Hi everyone,
I was hoping I could get a second opinion on this. At first I thought the lens was busted because it wouldn't focus at any zoom, and i also thought it was for
really silly reasons, but after I started taking test shots I'm pretty sure the issue is the lens' ability to stay sharp at higher apertures (which would conveniently match up to reports in the lens review database). I took a handful of example shots indoors and at night, so I tried to eliminate as many variables as I could.
with my K5:
-used a camera stand
-used mirror-up remote shooting
-used iso 400
-used single, center auto-focus (targeted on the hurricane glass)
The fun part is that the photos are much sharper as the aperture goes past f8 even though shutter goes up to 2". Now, I realize that this kit lens has unfavorable reviews in the lens database here for soft/blurry photos when aperture is open wide, but my results seem a bit excessive to me. This is also best case for my lens given all the controls to take these shots, practicall it seems that f10 or smaller is best. The reason I even looked into this was because I was taking casual shots outdoors in broad daylight and all of the photos were all unusable, I had initially thought it was an auto-focus issue.
Are these lenses really that bad at the wide end or is my lens worse off? (as a side, I tried using a focus calibration chart and it seemed like, when wider than f8, the lens was not sharp within the area that was focused. I did notice a little but of front-focusing but that seems like a minor problem to this).
Below the EXIF, but in order:
1) f4
2) f5.6
3) f8
4) f10
5) f13