SMC Pentax FA 50mm 1.7 - First attempts

Inspired by lots of discussion here about 50mm primes I managed, earlier this week, to acquire a 2nd hand SMC Pentax FA 50mm 1.7 for my DS.

Being that time of year when I leave home for work in the dark and get home in the dark I have not had much change to try it out.

My wife has railways in her blood so this morning we went out to see a steam engine pass through our local station. It was due at 7.30, which is still pretty dark this time of year, so I wasn't confident that there would be the opportunity to photograph it. However, as is often normal for these events, it was 25 minutes late so it was light enough to give it a try.

It was still a bit gloomy, and flash was out of the question, but I think the lens performed well. It was aslo the fist time I have tried out the continuous AF mode in the new firmware.

You can see the results here:

http://glynmorgan.fotopic.net/c789737.html

So as my first post here I would just like say many thanks for the inspiration.

Glyn

Nice shot. My kids just watched a movie called "The Polar Express".
I think if you read the other thread about adding snow to an image, and maybe some lens flare off the headlight, you won't need to buy any Christmas cards this year....just an idea that popped into my head as i looked at your train.

Hi Glyn and welcome to the forum,
I wish steam was in my wife's blood but no chance I am afraid. It does run in mine and my son's. Might have something to do with the fact my mother was brought up in the Station Master's house at Euston prior the WWII. She could go through the back gate and was right by the turntable!

My son did a lot of work on Black Prince when she had her refurb done recently in the Forest of Dean. David Shepard presented him with a signed print to say thanks.

Regards
Kim

Thanks Kim. I think your steam genes are stronger than ours. My father-in-law was a permanent way engineer at Paddington.

We are not far from the Mid-Hants railway which provides lots of opportunity for taking photos of trains.

Glyn

My wife has lighthouses in her blood. I have more lighthouse photos than I could ever find a use for.

It's a good exercise to come up with new (as in: not the usual cliché) of lighthouses. I've had some good luck.

Maybe you could put out a train calendar, there are lighthouse theme calendars so why not trains?

There are already a number of such calenders in the UK.

Kim

so make a better one

I had another chance to try out the 50mm lens earlier this morning while walking along a part of the Basingstoke canal.

A sample of the results can be seen here:

http://glynmorgan.fotopic.net/c790942.html

These are fairly short distance landscapes. I have taken a lot of pictures of the Basingstoke canal but this was the first time I had tried it with a prime lens. I spent a lot more time looking through the lens and thinking that I needed to be in a different place. I also found that I had to be careful not to step back into a ditch, or worse, the canal.

I think it worked well but I missed the ability do grab opportunistic shots of the wild life. My wife got a brilliant shot of two white ducks with her point & click zoom that were rather small in my attempt.

However I’m still very pleased with the lens. No immediate signs of the purple fringing that I have had with previous attempts at these sort of shots using a zoom lens.

Glyn

Hi Again,
The other love of my life, narrowboats. I just hate to be picky but they aren't barges (or longboats or other such names!) Haven't done the Basingstoke (yet) but have been down the K&A. Spent my 25th Wedding Anniversary doing the Caen Hill flight of locks. The other half will never let me forget, she had always wanted to spend it in Paris.

I just love the pattern of the ice in the duck shot.

Kim

Whoops, apologies. The nearest I get to being user of the canal is cycling along the towpath.

The Basingstoke canal is a spur off the Wey Navigation and seems to suffer from a water shortage during the summer months which must prevent a lot visiting traffic. This year has been particularly bad where some sections of the Deepcut flight of locks had completely dried out.

I think the ice, and the general cold, slowed up the ducks today. I don't often get pictures of ducks. Normally I find when spotting a duck that after I've stopped, got off my bike and got the camera out that the duck is at my feet demanding to be fed.

Glyn

Fantastic!

Sue and I explored that part of the K&A when it was still derelict, and it's great to see it restored to its former glory. I would imagine working the flight of 29 locks is pretty hard work!

Hi John,
It was quite a memorable experience and somewhat different to the previous times I took to the water in Devizes. That was in the late 60's when as you say much of it was derelict and we started the Devizes Westminster Canoe race there. Anyway, back to this time, we started about 11 in the morning. I did offer to moor up for the day so we could go out for a nice meal in Devizes but t'other half said to go on. We teamed up with another very experienced boat and were making good progress when we caught up with a hire boat who were not only making a hash of it but were extremely rude to the lady on the other boat. My wife and I were doing the locks while my 20 year old was driving the boats. So well in fact that the BBC, who were filming there, asked him to sign a release form as they wanted to use footage of our boats. Anyway, we had planned to stop at the bottom and having got there at about 4, my wife said that if there were any more locks that day, I was looking at a divorce. When we got to the Pub just around the corner, the only mooring was between the boat that had been rude and a hotel pair. The upshot of it was we pushed on to the next pub and despite the extra 3 locks, we are still married. As it turned out we had a fantastic evening with the couple from the other boat and the best meal we had during the 3 weeks of the cruise from Lincoln to Bath.

Kim

Here comes 2 cents Canadian.

Glyn - re the duck shot. Take a good look at what you would have missed with a zoom. The dry grasses and ice frame the thing beautifully. We've all got books from the wildlife publishers, you have a great photograph.

As for the rest - the equipment is first rate, and if the 50 is making you take such wonderful pictures - then you're on to a very good thing!

You have a good eye, and you live in some very nice surroundings.

Hi Mac,
Thanks for your kind words and encouragement. You have certainly made me have another look and think a bit about the duck shot.

I also have to admit that I only published a small sample, about a quarter, of the shots I took this morning so you didn't get to see some of the failures.

I'm still pleased with the 50mm lens which I'm keeping on the camera for the moment. I've not had a prime lens before and it seems to want a different mind-set that I need to have more practice at.

Best regards,

Glyn