Chris, I wish you hadn't started this thread as it's got me on one of my hobby horses again. I have no idea why some lenses (and cameras) back or front focus, but I was on the point of returning my DA L 55-300 to the supplier as I could not get sharp pics with it and thought the lens was faulty. Then I tried it on my son's K-m and it was blisteringly sharp!

My K-x does not have the autofocus adjustment in the standard menus, you have to know how to open a debug menu to get to it (download a file to the SD card). Anyway, my camera is now set permanently to +70 (yes, +70!!!!) and it focusses correctly. Why there is so much inaccuracy / tolerance from the factory I don't know but it really isn't good enough when they don't even put the focus adjust in the normal menus!

At least on the K-5 and K-r it is more accessible.

Regards
David

Hi Andrew, as you probably know I love the old prime manual lenses. Most of the shots I post on the Gallery are taken with them. The only suggestion I can make is to practice lots and it does get more natural very quickly. My personal opinion (if it's worth anything) is that the K-x and K-r are very well suited to taking pics with the old lenses.

I've taken quite a lot of wildlife (bird) shots with a 40 year old Tamron Adaptamatic 300mm which has to be stopped down to f8 or so to get sharp results. This makes the viewfinder a little dim, but because the focus is so smooth, accurate and long it doesn't matter! I still get better focussed / sharper shots with this than with my DA L 55-300. I've proved this by blowing them up really large and the old lens stands this better than the new one does. Same with my 135mm f3.5 Takumars.

Regards
David

The colours are slightly more muted with the budget paper, but if you were to look at a picture in isolation, I would think that most people would think the colours were brilliant! The Epson paper produces more accurate colouring, presumably because the profiles that ship with the printer are specific to the Epson paper and inks. I'm not printing photos for professional use anyway, so I suppose as long as I'm happy that's OK!

The only thing is that on BW prints, there is a definite warm cast, i.e. it's not Black and White, whereas on Epson paper it is black and white.

I've tried the manufacturers website, no profiles are available.

Regards
David

I know this question is not specifcally a Pentax question, but as I exclusively use a Pentax camera I think it's valid. I've come across some el-cheapo Photo Paper on Amazon, sold by Labelheaven and made by Labelocean, only £3.99 for 100 sheets, 230gsm, glossy finish. I've printed out a test alongside the pukka Epson Premium Glossy paper (ten times the price) and there is very little difference, but obviously colours are slightly more accurate on the Epson paper (printer is Epson PX720WD). Can anyone advise how I could get the correct ICC profile for the Labelocean paper?

Many thanks in hope more than anticipation.

Regards
David

I can't comment on the 50-200mm as I have the K-x with 18-55 and 55-300mm. Both of these lenses are exceptional when measured against their (relatively) nominal cost. There are plenty of landscapes on the Gallery that demonstrate the quality of the 18-55mm (morpheus71, JohnE) and many different shots that show off the 55-300mm.

Buy with confidence.

Regards
David

This is a bit of a strange one. I left a comment tonight on one of John Riley's pictures, a really beautiful shot of a backlit flower. However, the picture really made me think! The shot was composed with the flower on the left and the stem trailing out to the upper right of the frame. Nothing wrong with this, but somehow I wanted to flip it 180 degrees horizontally as my brain 'sees' things from left to right, not right to left.

Does anyone have any views or comments on this? How do you 'see' things?

Regards
David

Wow! That looks like an extremely good lens. I wish you both had not posted these pics as I might now want one of these lenses! I'm going to wait as I've just bought a SMC Takumar 200mm f4 (not arrived yet) and I'm hoping that will be super-sharp too!

Regards
David

Hi Mark, another K-x user here! I love my K-x and like posting images on the Gallery; hope you will upload some and share them with us!

Welcome to Pentax.

Regards
David

It does look very heavily processed, but works well on this subject. The only thing I'm not sure about is the sky.

Regards
David

It's easier and often produces better results to take a single image and adjust the exposure on the raw file, saving differently exposed versions of the same shot and then processing these in software such as Photomatix. This guarantees perfect alignment and gives more control over the final picture. Depending on the subject and lighting conditions this can produce superb results.

Regards
David