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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-24-2009, 06:15 AM
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i sold my 18-55 and never looked back. but i got so little for it keeping it might have been an option. not so much for backup, but in situations where you want a lighter setup.. camping, long walks etc.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-11-2009, 09:04 PM
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I think what you'll notice most is a different rendition of colours, followed by some increase in sharpness. Going from a kit lens to the 16-50 is really a blow away for the most part. The feel from photos I've taken with the 16-50 is more film like to me. The kit lens renders photos in a way I've actually come to like (since selling it), and there are some instances where the feel is quite pleasing - and there would be the odd moment where the kit lens *might* be preferred. Like a scene where you want hard transition of colour gradients and less micro contrast. But overall if you get a good 16-50 there would be no going back.
Couldnt tell you what improvement you should expect with the 50-135 except to say Im loving mine after the initial front focus adjustments and measurements phase. In real use in a camping trip recently the results were up to scratch. Very sharp lens, to the point where it's difficult to tell you are looking at 100% crops most of the time.
A side note with the 16-50... Personally I think its made my photos worse, Im now lazy with composition. I just point and shoot and see a great rendition of colour and sharpness with a more film like quality, gawk at what the lens can do and move on. I've taken better photos with the kit lens thus far. I think Im still in the *awe* phase of the 16-50 despite it being with me for a while now, I'm sure itll change eventually.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-11-2009, 08:41 PM
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Thinking about another lens purchase, the DA35 Ltd Macro and Voigtlander 58/1.4 are the top choices (along with a DA* 300 but ignore that for now).... so again a few questions.
I know the lenses are way different and serve different purposes, but I can see em both being fun to use. Im just wondering out of the people who now have both which do you actually *use* more? which stays on your camera more and which has taken the more stunning shots? If you had to sell/keep one which would it be?
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Forum: Photographic Technique
01-11-2009, 05:24 AM
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You guys make me wish I still had a decent telescope. I took a shot last night as I thought the moon looked more impressive than usual (didnt know about the space.com article or anything).
Basically just a crop using the DA* 50-135mm.. Man I wish I had a da* 300 or better yet a telescope now :)
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Forum: Lens Clubs
01-02-2009, 11:34 PM
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josh that second photo is fantastic.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-02-2009, 10:17 AM
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Sean those first two photos are fantastic.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-02-2009, 08:26 AM
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I gotta agree with roentarre/james. The DA 15mm ltd is the lens I was most looking forward too from pentax that didnt come about.
Also gotta agree with a lot of the 50-135 disappointments as mentioned in this thread. Seems QC has slipped on them as of late. Wouldve sent mine back for repair if I could.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-02-2009, 08:18 AM
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I havent owned or tried enough lenses to give a meaningful reply.... so heres a totally meaningless reply. The DA* 16-50 gets my vote.. love it.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-02-2009, 07:41 AM
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You guys could be right. I came back from a hot camping trip the other day and the 50-135 was nailing focus. Very assured and accurate. Something it wasnt doing in the first week of obtaining it. Took some amazingly good photos where I wouldve thought AF would be a problem.
Overall I dont mind SDM in the 16-50 and 50-135, i like the silentness of it. It might be in my head, but I think they are both noticably quicker in AF than the 18-55 II kit lens. Quick enough for what I do anyway. The 16-50 especially seems to focus as accurately and assuredly as I'd like so I have no complaints.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
01-02-2009, 07:28 AM
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Here are my four favourites from the 18-55 II. Great lens.
Click for size options.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-25-2008, 10:18 PM
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impressive photos and a great buy.. congrats!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-25-2008, 10:12 PM
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I dunno, to be honest I've never gotten edges that bad on my kit lens at around F8 and FL around 21mm, irrespective of the conditions. I've gotten CA that was noticable but not as bad as that either. Actually my copy of the kit lens impressed me greatly, and if I was consistently getting photos yours I'd start to think something was wrong. But I guess its hard to judge anything on just one photo. At that distance with the left being closer marc could very well be right.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-24-2008, 05:45 AM
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Im pretty sure the lenses I had/have that need adjusting were front focusing, and I had to put in - adjustment.
But since you'll want to fine tune it either way you should probably just try some systematic method of narrowing the AF adjustment until you get the results you want. Obviously do it in good lighting and not indoors under tungsten or else you'll be way over compensating for a front focusing issue you dont really have.
The other week I did a whole bunch of shots in steps of 2, then fine tuned from there till my 50-135 was focusing fine. Perhaps try something ilke that, pixel peep and take it from there.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-22-2008, 07:02 AM
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i tried to get a poll going on this recently (in this thread https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/43687-if-you-h...-af-ff-bb.html ).. Mean/mode/median seems to definetly be at 0 adjustment, with no skew towards - or +.... Tho with the lack of votes I doubt it means anthing :)
Personally my kit lens 18-55 ALII was adjusted to about -4.. and after the adjustment was fine irrespective of FL and distance. The 16-50 seems spot on at 0, I wouldnt be surprised if it was say +1 or -1 off cause I havent systematically tested it, but visually its so close Im in no rush adjust. Also perfect at all FL's and distances.
The 50-135 is weird. From memory I got a -2 adjustment. But its inconsistant when focusing near field. Anything 10 meters and further it seems to nail (with the -2).. Anything close and it's usually off - and it can be really far off.
Im thinking my 50-135 might be faulty in some way, but prodigital not sending me an international warranty card (when they should have), and pentax australia (cr kennedy) not caring and insisting they cant do anything without the card leaves me in a bad position. So not much I can do about it. Unless anyone out there wants to swap an international warranty card with a 2 year canadian warranty card? Umm sorry about off topic rant.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-21-2008, 08:43 AM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-21-2008, 03:57 AM
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that tamron looks pretty much how my 50-135 looked before doing some AF adjustments for FF. you couldve either manually focused the tamron (perhaps using 8x on liveview) or taken a series of shots adjusting AF by 2 in either direction (+ or -), looked at the results and then fine tuned from there.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-18-2008, 10:19 AM
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I havent done any systematic testing or anything.. But I was looking through my library to see which kit lens photos I like best, and it fits exactly with whats been said. Stopped up to f/8 (a lot of good photos at f/16 too) seems best. I noticed photos at 18mm seem to render better than those at 55mm despite the distortion.
Its a great lens, especially considering how light it is. I've since sold mine but in many ways wished I'd kept it - great camping lens.
Examples of some photos taken at 18mm (click for larger sizes)...
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-16-2008, 05:07 AM
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In apple's aperture you can apply a negative vignette to an appropriate photo, once its done to your satisfaction you can then lift the modification and apply it to any other photos you like in one go. I'd be shocked if lightroom cant do the same thing.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-15-2008, 10:43 AM
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Definitely try different light. I thought my 50-135 was severely front focusing (indoors testing the first night after receiving it). During outdoors daylight conditions it was no where near as bad (though still present).
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-14-2008, 11:11 PM
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My entire history basically revolves around two cameras. K1000 in the film days that I've used since being a teen. And the K20D.
On the K1000 I had the choice of cheap primes and cheap zooms, I always chose the primes. The resulting photos spoke for themselves, the pop and colours were fantastic.
On the K20D the DA* 16-50 just boggles my mind, I still want to get some decent primes, the voigt 58 and da35 macro, and I might turn into a prime shooter again - if anything for the size factor. But at the moment I just feel its no rush. If anything I wouldnt mind a long prime first as I dont have as much confidence with the 50-135 as I'd like to have.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-14-2008, 09:42 AM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-12-2008, 06:37 PM
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out of interest did yours come with an international warranty card?
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-12-2008, 07:57 AM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-12-2008, 05:06 AM
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Hey thats pretty interesting, looks like we're both equally anal :confused: I didnt even think of changing focal lengths, I did all mine at 135mm. I guess its time to test a little more, but would be nice to know if this kinda thing is normal on a 50-135..
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-11-2008, 06:50 PM
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I've managed to test my new 50-135 a lot more over the last two days and have a few questions about whats normal and what isnt.
Firstly I've had to dial in -2 AF correction and all in all it seems to be nailing focus, especially of objects in the distance (5meters up to infinity is typically what i tested, while on f/2.8). So I'm very happy there. Performance is amazing.
If I focus on something close up, well as close as the 50-135 comfortably gets, say in the 2 to 3 meter mark it will miss focus ever so slightly (might need to dial in something more like -4), manually focusing produces great results tho.
So far is this sounding normal-ish?
Lastly in low indoor light dialing in -9 seems to do the trick.. I'm not that concerned about the indoor lighting, its not where I plan to use the lens and I'm more than happy to manually focus in the rare occasion I do. But is this normal behaviour?
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