Lens weight and camera shake ?

The lens I have is the F 35-70mm. They also come up regularly on Ebay. I have heard from some on this forum that the Pentax A 35-70mm f4 is even better, though I have no experience of it.

One thing to remember is that auto-focus might not be spot-on on some samples of lenses. If you have microfocus adjustment on your camera, setting it accurately might transform a lens.

As an aside, I'm not sure your comments about the waterwheel mill shots on your gallery are entirely fair - the sun is shining in the shot taken by the Sigma but not in that taken by the kit lens.

Cheers
Andrew


Andrew

I take your point. Looking at the EXIF data for each shot, whilst the light seemed very similar on each day, the light was actually 1 stop dimmer for the kit lens.

However, at least it did prompt me to question the differences and start this thread. After the various helpful comments it's made me review the kit lens performance overal and think more about using 'Av' instead of 'P' all the time !

'You are never too old to learn' and that's one beauty of this Forum !

Thanks again
Peter

Following the various comments on this thread about other users good results from the DA(L) 18-55 lens I've gone back over my old shots taken with my copy of this lens.

I discovered some shots taken around mid-zoom range (i.e. 30 - 35mm) and have posted one taken at 32.5mm on the Gallery.

Earlier postings on this thread have emphasised the importance of stopping down to f/8 or smaller but the image of the donkeys taken at 32.5mm and f/5 is as sharp as I could expect even with the aperture fairly open ?

I've not been able to find any reviews of this lens comparing performance at 'wide', 'mid' and 'tele' end of the zoom range so wondered if anyone has any info ?

My 'poor' results were mainly when using it at the 55mm end !

Perhaps I should 'lock' it on 35mm and use it as a 'prime' !!!

Peter

as in andrewk quote i have the A 35-70 f4 and its a great lens very sharp and good old pentax colours

Thanks for the tip, Andrew and Charlotte.

I have now joined the 'F 35-70 Club' !

It arrived this morning and I did some test shots at 35, 50 and 70mm after lunch. The light was not too good and (being lazy !) I left the K-r on P and auto-focus. Under these conditions the K-r chose fully open aperture all the time. However, even with the lens wide open I am pleased with the first looks. (My 2nd shot is posted on the Gallery today)

Thanks for the tip, guys !

Peter

In the gallery, you say your new lens is a 35-80mm.

Hopefully, it is the SMC F 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5 NOT the 35-80mm which is reputedly not that great a lens.


Andrew

There's a member on the 'other forum' that refers to the F35-70 as a 'Bag'o'Primes' and my copy is great too...
That said... I have a bag of primes, so it sees little use these days...

YES ! You are correct, Andrew.

I have corrected the Gallery info - thanks for pointing it out.

I was keen to get the photo uploaded and the fingers were faster than the brain ! A very common occurrence these days !!!

As you said, the FA 35-80 does NOT get such good reviews which is why I passed over several that came up on ebay last week.
However, I was lucky to get THE lens at a very good price.

Peter