Thanks guys. While I hope I'm largely cured of the "collector" strain of LBA there is always an urge when finding what looks like a rarity. However I'm not really into portraits and don't think I would have much use for it. In any case I usually have to work at not having my shots look soft & dreamy .

While I think its been there a while hopefully someone else will soon succumb to the Ffordes example and I will be free to put my savings towards something else.

Glyn

Just to add a little more I find for macro shots that I usually have to stop down quite a way to achieve a good DOF (possibly reducing the resolution but is not something I have noticed on the DFA100).

I find the small apertures mean that the optical preview is too dark to use with my eyesight. I therefore invariably take a few test shots which I view magnified and pan around on the rear screen to check the focus & DOF. Of course this only works when shooting static objects . I also have the rear wheel on the camera set to start at a 4x magnification when viewing on the rear screen which speeds this up a bit.

Glyn

Thanks Tim. I guessed as being 85mm it was probably intended for portraits.

I find while Bojidar Dimitrov's description explains how it works, (although a bit confusing as it covers the FA version as well), it didn't indicate what you would use it for.

Glyn

I see that Ffordes are listing a 2nd hand Pentax 85mm F2.8 SMC F Soft lens. Looking it up in Bojidar Dimitrov's listings indicates that this is quite a rarity which perhaps explains the £299 asking price.

While it is not a lens that I want to own I am interested to know what it was intended to be used for and if nowadays it is easier to achieve the same effect in something like Photoshop.

I see that it has no "A" setting on the aperture ring which I guess is a bit of a challenge on a modern body.

Does anyone have any experience of using this lens?

Thanks,

Glyn

I'm no expert but I find that when using my DFA100 I invariably have to focus manually. I might use auto focus to get roughly in right place but then go to manual focus to make the final adjustment.

I think there are two reasons for this. Firstly, for most of my macro shots, I am using a tripod and the camera is fixed so often there is not an auto focus point exactly where I want to focus and secondly the depth of field is small for close-up shots and I have to tweak the focus to get the DOF spread where I want it.

I think the DFA100 is a great lens. It is becoming one of my most used lenses and seems to be the lens that wins competitions for me . It has a very sensitive manual focus adjustment and once you are happy with the focus point you can lock it so you don't accidentally shift it when taking the shot.


Glyn

If only ...

However with thanks to darlene we have our first submission. So I'm out of here.

Good luck all,

Glyn

At the moment it is quite easy as nothing has been posted. Hopefully later on I'll be in a position to demonstrate that these two tasks can co-exsist. Others have succeeded well at this. I hope I can meet the challenge .

Glyn

Brilliant! Thanks John,

Glyn

Apologies. A cut & paste error. It should say "Weekly". While I could say it was because I'm judging both the current fortnightly and weekly competitions I'm sure it is really because I'm getting old .

Glyn

Here is the place for discussion about weekly competition #175 - A Treasure.

As is traditional I will stop looking in here once the first entry has been submitted.

Just remember that this competition will close at Midnight GMT on Sunday 21st November.

Good luck,

Glyn