Game Single in November 2021

garywakeling · 11-30-2021, 10:04 AM

Originally posted by Cerebum

You have had some belters this month

Thank you

Chris_K · 11-30-2021, 10:41 AM - **5 Likes**

I think I'm going to finish my month by skipping the last day as it's been quite busy, gloomy and grey. The lens - SMC Pentax-M 40-80/2.8-4 - is a very interesting and capable lens. The range of focal length is somehow weird on APSC and a relatively long MFD (1.2 m or so) is a downside to me. I might be biased here, however, as I was taking a lot of indoor shots where the MFD counts more. It feels a bit bulky, too. On the other hand, the macro feature turned out to be very useful and allows for partly overcoming the short MFD. Optically it's decent: a bit soft wide-open; improves around f/5.6. What I really liked is the bokeh when shooting wide open in a macro mode. Just beautiful. Thank you all for your great images this month and for commenting on mines. Some faves below.

**iheiramo** · 11-30-2021, 12:47 PM - **5 Likes**

Month of monochrome is done and it was eyes opening experience. I hesitated this thing beforehand, but it turned out to be blast and just the thing that our grey November needs. Thought this year the weather was way better than average. I shot every day. One step from pure monochrome with selective colour shot, but it was so much better with some red in it that I had to do it.

My beloved DFA*85 just keeps impressing. You get nothing but praise from me. Beautiful lens.

I don't bother with favorites this time. There's so many good shots, that it's better if you simply go straight to the full album to see them all

Pentax DFA*85/1.4 November Monochromes | Flickr

**Cerebum** · 11-30-2021, 12:48 PM - **6 Likes**

I am doing the same as Chris and finishing a day early. It has been a grim one today. The smc fa 35mm f2 is a lovely lens. I didn't really realise what I got it until the end of the month, indeed this review reminded me of some shots that I absolutely love. The hexagonal bokeh and star bursts aren't epic but it is sharp and, being full frame, that goes out to the corners when it is on an apsc. Auto focus is fairly average speed wise and a few times I had to refocus a couple of times before I was happy. Other than that it is great. It was a cheap lens, I think mine cost £120, its pretty fast, its sharp, its light. Will I be keeping it and would I recommend it? 100% yes

severalsnakes · 11-30-2021, 02:05 PM - **4 Likes**

Awesome work, everyone. I am DONE with November. The monochrome was not as big an issue as I thought it might be, but the Access 35-70/2.5-3.5 is just a blob. Heavy, wobbly, hard to focus, not terribly sharp anyway, and the "macro" function isn't anything to write home about. Add in some home improvement projects and the Thanksgiving holiday and I just couldn't find the energy to love it. Plus, I'm kind of an obsessive hoarder of information and manual zooms make me a little crazy because the focal length changes without telling the camera. This baby is going to find a seat on the shelf and sit there.

I liked these, anyway:

**pepperberry farm** · 11-30-2021, 03:05 PM - **5 Likes**

wrapping up MoNovember for 2021 with the SMC A 28mm f2.8

what a delightful lens - I knew going into the month that the 28mm focal length is not my favorite; I prefer 24mm over 28mm any day.... but this is a Challenge, right?

build quality, color, clarity, bokeh, sharpness - for a bog-standard 28mm lens, this has it all in spades...

it has a reasonable MFD, the 'A' functionality, and in a small package...

I shot all month long on three different bodies, and it performed awesomely every day.... so why don't I care for it? (no idea - it just never sang to me)

some of my fav's from the month:

and the rest of the month:

Single in Challenge - MoNovember '21 | Flickr

great lens in a small package, but not for me; it's going up for sale....

**Riggomatic** · 11-30-2021, 03:50 PM - **4 Likes**

My month with the SMC 85mm f1.8. Like it, yup. Keeping it, yup. At f1.8, it was just too soft for me, and I would stop down at least 1 click, but for most of my shots, I hovered around f4. A sharp lens with lots of focus throw to dial in the subject.

Some of my favorites for the month:

zubzubadoodle · 11-30-2021, 05:01 PM - **5 Likes**

Helios Cyclop 85mm with a fixed f1.5, taken from a Russian night vision scope. The DOF is paper thin, it's optically fairly terrible and it doesn't quite focus to infinity. I love it. The bokeh can be a bit over the top on occasion but you just have to find the best distance between camera, subject and background.
Unfortunately, MoNovember has not been too kind to it. The bokeh sometimes loses quite a bit of interest in the conversion from colour to mono. I probably need to practice some more with a couple of the shots to find the best conversion. I did find that playing to it's "strength" and reducing the contrast helped. Here are some comparisons:

The rest are here: Single in November 2021 | Flickr

Benz3ne · 12-01-2021, 12:12 AM - **4 Likes**

This month ended up being a very good one for me (in my opinion). I got into a nice groove with the mono shots from fairly early on and found plenty of things to take some semi-wide shots of (usually on my commute).
Part of me wants to continue using this lovely little lens (Sara, I can see why you rate it so highly), but I think I will swap it out for something to have a different focal length to play with.
It's acceptably sharp wide-open and stopping down just turns that aspect up to 11. Contrast is strong and it handles beautifully, with a soft, well-dampened throw.
A few of my favourites from this month:

My apologies again for being p*ss poor at commenting.

Mikey Floyd · 12-01-2021, 01:40 AM - **3 Likes**

Thanks everyone for having me join the ride again!

The lens - it's a winner. The only negative about it is the added weight of the adaptor between it and the camera. I can hardly blame that on Mr Pentax though can I?

The mono - can we all do that again please?

The format and restrictions I placed on myself - I think I got a great deal out of having the framework around the shooting and presentation. I'm pretty much sure to do some other set of extra criteria for myself next time I join in. I do hope that my posting only every second day didn't bother anybody? To tell the truth, it is this more than anything else that probably makes the difference for me between being involved or not, I just can't get excited about turning the computer on every single day.

Everyone else's images - were overall so very strong, inspirational and enjoyable. There were far more absolute crackers than any reasonable expectations would suggest.

The positive feedback - is really appreciated and warms my little heart.

The constructive criticism - is especially welcomed and gives me pause for thought and a pathway to consider things that I otherwise wouldn't.

I thought I'd re-post just my one favourite image here - as I was trying to decide though I realised that it is the little three each day all collectively that is my favourite aspect of the month. I'd like to put all 90 of them together and get a print, obviously it'll have to be a decent size. For now, if anyone is keen they line up nicely on my Flickr album page for the month. Other than the 22nd (when I blew out my film budget for the day) that is all the photo's I took with the 50/2.8 for the month.

Single in... November 2021 | Flickr

I'm going to watch from a safe distance while you all enjoy your 21's for December - I'm sure to be back though before too long. See you then!

**robgski** · 12-01-2021, 03:33 AM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by iheiramo

Month of monochrome is done and it was eyes opening experience. I hesitated this thing beforehand, but it turned out to be blast and just the thing that our grey November needs.

I am very glad to know you enjoyed trying out MoNovember, it really is a revelation. I need to use the selective color feature in-camera. Also, I need to consider using other shades for Monochrome, sometimes they add something great to the final image.

For any you who were resistant to devote more time to BW, many of your images would have been great MoNovember entries, maybe next year.

Originally posted by Mikey Floyd

The constructive criticism - is especially welcomed and gives me pause for thought and a pathway to consider things that I otherwise wouldn't.

Your idea was a great one, I am sure future photo collages will be even better. You can also devote any day week or month you choose to shooting only BW.

I did end the month with an image, props get heavier usage as the days get shorter and my schedule becomes busier.

Tsuken · 12-01-2021, 01:46 PM - **4 Likes**

Well, that was fun. I did mostly monochrome, but because reasons, here and there I left in the colour.

Surprisingly there were only a few trolley pics; I also found a *lot* of Sully - sometimes safety shots of him - seven Sullivans all told this month.

It was excellent fun, and the DA 21 continues to be a source of joy. As does the KP. Fab combo; truly brilliant.

Only a couple of karate-related pics, both of which I really like:

Keiko-gi by -Occasionally Focused-

Makiwara by -Occasionally Focused-

Probably my fave of Sully from this month:

Sleepy Sully by -Occasionally Focused-

And my fave of the month's trolleys:

Crashed and bork by -Occasionally Focused-

And Christmas colour to break the mono:

Oh Christmas tree by -Occasionally Focused-

My verdict remains: if you have an APS-C Pentax and don't have the DA 21 limited already, do yourself a favour and score one. Seriously. It is worth getting close to subjects - and please please please embrace the "distortion" aka characteristics of the lens, and don't let software "correct" it. - Because if you do, you'll wonder why I rave about this lens.

On to December, and completion of my "21 in 21" project.

**Cerebum** · 12-01-2021, 02:18 PM

@tsuken I applied lens corrections to mine, went eurgh and re set it to as shot

Tsuken · 12-01-2021, 11:38 PM

Originally posted by Cerebum

@tsuken I applied lens corrections to mine, went eurgh and re set it to as shot

Exactly my response whenever I’ve done it

**UncleVanya** · 12-02-2021, 10:20 AM

Originally posted by garywakeling

Well we made it to the end of another month with a single lens, my month with the FA* 200mm 2.8 was an easy time, my comments for other peoples photos have been somewhat lacking and apologies for that, I did love the mono month but mostly went colour in my efforts.
Number one with this lens is the quality of resolution, top notch and a step up from the 80-200 2.8 zoom from the same era. I found the bokeh to be pleasant and I sometimes noticed an almost circular helios feel to the photos in the viewfinder which was not so pronounced in the actual images. The minimum focus distance is not too bad and I cannot remember any slowness with focusing via the screw drive. A few shots that I liked from the month

Interesting. I found the fa* 80-200 to be superior to my da* in several ways including purple fringing.

11-30-2021, 10:41 AM - 5 Likes	#167
Chris_K Pentaxian Join Date: Sep 2018 Location: Poland Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,800	I think I'm going to finish my month by skipping the last day as it's been quite busy, gloomy and grey. The lens - SMC Pentax-M 40-80/2.8-4 - is a very interesting and capable lens. The range of focal length is somehow weird on APSC and a relatively long MFD (1.2 m or so) is a downside to me. I might be biased here, however, as I was taking a lot of indoor shots where the MFD counts more. It feels a bit bulky, too. On the other hand, the macro feature turned out to be very useful and allows for partly overcoming the short MFD. Optically it's decent: a bit soft wide-open; improves around f/5.6. What I really liked is the bokeh when shooting wide open in a macro mode. Just beautiful. Thank you all for your great images this month and for commenting on mines. Some faves below. Last edited by Chris_K; 11-30-2021 at 11:41 AM.

11-30-2021, 12:47 PM - 5 Likes	#168
iheiramo Unoriginal Poster Join Date: Nov 2016 Location: Espoo Photos: Albums Posts: 3,182	MoNovember 2021 Month of monochrome is done and it was eyes opening experience. I hesitated this thing beforehand, but it turned out to be blast and just the thing that our grey November needs. Thought this year the weather was way better than average. I shot every day. One step from pure monochrome with selective colour shot, but it was so much better with some red in it that I had to do it. My beloved DFA85 just keeps impressing. You get nothing but praise from me. Beautiful lens. I don't bother with favorites this time. There's so many good shots, that it's better if you simply go straight to the full album to see them all Pentax DFA85/1.4 November Monochromes \| Flickr

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11-30-2021, 10:04 AM	#166
garywakeling Moderator Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Melbourne Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,759	Originally posted by Cerebum You have had some belters this month Thank you

11-30-2021, 12:48 PM - 6 Likes	#169
Cerebum Site Supporter Join Date: Oct 2017 Location: Lancaster Photos: Gallery Posts: 3,828	I am doing the same as Chris and finishing a day early. It has been a grim one today. The smc fa 35mm f2 is a lovely lens. I didn't really realise what I got it until the end of the month, indeed this review reminded me of some shots that I absolutely love. The hexagonal bokeh and star bursts aren't epic but it is sharp and, being full frame, that goes out to the corners when it is on an apsc. Auto focus is fairly average speed wise and a few times I had to refocus a couple of times before I was happy. Other than that it is great. It was a cheap lens, I think mine cost £120, its pretty fast, its sharp, its light. Will I be keeping it and would I recommend it? 100% yes

11-30-2021, 02:05 PM - 4 Likes	#170
severalsnakes Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Kansas City, KS Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,612	Awesome work, everyone. I am DONE with November. The monochrome was not as big an issue as I thought it might be, but the Access 35-70/2.5-3.5 is just a blob. Heavy, wobbly, hard to focus, not terribly sharp anyway, and the "macro" function isn't anything to write home about. Add in some home improvement projects and the Thanksgiving holiday and I just couldn't find the energy to love it. Plus, I'm kind of an obsessive hoarder of information and manual zooms make me a little crazy because the focal length changes without telling the camera. This baby is going to find a seat on the shelf and sit there. I liked these, anyway:

11-30-2021, 03:05 PM - 5 Likes	#171
pepperberry farm amateur dirt farmer Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: probably out in a field somewhere... Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 41,660	wrapping up MoNovember for 2021 with the SMC A 28mm f2.8 what a delightful lens - I knew going into the month that the 28mm focal length is not my favorite; I prefer 24mm over 28mm any day.... but this is a Challenge, right? build quality, color, clarity, bokeh, sharpness - for a bog-standard 28mm lens, this has it all in spades... it has a reasonable MFD, the 'A' functionality, and in a small package... I shot all month long on three different bodies, and it performed awesomely every day.... so why don't I care for it? (no idea - it just never sang to me) some of my fav's from the month: and the rest of the month: Single in Challenge - MoNovember '21 \| Flickr great lens in a small package, but not for me; it's going up for sale....

11-30-2021, 03:50 PM - 4 Likes	#172
Riggomatic Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Nov 2014 Location: Auburn, Indiana Photos: Albums Posts: 3,885	My month with the SMC 85mm f1.8. Like it, yup. Keeping it, yup. At f1.8, it was just too soft for me, and I would stop down at least 1 click, but for most of my shots, I hovered around f4. A sharp lens with lots of focus throw to dial in the subject. Some of my favorites for the month:

11-30-2021, 05:01 PM - 5 Likes	#173
zubzubadoodle Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2016 Location: North Yorkshire Photos: Albums Posts: 231	Helios Cyclop 85mm with a fixed f1.5, taken from a Russian night vision scope. The DOF is paper thin, it's optically fairly terrible and it doesn't quite focus to infinity. I love it. The bokeh can be a bit over the top on occasion but you just have to find the best distance between camera, subject and background. Unfortunately, MoNovember has not been too kind to it. The bokeh sometimes loses quite a bit of interest in the conversion from colour to mono. I probably need to practice some more with a couple of the shots to find the best conversion. I did find that playing to it's "strength" and reducing the contrast helped. Here are some comparisons: The rest are here: Single in November 2021 \| Flickr

12-01-2021, 12:12 AM - 4 Likes	#174
Benz3ne Pentaxian Join Date: Jun 2019 Location: Cymru Posts: 2,356	This month ended up being a very good one for me (in my opinion). I got into a nice groove with the mono shots from fairly early on and found plenty of things to take some semi-wide shots of (usually on my commute). Part of me wants to continue using this lovely little lens (Sara, I can see why you rate it so highly), but I think I will swap it out for something to have a different focal length to play with. It's acceptably sharp wide-open and stopping down just turns that aspect up to 11. Contrast is strong and it handles beautifully, with a soft, well-dampened throw. A few of my favourites from this month: My apologies again for being p*ss poor at commenting.

12-01-2021, 01:40 AM - 3 Likes	#175
Mikey Floyd Forum Member Join Date: May 2021 Location: Tasmania Posts: 79	Thanks everyone for having me join the ride again! The lens - it's a winner. The only negative about it is the added weight of the adaptor between it and the camera. I can hardly blame that on Mr Pentax though can I? The mono - can we all do that again please? The format and restrictions I placed on myself - I think I got a great deal out of having the framework around the shooting and presentation. I'm pretty much sure to do some other set of extra criteria for myself next time I join in. I do hope that my posting only every second day didn't bother anybody? To tell the truth, it is this more than anything else that probably makes the difference for me between being involved or not, I just can't get excited about turning the computer on every single day. Everyone else's images - were overall so very strong, inspirational and enjoyable. There were far more absolute crackers than any reasonable expectations would suggest. The positive feedback - is really appreciated and warms my little heart. The constructive criticism - is especially welcomed and gives me pause for thought and a pathway to consider things that I otherwise wouldn't. I thought I'd re-post just my one favourite image here - as I was trying to decide though I realised that it is the little three each day all collectively that is my favourite aspect of the month. I'd like to put all 90 of them together and get a print, obviously it'll have to be a decent size. For now, if anyone is keen they line up nicely on my Flickr album page for the month. Other than the 22nd (when I blew out my film budget for the day) that is all the photo's I took with the 50/2.8 for the month. Single in... November 2021 \| Flickr I'm going to watch from a safe distance while you all enjoy your 21's for December - I'm sure to be back though before too long. See you then!

12-01-2021, 03:33 AM - 1 Like	#176
robgski Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: Shenandoah Valley, Virginia Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 8,796	Originally posted by iheiramo Month of monochrome is done and it was eyes opening experience. I hesitated this thing beforehand, but it turned out to be blast and just the thing that our grey November needs. I am very glad to know you enjoyed trying out MoNovember, it really is a revelation. I need to use the selective color feature in-camera. Also, I need to consider using other shades for Monochrome, sometimes they add something great to the final image. For any you who were resistant to devote more time to BW, many of your images would have been great MoNovember entries, maybe next year. Originally posted by Mikey Floyd The constructive criticism - is especially welcomed and gives me pause for thought and a pathway to consider things that I otherwise wouldn't. Your idea was a great one, I am sure future photo collages will be even better. You can also devote any day week or month you choose to shooting only BW. I did end the month with an image, props get heavier usage as the days get shorter and my schedule becomes busier.

12-01-2021, 01:46 PM - 4 Likes	#177
Tsuken Pentaxian Join Date: Oct 2013 Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,420	Well, that was fun. I did mostly monochrome, but because reasons, here and there I left in the colour. Surprisingly there were only a few trolley pics; I also found a lot of Sully - sometimes safety shots of him - seven Sullivans all told this month. It was excellent fun, and the DA 21 continues to be a source of joy. As does the KP. Fab combo; truly brilliant. Only a couple of karate-related pics, both of which I really like: Keiko-gi by -Occasionally Focused- Makiwara by -Occasionally Focused- Probably my fave of Sully from this month: Sleepy Sully by -Occasionally Focused- And my fave of the month's trolleys: Crashed and bork by -Occasionally Focused- And Christmas colour to break the mono: Oh Christmas tree by -Occasionally Focused- My verdict remains: if you have an APS-C Pentax and don't have the DA 21 limited already, do yourself a favour and score one. Seriously. It is worth getting close to subjects - and please please please embrace the "distortion" aka characteristics of the lens, and don't let software "correct" it. - Because if you do, you'll wonder why I rave about this lens. On to December, and completion of my "21 in 21" project.

12-01-2021, 02:18 PM	#178
Cerebum Site Supporter Join Date: Oct 2017 Location: Lancaster Photos: Gallery Posts: 3,828	@tsuken I applied lens corrections to mine, went eurgh and re set it to as shot

12-01-2021, 11:38 PM	#179
Tsuken Pentaxian Join Date: Oct 2013 Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,420	Originally posted by Cerebum @tsuken I applied lens corrections to mine, went eurgh and re set it to as shot Exactly my response whenever I’ve done it

12-02-2021, 10:20 AM	#180
UncleVanya Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2014 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 28,400	Originally posted by garywakeling Well we made it to the end of another month with a single lens, my month with the FA* 200mm 2.8 was an easy time, my comments for other peoples photos have been somewhat lacking and apologies for that, I did love the mono month but mostly went colour in my efforts. Number one with this lens is the quality of resolution, top notch and a step up from the 80-200 2.8 zoom from the same era. I found the bokeh to be pleasant and I sometimes noticed an almost circular helios feel to the photos in the viewfinder which was not so pronounced in the actual images. The minimum focus distance is not too bad and I cannot remember any slowness with focusing via the screw drive. A few shots that I liked from the month Interesting. I found the fa* 80-200 to be superior to my da* in several ways including purple fringing.