Someone here said the price of the 70 Ltd was around GBP380 ? Whereas you can pick up a prime condition used 77 Ltd for around 500 (and I saw one recently being given away for 450) ! I paid 530 for mine a week ago (silver, MIJ).

What you really need is the 77/1.8 Ltd .. and the price difference to the 70 is not huge, so worth saving up for

Thank you for your comments RCA, RosesRed, m42geo, Alan and Bjorn !

m42geo - #6 : you are right, there was a pillar right next to me obstructing my view. In fact that is only around 1/4 of the full scene so next year I'm going to find a better spot and make an 8-10 shot pano.

Alan #3: I've noticed that too, it must be the uploading, resizing because although dark the detail of the full tower is there in the original.

I enjoyed viewing this set - not technically perfect as the OP admits, but still very enjoyable.

#3 is my favourite - and although I love low DoF shots in this case my taste differs from Pentaxophile's as I actually find the sharply in focus vegetables add to the scene.

I think possibly you do need to work on your compositions though - almost all your portraits are centred and I'd personally like to see them given a little more space in the direction they are facing or positioned off to one side if straight on (the rule of thirds is as good as any to get you started on composition).

Sharpness of the 18-250. Not bad and that's a nice shot of the eagle/hawk but look at the clumping of the feathers, the detail you'd get from a better lens would blow it away so it is a little soft at the long end (at either end from what I've read though not experienced).

Love this set Alan ! Especially the Surfer at dawn (don't always have to be sharp to be good) and Paddle surfer (maybe you could try selective lightening of the surfer - especially his face - to see if it improves it further).

Opera house for me too - though I wouldn't have shot at that angle (unless you had no other option) as it gives a more distorted impression.

Love this shot ! Great capture - I've just taken possession of 3 microscope objectives - even the x4 would only get one eye in (the x40 - probably only a pupil) !

As has already been stated : 50-135 / 50-150 (Sigma) / 77 Ltd or MF lenses such as the Voigtlander 58-1.4 / Cosina 55-1.2 / Leica 60 or Zeiss 85 (maybe even the much cheaper but also very good Voigtlander 50.1.8 ).

For portraits you may consider the soft focus lenses such as the Pentax two 85 softs ; 2.2 or 2.8, which should be perfect (sharp in the centre othewise dreamy), not too expensive and easily found, there's also the Tamron Adaptall 70-150/2.8 Soft Focus.

Pentax samples here:
link

Info here :
link

Wedding togs swear by the Tamron 28-75/2.8 which may be the best bet for you.

Part of the on-going series I'm putting together - I apologise in advance for the Copyright notices but you do realise where I live !

Any C&C welcome.

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Thanks for looking.

I'm sorry but this is just plain wrrrrrong ! I bought MF Cosina 55/1.2 and K50/1.2 to use at F1.2 ! Achieving accurate focus is slightly more difficult than at say f2 but with the nice bright viewfinder that a 1.2 or 1.4 gives you, and a custom screen (though one of my K5s has the stock screen and it's still not a problem), finding accurate focus isn't that difficult.

The DoF at f1.2 and say 10' (3m) is roughly 6" (15 cms) if you are steady on your feet and the subject relatively still (e.g standing chatting) then it's not that difficult to attain focus, however by 10m that DoF has risen to a whopping 2 yds (1.83M) !

At f1.4 and using the parameters above then it's nearly 7" (17.5cms) at 3M and 2.7 yds (2.14M) at 10m.

This was shot at 04.00 at a distance of around 18" (45cms) with the only light coming from reflected light from a single lightbulb 5m away. No flash. f1.2, ISO 1,600, 1/6 sec, Hand-held. DoF is 3mm ! Note the Cosina is a little softer than the K50 wide open (funky bokeh though), it looks even sharper before being resized and loaded onto the web, though this one took maybe 6 or 7 efforts before I shot one in focus. I think shooting a lot of hand-held MF macro shots helps to make these shots easier, so what I'm saying is practice makes perfect !