I am going to reduce the price to £570, including delivery (and any PayPal fees).

To be clear, the lens was repaired under warranty 2 years ago, and since then has worked perfectly.

Please take a look at my galleries, which are currently on Flickr (for 3 more days - before I finish moving to Smugmug of Zenfolio) for examples from this lens.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/digbypenguin/

Example here, and nearby photos in Photosteam:




Happy to send larger examples.

Here are some more pics of the lens:








cheers

John

I bought it in April 2008. Sorry, it's out of warranty.

I am streamlining my lens collection and do not use this lens much.

Pentax 50-135 with all original packaging (even the plastic bag that the lens sits in!), both original end caps, hood, paperwork and box.

This lens had a mild form of SDM problems (was slow) and was sent for repair under warranty and has not had any problems since.

Excellent quality. No damage or noticeable wear.

£600 including delivery. To pay by PayPal.

I can hand deliver if you are in London.

Cheers!

Here is the mammatus picture:




My other pictures are here - look for the USA 2008 set:

http://flickr.com/photos/digbypenguin/

As promised, I have posted several storm images on Flickr, along with many other photos.

In the end, I decided to go for portability of lenses and after reading a blog from an experienced storm photographer who did all hand-held, I did not take a tripod. Lenses were the DA 21mm and DA 40mm limited.

Good job too - we had to get in and out of the vans very quickly so that we didn't get caught in hail or lightening. We saw cars wrecked by 3 inch hail while out there. Alas, no tornados seen - but we saw a storm that spawned a few, but sat on the wrong side of some rain to them.

I found that I almost always used the 21mm because storms are really, really big: much bigger than the land beneath them. I think if I wanted to photograph features (including tornados) I would need a zoom telephoto since we were often a mile or so from the action.

No additional rain protection needed - we tried to avoid the rain because it would quickly turn into hail, and we had the satellite images to guide us. I wasn't concerned about specks of rain because the 21mm is so small it rarely got hit.

I have included my favourite picture here: of mammatus, a bubbly cloud formation associated with big cells. It has been black and whited in Bibble but is otherwise untouched. There was an inverse relationship between the meteorological interest of a cloud and it's beauty. The photogenic clouds are those surrounding the cell - the storm itself is too big and indistinct unless you are lucky to get a prime example.

The cloud that really scared the sh*t out of me (and became a tornado) doesn't look that interesting on paper. Only video captures the evil properly.

Comments on all my photos very welcome.

Thanks for your help!

John

Thanks for all your replies. I think I am tending towards the 16-50 DA* as a first step. However, I have the 16-45 so it would be quite a big cost to get similar functionality.

What I am wondering is, how does the 16-45 (or any other non weather proof lens) cope with rain?

Do you use extra protection when photographing in rain?

It might seem like an obvious question, but I have never taken pictures in anything more than spitting.

Cheers

John

Thanks very much for your replies! I'm quite amazed at the speed.

johnriley: Good to know that the lens have already seems to be suitable.

I will be shooting from about 100m to about 2 miles from the storm. I guess I will need a longer lens for the bigger distances - I'll look at your recommended 50-200mm, but I am also tempted by the DA* model because of the weather sealing.

Mannesty: it looks like I need to get some exposure practice in beforehand - still learning the basics on the K20d. Any advice on what setting to prioritise? I am going to look at the short lenses you recommend.

Cheers!

John

PS About the "lense" spelling - I always assumed it was a UK / US English spelling difference but now I look I can't find it spelt "lense" anywhere, so you must be right.

I am quite new to photography so apologies for incorrect terms.

In May I am going on a storm chasing holiday in the States (Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colarado) and want to photograph the storms which will consist dark cloud formations, lightning and, hopefully, tornadoes.

What lenses would people recommend for this kind of photography?

After taking a look at some landscape, lightning and sky photos it seems that most are shot a low ISO with a short or medium lense. It looks to me that the shorter focal lengths (10-20mm) are marginally the more professional (compared to, say, 50mm on a 18-55mm lense). Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Also, do I need a polarizer and how will it help?

Thanks for any help!

John

PS I have just bought a K20D with the 16-45mm lense. I also own old manual 50mm and 120mm primes with my MX film camera (which I have been learning photography on).