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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-10-2023, 04:29 AM
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I have (I think) four of these lenses acquired at different times. They vary slightly in performance, but I would put this down to sample variation/manufacturing tolerances more than anything else. None of them are bad, none of them are stellar. All of them are pretty good for what they are, particularly bearing in mind price. I haven't found flaring a problem at all. Back in my early Pentax days I was too anxious to move onto other more expensive lenses before I knew what I really needed - those 18-55s would have perfectly adequate for my needs for a lot longer than I actually used them.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
02-09-2023, 09:52 AM
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 | Night Moon
Posted By
timo |
Replies: 1
Views: 391
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Nice moon the other night - so I stuck my ancient M200/4 on the front of my Olympus OMD 5 iii with an adaptor and a 2X converter and here we are. Not very sharp, but then it's not the greatest lens. Cropped of course.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
04-26-2022, 04:35 AM
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I thought it looked like a satellite image of some exotic landscape.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-18-2021, 02:53 PM
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I have just received the adaptor. You have answered my question - there are no aperture leaves on the adaptor: it must actuate the pin on the lens, in which case the answer is obvious.
I understand your point about M4/3 vs the K5: on the other hand the M4/3 is using the more central area of the image, which tends to be sharper anyway. My experience of old lenses on M4/3 is that they hold up pretty well, and focusing is a doddle with focus-peaking.
Thanks.
Tim
---------- Post added 08-19-2021 at 05:57 AM ----------
You are right, as I have just worked out (see my previous post).
Yes, I understand about the DOF issue. Actually I am one of those people who gets tired of all that shallow DOF 'subject isolation' stuff - it's too easy, and it has become a photographic cliché (in my opinion, of course. ;) )
T.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-18-2021, 11:13 AM
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(Or switch to MF once it has focused at f/5.6).
Yes, that is exactly in line with my experience.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-18-2021, 11:03 AM
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My old K5 is grouchy and temperamental, and I am using an M4/3 mirrorless at the moment.
Someone is giving me a K-mount to M4/3 adaptor with the aperture control feature. The stops are not marked on the adaptor ring in any way, but (my friend says) with experience you can judge how much to move the ring on the adaptor to stop down a stop or two (very roughly).
If you mount a modern Pentax lens with no aperture ring, and you stop down the aperture a bit using the adaptor, no doubt it will adjust exposure, but does this have the same impact on sharpness and depth of field that making a similar adjustment on the lens itself would in normal circumstances?
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-13-2021, 01:45 PM
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It didn't seem to me like focus shift - focus shift is generally quite progressive, quite incremental: whereas with my DA21 there was no difference between wide open and f/4; then at f/5.6 there was a very pronounced difference. After that there was no difference again. I think was some quirk of the lens or the internal programming, whatever that might be. After it was serviced, or recalibrated, or whatever, it behaved normally. Others reported a similar phenomenon at the time.
Anyway I guess the lenses they are making now could well behave rather differently.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-10-2021, 11:40 AM
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You may need a long memory to remember this, but in the early days of the DA21 some people (including me) found that it focused differently wide open compared with stopped down a bit. If one calibrated the camera to get it right at f/3.2, it was off at f/5.5. That was indeed my experience: in the end I sent it off to have it dealt with by Pentax (in Japan - I was living in Singapore at the time), after which it was fine. But maybe that's just ancient history.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-03-2021, 10:37 AM
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The FA28 f/2.8 is the one Pentax lens that I sold and very much regret selling. Slightly 'romantic' wide open, but sharp as anything from f/4. I have the both the K and the M 28 f/3.5s. Everybody says the K is better, but to be honest I can't tell the difference. They are both very good, and fun to use.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-06-2020, 02:14 AM
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Yes, that seems pretty convincing, I admit. As it happens the AF 50 I kept was the FA1.7. So that's all right. But I also kept both the Ms - 1.4 and 1.7. (And I have the 2.0 - ok stopped down, and amazingly light). My K 1.2 was stolen on a train in Belgium many years ago. Not sure how that would compare.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-05-2020, 11:46 AM
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I have had both. Wide open the the f/1.7 does show more contrast than the f/1.4, but I was never convinced there was much difference in actual resolution. Stopped down to f/2.0 or certainly f/2.8 I couldn't tell the difference. Except that, when doing a direct comparison, I felt that the f/1.4 was very very very slightly sharper at the extreme edges stopped down, but really nothing in it.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
10-27-2019, 02:55 AM
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I had a DA 55-300 (metal mount) when it first came out. It was not a good lens, decentered in various different directions according to focal length setting. It went all the way back to Tokyo to be sorted, and came back even worse. Later I got a cheap second-hand deal on the plastic-mount version, which is actually much better, ironically. But it has never really gained my affections.
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Forum: Pentax Q
10-10-2019, 04:32 AM
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Somewhere I have a couple of those viewfinders that you put on the hot shoe. Can't remember what FOV the frames indicate. As you say they would only be useful for general aiming but it might be fun to try. I have 28, 50 and 100mm lenses that it would be worth having a go with.
OK, off to eBay I guess.
---------- Post added 10-10-2019 at 07:35 PM ----------
I have an M50/4 macro - that could be interesting.
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Forum: Pentax Q
10-10-2019, 02:06 AM
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Good morning all
As my back is ageing, weight becomes a dominant factor in choosing gear, which is why I have partly migrated to M4/3 for travel use. But I still have a shedload of old Pentax DSLR bodies (any offers?) and lenses, including M lenses in good condition (dry box).
As an alternative to carrying a fairly substantial M4/3 telephoto zoom, would it make sense to get a Q body and put an M or K 28, M50 or M100 or M150 on the front? The body will weigh very little. The crop factor really cranks up the effective focal length.
The downside, I suppose, would be no EVF, and no stabilisation.
.
How does the Q image quality compare with the average phone these days? I bet it's better than my iPhone 6S.
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
04-09-2019, 11:35 PM
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Thank God, no rocks in the foreground
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
04-09-2019, 11:33 PM
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 | hi
Posted By
timo |
Replies: 50
Views: 2,065
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Thank God no bloody rocks in the immediate foreground
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
04-09-2019, 11:32 PM
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I would like to nominate this photo
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
04-09-2019, 11:31 PM
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I would like to nominate this photo
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
04-09-2019, 11:29 PM
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I would like to nominate this photo
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
04-09-2019, 11:27 PM
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Mind you, hard to go wrong in this situation!
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
04-09-2019, 11:24 PM
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I would like to nominate this photo
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-15-2018, 02:07 AM
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By f/11-16 you may be running into softness through diffraction. Also, for what it's worth, when I first got my DA21, it did front focus dreadfully. It was fixed finally by Pentax - this was years ago before micro-focus adjustment was available on the cameras.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-12-2016, 05:27 AM
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DA55-300 x 2
The first one (metal mount) was clearly, visibly, obviously defective. It was sent back to Pentax in Tokyo and came back worse. It was re-sent back, and declared to be 'within spec'. Well, if it was within spec, Pentax thoroughly deserved all the uncertainties that surrounded its fate at the time.
The second one I got as an act of misguided faith, with the plastic mount, is better, but noticeably decentred at various focal lengths.
So I gave up, and get much better results with my M manuals, notably 100/2.8, 150/3.6, and even the much despised 200/4. So to hell with the 55-300s, both of them.
Actually the worst lens I EVER had was the cheapo Sigma 18-50, available a decade or so ago. That really was a stinker, although hailed at the time as a worthy alternative to the mediocre FAJ 18-35 that Pentax were offering as a kit lens for the *istD. Oddly the Sigma 50-200 that went with it was quite good, albeit a bit heavy.
---------- Post added 12-12-2016 at 08:31 PM ----------
I don't think the 1.4 is as bad wide open as some say - the key is to get the focus right. The 1.7 has a bit more contrast wide open, but the difference is not night-and-day. Once stopped down a bit, I find the 1.4 superior, certainly at the edges.
This is all quibbling. They are both excellent for what one would use them for - and I use the M 50 1.7 regularly with an adaptor on my M4/3 GX7. Very nice.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
10-19-2016, 02:05 AM
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And there's the K 105/2.8, a very nice lens.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
11-22-2015, 11:57 PM
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It's ages since I last contributed anything to the forum, so it's time I did something about it. Here's couple a with the K SMC 105 f/2,8. I really like this lens, although it is quite dreamy wide open, and liable to produce serious fringing on very high contrast edges unless stopped down. (On the first of these shots I had to neutralise a pretty obvious fringe along the top of the upper flower. Now I notice that the lower flower could have done with the same treatment.) Close it down to f.5.6 or more and it's very sharp. The bokeh is nicer than I remember - it has been sitting in my dry cabinet for a couple of years, sadly neglected. My acquisition of a Panny GX7, with an adaptor, live view and focus peaking has re-energised my interest in these old lenses. Now I get easier focus and aperture priority automatic exposure.
Incidentally this is the actual lens that's illustrated in the lens database, the one on the left.
Tim
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