What lens while waiting for the 16-50 da*

Hi People hope you can help.
At the moment i have the 18-55 da and the 50-200 da, I'm hopeing to make money taking portraits starting sometime next or this year if my 16-50 turns up.

I'm looking for a lens to practice some home studio work with but, but having £500 tied up can't afford the ltd lenses,and i'm trying to keep the cost of my kit as low as i can, so i dont really want to spend over £200.

i am leaning towards the 50mm 1.4 af,
i found a 50 1.7 m in my stepdads camera case and was amazed at the difference in shrpness between this and my 18-55 but find manual focus hard on the k10.
having said that maybe i would be better of fitting a new focus screen and looking at some mf primes?
Thankyou in advance
Peter

The 16-50 is not an ideal portrait lens, and if that is why you bought it, you made a mistake.

There is much more to portrait photography than buying an expensive lens. You can practice lighting, posing, backgrounds, putting the model at ease, etc., etc., with the lenses you already have.

I'm surprised you find focussing difficult with the M 50 1.7. If I were you, I would practice with that, cancel the zoom, and put the money towards an F/FA 50 1.4, or, better still, a second-hand 77 Ltd.

G

i am getting a 16-50 as i see it as a cheap way to cover a large focal range at a low cost altough a 16-45 is cheaper i feel f2.8 may be usefull later in life as i am looking to start weddings at some point, the sdm will also help me when shooting babies (another job in the pipeline).

i will also need something to take full hight shots for a dance in january, couples on the way in.

the 50mm 1.4af will only be to dampen my lba while i wait,

i was also thinking about a 100mm mf prime to see if there is much difference between that and the 50-200.


the thing i find hard about focusing that im kind of used to the split focus screen on non auto stuff

Peter, I've used a couple of mf lenses and know exactly what you mean. However if you partially compress the shutter release and focus the lense you will get the red dot and bleep confirmation of a focus fix - at least I do with my K100d. I would like to use a better focus screen in the future but find that the above method works OK - especially if the aperture is not to wide.
Regards
Donut

thanks for the reply donut, i find when i focus using the bleep and dot it makes kids (my little girl)extremely hard to get sharp and i normally like to keep the f stop low to blur the backround

The trick with moving kids is to:
1) disable the bleep option
2) switch to centre focus point only
3) optionally turn off the focus-when-half-pressed and use the AF button (or OK on the *ist-D/K100?) to do the focus

When you have auto focus across all points in low light the camera will often hunt around and get the wrong point - by which time you've missed the moment.
But you do have to retrain yourself a little

I have also found the 18-55 on the *ist-DS to be pretty slow focussing in low light. The 50mm/1.4 has no problems, and nor does the K10D. The 16-45mm lens also has little problem... maybe it's partly the 18-55 (must do some more scientific tests).

But, as George said, the main thing with portraiture is the lighting. Did I mention that the lighting is also important?

That takes LOTS of practise and time. And I don't mean expensive studio lights either. Learn to use reflectors and available light

Matt

thanks for the reply mat
i seem to be a bit missleading with my post's, due to the fact this is my first time using one

i'm only having problems with focusing using mf lenses, but i have just read about the katz eye focus screen so this could be worth a go.

i just wonder if the split screen bit may annoy me now im used to the k10 screen

main reason for the lens is i want to see what the k10 can really do and i just can't wait any longer.

a full set of ltd lenses would be lovely but hey money does'nt grow on trees

Well, just go for the SMC-FA 50/1.4 then
Not much more than the KatzEye either! If you intend to get the DA* lens, or the Ltds, then just go for the AF.
I have to rely on the AF as my eyes are pretty bad. Had an SMC-A 50/1.4 for a while - which was absolutely beautiful to use - but my focus hit-rate was pretty poor (that was on the *ist-D). Have shot a few events with just the SMC-F 50/1.4 on the *ist-D, *ist-DS and K10D and it's a great lens, especially shooting around f/2.4

But that's all just my opinion!
Matt

PS. If you do decide to go for one, give Chris a ring at SRS Microsystems

thanks mat i heard a lot of good things about the 50 1.4.

out of intrest is there anything with similar quality that the 16-50 doesnt cover.
i would like to think i would use the 50mm 1.4 after i get the 16-50 but it will probably be sat in a draw, on the flip side do they fetch much on ebay?, i havent seen many on there wich should help i guess

Peter, don't worry about that... a good Pentax lens can sell on eBay used for the same as a new one (or more in some cases )

Well, not just yours.

Or perhaps not. I got the FA50mm f/1.4 in June, and it's hardly been off the camera, it's definitely my single lens choice at the moment for wandering around. I have the 16-45, and although it's more versatile than the 50mm, I just love the look of the 50.

I've even thought of disposing of the 16-45, and using a core lens kit of 10-20 Sigma, 50mm 1.4, 105mm Macro and 50-200. I won't do it, but it's definitely crossed my mind more than once.

Dan

Donut was almost on the right track in his advice to peter.wood for easier manual focussing but the red dot is not for confirming focus. It is the green hexagon that indicates focus confirmation (yes, even on manual focus lenses) not the red dot. The red dot indicates where the multi focus point was chosen and like mattmatic suggests, it is more reliable to use the centre focus only option and then re-compose if using this method.

By the way. The larger the lens aperture the easier it is to manually focus because A: the viewfinder is brighter and B: the depth of field is very small indeed at f1.7 or f1.4. You should have no trouble manually focussing your f1.7 with a bit of practice and using Donut's suggestion. You are on a limited budget and have a Pentax K10d, a Pentax f1.7 50mm at your disposal for use in... a studio! What was the question again peter.wood ?

Drew

Thanks photo*ist - that's exactly what I meant - I knew that being red/green colourblind would be a problem It is the hexagon that I am talking about
Donut

According to the K10D manual, lenses in the A series can only use the centre spot for focussing on the K10D (and other DSLR's I think). I'm pretty sure that the same is true of older lenses too.

And yes, it is the green hexagon in the viewfinder that provides focus confirmation.

I also have a 50/1.4 A and less than perfect eyesight but I've found that the green hexagon in the viewfinder gives me perfect focus about 90% of the time - without this focus confirming function I'd probably have to swap my 'A' for an 'FA' but having used the latter briefly I prefer the build quality and feel of the older lens.