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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion 02-23-2015, 12:56 PM  
DA 50 1.8 - focus ring damping
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 4
Views: 1,147
Thanks much for the feedback. It's certainly a nice feeling focus action, I was just surprised by it considering how loose AF optics have become.
Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion 02-23-2015, 12:15 PM  
DA 50 1.8 - focus ring damping
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 4
Views: 1,147
I recently picked up the DA 50 f1.8 when it hit $129. Nice lens for a nice price. My only question regards the focus ring damping. I was quite suprised to find that the focus ring has a somewhat oil-damped feel to it when rotating it for manual focus and even off the camera. It's not the same level of resistance as something like the M50 1.7 but certainly more than most other auto focus lenses. My DA 35 f2.4, for instance, rotates with very little damping. My (NOW OBVIOUSLY DEAD :-)) DA 17-70 had virtually no damping at all and the DA 55-300 likewise has little resistance when the focus ring is manually rotated off the camera.

My concern was that this might be a strain on the internal focus motor. My K5-ii has no trouble focusing with it and moving it through the range though.

Has anybody else noticed this increased focus ring damping? I just want to make sure it's not my copy. It is smooth throughout the range and has no rough spots during rotation so it doesn't feel like anything is wrong with the lens. I assume maybe the design just has higher resistance due to moving the entire lens group from the front to the back of the lens assembly.

Thanks,

Scott
Forum: Sold Items 12-10-2014, 12:15 PM  
For Sale - Sold: Sears 135mm F2.8 Macro PK/A
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 10
Views: 2,089
Nice catch Grahame!

I forgot about doing that.

The Ricoh pin can be removed in about 10 minutes if you know what you are doing. Otherwise you might end up with an apparently permanent 135mm fixed lens camera. :-)
Forum: Sold Items 12-10-2014, 09:02 AM  
For Sale - Sold: Sears 135mm F2.8 Macro PK/A
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 10
Views: 2,089
This is the Sears Macro-Zone lens which is also unintentionally a variable-soft focus lens. Because of the macro setting the front element can be moved into several positions inducing a variable amount of spherical aberation giving the images the soft effect.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/userreviews/sears-135mm-f-2-8-macro-zone.html

I have read that one of the other Sears 135's was probably a Samyang design. So possibly this one also? Who knows. In any case it is a very interesting and unique lens. I like mine. If you get one be careful that it is the PKA auto aperture version like this as other versions are manual aperture.
Forum: Lens Clubs 09-29-2013, 05:12 PM  
The Mirror Lens Club!
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 1,239
Views: 467,224
As for taking the 55BB apart. It is not obvious. I thought about cleaning mine and gave up. The first thing you need to ask yourself is IF you need to open it up at all. First, the fungus is, as is usually the case, near the edge of the element. This is the front element so anything there will be wildly spread out by the time it reaches the imager plane. Also, you're dealing with a cropped imager which means the fungus, which may not even be in the image rectangle for full frame, probably is not in the cropped image rectangle. It may well have little to no effect on in focus details.

The ONLY place where EVERY lens flaw shows up is in OOF highlights. However, this is a mirror which means you want to avoid the OOF highlights because of donut bokeh. Thus OOF highlights aren't really important for you.

All in all, the fungus probably isn't an issue.

Take the lens out on a bright sunny day and let the sun shine on that fungus for an hour or so. That will kill it in case it's still on the move.
Forum: Lens Clubs 09-29-2013, 11:27 AM  
The Mirror Lens Club!
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 1,239
Views: 467,224
Has anyone here ever done a comparison between the Tamron 55BB and the Vivitar Series 1 600 solid cat? I have the Tamron and it is a great mirror but I have long wanted the solid cat. I wonder if it's actually any better though. If not, then no reason to pick it up as it would just be a heavy collectors item.

Thanks,

Scott
Forum: Lens Clubs 11-27-2012, 10:42 AM  
the Samyang Lens Club
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 927
Views: 222,655
Thanks. Hopefully it will be affordable.
Forum: Lens Clubs 11-26-2012, 10:50 AM  
the Samyang Lens Club
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 927
Views: 222,655
Has anybody seen anything more on the fabled Samyang 24mm Tilt-Shift? Samyang was supposed to show it at Photokina but didn't.

I've been wanting a decent T-S for a while but for Pentax there is just about nothing. Here's hoping they finally come through the make the thing.
Forum: Lens Clubs 11-09-2012, 11:20 PM  
Adaptall Mount Club (Tamron).
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 4,548
Views: 849,326
Cool. I'll have to look for one. That tripod mount is really a beast. Looks like it could hold 40 lbs.
Forum: Lens Clubs 11-09-2012, 02:33 PM  
Adaptall Mount Club (Tamron).
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 4,548
Views: 849,326
Got a picture of it?
Forum: Lens Clubs 11-09-2012, 01:17 PM  
Adaptall Mount Club (Tamron).
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 4,548
Views: 849,326
Will,

Do you find that MC7 TC superior to the 01F Adaptall TC?

Scott

Lovely country there in the 51st state. :-)
Forum: Lens Clubs 11-01-2012, 06:47 PM  
Adaptall Mount Club (Tamron).
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 4,548
Views: 849,326
Actually I didn't get the lens from Stan. Sorry if I gave that impression. It was an eBay purchase. I guess he sold his around the same time.

It's a great lens. You should think more about it. :-)

I was looking at a103A for a while but getting the 23A seemed to remove the "need" :-)
Forum: Lens Clubs 11-01-2012, 12:11 PM  
Adaptall Mount Club (Tamron).
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 4,548
Views: 849,326
No need to convince me on the 23A. Outstanding lens. You can get really sharp results from the 55-300 at about f9 but even sharper with the 23A. I have the PKA for it as well. Much easier to deal with that way. I'll keep the DA (DAL actually - don't tell anybody :)) when I need to take action shots but the 23A is a beauty. My 23A has an amusing flaw. I didn't notice till I had it about a week. Somehow Tamron manufacturing didn't notice during assembly but there is just a bit of a fingerprint on the edge of an element at least 3 or 4 in from the front! I'm sure it has no effect but it's kind of funny. I'm not nearly Type-A enough to remove the front elements and attempt to clean that print off. :)

I recently started playing with the 55BB mirror. I LOVE that lens. Most fun I've had in a while. 500mm made easy. :)

I don't know that RAW was the solution for your waterfall simply because the Pentax JPEG engine is so good. That shot really needed at least two blended exposures. Still for pure control RAW is the way to go. I use Dxo Optics Pro 7 and LR4. So far I like LR4 better and it's quite a bit faster. Of course you really have to manage how many RAW files you save as your HD will feel the impact rather quickly. Raw means you spend more time in front of the computer and that isn't nearly as much fun as shooting.


Scott
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 11-01-2012, 11:57 AM  
Raw: 14 bit vs 12 bit
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 18
Views: 7,260
Have you ever used the DA 17-70? I have one and optically it's impressive WHEN it nails focus. I am routinely let down by that lens in the AF department. I have to review multiple shots to make sure I don't walk away with a bunch of OOF duds. NONE of my other lenses have this problem. I think my decent manuals nail AF better with CIF!

Does the 18-135 nail AF fairly consistently?

By the way... I like the covered bridge shot but I find myself bothered by the alignment. None of the multiple verticals or horizontals line up with the frame edges and I think that makes the shot feel like it's slightly off balance. I wonder if a rotation to align the guard rail and concrete verticals on the left side with the left frame edge would give the shot a more stable feel. Just an idea. I could be totally off balance myself. :)
Forum: Lens Clubs 11-01-2012, 08:25 AM  
Adaptall Mount Club (Tamron).
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 4,548
Views: 849,326
You guys have the coolest creatures down under. Of course I have to wonder if those are venomous birds. :lol:
Forum: Lens Clubs 11-01-2012, 07:52 AM  
Adaptall Mount Club (Tamron).
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 4,548
Views: 849,326
Setup looks familiar. :)

As for ISO, I'd say you did the right thing. I usually shoot at 80 when I can get away with it. That's a very wide dynamic-range scene and increasing ISO would only decrease the camera's DR. Either the in-camera HDR or using bracketing and doing HDR in post would be the way to go. Obviously doing it later allows for more creative results but takes a lot more time. The in-camera HDR is rather good, but I rarely use it because of the loss of RAW in that mode... argh! :mad:
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 11-01-2012, 07:36 AM  
Raw: 14 bit vs 12 bit
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 18
Views: 7,260
I imagine so, but in that case you're talking about two different things. As I understand it, the K20D has considerably higher noise than more recent bodies like the Kx, Kr, K30 or K-5. It's hard to compare the isolated the effect of the extra resolution when noise is having considerably greater impact on the images in one camera body vs. the other. Colors will look more natural with lower noise.

Nice shots!
Forum: Lens Clubs 10-31-2012, 11:27 AM  
Adaptall Mount Club (Tamron).
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 4,548
Views: 849,326
WillH,

Nice shots of the falls. The DR looks pretty extreme. Have you ever tried the in-camera HDR at that spot?

Scott
Forum: Lens Clubs 10-31-2012, 11:23 AM  
Adaptall Mount Club (Tamron).
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 4,548
Views: 849,326
Agreed, the 23A is a superb lens. Amazingly sharp for a zoom. the DA 55-300 is certainly easier to deal with but for IQ the 23A is the way to go. I got one in practically new condition on eBay for $60. One of my favorites. I have tried it with the 01F 2X and wasn't thrilled with the results. It's easy to use one of the eBay Canon tripod mounts with the 23A and the 01F though. When the collar is on the 01F the whole thing is perfectly balanced with a K5.

I was frustrated to find the 140F does not fit on the 23A! ... and by less than a cm from what I can tell. :-(
It does fit the 23A in macro mode in which case you can move the rear element group forward just a bit to clear the 140F.
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 10-31-2012, 07:32 AM  
Raw: 14 bit vs 12 bit
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 18
Views: 7,260
There will be very little if any discernible difference between 12 and 14 bit RAW unless you do quite a bit of tone curve manipulation in RAW developing software like LR or DxO. If you shoot jpegs, get the K-30. If you shoot RAW or would like to move in that direction (spending a lot more time in post) then you would be wise to consider the K-5II.
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 10-31-2012, 07:24 AM  
Raw: 14 bit vs 12 bit
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 18
Views: 7,260
After owning both for a while and virtually always shooting RAW, I will have to disagree. The Kx was a "low-end" camera only in terms of price. In performance it was among the best available especially in terms of DR. Having the highest dynamic range at that point of 12.5 stops it actually comes close to the K-5 with it's 14.1 stops. While that appears to be more than a stop of extra DR for the K-5 in most situations it's hard to realize the difference in real-world photographic environments. Just like the K-5, you can pull amazing detail from the shadows in Kx shots without the horrible noise that would accompany it on many other cameras. It's certainly not night and day as it would be when comparing the K-5 to a camera with 10 stops of DR for instance. That was the first thing that struck me as a new Kx user. My previous Olympus bodies lost a lot of detail in shadow. If it looked gone, it was basically gone. On the Kx however I could recover amazing shadow detail.

Also take into account that the DxOMark figures are one lab's measurements of individual camera bodies. Some estimates put the two even closer in terms of DR.

The K-5 is a great camera and certainly outperforms the Kx in a number of ways but the Kx was so good and had such a weak AA filter than when it comes to detail and DR it's not a stunning difference - IMO.
Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help 10-31-2012, 06:17 AM  
Confused about circular polarizers
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 7
Views: 1,372
More to the point... I have found that a nice Tiffen 72mm linear polarizer I have still works well with my K-5 AF. I was under the opinion that circular polarizers were necessary for AF systems but this seems not to be the case.
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 10-31-2012, 05:48 AM  
Raw: 14 bit vs 12 bit
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 18
Views: 7,260
Not the only one... like you I was certainly disappointed when the improvement in IQ I was hoping for, over my Kx, did not materialize. To be fair, the Kx has AMAZING IQ for a 12MP body and it is well known that the Kx has little or no AA filter. I find that there is almost no advantage in detail with the K-5 over the Kx. Now there are many other things I like better but the Kx remains a great second camera (even with that clacking shutter sound:))
Forum: Lens Clubs 10-23-2012, 11:49 AM  
The Mirror Lens Club!
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 1,239
Views: 467,224
I have passed on mirrors for a long time but after recently discovering how difficult the handling is with some of the large lenses, I decided to give the mirrors a try. After reading this thread I picked up a Soligor CD 500 f8 and found a good buy on a Tamron 55BB.

Here are two shots taken handheld with the 55BB. These are NOT art shots. They were simply taken to get a handle on shooting the Tamron and to see what kind of sharpness I could get handheld with SR and CIF. This lens amazes me! VERY sharp. Here are two shots I threw together - just OOC jpegs. They are obviously scaled down but no other sharpening or contrast adjustment was done. Even the in-camera settings aren't pushing the contrast. Both were taken with the default Landscape settings. Each has an included 100% crop to show the detail. This lens gets the most accurate CIF shots I have managed yet. Sorry the quick little editor I used destroyed the EXIF. Both shots are f8... duh. :)

The almost total lack of CA is refreshing as well. You have to watch the bokeh but it can be managed. With foreground subjects, I find the donut bokeh gives the sky a very creamy appearance.

One complaint... WHO at Tamron thought the hood was a good idea??? It doesn't connect to the lens at all when reversed and doesn't accommodate a lens cap... What the?

I picked up this hood on eBay. It's longer, providing yet more flare protection and uses the same 82mm lens cap when attached. Yeah it has to be stored separately but it's better IMO.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sonia-Metal-82mm-82-Tele-Telephoto-Lens-Hood-Shade-N...item336343c847


ISO 640, 1/2500s --- Note the fine strands of spider web



ISO 400, 1/2000s



MAN!.... Those wood storks may be endangered but they surely aren't protected because they're pretty. :)


By the way... the Soligor is no slouch. I have no idea why it has been treated badly in this thread. I don't think it warrants the comments it has gotten here and I'll bet it performs better than the cheap mirrors. It was, after all, a member of the Soligor C/D high end line of lenses.

In regard to sharpness the Soligor almost matches the 55BB! Excellent solid build quality. The 55BB is brighter. As discussed earlier in the thread it is probably one of the few f8 mirrors that actually approaches a real f8. Obviously that's why it's an 82mm thread. The Soligor isn't a tiny lens either with a 77mm thread instead of the 72mm found on cheap mirrors. The Tamron also has better contrast but I would not pass up a Soligor if you can't get your hands on a Tamron. I got my Soligor for less than $20 with the hood! Both lenses seem to work well with focus confirm. I haven't tried CIF on the Soligor yet because I have one of those anodized T-mount adapters. I will try to post a few shots from the Soligor as well. Maybe even some A/B shots with the Tamron.
Forum: Lens Clubs 10-23-2012, 11:30 AM  
Adaptall Mount Club (Tamron).
Posted By SRT201
Replies: 4,548
Views: 849,326
I have passed on mirrors for a long time but after recently discovering how difficult the handling is with some of the large lenses (06A...argh), I decided to give the mirrors a try. After reading the mirror club thread I found a good buy on a Tamron 55BB.

Here are two shots taken handheld with the 55BB. These are NOT art shots. They were simply taken to get a handle on shooting with the Tamron and to see what kind of sharpness I could get handheld with SR and CIF. This lens amazes me! VERY sharp. Here are two shots I threw together. They are obviously scaled down but no other sharpening was done. Each has an included 100% crop to show the detail. This lens gets the most accurate CIF shots I have managed yet. Sorry the little editor I used destroyed the EXIF. Both shots are f8... duh. :)

The almost total lack of CA is refreshing as well. You have to watch the bokeh but it can be managed. With foreground objects, I find the donut bokeh gives the sky a very creamy appearance.

I will say this... just try to get handheld shots that sharp with the larger tele's. It's the immediate accessibility of the 55BB that really makes it stand out as a very useful lens. This is not a lens that requires a ton of planning to use. Just grab it and go. Sure... it will get even better results with a tripod but what doesn't.

I have not, thus far, been able to get matrix metering working even with the PKA adapter on this lens. I tried twisting the tabs around but it won't lock into the A position. Matrix would be nice with this lens.


ISO 640, 1/2500s



ISO 400, 1/2000s



MAN!.... Those wood storks may be endangered but they surely aren't protected because they're pretty. :)
Actually, they are rather pretty when they are flying about 200 feet overhead.

I really meant to post this in the mirror club but it's applies here as well.
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