, and please take it, because She was to paint the room.
Thanks to the Pentax converter I have been able to save this lens that being manual focus, it is very sharp and has an optimal focal length that can be used for portraiture. And I am very happy to I have been able to enjoy and to use it to photograph the plants on my terrace and use it as a short telephoto lens

Congratulations for rediscovering the lens, like finding lost gold, and great photo!

[José Mª Coca]

Congratulations for rediscovering the lens, like finding lost gold, and great photo!

Tom Ramsey, thank you very much for your kind comments

[pepperberry farm]

seems like the Tamron 90mm is a favorite, no matter the version...

(:

[MossyRocks]

Well because time is running out and I didn't manage to get a good shot showing what I wanted with the lens I wanted. My submission for this month is the D FA 100/2.8 WR Macro. However the submission is not for it's normal characteristics that everyone loves but what happens when one decides to be really dumb with it. By this I mean reverse mounting it on a 17-31mm helicoid. I got the idea by seeing what happens when one reverse mounts the auto 110 70mm f/2.8 on a extension tube and possible helicoid that someone else posted. I have also done that but the images I shot that showed the effect were awful to look and I can't locate the previous ones I did that didn't suck. So you get to see the massive field curvature that is so bad it actually becomes something to use artistically. With this setup the lens will focus from a bit past infinity down into the macro range so this means if you are doing some macro shooting you can really smoosh things not in the center of the frame into a real massive blur even at high f-stops.



For this image I manually focused and operated the aperture lever by hand and it was probably between f/10 and f/16 if I had to guess

[José Mª Coca]

I like this photograph because for me it is disturbing, on the one hand the left side of the door is in focus as well as the trees in the background, and the right side is out of focus. The trees in the background appear to be farther away than the right side of the door.

[MossyRocks]

I like this photograph because for me it is disturbing, on the one hand the left side of the door is in focus as well as the trees in the background, and the right side is out of focus. The trees in the background appear to be farther away than the right side of the door.

I assume that was for my image. It isn't a door but a section of old fence in a park. The effect is from a high depth of field (being fairly far back from the subject and shot at between like f/10 and f/16) and massive field curvature as one moves away from the center of the image. This was a fun "feature" I discovered and I have tried it a few times since but it has never worked out as well as this shot. It really needs the correct subject that works being centered in the frame and I do keep the gear necessary for it with me in the bag. Now that I think about it I wonder if I can get a k->whatever adapter that will allow aperture control on DFA and DA lenses so I wouldn't have to play around with manually moving it with my finger while taking the shot and hope I don't get my fingers in the shot.

I find it to be a better version of the fake bokeh simulation that phones give now as it is predictable and once one understands what it happening it does mentally make sense. It doesn't hurt that the transitions into and out of the area of field curvature are nice and smooth so that also helps the mind accept it.

[pepperberry farm]

.... so.... whatever happened here?