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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
06-04-2019, 07:03 AM
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Thanks to everyone for the replies. I bought the A 35-135 lens on the chance that it will be a good one, but it may be a while before I have enough experience with it to add a review.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-31-2019, 10:06 AM
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Part of the fun of owning a K1 is the challenge of finding and acquiring vintage K-mount lenses of the manual focus persuasion, many of which are quite good and available for reasonable prices.
So before starting a “lens hunt” for my K1, I carefully look over the user reviews here to identify the better reviewed lenses, so I know what to look out for. On one recent foray, hoping to find a Pentax-A 35-105mm f3.5, sometimes referred to as “a stack of primes” I found instead a Pentax-A35-135mm f3.5-4.5 in clean condition and offered for $80. So I checked back on the reviews for this lens to find that there were only 2 reviews (the fewest reviews of all the A-mount zooms), whereas the 35-105mm had 72 reviews. I also noted that the apparently related Pentax-A 35-210mm f3.5-4.5 had 4 reviews, some of which referred to this lens as “rare” and a “collector's item” but perhaps of questionable optical goodness.
So I'm wondering why there are only 2 reviews of the 35-135mm model? A Google search on this lens yielded almost no further information except the 2 reviews on this forum. Assuming that after a lens is discontinued and all those which were made have been “out in the wild” for a while, I would expect the number of reviews should at least roughly correlate with the number sold. By such a criteria, one might guess that relatively few were sold.
The35-105 was produced from 1984-1989 (5 yrs.) The 35-135 and 35-210were both introduced 2 years later, in 1986, but the 35-210 was discontinued after only 1 year, while the 35-105 and 35-135 were both continued for another 2 years until 1989. So is the 35-135 also a“rare” lens, or perhaps a “sleeper” which was produced for only 3 years before being discontinued? Or was it just a case that the optical quality of manual zooms over a 3:1 ratio could not be maintained at a desirable standard during the mid-80's era, and few people bought them?
Does anyone have experience with the Pentax-A 35-135 f3.5-4.5? Is it rare and/or a decent lens, and worth $80?
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
12-13-2018, 02:04 PM
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Conspicuously absent are any programs which run under Linux. And I know there are several, some of them well regarded.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
12-13-2018, 02:01 PM
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Anyone who likes using manual focus lenses naturally covets the ones from Zeiss. Over several years I have accumulated a set of 6 Zeiss ZF-2 lenses for my Nikon system, and when I got a K-1, I started immediately looking for the ZK versions for that camera, but those have proven to be much harder to find.
So it's good to know that some of the Zeiss ZK lenses can still be found somewhere. I've managed to obtain the 50/2, 35/2 and 25/2.8 domestically but have never seen the 100/2 or 21/2.8 offered for sale, new or used in the U.S. Some of the ZK lenses which are offered on Ebay or the Pentax Forums are from outside the U.S, but. I've never tried importing lenses from other countries, so I've no idea of what complications might be involved with Customs Duties, etc. What was the process like?
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Forum: Sold Items
12-06-2018, 12:53 PM
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Forum: Sold Items
06-16-2018, 07:14 AM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-18-2018, 02:57 PM
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To PPPPPP42:
I appreciate your suggestion, and the others received here, but spending around 2K for a lens, however excellent, which costs more than the camera but would only get occasional use, does not seem like the best first alternative to explore, especially since there are other, much less expensive ways to get to a macro capable (around) 200mm.
Only if other methods fall short in some way, would I consider it seriously. I also understand that the A-200* f4 macro is not fully usable by itself on the K1 any way, due to the tripod mount fouling the prism housing when the camera is in vertical position. I've read somewhere that it requires addition of the 1.4x tele-extender to clear, but then we are beyond 200mm.
I'd obtained the A-200* f2.8 for more conventional uses, but had started to think about perhaps getting all that optical goodness to do extra duty for macros, when I posted my original question. Now I'm thinking it might be better to abandon that idea, and try some combinations of extension rings or tele-estenders with a good shorter focal length prime first, or look for one of the Sigma 180's.
---------- Post added 02-18-18 at 03:22 PM ----------
To Cyperjunkie:
Thanks for that suggestion. I'd forgotten about the Vivitar flat field zoom. Is it available in Pentax-A mount, or only in the earlier K-mount version? I happen to still have the similar Nikon AF 70-180mm f4.5-5.6 D, which I used for several years to photograph thousands of dogs at the local dog shelter, for use on their website. It was perfect for that job, with a fast focusing Nikon D2h and a couple of radio strobes. Four megapixels was plenty for that purpose.
Although there is only one user review here for the (MF) Sigma 180mm f5.6 APO macro UC, it is a positive one, although no price is shown. However I have found both Minolta and Canon mount versions on Ebay for $150 or less, so it looks like a prime candidate for me among the Sigma 180s. And I would prefer MF for macros any way.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-17-2018, 03:21 PM
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Thanks for that suggestion. The Sigma Tele-Macro 2x teleconverter sounds a lot like my Vivitar 2x Macro Focusing Teleconverter, except that the Vivitar seems to be from the earlier K-mount era, without the A contacts. The Sigma with A contacts would certainly be more convenient, and being newer, might also be better optically. So I'll look for the Sigma. Meanwhile, when the weather improves a bit, I'll have to try the Vivitar 2x macro focusing teleconverter with my Vivitar 100mm f3.5 "plastic fantastic" just to see how that combination works out.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-16-2018, 06:11 PM
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Thanks for that suggestion. Most of the time I don't need to go all the way to 1:2, and since 100mm is in "bellows territory" that might be more flexible than a fixed tube. But I'd have to be careful with that heavy a lens leveraging on the bellows. Maybe someone's suggestion of the Sigma 180 macro would be more practical.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-16-2018, 02:24 PM
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When I was shooting macros with my Nikon cameras, I got spoiled by having a 200mm macro lens, along with a good selection of shorter focal length prime macro lenses. I found that I preferred manual focus for this kind of work, so when I acquired a Pentax K1, I gradually accumulated some of the more “normal” focal length manual focusing macro lenses in K-mount, including the SMC-M-50mm f4, the Vivitar (Komine) 90mm f2.8 (1:1) and 135mm f2.8 (1:2) macros, and a Vivitar 100mm f3.5 (1:2 “plastic fantastic”) and I started looking around for what was available for a 200mm macro in K-mount. I found that the A-mount 200mm f4 (green star) macro was very highly rated, but almost impossible to find, even at collectors prices. But I did find and recently acquired an A-200mm f2.8 (green star) lens, also highly regarded, but which only can focus down to about 8 feet.
So my question is: Is there a practical way to get the A-200mm f2.8 (green star) lens to focus down to around 1:2 without loosing any more image quality than necessary? I do have another way to get to about 200mm with one of my shorter lenses, by adding a Vivitar 2x macro focusing teleconverter in K mount, but this involves the addition of glass elements in the adapter, and I wonder if this combination may not be up the the image quality level of the “green star” series.
One other possibility is using extension tubes with the A-200mm f2.8, or perhaps the Canon 500D achromat close-up lens (which is available in 77mm thread size).
Comments and suggestions are welcome. |
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Forum: Sold Items
01-19-2018, 03:12 PM
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Forum: Sold Items
01-10-2017, 01:56 PM
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Hi there;
I am interested in the Pentax A 24mm you've listed in the Buy/Sell forum, but I have not purchased from this venue before. How do we proceed? Would you like PayPal, credit card, or should I send you a check?
Charles Baldeck
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
02-26-2016, 09:19 AM
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I just joined this Pentax forum. It seems like a good place to learn something about the Pentax digital cameras. I'm now retired, but have been using film cameras for photography for nearly 70 years, including everything from 35mm to 8x10. I still have my Pentax 6x7 and 645 outfits and a couple of old 35mm film Pentaxes, but since about 2001 I've been using digital cameras, mostly Nikon, Sony and Panasonic.
I find the recently announced Pentax K1 very interesting, but am not up to speed on the current Pentax lineup. So I came here to learn as much as I can about the latest Pentax digital cameras and lenses.
Charles
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