Or one might state, assuming exactly the same objection, that they are precisely high enough...

Although the bidding charges could get prohibitive if you got into a bidding war...

I'll have to watch that one a bit... Didn't see any Pentax gear in the current or future bids right now...

I kind of like the flare in this shot, but flare issues aside, look at how blue the sky on the right is, and how blue they sky isn't on the left side...

On a lens this wide, the effect of polarizing at any particular rotation of the filter will only cover a portion of your field of view because of the angle of reflection that the light hitting the filter has gone through...

Actually this website explains it so much better...
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/polarizers.shtml
scroll down just a bit and you'll see...

(That said, I still use one occasionally on my 10-20... I just remove the hood, as my fat finger can't seem to turn the polarizer without smudging the lens...)

I've been thinking pretty much the same thing - so I guess it'll be the FA35 - now I just gotta find one...


Yeah - hoping to update that real soon - will pick up the FA35 and have lent the Sigma EX28-80 and the DC18-200 to a friend hoping that he'll like them well enough to buy them from me... I've been so impressed with the 50-135 that I've pretty much decided to get the matching 16-50 as well...

I thought that the 28-80 had pretty good IQ - and still do - but it just doesn't compare to the DA*, and the 18-200..., well it's handy, but I don't use it much anymore...

Don - good idea, but...

I have an old (but good) A-28 2.8 that I use, but find myself struggling with manual focus... (One of the downsides of getting older, I guess... It's a rude awakening when you find your camera focuses better than your eyes can... thank goodness for diopter adjustable viewfinders...)

I guess I was looking for something fast in the 28 to 35mm range that I could use for 'Flashless' low light work, or to get that very shallow DOF when I was feeling extra creative... and AF too...

I'm looking for a "normal" lens - an A 50mm 1.7 I was using at a wedding the other day didn't seem wide enough for the shots I've used it for in my film days...

(Read Lilly's Wide and Fast post with interest - Lilly - Did you decide on a lens yet? )

Looking at the Sigma 30mm, and the FA or DA 35mm... (can't financially justify the 31ltd right now... ) I'm leaning towards the Pentaxes, and have read the reviews...

Does anybody have (or had) both the FA and DA 35? I'd like to hear a comparison of the two... The DA is double the price and a stop slower - is it that much better?

Top 5 currently owned?

Well... I don't have 5 lenses I'd bother to carry everywhere... but hopefully by the end of the summer it'll be :

Sigma DC 10-20 EX f4-5.6 (current)
Pentax FA 35 f2 (ordered)
Pentax DA* 16-50 f2.8 (ordered)
Pentax DA* 50-135 f2.8 (current)
Pentax DA* 300 f4

and when the Pentax SDM TC comes out, it'll probably replace the 1.7x I have now... (hmm.. should probably sell it before the new one is announced...)

Actually, is there any news on what (and when) the SDM Converter is supposed to be?

This might interest you Don...

http://www.nuenergy.org/pdf/static-electricity-converter.pdf

My dad used to tell me about an old-timer 'back north' (up near Algonquin Park) that had a bunch of old car batteries in a shack, all hooked to a "long piece of wire" (he wasn't too clear on the technical specs or anything) and that he powered all the lights in his barn with it...

I've been meaning to try this myself, but with the price of copper wire being what it is, you'd have to hide it or it'd be stolen...

If only...

Though there's way too much hate for that... Like dumping the Pacific into a teapot...

Now if there was a bunch of alien races to hate and kill, we might be able to manage...

I have the 50-135 and the Sigma 1.4X TC - you don't need to worry about Auto- or Manual focus issues with this pair... Because they cannot be used together. The rear element of the 50-135 is in the perfect position to be scratched or worse by even attempting to fit the two together.

I have a Tamron 2X MC7 that allows manual focus, and the Pentax 1.7x does autofocus (if you set the lens focus at the midpoint rather than infinity) but I've discovered that the sharpness of the 50-135 to be good enough that cropping the TC-less photo has always been better (in my limited experience)