Hello from wet Hampshire

Hi all.

I've been lurking here for a few weeks now, I signed up at the end of October.. Back in the 70s & 80s I was a big fan of 35mm photography and had a Canon AE-1 (a great camera!) complete with specialist Macro gear (including a diopter attachment for close focusing) a Vivitar series 1 70-210 lens, Vivitar flash, motor drive attachment (2 frames per second!), etc. This lasted me until the 1990s when I got a Pentax digital compact camera. I can't remember the model, but it had 3.1MP capacity, wow, and the 256MB(!) compact flash card cost me £56.

I then went through a couple of other digital compact cameras including an Olympus Tough 8100 (great build quality and still used for underwater photos) followed by an Olympus SZ31MR. Though a good camera I began to get frustrated with sharpness, colour and speed issues, so started to research DSLRs.

Wanting an all weather camera I settled on the Pentax K-S2 with the 18-50 and 50-200mm lenses which I got at the end of October. Since then I've been playing/testing out all the features and re-familiarizing myself with the basics of photography

I'm now looking at getting a 1:1 macro lens, due to budget constraints this is looking to be the Tamron SP AF 90mm F2.8 Di Macro. I have to say that the reviews on this forum have been helpful.

Anyway, that's enough of an intro, I thought it polite to post something before I asked any questions!

A very quick update.

Well I've taken the plunge and bought the Pentax D-FA 100mm F2.8 WR Macro Lens. I was looking at four lenses: The Pentax, the Tamron SP AF 90mm F2.8 Di Macro, the Sigma 50mm F2.8 EX DG Macro (AF) and the Sigma EX DG (not OS version)105mm Macro.

It looked like it was going to be the Tamron (~£200) as the Pentax was way out of my reach at £450 (or ~£300 secondhand), but then came along Black Friday and whilst many dealers were knocking of 10% to £50, SRS Microsystems was offering the Pentax for £249 brand new - so obviously I've ordered one and it's due tomorrow. Happy days.

At some stage I'll post a few photos.

Welcome ! I also had a Canon AE-1 many moons ago, then an A-1. They were both superb cameras and I was sorry to see the A-1 go when I traded it in.

Looking forward to seeing some of your 100mm shots - a fantastic deal you've got there !

Hello and Welcome to the Forum from a very windy and wet Sheffield!

Hi and welcome from a wet Brighton! Look forward to some of your work!

Welcome - you certainly got a great deal on the lens, I look forward to seeing the result.

Phil

Welcome from the Southwest!

You're going to love that lens.