Testing 1 - 2

A lovely natural portrait, Donna. That lens looks fine to me: sharp and detailed where you want it to be but with a background thrown nicely out of focus. Decent bokeh but I recognise this is subjective. The soft winter light really helped as well. You really nailed the focus: it's very sharp, but perhaps Amy's skin is a little over exposed nut could easily be described as high-key.

I had a thought on the lens: if you're after a portrait lens rather than a general purpose zoom, a large aperture prime about 70-100mm would be perfect, but, of course, more expensive. This should be sharper than a zoom with even shallower depth of field. But much less useful than a zoom. Pentax make a 70mm lens but it's over £400 in Britain. A cheaper option might be a second hand manual focus Pentax 50mm 1.7 which works very well for half length portraits but is a bit "tight" for head shots.

Travellers to the States need to be aware that it is an offence to overtake a school bus under any circumstances. Yesterday I watched a stream of cars passing a school bus disgorging pupils onto the pavement near our house and thought of a friend of mine who got done in Connecticut while doing this.
(A bit random, but there you are: every day a school day.)

Andrew, thanks for the feedback and lens info. As you know, I'm on this lens purchasing journey and am first trying an all in one to see if it would fit the bill for me (since money is always the issue, got this one for $279US) . Even though it got good reviews, from the get go, my hesitations in purchasing this lens were mediocar sharpness, the slow f6.3 and the variable f stop. ( I would have prefered they made it in a fixed 4). I see this lens more as one to have as a 'play around lens' , after I have some serious glass with mad sharpness! My objective is to own a serious portrait lens and a nice long telephoto, hence this all in one. However, the sharp focus in this lens seems a bit hit or miss (this was one of the hit shots, which did need focus boost in pp). Considering purchasing the USB dock to tweek the lens focus and see if that helps any. Must say the lens does a respectable job in Macro.

I already own a M 50 1.7 and a SMC DA 35 2.4. Was looking for something with the flattening and backthrow of a longer lens.

The high-key on Amy's face was intentional. Just playing around with settings in Lightroom. 😊

Yes, here in the US, you MUST stop for school buses loading and unloading children. I once got a ticket passing a stopped school bus on a 4 lane highway, I was going in the opposite direction than the bus and there was a large median strip seperating my driving lane from the bus's lane. Unfortunately for me there was a cop driving right behind me.
C'est la vive! 🚍

Lovely shot, Amy is a very pretty girl and i like the natural pose

Thanks, Maria!

I guess he didn't book himself as he presumably also overtook the bus to catch you?!!

Anyway - nice picture of your daughter and as Andrew says, the lens has given you a nice soft background. I have been tempted by that lens as a reasonable all-rounder, but so far not succumbed!

I guess he didn't book himself as he presumably also overtook the bus to catch you?!!

Lol, so true, Andrew...however, logic and stating the obvious to the authorities usually doesn't work in ones favor when one gets busted, now does it! 😧

Sigma for Pentax also has a newer lens not yet out here in the US, the 18 - 300 for $579 pre-order.

I think I'm wanting these lenses to do more than what they are capable of. I just need to decide whether IQ is more important than convenience...there in lies my dilemma, as I'm sure it is for many photographers.

Interesting comment, Donna. Image quality is always a trade off for convenience when deciding on primes or zooms. Do we, as amateurs, really want to carry round a bagful of expensive prime lenses when a decent zoom will produce images which are probably good enough? In my case, a definitive, no. Besides, constantly changing lenses will inevitably introduce dirt and dust which will degrade any image.

Modern zoom lenses are so good when stopped down a bit, that most of us would be hard put to find serious fault with them.

Enjoy your new lens, Donna.

Thanks, Andrew....will definitely consider your humble advice! 😉

A good lens and test

I like the end product here! I still use my Tamron 28-300mm as the daily lens. If I need additional sharpness I do it in Aperture!

Thanks for commenting ,Paul and for sharing your lens info.