First real foray into digital

andrewk · 2009-01-25T19:44:09+0000

Just before Christmas, I bought a Pentax K200D with 18-55mm Mk2 kit lens. I've a few K-mount lenses that I used with a Ricoh KR10X that seem to function OK on the K200D - but I'm not completely sure that any of them are really significantly better than the kit lens. FWIW, they are: Rikenon 50mm f2 Rikenon 35-70mm (yes, I know that one jams, so I won't be trying it on the K200D - it can stay on the KR10X) Sigma 28mm mini-wide Sigma 135mm mini-tele Takumar 80-200mm zoom Pentax-M 75-150mm zoom (picked up recently off ebay) I've never done any macro photography before - so I'm going to buy some extension tubes and have a play with those. My bet is that I'll mostly use the kit lens and the Pentax 75-150mm and the others probably only rarely (50mm with extension tubes for macro, I guess). I haven't been terribly serious about photography in the past, largely due to lack of time. Now that I've retired and don't have to worry about how to earn my daily crust, I think I've got a whole new world to explore. :-) As a rule, I've generally used the KR10X mostly totally manually, so most of the K200D functionality might not get used for a while until I 'get the feel' of it. I love the forum; have been lurking about for a bit and have learned quite a bit. Cheers Andrew

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andrewk andrewk

828 posts
18 years
Oldham,
Lancashire,UK

Posted 27/01/2009 - 22:59 Link

hefty1 wrote:
Before binning them try sticking them on eBay - they may not be stellar performers but there'll be somebody out there who can make use of them!

For your amusement, here are a few 100% crops that seem to illustrate just how un-stellar two of the lenses are. The shots were taken in the evening under artificial light - those low energy bulb thingies that the government seem to have decided that we must all use. The subject is some piece of junk mail that came through my letterbox earlier in the day. I make no great claims as to the rigour of the testing methodology but it seems to have been good enough to distinguish (hopefully reliably) between the lenses.

In all cases, the lenses were mounted on a Pentax K200D on a substantial tripod. A cable release was used and the camera was set to the 2sec delay that locks up the mirror. All photos were taken at f8 for 1 sec, with the K200D sensitivity set to ISO 200. The focussing ring was twiddled with the shutter release half pressed until the "in focus" hexagon could be seen in the viewfinder - so the K200D thinks they are in focus. All photos were taken as JPEGs and other than cropping, I haven't fiddled with them in any way.

This is a resized version of the subject - taken by the Sigma mini-tele 135mm f2.8 lens.

The following are 100% crops taken by each of the tested lenses.

Mitakon 80-200mm zoom. Mmmm ........

Pentax 75-150mm zoom. Much better.

Takumar 80-200mm f4. Oh dear.

Sigma 135mm mini-tele. Not bad.

My interpretation is that the Pentax 75-150mm F4 zoom and Sigma 135mm prime are fairly close - with the Pentax just shading it.

The Takumar and Mitakon lenses are ......... not very good. If I were to try to sell them on Ebay, I'm not sure how I'd word the advert. Any suggestions?

Cheers
Andrew

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Edited by andrewk: 27/01/2009 - 23:02

hefty1 hefty1

4018 posts
19 years
Buckinghamshire,
UK

Posted 28/01/2009 - 10:29 Link

Yes I see what you mean - nothing to write home about are they?

Still, somewhere out there is someone who's blown their entire budget on a body + 18-55 kit and really wants a telephoto lens (even if it is poor) but can't afford more than fiver or so. That's the person who you'll be selling to.

Keep the listings honest, start them at 99p with no reserve, mention that they're not great performers (buyers like a little honesty) and they *will* sell. Probably not for very much but you'll be doing a couple of hard-up photographers a good deed...

Joining the Q

andrewk andrewk

828 posts
18 years
Oldham,
Lancashire,UK

Posted 28/01/2009 - 11:25 Link

hefty1 wrote:
you'll be doing a couple of hard-up photographers a good deed...

If there are any "hard-up" photographers reading this who just happen to live locally to me, just let me know and you can have one or both of Takumar/Mitakon zooms for free.

Cheers
Andrew

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