Hi Guys,

It is interesting to know how is your Pentax life going? What are your latest acquisitions and how did you manage to get them in India?


Cheers
Guna

My latest baby was a Sigma 50-500 HSM (the new version) which I ordered from a small store here in Udaipur. They had it here after about one month, not a bad delivery time for such a miracle.
But I have hope for the future, now with Richoh there might be a chance for a proper channel for Pentax in India! Perhaps that could be a good petition for Pentax Forums. Give India Pentax Cameras before FF to the rest of the world?

Sir, how much did you pay for it??? Some Pentaxians in Indian have been saying that cameras and lenses are cheaper in India, as the US dollar has appreciated. Do give us your opinion about your lens and your usage. Is it tack sharp at the 500 mm end wide open?? How do you find its weight - hand holdable, tiring etc. Please do post some photos wide open at the 500 mm end. Enjoy.

Hi Henke, I am also very curious about, how much did you paid for the lens and how good the picture quality is. I am also lusting to buy one telephoto, but I am afraid of getting it from abroad.

-Nalla

Hi, I am out of Udaipur for some days now and give a more detailed report later but basically I love this lens and especially on the K5. Once I get back home to Udaipur I can try it on my K10 as well.
The lens is quite heavy but anyway easy to use without tripod. Actually, I have not even used it with tripod yet. I mostly use it with the optical stabilisation in the lens as it also helps in the view finder.
The lens is very sharp and I usually get better results from this at 50mm than my 16-45 4AL at 45mm (in terms of sharpness).
I don't have that many pictures online from this lens yet (besides on facebook) but here are some samples:

ISO 3200. 500 mm @6.4


My first shot of the moon


500 mm


This picture is perhaps not very good but it is a 100% crop, unsharpened and unaltered. The building is 4.5 km away and you still see the cables. Weather was not perfect and we even had a light drizzle at the time. So I think it is quite amazing anyway. See map for details.



With a High ISO monster such as the K5 it is actually working quite nice for low light indoor pictures as well. These are from an Odissi dance in Udaipur. No posing but actual dancing!





I think I paid rs 80-90k (been some months now so I can't really remember) for the lens with international warranty. You get a strap and nice (and big) bag with the lens the fit the lens with attached hoods.

Fantastic pics and the lens seems to be a performer. Well, the price is out of my range.. Did you buy your K5 in India or abroad, I am planning for one, but..

-Nalla

I got the camera from abroad as I could not find it here. Also, I wanted it as soon as possible after the release date. The K5 is fantastic, no problem to keep it on auto ISO (80-3200) for walk around. On my K10 I never wanted to go over 400. Still love my K10 but once it is getting dark or shady the K5 is so much nicer.

A keeper certainly Rao Sahib. Also very good hand held shots from Henke bhai. You say the "price is out of my range.." So did you get the price from Henke bhai? How much is it purchased in Rajasthan?
Regards.

PS: the Indian group appears to be in slumber. How do we make nit more interesting?

Nanhi Sir, Henke mentioned price of the lens at the bottom of the images. But, he said..

Hello pentaxians,

Finding Pentax stuff in India is not easy.

I am thinking of upgrading to Pentax K5 and wish some fellow resourcefull forum member sell his used K5 to me and buys himself a new K5 from abroad.

Currently using a K10D.

Hope somebody will respond to this.

good photos.

By the way, I am from udaipur. Born and brought up there.

Zxaar sahib, excellent composition for a panoramic shot. But my 2 cents and humble feedback: a) what are the red horizontal bands for? b) lots of big dust specks on the sensor - see sky area RHS. c) very strange white balance - look at the color of the earth, the water in the lake, the sky and the trees (not green at all). Were you using a cheapo ND filter? d) details are lost in the shadow areas. e) a tad soft.
Try and crop out much of the ugly barren & littered fore ground up to the dark shadows. You will have a better panoroma.

Nice to see some activity in this group !!
A few clicks from K-x with DAL 18-55


with DA15mm ltd

with DAL 55-300

Your criticism about sensor dust is correct. They are there and I am too lazy to remove them. I cleaned the sensor though after I noticed them in pictures.

Other than that most of it is subjective.


Sorry the white balance was just fine and I was not use cheapo NDfilter. :-D
It is processed into this look.

Faithfully reproducing the scene was not my aim.


A lens that has field of view of 180 degree tend to be bit soft. Further I would not crop a bit because this is how I wanted it to look and this is how I like it.

As I said it is subjective, some like it some hate it.

Thanks for feedback, not many people say what they really think so it is appreciated very much.

Nice Pics Abhir.. post more..

-Nalla