Pentax Q & DA 18-55

At £60 the Q has to be a bargain - but before I take the plunge has anyone used it with a DA18-55?

If so, how did it feel, was the lens just too big?

How are you going to control the aperture?

I could try it for you and post a few results but I think it would be far better with a Q mount lens.

I was going to buy an adaptor - but in researching the cost it may be better buying one with a lens!


That would be useful thank you Dr.

Here are some snaps accompanied by 100% crops. They are not scientific. I could pop the camera on a tripod and photograph a brick wall but these are just some real world handheld shots, how I would use the setup if I did actually use it. I do find the setup a little fiddly but you get used to it. I think the biggest issues is that manual focus is quite difficult in bright conditions, so I used the focus peaking at times.

18-55mm is like 70mm-200mm on APSC, or thereabouts.

The adaptor is not the official one. The official one has a built in shutter which eliminates some of the weird effects you get with the electronic shutter and adapted lenses. But the official adaptor also sosts a lot. I think it's a waste of money for general use but worth it for situations where there is no better option. For example if you want to take a telephoto to an event where large lenses are prohibited if you want a record wildlife shot and don't have a super duper lens.

There are plenty of examples knocking around from adapted lenses on the Q. I honestly haven't seen anything that I think is any good for general shooting, although there are some good niche uses.

I couldn't tell you the settings I used, it's just to give a brief initial impression. The portraits are shorter lengths and the bird table longer. Others are in between. DNG's run through Lightroom default settings. If you want me to test out specific subjects and settings then I can try for the best possible results I can. The dog is okish. :

I have done some more tests out of curiosity. I have taken some shots tripod mounted with remote control. I have also taken the same shots with the 01 prime so you can see the difference. I'm off to a BBQ shortly and will be way to ****faced to put up the images up tonight. I'll post them tomorrow. Just based on the screen the O1 prime images look pretty good, the 18-55 images pretty dreadful.

Thanks for popping these on Dr, will be interesting to see the differences.
But it is looking like what with the cost of an adaptor I would be better off looking at the body and lens option.

Here are the results from the French jury, DA18-55WR vs 01 prime on the Q. The 18-55 was used somewhere in the middle of it's aperture range, was tripod mounted with remote release. The 01 prime was used handheld.



18-55:



01:



100% crops 18-55:








100% crops 01:







18-55:







01:




100% crops 18-55:







100% crops 01:










My conclusions from the weekend are that the Q is far better with Q mount lenses, the adapted 18-55 is not recommended for general shooting and that beer, wine, mojitos, margaritas and jack daniels seems like a good idea at the time.

Yup, on the Q all you're doing is cropping images from a lens designed for a much bigger imaging circle. If you're going to do that, the lens has to be spectacularly sharp... and the 18-55mm isn't really that. Better to use lenses designed with that tiny sensor in mind I think.

I think so too. The higher grade Pentax lenses are fine, even some other make zooms are fine, but it's a hit and miss affair unless we're talking about the very best lenses.

I think that concludes the voting!

Use Q with 01, 02 and 06 for everyday photos and you will loove the results.

Just ordered a Q with 5-15 kit lens , now I have go rooting through my man cupboard for bits to sell to fund it!

Is your surname Frankenstein by any chance

Ha ha....nope, my man cupboard is where my camera stuff is stored...now if I could fit Susanna Reed in there....