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Showing all 5 reviews by interested_observer

Review of: HD Pentax-D FA 15-30mm F2.8 ED SDM WR by interested_observer on Mon March 11, 2019 | Rating: 10 View more reviews 
pentax_dfa_15-30mm_lens.jpg

Views: 123398
Reviews: 32
I have had and shot this lens for a bit over a year. I have used this mainly for AstroLandscapes. The results in essentially total darkness are exceptional. https://i.redd.it/xbphg9hjvpd11.jpg The lens is large, and when mounted on the K1 - the entire unit is large. There is no getting around that. What was staggering is the exceptional detail and color rendering the K1/15-30 combination provides. I have also taken the lens on a 2 week trip to Alaska. With it being wide angle, I was even able to capture a breaching whale that should have been a telephoto shot - by cropping. In reviews, it matches the Nikon 14-24/f2.8 Bottom line - I don't know how much more you can expect from a lens this wide. _________________________ One additional interesting factor that I stumbled across. I prefocus in the afternoon before going out to shoot at night. I have found that I can focus at either 15mm or 30mm and while shooting, move between 15 and 30mm and still maintain focus. That is a large plus for me. Also, the "Open Aperture" or the physical aperture area at 30mm is twice the area at 15mm. Essentially, you are doubling your light at 30mm than what you are getting at 15mm. This is another major reason why I acquired this lens. I wanted the freedom of a large view (at 15mm) but also wanted the larger aperture area at 30mm. This lens provided me with that capability. The downside is the constant aperture of f2.8 rather than f2, f1.8 or f1.4 - but you have to compromise. I'm very happy with the amount of light that I can collect at f2.8, so everything else is a bonus. I have been able to use the AstroTracing on the K1 at 70seconds without really encountering any star trailing in the corners.

Review of: Super-Multi-Coated Takumar/Auto-Takumar 85mm F1.8 by interested_observer on Sun October 2, 2011 | Rating: 10 View more reviews 
Pentax_Auto_Takumar_85mm_F18.jpg

Views: 216424
Reviews: 24
I acquired the lens through a member here on the MarketPlace. For a 50 year old lens, its wonderful. Excellent Image Quality, sharpness, contrast and coloring. Build and glass are superb. Ability to focus even with my old eyes is excellent. The only slight negative it has, is having to extract the M42 adapter from the camera in the dark when I shoot in the evening. So I am considering just removing the clip on the adapter, so that it will just stay on the lens. This lens also compares very favorably with the Contax Carl Zeiss 85mm f2.8 Sonnar T* (mount changed from C/Y to K). Slightly different characteristics. :cool:

Review of: SMC Pentax 28mm F3.5 Shift by interested_observer on Fri August 20, 2010 | Rating: 9 View more reviews 
SMC_Pentax_28mm_Shift_Unshifted.jpg

Views: 81082
Reviews: 17
I have had the lens just about a month. I primarily purchased it for landscapes and architecture. I had several other opportunities over the years, but this appeared for essentially the right price and its condition was essentially mint and factory new - although it had been used, you could not tell. I can only echo the other reviews on build - metal, glass, heavy, unquestioned quality, like a tank, built to be able to withstand a nuclear detonation. The glass is perfect and it is sharp. Shifting is very easy. Rotation does take some practice. I found during my first few outings, that I did not sufficiently rotate it enough, however - this resulted in finding that you can use this to essentially take the equivalent of multiple row stitched panoramas (e.g., a 2 row by 3 image), by rotating to the diagonal positions. The lens shifts and also rotates, with a rotational stop at each position of a clock face (all 12 of them). The other opportunities I had to acquire this lens (for higher costs), I passed on - both for the cost and because the focal length crop factor concerned me. So far, I have not found it to be a problem yet. That said, its just been too hot to go downtown to shoot some buildings and see how it handles the various situations. Since receiving it I have used it for landscapes and sunsets, shooting directly into the sun, in the evening at dusk. If there is a weakness in this lens, this may be it - primarily when shifted. I am thinking that practice with the lens as it applies to the situations will help to a degree, along with applying it to situations where it can excel. This lens likes to be stopped down, so I started at f8, and now thinking that f11 is its sweet spot. The lens does take some time, as well as practice, to understand what it can do. With this lens you need to think through what you what to do and how you are going to do it. You can also overshift the lens. You have to understand that when shifted all 11mm, you are essentially reducing the amount of light that makes it to the ENTIRE sensor, since it appears that the light is somewhat concentrated over the portion of the sensor that the center point of the lens is shifted over. That coupled with shooting directly into the sun may not produce the best images. This is not my video - however I happened across it. It show the lens' operations and might be interesting to folks considering this lens...
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKu3jRkyVhY
Its ability for perspective correction has been well covered. Its ability to shift from one side to the other for panoramic stitching has also been addressed. However, using this lens to take a series of images and stitching them together in somewhat of a non traditional manner has not been covered very well. Since this lens rotates in a shifted manner around all 12 of the clock points, taking these images and stitching them provides a number of opportunities as shown in the attached image. :cool: (Non working link removed)

Review of: SMC Pentax-DA 10-17mm F3.5-4.5 Fish-Eye ED [IF] by interested_observer on Sat July 4, 2009 | Rating: 10 View more reviews 
Pentax_10-17_Fisheye_3.jpg

Views: 305452
Reviews: 101
I have had this lens for 3 years and it is one of my favorites. It has taken several of my best images - ever! It has the feel of a precision instrument - with its well balanced all metal body, weight and mass along with its superior build. It is quite small - actually tiny against the DA 12-24. It is a Fish Eye, however I would classify it as a hybrid Fish Eye, because it enables - you, the photographer to place the "bend" where you want it or need it - simply by slightly aiming up, straight out or down . At 17mm the FE effect is fairly minimal and very well controlled - with the field of view about 100 degrees. At 10mm - especially in portrait, you have to ensure that your feet or toes are not in the frame. Again at 10mm the field of view is a full 180 degrees. You can also back off from the 10mm to 17mm where the fish eye distortion is less noticeable - its still there to an extent, however its not yet a rectilinear lens. One of the major complaints aimed at this lens, is CA. I have shot directly into the sun at sunset, purposely placing lattice structures directly in line with the setting sun and not had any CA. Not that you will never get any, however depending on the composition it is not as overpowering as you may believe. And if you do have serious CA, there is software available able to clean it up. Another advantage of this lens is its ability to take the image extremely close to the subject being photographed. This is especially useful in very crowded areas, where you can be right up against the subject and have a well controlled and framed image. The ability to get so close to massive objects has not been well reported. Conversely, using this lens as a pure landscape lens, tends to push back the center in order to pull in the edges (thus the wide angle), so objects far away will appear further away. The lenses depth of field is endless. This lens is especially useful when a wide field of view is absolutely necessary - especially when things are in motion and stitching is not an option. You can capture the entire 180 degree field of view in a single image. That said, for even wider, or taller (stacked) views, the images are stitchable, especially non linear items such as trees, branches, etc. The images are also able to be defished and converted to a rectilinear perspective. Its a fun lens. It provides a lot of creativity (in some cases - too much). It provides a VERY different perspective on things around you. Originally, I picked up the this lens because it was substantially cheaper and wider than the DA 12-24. I have read where quite a few folks think that, its one or the other, but not both. It has taken me well over 3 years, but acquiring both certainly does provide an endless amount of flexibility and capability for images. The DA 10-17 FE covers 180 degrees to 100, while the DA 12-24 covers 99 to about 60 degrees. So the lenses are very complementary, and actually join together rather than overlap, as the focal length values would imply. This is a specialty lens - no doubt about it. However, I used this as a walking around lens for an entire day on several occasions. You start to think a bit differently about what you can do, and what you will do with this lens. It's appeal is actually much broader than one would think - and that is due to its zoom, and its well controlled FE effect - thus my term of a "hybrid FE". You can have as much of the FE or as little of the FE as you, the photographer desires. The other aspect that a user must understand, is that this lens can pull an entire 180 degrees of view and put it on the sensor. Compared to any other lens that will take a smaller angle of view, each sensor pixel covers a lot more area. That said, the sharpness just due to the width of the scene determines that this lens will NOT have the sharpness of a FA 31. On the other hand, its sharpness is not muddy either. It just does extremely well in what it was designed to do, and that is to pull in angle of view and reasonably accurately (its a fish eye), lay the image on the sensor. The colors and contrast from this lens are excellent. I find both the colors and contrast in this lens to be superior to the 12-24. Attached is an image at 10mm with a shot directly into the sun, through a ship's mast structure. The perfect conditions for PF. There is not much in this case. YMMV..... I can VERY easily recommend this lens with absolutely no reservations. :cool: https://www.pentaxforums.com/gallery/images/18325/large/1_Trident_Warrior_08_BHR_UNREP_IMGP4002.jpg

Review of: SMC Pentax-DA 12-24mm F4 ED AL [IF] by interested_observer on Sat July 4, 2009 | Rating: 9 View more reviews 
Pentax_12-24_5.jpg

Views: 344895
Reviews: 62
I have wanted this lens for a couple of years to augment my DA 16-45 and DA 10-17 FE, and finally acquired one 8 months ago. It is one of my most used lenses. Compared to the rest - it is by far the largest, especially with the 77mm front lens element. I mainly shoot landscapes and cityscapes. The fixed f4 is a plus, especially for nights and evening images. Flare is very well controlled, especially with shooting into the sun for sunsets. The lens performs best at f5.6 to f8, with a very large depth of field. The colors are true (and I like the Pentax colors very well) and contrast is very good. I have had no problems with CA. The build quality is excellent, even though it is plastic which is noticeable against my all metal DA 10-17 FE. Distortion is really only noticeable at the extreme edge, however with this wide of angle you are left wondering why it is so minimal. One thing about this lens is its image quality. An evaluation on dpreview http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/pentax_15_4_p15/page3.asp rated this zoom superior to the new DA 15/f4, which is unheard of. [INDENT]"Unfortunately it (the DA 15) doesn't come out so well against the excellent Tokina AT-X PRO SD 12-24mm F4 (IF) DX, which we'd expect to perform near-identically to Pentax's own smc DA 12-24mm F4 ED AL (IF) - in this case the zoom is sharper, and has lower falloff and equally low distortion, although it does show more chromatic aberration."[/INDENT] This is a wide lens, to the extent on a couple of occasions - too wide, that I had to revert to the 16-45. With the front lens element so large and exposed, I searched for and found an ultra thin circular polarizing filter (Nikon) for additional protection. The filter had to be ultra thin so as to not add any vignetting to the lens. I would easily recommend this lens with out any reservations. There are very few lenses this wide that can match it, let alone exceed it.



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