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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 11-30-2018, 03:14 AM  
Irix Dragonfly 150mm Macro
Posted By cyberjunkie
Replies: 156
Views: 24,898
Half of the pics are actually VERY GOOD.
The others just average, IMHO.

Despite the (very understandable) criticism, it seems that working for free is very fashionable these days :)
When I started taking pictures that I would have never shot for my own personal enjoyment, I was paid from day one.
I would have never ever done it for free.
Now there are a lot of photographers who are eager to get some media exposure, even if minimal, in exchange for unpaid work.
The world is going that way. It's not just about photography.
Just think of all the internships, stages, etc. that give no compensation at all. Most people would feel incredibly lucky to have at least the basic expenses covered...
Not so long ago this kind of situation was limited to some very specific fields, for example cinema.
I know a number of people involved, more or less successfully, in the world of cinema.
Most of them started with unpaid personal projects, but at least they were working for themselves and had plenty of fun doing it! :)
Even back then, professional photography was a very competitive world, but now the well paid jobs are fewer and fewer, and most of the times they land in the hands of a restricted number of well known professionals.
Fine art photography is a little different, though in the end it doesn't change very much. Affluent buyers would never acquire a great work by Mr. Nobody.
Even in the Renaissance it was a bit like that, nothing new. It is the extent of it that is impressive. The product is more and more the artist himself.
Just think of Andy Warhol.
I will spare you my considerations on why I think it's not necessarily a bad thing, and why I love the work of Mapplethorpe or D'Agata.
I'd be totally off-topic.
It would make sense, though. If the artist is the product, then media exposure is what you need to get there.
So under this point of view what seems to make little sense actually makes a lot of sense.
This is how the machine works, and we all embrace it, at different degrees.
The main difference is the level of awareness. Few are aware, most are not.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 09-26-2018, 01:35 AM  
Irix Dragonfly 150mm Macro
Posted By cyberjunkie
Replies: 156
Views: 24,898
I love the design.
The ridge on the focusing ring and the lock at the front of the lens look well designed and aesthetically pleasing.
The finish of the lens, at least from the way it looks in the pictures, seems to be beautiful.
This lens gives the impression of being finely designed and well built. Not like some korean or chinese lenses that are very good optically but look cheaply made.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 09-25-2018, 09:33 AM  
Irix Dragonfly 150mm Macro
Posted By cyberjunkie
Replies: 156
Views: 24,898
Just saying that the pictures of "macro hunting" I see on Flickr are for the most part far from 1:1 magnification.
Some people do that, but it's not easy. You know very well the reasons.
I have done macro around 1:1 with the LX, trying if possible to combine available light with the flash. The power was enough because it was easy to use two flashes, a ring flash plus a more powerful one at an angle, on a Novoflex flash holder.
Many times I used the same Tamron lens with the dedicated 2x teleconverter.
Nowadays I usually shoot at lower magnification, with the flash mostly just for fill-in.
Interestingly, I found that the Pentax AF 1.7x converter does not match the old Tamron 90mm nicely. The difference in sharpness is not small.

You are right considering that distance eats up the power of the flash.
I guess it depends on what/where you are shooting. Any given recipe is not good for all situations.
Though flash helps a lot if you are shooting handheld and badly need some DOF.
My consideration was "in general", you are right saying it's doable.
I guess you dedicated some effort finding the right equipment and perfecting the technique.
Owning a camera with great dynamic range and an AF lens that reaches 1:1 is not enough.
I'm sure you know it all too well... :)
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 09-25-2018, 02:09 AM  
Irix Dragonfly 150mm Macro
Posted By cyberjunkie
Replies: 156
Views: 24,898
It seems they don't even know what they sell!
It's kind of comical...

Here is the quote from their email:
"Thank you so much for the email.
So far we have no schedule to launch the one with electric contacts, but we are working on it."

THE ONE... but I didn't ask about any specific lens, just if they were going to release PKA lenses...
Here is the quote from my original email:
"1) any of the present/future lenses has/will have PKA mount with electric contacts?"

Lots of thanks for the info, I didn't know there was a Laowa lens with PKA mount.
Good to know. I guess other members appreciate it too.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 09-24-2018, 08:07 AM  
Irix Dragonfly 150mm Macro
Posted By cyberjunkie
Replies: 156
Views: 24,898
Assuming the figures are accurate, in practice the difference is not so small, because in practice 1:1 is not reached most of the times.
Anybody who has used in the field a 50mm and a 100mm has found that it makes a whole lot of difference.
From 100mm to 180mm it is almost the same. A 150mm offers a little less advantage, but still welcomed.
Few pictures are actually shot freehand at 1:1 in the field.
If a bulky tripod comes into play, then a bigger lens doesn't make a whole lot of difference, isn't it? :)
At high magnification the DOF is very thin, and to get some more the only option is stopping down.
A pity that traditional lenses suffer a lot from diffraction.
Professionals always use stacking if possible.
It is complicated in studio, in the field it's a nightmare.
This is why modern macro lenses stretch the optical limits a lot using floating elements.
The Laowa lens I mentioned does nor suffer too badly from diffraction even at the "real" aperture of f/128.
Let's not forget that at 1:1 f/11 becomes f/32.
To get the best performance with very high reproduction rate a serious macro photographer shoots wide open a lot of pictures and then stacks them.
Some old school micro lenses don't even have a diaphragm.
150mm and 180mm macro lenses are not made for this use. They are made for macro hunting, shooting subjects that rarely require more than 1:2.
Modern floating designs have and edge also in this case, each cm of distance you gain allows for better chances to picture the subject before it flies/runs away.
Compared to older designs, floating elements allow for more freedom. If it's important or not is left to our own judgement. What we shoot and how.
What I know for sure is that short focal optics (for higher magnifications) use the same tricks to gain a couple of cm, which are badly needed to avoid shading the subject with the front of the lens.
At home I still have a micrometric rail (Manfrotto), a microscope stage, a microscope ring light, micro objectives, etc, etc... well, even with some good equipment and lots of ingenuity it's NOT easy.
These chinese are doing a great job making it simpler, and more affordable. Both in the field and in studio.

---------- Post added 24-09-18 at 05:09 PM ----------



Just got their reply.
They say they don't.
It seems that sooner or later they will

---------- Post added 24-09-18 at 05:18 PM ----------



Sorry, I thought it was a figure derived from the MFD of Pentax, getting the Irix likely spec in a "theoretical" way.
I thought that the specs of the Irix were still not available.
My bad, I presumed a bit too much. I had a look a couple of days ago and no such data was available.

EDIT:
I wrote this post with the impressive Laowa macro achievements in mind.
It seems that Irix is a little behind under this point of view.
If the quotes are from the front of the lens, I would expect a little better from a modern macro lens with floating elements.
Maybe this was not the goal, maybe it shines in other ways... but under this point of view it could have done better, considering that the D FA 100mm uses the same old fashioned helicoid used by all other past Pentax macros.
A few more cm are useful, but it's hardly a miracle, considering the difference of focal. I would have expected more.
I wrote my post considering the 3.5cm difference only "theoretical", and I took for granted that in reality it should match Laowa's impressive achievements, especially considering how well Irix has done with their wide angles... I just hope the new lens will show other optical qualities.
I guess it's very likely to happen.
Whatever it is, I'm glad we have one more tele prime with 1:1 reproduction ratio that can work with P-TTL flashes.
Laowa's macro lenses, as impressive as they are, can't be used in P-TTL mode. It's a huge shortcoming for macro hunting.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 09-24-2018, 07:01 AM  
Irix Dragonfly 150mm Macro
Posted By cyberjunkie
Replies: 156
Views: 24,898
This is the theory.
I mean, this is what happens following the law of optics, which apply to "simple" lenses.
When there are floating elements involved, and some optical trickery, the usual rules don't apply anymore.
See what Laowa has done with their 25mm Macro. It gives 4cm of distance from the front of the objective at 5x!!
Laowa Venus started as a joint effort of some chinese optical engineers (with previous experience working for some big brands), who shared the same interest for macrophotography.
Their recent macro lenses kick some of those big brands where the sun does not shine! :)

Regarding the link on savazzi.net, I had an email exchange with Mr. Savazzi.
I provided him with a few pics of a knock-off. It seems that there are four different copycats.
One interesting thing I found: the copy on AliExpress seems to be ALMOST identical to the original Laowa Venus lens, while the recent version portrayed on Laowa's site has a different mount, that differs from both the copy and their original lens.
Mr. Savazzi told me that apart from the mechanical differences, the optical performance is surprisingly similar.
I guess that with modern optical design programs it's rather simple to tweak a design, avoid lawsuits, and still retain a similar performance.

EDIT:
Laowa answered my email.
There is no scheduled release of any lens in PKA mount... but they are working on it!! :) :)

We already have Irix lenses. If Laowa Venus and Zhong Yi Mitakon finally decide to release PKA versions of their lenses, one of the main objections that Canikon users repeat ad nauseam would become baseless. The choice of easy to use lenses for the Pentax full frame would be much wider, and it would cover "niche" lenses. Pentax could continue to concentrate on the core market: AF zooms and some high-level AF primes. Their cameras would be more desirable because of a larger choice of specialty lenses that can be used with full aperture metering, any exposure mode, P-TTL flash, etc.
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 09-21-2018, 05:49 AM  
Irix Dragonfly 150mm Macro
Posted By cyberjunkie
Replies: 156
Views: 24,898
Irix lenses tend to be more expensive than Laowa Venus. However they look nicely made and the tests show impressive performance for the price.
Some Laowa Venus lenses are very aggressively priced, quite a bargain for what you get!
Even more so if you find a 'generic' Laowa on Ebay with no mark.
IIRC the 60mm macro can be found that way, but I'm not 100% sure, I haven't checked.
Same thing with the Sigma 150mm, I believe that there might have been a manual focus version in PKA mount, though I am not sure.
I am positively sure that before the AF version of the Sigma 180mm there were two MF versions.
I have the slower one: f/5.6 180mm.
I even wrote a review:
Sigma 180mm F5.6 APO Macro UC Lens Reviews - Sigma Lenses - Pentax Lens Review Database

EDIT:
checked about the 150mm Macro, and found out that you are right:
"The Sigma 150mm F2.8 Macro is a full-frame lens featuring in-lens stabilization and hypersonic focusing. This lens was never produced in the Pentax mount despite early hits that it would be."
Read more at: [URL="https://www.pentaxforums.com/userreviews/sigma-150mm-f2-8-ex-dg-os-hsm-apo-macro.html#ixzz5RjwEThXX"[/URL]

I have just checked Ebay, the Laowa 60mm Macro 2:1 is available only with the proper Laowa brand. No dirty cheap options anymore! :(
Forum: Pentax News and Rumors 09-21-2018, 04:02 AM  
Irix Dragonfly 150mm Macro
Posted By cyberjunkie
Replies: 156
Views: 24,898
I have read somewhere, maybe on this forum, that a user contacted them by email asking about PKA mount.
IIRC they answered saying that they are considering it for future releases. Maybe the 150mm could be the first.
The choice of long macros in PK mount is not great, and most of the possible options are available on the second-hand market at crazy prices.
Leaving alone dream lenses like the 200mm A* and FA*, the Sigma's are both rare and expensive (150mm and 180mm). Not to mention the Voigtlander/Cosina... :(
One of the few options, currently almost impossible to find, is the Sigma 5.6/180mm manual focus. I have one, and it's among my most loved lenses.
It got a touch of fungus, but it works so well that I am afraid to open it for cleaning.
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