[deeslexia]

In context of Sony - i bought my A290 solely for a 35-70 [ silver mount plastic ] which I found so great for a rare visit to Toronto in 1997 ?
It came with aMinolta 404si , cheap and cheerful as a more advanced point and shoot .

No way did I consider Sony as a viable quality system camera but i loved that 35-70 .
The crop to nom 46-105 is simply perfect for architectural snap shots .

I did indulge in a Sony A35 , but what's the point - it still uses an EVF with the bulk of a mirror and no chance of legacy lenses .
I don't like it but it's not worth selling so I still have it ,
My new Pentax K-S1 blows all the Sonys away .

I have turned to Fuji [ X-Pro1 with clear finder ] in respect of mirrorless alongside my K1Od and K-SI for the finder clarity of an SLR.
My eyesight can't work with legacy lenses anyway .

dee

[Dan James]

Silver Efex Pro is very popular and you can download it free now that it's owned by Google. It runs rather slowly on my ancient ten-year-old computer, but if you've got the processing power it gives you lots of B&W options.

Always great to see a photo taken with the Olympus XA. It was my main camera for most of the nineties, when I'd fallen out of love with lugging a bag of SLR gear around, and it took some of my favourite photos. I've got big prints of two XA shots on the wall right next to me as I type this.

Thanks Dave, yes I forgot about Silver Efex, I've heard lots about that before. I'll bookmark it, but would like to stick to LightRoom is possible as I know the basics and like to keep things simple. I've been playing a little today with some presets as a starting point then making my own minor tweaks and I like the results enough to try more.

The XA is a little marvel and capable of excellent images. I'd like to see your XA prints if you have them digitally online anywhere? I sold mine ultimately because I struggled to focus with it, so I was always just shooting at a guessed distance and then a small enough aperture to hopefully forgive any focusing errors. I realised that aside from the better lens, I might have well been using an XA2. In the end I've drifted from film and the only compacts that remain are an Olympus Mju-1 (in many ways the natural successor to the XA), two LT-1s (Mju-1 in a leather jacket!), and a Ricoh R1.

The latter has actually just this week encouraged me to look at Ricoh GR digital bodies. I love my K10D and the lens options and the feel and control of an SLR, but sometimes I think I'd be happier with a fairly wide angle, close focusing and capable compact. They shoot RAW with the Av and M modes, plus the older ones I think had a CCD sensor too. Where I've heard of the magic of those before...?

[Dan James]

In context of Sony - i bought my A290 solely for a 35-70 [ silver mount plastic ] which I found so great for a rare visit to Toronto in 1997 ?
It came with aMinolta 404si , cheap and cheerful as a more advanced point and shoot .

No way did I consider Sony as a viable quality system camera but i loved that 35-70 .
The crop to nom 46-105 is simply perfect for architectural snap shots .

I did indulge in a Sony A35 , but what's the point - it still uses an EVF with the bulk of a mirror and no chance of legacy lenses .
I don't like it but it's not worth selling so I still have it ,
My new Pentax K-S1 blows all the Sonys away .

I have turned to Fuji [ X-Pro1 with clear finder ] in respect of mirrorless alongside my K1Od and K-SI for the finder clarity of an SLR.
My eyesight can't work with legacy lenses anyway .

dee

There are many (as in variety of models and availability of each) very very good Minolta AF lenses. I was blown away by the 35-70/4 zoom and 50/2.8 Macro I had. It's enticing reason to check out Sony A mount DSLRs. If only they'd sorted out those VFs!!

[subsea]

Pics from a trip to Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar in 2010. First is of some Roman ruins in Merida (love all the shades of green!) and the second is a picture of the sunset in Seville.

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[rayallen]

Thanks Dave, yes I forgot about Silver Efex, I've heard lots about that before. I'll bookmark it, but would like to stick to LightRoom is possible as I know the basics and like to keep things simple. I've been playing a little today with some presets as a starting point then making my own minor tweaks and I like the results enough to try more.

Dan,

I support Dave's suggestion. Silver Efex has more and better presets than the ones already in Lightroom. Plus you can also emulate many of the old real films that you used to develop. Once installed, the NIK Collection becomes a plug-in to both Lightroom and Photoshop. From both programs you go to Silver Efex, choose the preset or film you want, make any adjustments and then return to where you were. Search Google for NIK Collection and watch the videos. You will be impressed.

[paulh]

Spain in 2010

Beautiful & colorful shots, subsea.

A September stroll in the forest - F35-70 on K10D:

[BigMackCam]

Dan,

I support Dave's suggestion. Silver Efex has more and better presets than the ones already in Lightroom. Plus you can also emulate many of the old real films that you used to develop. Once installed, the NIK Collection becomes a plug-in to both Lightroom and Photoshop. From both programs you go to Silver Efex, choose the preset or film you want, make any adjustments and then return to where you were. Search Google for NIK Collection and watch the videos. You will be impressed.

And I'll third the motion... Silver Efex Pro, along with several of the other modules in the NIK suite, is fantastic. It's easy to over-do the processing, and some of the defaults are a little extreme, so it's worth playing with all of the adjustments to find what works best for you - but it's really quite amazing what you can do with it. A lot of pros continue to use it as their go-to B&W tool, and for good reason

[Dan James]

Dan,

I support Dave's suggestion. Silver Efex has more and better presets than the ones already in Lightroom. Plus you can also emulate many of the old real films that you used to develop. Once installed, the NIK Collection becomes a plug-in to both Lightroom and Photoshop. From both programs you go to Silver Efex, choose the preset or film you want, make any adjustments and then return to where you were. Search Google for NIK Collection and watch the videos. You will be impressed.

And I'll third the motion... Silver Efex Pro, along with several of the other modules in the NIK suite, is fantastic. It's easy to over-do the processing, and some of the defaults are a little extreme, so it's worth playing with all of the adjustments to find what works best for you - but it's really quite amazing what you can do with it. A lot of pros continue to use it as their go-to B&W tool, and for good reason

Thank you both for the further recommendation, I look forward to downloading and experimenting. I didn't realise it plugged in to LightRoom - I was reluctant to use another different piece of software.

In the meantime I've been playing a little using some presets from "Preset Love" as a starting point, then tweaking the exposure a little. Not mind blowing, but I am quite happy as they're a fairly subtle b/w conversion, rather than trying to make a digital image look exactly like a classic film...

Pentax K10D plus Asahi Auto-Takumar 55mm f/2 M42 lens.

[ChristianRock]

Thank you both for the further recommendation, I look forward to downloading and experimenting. I didn't realise it plugged in to LightRoom - I was reluctant to use another different piece of software.

In the meantime I've been playing a little using some presets from "Preset Love" as a starting point, then tweaking the exposure a little. Not mind blowing, but I am quite happy as they're a fairly subtle b/w conversion, rather than trying to make a digital image look exactly like a classic film...

Pentax K10D plus Asahi Auto-Takumar 55mm f/2 M42 lens.

It seems like you are doing well already with the film emulations the 55mm f2 (and f1.8) lens does black and white very well I find (I have it in K mount, the last version of it to be released). I can definitely see its unique bokeh in this picture.

I have used Nik Silver Efex (as standalone) and while I do like it, I don't feel it offers much more than the HaldClut film emulations in RawTherapee, so I just use that instead. The Nik Collection presets tend to be a bit over the top (for my taste) so it always takes a bit longer to get the results I like. But you can't argue with the price of the Nik Collection, so you should have at least give it a try I think it will work better in the context of Lightroom anyway, assuming it can save your Nik Efex settings that you used for the picture in a Lightroom preset.

I've just been working on some B&W conversions but they're K-S1 files so I won't post them here... but I'll post them in the black and white thread in a little bit, and in the "Prime prime prime" thread

[Andy123]

Pics from a trip to Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar in 2010. First is of some Roman ruins in Merida (love all the shades of green!) and the second is a picture of the sunset in Seville.

Subsea,
Very nice. I rarely use my 28-80mm you really made it shine. I really enjoy the sunset.
Andy

[BigMackCam]

Pics from a trip to Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar in 2010. First is of some Roman ruins in Merida (love all the shades of green!) and the second is a picture of the sunset in Seville.

Subsea,
Very nice. I rarely use my 28-80mm you really made it shine. I really enjoy the sunset.

I agree, these are great images

I have the Pentax-F 28-80mm F3.5-4.5 which isn't well-loved by many, but it renders very nicely with lovely colours. As @subsea shows, it's the photographer rather than the lens that makes a great photo...

[subsea]

I agree, these are great images

I have the Pentax-F 28-80mm F3.5-4.5 which isn't well-loved by many, but it renders very nicely with lovely colours. As @subsea shows, it's the photographer rather than the lens that makes a great photo...

Thanks, guys. I’ve got to laugh though. When I bought the lens (and the FA 100-300mm) for my PZ-20, I didn’t know how “bad” it was. I guess that I just learned to deal with its foibles!

[goatsNdonkey]

Thanks, guys. I’ve got to laugh though. When I bought the lens (and the FA 100-300mm) for my PZ-20, I didn’t know how “bad” it was. I guess that I just learned to deal with its foibles!

Another example of a not-so-great lens taking good pictures when either its best qualities are made use of or its lesser qualities are used for artistic effect.

[paulh]

F35-70


DA18-55

[paulh]

A couple more with the F35-70: