That's a good point and probably one reason why the longer focal lengths are more popular.

Regards
David

I have an older manual focus version of the 50mm and it is great. I take Mike's point about the working distance with insects, but I don't find this to be a problem at all and have taken a lot of good shots of bugs with this lens. It also seems pretty good when teamed up with a teleconverter - I use mine with a Teleplus 7 element 2x Teleconverter and images lose very little in the way of sharpness. I've posted a couple taken with this lens on today's Gallery:

link link

I've no experience with the 105, but I'm sure it is an excellent lens too.

Regards
David

Regards
David

Superbly sharp images, well done once again.

Regards
David

Just a quick update on this week's competition - we have already had 15 entries and we're not yet at the weekend, so it's not going to be 'a record low entry' as was predicted earlier this week

The standard of the entries is extremely high - I would recommend you pop on and have a look as there are some superb images already posted. I will have a hard time picking a winner this week.

Thank you to everyone who has entered, and for those who haven't there is still plenty of time left.

Best wishes
David

I'm reading all of this with some amusement

I have no agenda other than enjoying using this site, which I do for almost 100% of the time. I try always to be honest / open when placing comments on images, or posts in forums.

When setting the competition theme I have attempted to set something that is:

- Interesting
- Challenging
- A little different from the norm

I didn't expect the reaction it has received, but I dont get upset or dissilusioned by this. I understand everyone has their own view and I accept this 100%.

The forum and site in general would be dull if we all agreed with each other. As long as it does not descend into personal insults (which it has done on rare occasions), this is fine by me.

Thanks to everyone who has entered the competition and also to everyone who has contributed to the debate!

Best wishes
David

It's just a competition theme Barrie! Nothing too deep about it but I wanted to see shots taken with older manual focus lenses which demonstrate skill in manually focussing which can't be demonstrated with auto-focussing! I like to see manual focussing used creatively.

I do understand that many people won't enter, but I have not set out to upset anyone and most people on the site don't enter most of the competitions anyway. Hope this makes sense!

Regards
David

Hi Barry

Welcome the forum and the site in general! If you're serious about your new hobby, I would certainly recommend the 55-300mm to go with the 18-55mm. They make a great combination and the financial risk is not too great as the second-hand market is always fairly bouyant.

Regards
David

Hi John, I'm sure you're right in general, but also there are a lot of younger photographers with DSLR's that were maybe bought second-hand and who cannot afford expensive autofocus lenses. Take my son Daniel for example, he's 17 and shoots mostly with manual focus. AndrewA has just bought a camera for his daughter and is looking for a manual focus lens to get her started. Most of the older photographers will have sons and daughters who probably have access to their lenses?

I know that the theme restricts entries somewhat, but I don't think we could be sure that the picture has been focussed manually if not taken with a manual focus lens?

Sorry to everyone who can't enter, but the theme is manual focussing, so I don't think it would be right to relax the rules.

Regards
David

Hi everyone, I seem to have created some controversy and division with this competition theme! I may have over-estimated the number of people who still own manual focus lenses, but surely there must be loads of you who have these and use them regularly?

I really hope this is not true! What about all the Pentax 50mm F1.4's, F1.7's and F2's out there? What about all the classic Takumars in various focal lengths? What about all the Chinons that sold in their millions at Dixons? Also, there are a lot of users on this site who shoot macro photography and a high proportion of these shots are taken with manual focus lenses.

Come on guys and girls, get your old lenses out and shoot some pics with them!

There are already 6 entries after only one day, so I think we will get a fair number of pictures entered this week.

Thanks in advance!

Best wishes
David

Hi John

I'm interested to see images taken with older lenses. One of the joys of owning Pentax equipment is to be able to tap into the massive range of manual glass available at reasonable prices. Some of the older lenses are fantastic performers and I'm sure that most of the users on this site will have some of these lenses, or at least some images shot with them.

I hope that the subject and the stipulation that shots must be with a munual focus only (hence older) lens will interest PU members and that hopefully I have not excluded too many.

Also, the problem with allowing autofocus lenses is that I could not be certain that the shot is manually focussed and this is one of the themes of the competition.

Hope this makes sense.

Regards
David