77mm Limited, 85mm F1.4 OR 100mm Macro 2.8

Having just ordered a *ist DL with 40mm Limited, what would anyone recommend as second lens for portraits, Macro and inside dimly lit churches ?

I've never used the 77 limited or the 100 Macro but I have had the FA* 85mm F1.4 for a good many years now. I used it on a digital body (DS) for the first time in the studio yesterday and it seems just as impressive with that format as it did when used with film.

I've used it in dimly lit theatres etc. in the past where the 1.4 aperture has been very useful and the results have always been great.

The 100mm macro would be a versatile lens but it is a lot slower than the other lenses plus it's an effective 150mm which is a touch long for general portraiture. Unless you're going to use it's macro capabilities then a 80-200 F2.8 might be a better choice. I've got one of the Tokina ATX-Pro ones and it gives good portrait results although it is quite heavy.

The 77 limited sounds a good lens but personally I'd rather have the FA* 85mm F1.4.

Portraits: Don't forget the humble but excellent 50mm manual focus or AF lenses, which make superb fast 75mm equivalents.

Macro: I think AF is useless for much macro photography, so why not a nice 50mm or 100mm manual focus, second hand of course but non the worse for that if you get a good one.

Dimly lit churches: Will you be needing a wide angle for this? More important than a fast lens will be a sturdy tripod IMHO.

Beware that the 85 1.4 is a massive glass lens and weights more than an average lens.... I use it in theater also (on mz-s). Very nice!
But on a digi it becomes a 125mm. A bit to long for my normal theater position. then the 50 1.4 would be better for me (becomes 75).

read lens tests before you buy the more

http://www.photodo.com/nav/prodindex.html

BTW I wrote a review of the 85mm F1.4 for photo.net a while back and it can be seen at http://www.photo.net/equipment/pentax/fa85

Thanks for the link, it's a very interesting review.

Thanks for the replies. I am still learning fast. I keep forgetting the 1.5 factor, so I guess the 100mm macro would be a bit much at 150mm for some of my pictures - but I am sure that is a good lens for things like flowers and such like but perhaps not so good in low light situations such as church. Maybe the 85mm will be too expensive. Possibly I will go for the 77mm when I find a gallery somewhere to look at and decide whether the photos are in line what I am looking for.

If you can manage without half a stop of speed, the 77mm is probably a more practical lens than the 85mm f1.4, and better built. People might argue over which is better optically, but they're both as near perfect as you'll find on a 35mm body or a DSLR.

The F and FA 100mm f2.8 are massive lenses. You'll get pretty good results with tubes on a 77 or 85, and if macro is not a main priority that's what I would do.

If you really want a macro, the manual focus f4 macros are very good, rather cheaper, and smaller and lighter. I recently sold my A 100mm f4, and kept my FA f2.8, but only because my eyes are not so good. Otherwise, it would have been the other way around.

G

Interesting you mention about the eyes. Mine are not what they were, so I am steering clear of manual focus, purely because of my eyes.

However I appreciate what you are saying about the 77 Limited, I shall probably go for this lens, as with the 40mm pancake, I think most of my subject will be covered.

On the D series cameras, a 50mm makes an excellent portrait lens. There are lots of superb Pentax 50 f/1.4's out there.

Hi SPB,

Don't worry too much about that with the DL.. I've had mine just over a week now and finally worked out how to get "focus confirmation" with fully manual lenses. Basically even though the lens tells the camera nothing, the AF sensor beeps* at you when the subject is in focus by looking through the lens and determining the distance etc.

Basic settings for this are..

Set front switch to MF
Set mode dial to M

Press the Menu button on the back of the camera and in the Record Mode settings, change the AF area to Spot.

In the C (custom menu) set FI with S lens to permitted (2).
Set using aperture ring to permitted (2).

It doesn't want to work in low light from what I can see, but daylight is fine, and I was copying slides** over a light box last night, and that worked well. It' very difficult to manually focus to the exact distance when the object is 0.5mm thick..

Anyone feel free to correct any of those settings, I've played with them a lot of the last week, but that seems to do it.

Hope that helps..

Cheers

Liam

*You can turn the beep off in Menu | Set Up | Beep, if you need silence, and still have the visual indicator of focus in the viewfinder.

**Handy hint: If you've got a 35mm slide copier lens, it will lose approx 33% in width and height when used on a digital CCD, but using a macro lens with RAW over a light box, mine's homemade, does the job at least as well.

One point about copying slides with a macro and a light box is that it is so much quicker than using a scanner. I bought a relatively expensive Epson scanner a few years ago, but even with Firewire it takes an age to do a scan. So my thousands of slides languish unseen.

G

Well today I got my new DL with the 40mm pancake, and what a combination! I am going to be taking more and more photos, I feel I made a great choice for a standard set-up.

http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/FileSharing.woa/wa/default?user=stevenbutterworth&templatefn=FileSharing9.html&xmlfn=TKDocument.9.xml&sitefn=RootSite.xml&aff=consumer&cty=US&lang=en

Look for Windsor.pdf this to make that I opened the RAW file in Pentax Lab, saved as a .TIFF, opened in Preview in Mac OS X, and then created new from a cut and paste of the dog's head.

Best close-up I have taken for a long time and so I am really thrilled with my choice of camera and lens.

The raw PEF file is also in the same download folder on my website.

Should have logged in before I sent the last reply with my web page info.

Another example of close-up with the DA 40mm Limited lens on a DL:-

http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/FileSharing.woa/wa/default?user=stevenbutterworth&templatefn=FileSharing9.html&xmlfn=TKDocument.9.xml&sitefn=RootSite.xml&aff=consumer&cty=US&lang=en

This one was done using on camera pop-up flash plus one other slave, plus the Leica Elpro 3 close-up lens attached to the filter thread of the DA 40mm. AV priority set 60th at 2.8.[/url]