What is your favorite lens?

I recently bought an old used screw mount 55mm f1.8 lens for my istD. First let me say that is lens is extreemly sharp and fast, it is a complete pleasure to use. I just love this lens. My newer 50mm, and my autofocus zoom havent seen the light of day in about one month.

All this being said I should admit that can't seem to get into this new fangled auto-focus thing. And I love the fact that the apature on this camera closes as you move the apature ring. This allows me to quickly preview my depth of field in realtime ... new screwing around with the preview button.

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What is your favorite lens?

I should admit that can't seem to get into this new fangled auto-focus thing.

........good grief, mind you I love switching my Z1-P to manual and using my A series 50mm 1.7 and Tamron adaptall2 MF lenses!

I guess it depends on what I'm trying to achieve at any one time, but I do have a soft spot for my SMC Pentax-M 20mm f4, usually with a nice red filter sitting on the front. The film will be Kodak Tri-X developed in Paterson FX-39 and printed onto Agfa Premium Multicontrast paper.

Lovely!

I love the versatility of my SMCP FA24-90mm for close-up detail shots and the wide angle for landscapes... but I've always had a soft spot for my SMC-M 50mm f1.7 oooooh! It's gorgeous!

Since the day I bought the smc 50mm f1.7 I fell in love with it, and since then it is the lens that is kept attached to my camera, unless the situation requires another lense It's versatile, vey compact, extremely sharp, contrasty, neutral and produces good color rendition. 'nuf said

For me, my Tokina 24-200mm is a very useful "everyday" lense. I like the weight of it on the *istD (it's heavy). Nice and sharp.

However, after getting the Pentax SMC-F 50mm/f1.7 I use this for any serious work - beautifully sharp, handles well in low light, excellent bokeh (or boke). Hmmmm, lovely

(Wish I could afford more Pentax glass, and time to switch lenses when out and about!)

Matt

I have to agree with John Riley; my favourite lens is my Pentax SMC M 20mm F4. It is a very small lens, with great wide angle and depth of field.
I keep a Cokin P filter holder, with a Cokin Circular Polariser, permanently attached.
grahamwalton

pentax smc m 50mm F1.7, me-super or *ist D works a treat. CZJ 35 70 + macro and recently sigma 70 200 F2.8. On the *ist the images simply jump from the screen. Would like to show example but no means of hosting

Ardent... why not try www.ephotozine.com - a great place to get criticised on your work!! (Run by Peter Bargh, who also runs this site). Uploads are limited to 500 pixels, and one per day.

There's also www.pbase.com - you'll have to pay $23, but you can put almost any size image on there.

Matt

Cheers Matt

I have avoided posting to this thread until now - mainly because I could not honestly say that any one lens leapt to mind - I can find good reasons to list a number of optics here. While I have always really appreciated the prime lenses in my collection, particularly the 50mm F1.4 'm', 100mm F2.8 'm' and a particular favourite the 300mm 'm *' , it is to 3 zooms that I have narrowed my choice. The wide angle 24-35mm 'm' , the 75-150mm 'm' and the 80-200mm 'm'. In terms of usage the 75-150 probably comes out on top - its relatively small and light, balances perfectly on the M series and LX bodies and is a joy to use - overall it probably edges out the 80-200. The 24-35 however is a great little lens to have on the camera for both townscapes, landscapes or interiors so if reaaly pushed this would most likely take my vote (although in this debate I prefer fence sitting!).

The main thing that struck me is that when compiling this list it was my 'M' series optics which topped the list - this may change soon though with the recent arrival of the 45-85 FA zoom for my 645n, which appears to be absolutely top class - just waiting for the first set of films to come back to confirm my feelings about it.

In this order: A 24mm F2.8, FA 20mm F2.8, FA 43mm F1.9 LTD.

I love the look the 43 gives an image. There is a 3-d quality to the images that I see but have a hard time describing. But I "see" in wide angle, so....

If I had an A 20mm F2.8, that would probably be my favorite, but there is no point spending money to replace the FA. It does the same thing, equally as well, it's just the palstic doesn't turn me on asmuch as the metal in the 24mm.

Just obtained a SMC FA F1.4 50mm. Only had it a couple of hours but what a piece of glass. I can see this being on the ist D quite a lot.

I also have to change my mind a little

Just bought a second hand SMC-F 100mm/f2.8 macro lens. Zoweeee So sharp!

I'm using this and the 50mm almost exclusively now. My zooms hardly get a look in

Matt

Maybe these :
1. A 2.8/200
2. K 2.5/135
3. K 1.2/50
4. A 2.8/28
5. A 1.7/50
6. FA 4/28-70

and not my favourites are

F 4-5.6/70-210
F 35-105
M 1.4/50
M 2.8/100
M 2/85
M 2/35

so I sold them already....

Paul