[DSims]

Im gonna be the radical here.


Those lenses will be fine. Resolution is a blind alley, sure its useful in some images but the very best images ever taken are not the sharpest. A sharp image doesn't make a good image. If you take a razor sharp portrait of a lady she wont thank you, she wont even like the images although she might say she does to be polite. Take a softer focus image of that same lady with an inferior lens and she will sing your praises.


The k3 sensor out resolves your lenses, so what, film always out resolved the lenses and nobody ever said there was anything wrong with that. Photographers simply used the lenses they preferred, so use yours.


The high resolution of the k3 sensor simply means your actually seeing what the lens maker intended instead of a fuzzy lower resolution image of an inferior sensor.

Your original post really doesn't sound like what you said later. What you said later (with much detail) makes more sense. But your first post still sounds downright goofy, especially in the context of what had come before it.



So, ignoring that post, it sounds like you're saying it's OK to use a lower resolution lens on an even higher resolution camera if you're happy with it. And as Steve says, it will likely perform even a little better on the new camera. All of this makes sense, and I agree with it.

But since the lens is the primary bottleneck in IQ, upgrading the lens will still make much more of a difference. And that's the simple message most of us were trying to get across to the OP. Incidentally, despite all this discussion the OP still hasn't verified his reasons for wanting to upgrade!

---------- Post added 06-04-14 at 11:58 PM ----------

From my personal experience, a good example may be the Pentax-DA 18-55/3.5-5.6 v1 on the K-3. I have used that lens for years on my K10D with good (some would say, miraculous) results, but to be completely honest, it is not as good on that body as most of the other lenses in my bag. When mounted with the K-3 it performs better than on the K10D. I will repeat...the DA 18-55 performs better on the K-3 than the same lens on the K10D. Whether doing so is a waste of good megapixels relative to shooting with the same lens on say, the K-5 is a matter of user preference and taste, however.

It may still be asserted that shooting with such pedestrian glass is laughable on a high-end camera, regardless of results. I guess a good laugh is a good thing. I like laughter.

This is what I'd expect in the real world.

Laughable might be overdoing it , but we both believe it's a poor balance of resources.

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Last edited by DSims; 06-04-2014 at 11:59 PM.

[Imageman]

Im gonna be the radical here.


Those lenses will be fine. Resolution is a blind alley, sure its useful in some images but the very best images ever taken are not the sharpest. A sharp image doesn't make a good image. If you take a razor sharp portrait of a lady she wont thank you, she wont even like the images although she might say she does to be polite. Take a softer focus image of that same lady with an inferior lens and she will sing your praises.


The k3 sensor out resolves your lenses, so what, film always out resolved the lenses and nobody ever said there was anything wrong with that. Photographers simply used the lenses they preferred, so use yours.


The high resolution of the k3 sensor simply means your actually seeing what the lens maker intended instead of a fuzzy lower resolution image of an inferior sensor.

I agree that what I said is unusual, that's why I said I was gonna be radical. but goofy?


Im not sure which part you think is goofy,


I said resolution is a blind alley, by that I mean chasing finer and finer resolution does not mean you get finer and finer images you just get sharper and sharper images. What you want is better tonality better bokeh better composition, and sometimes better sharpness is needed, that's why I also said its useful in some images.


I said the best images ever taken are not the sharpest, That doesn't mean that the best images are all unsharp it means that they were simply sharp enough to convey what the photographer wanted to at the size it was to be printed at. Almost all of these very fine images printed on 5x7 could have been taken with a kit lens of today and looked the same. But today kit lenses are seen as not sharp enough.


Ive seen wonderful images made on calotype, printed at 5x7 inches with blurry edges, many are slightly blurry all over and yet they are still very fine images. In some cases being slightly unsharp enhanced the image and gave it an ephemeral timeless and magical quality.


I see photographers throwing away lenses that aren't sharp enough and buying ridiculously expensive ultra sharp lenses, and then they buy a soft focus lens to add some magic that the ultra sharp lens lacks. I see others using photoshop to add a blur to their images because they are just too sharp.


Kit lenses today can produce sharp images at 10x8 or at a3 print sizes, and yet the drive to seek lenses that are razor sharp when printed at 3 feet by 2 feet and beyond exists.


I see photographers complaining that when they view their 24 megapixel images they can see slight fuzziness, and they ask if they should use an even sharper lens. That means they would be printing a 10 foot long print. When was the last time photo albums were made that were ten feet long.


It all adds up to mean for me that the chasing of sharper and sharper images is indeed a blind alley, it doesn't contribute directly to image making and after spending a fortune on the very sharpest lens money can buy, the images you get are in photographic terms no better than you would have got with a kit lens. Or am I really mistaken and is photography just about sharpness.


It seems to me that im a lone voice here, saying one thing, if you want to make better images get better at image making don't get a sharper lens. Is this really so goofy?


And yes there is sometimes a place and a need for very sharp images, that's why I have some of the sharpest glass available.

[Reddaddy]

Thanks to one and all.

I am going to take interested_observer's advlce. I will buy the K3 and use my present lenses. I will see how it goes with them. Meanwhile I will pine for all the goodies that the rest of you have talked about (someday!). Your replies have been a real education.