All Forum Comments
Comment by hefty1 posted on Your Choice ? at 05/11/2007 - 11:52
FA43 Limited
Only had it a week but it's been off the camera just once in that time. My D-FA 100 Macro would run it very close but my DA12-24 would trail them both by a margin. The latter is very good quality and takes lovely photos but not in a focal range I find myself drawn to very often.
Only had it a week but it's been off the camera just once in that time. My D-FA 100 Macro would run it very close but my DA12-24 would trail them both by a margin. The latter is very good quality and takes lovely photos but not in a focal range I find myself drawn to very often.
Comment by hefty1 posted on Your Choice ? at 31/10/2007 - 10:55
Congratulations Amer, you'll find the K10D is a wonderful camera to use and if I hadn't already bought mine previously I would have liked the GP edition; I think the brown finish looks quite cool.
Comment by hefty1 posted on K10 Grand Prix Edition at 11/11/2007 - 18:08
I see that as generally positive news; if Hoya were planning to sell Pentax off to asset strippers (sorry, private equity investors I believe they call themselves these days) I doubt they would be planning a merger - much easier to sell a subsidiary. This makes me more confident that the Pentax brand will be with us for a few more years yet and that Hoya are actually intending to give it the backing it deserves.
Comment by hefty1 posted on Pentax/Hoya Merger at 30/10/2007 - 09:14
Quote:
HEFTY1 Despite your reservations this works well in monochrome and I like the use of the restricted depth of field to focus the eye but to my taste there just isn’t enough content. Incidentally, I’m intrigued by the transparency of those out of focus plants on the right.
Me too! Not quite sure why they appear so ethereal but I liked it! HEFTY1 Despite your reservations this works well in monochrome and I like the use of the restricted depth of field to focus the eye but to my taste there just isn’t enough content. Incidentally, I’m intrigued by the transparency of those out of focus plants on the right.
Good job on the judging and congratulations to Prieni - an excellent photo.
Comment by hefty1 posted on Weekly Competition #17: The Mark of Man at 05/11/2007 - 14:51
I'm not usually a fan of black & white but I thought I'd give it a go for this competition...
K10D / FA43 / f8 / 1-350sec / ISO100 / converted to B&W in Photoshop 5 (yes, I probably am due an update soon )
K10D / FA43 / f8 / 1-350sec / ISO100 / converted to B&W in Photoshop 5 (yes, I probably am due an update soon )
Comment by hefty1 posted on Weekly Competition #17: The Mark of Man at 01/11/2007 - 22:57
I haven't got any first hand experience but photozone did a thorough test of it mounted to a K10D and the verdict was:
The Sigma AF 30mm f/1.4 EX DC is a lens with a mission - to achieve the highest center resolution there is without caring too much about the rest. The border performance of the Sigma is soso at f/1.4 and only good beyond, the vignetting is high at large apertures and neither CAs nor distortions are overly impressive for a fix-focal length lens.
A quite strange design priority but there're applications for this. This is a pretty interesting lens if you want to isolate a (near-centered) object from the rest of the scene using an ultra-large aperture setting. The quality of the bokeh (out-of-focus blur) depends somewhat on the background/foreground structure - it can look "smeary" close to the image borders if the scene is a bit nervous. This is probably a side effect of the low resolution here. In coarse structured scenes the bokeh can be quite smooth and buttery though.
Can you use this lens for general purpose photography ? Well, naturally you can but at comparable apertures any good standard zooms can produce a more even resolution distribution across the frame specifically in the extreme corners.
So did it beat the real thing (Pentax SMC FA 31mm f/1.9 Limited) ? No, it did not.
You can read the full test here: http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/lenses/sigma_30_14_pentax/index.htm
The Sigma AF 30mm f/1.4 EX DC is a lens with a mission - to achieve the highest center resolution there is without caring too much about the rest. The border performance of the Sigma is soso at f/1.4 and only good beyond, the vignetting is high at large apertures and neither CAs nor distortions are overly impressive for a fix-focal length lens.
A quite strange design priority but there're applications for this. This is a pretty interesting lens if you want to isolate a (near-centered) object from the rest of the scene using an ultra-large aperture setting. The quality of the bokeh (out-of-focus blur) depends somewhat on the background/foreground structure - it can look "smeary" close to the image borders if the scene is a bit nervous. This is probably a side effect of the low resolution here. In coarse structured scenes the bokeh can be quite smooth and buttery though.
Can you use this lens for general purpose photography ? Well, naturally you can but at comparable apertures any good standard zooms can produce a more even resolution distribution across the frame specifically in the extreme corners.
So did it beat the real thing (Pentax SMC FA 31mm f/1.9 Limited) ? No, it did not.
You can read the full test here: http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/lenses/sigma_30_14_pentax/index.htm
Comment by hefty1 posted on Sigma 30mm f1.4 at 28/10/2007 - 01:52
It's the 200 that interests me the most - I'm now nearing my "ideal" lens line up with my DA12-24, FA43 (thanks again Kim!) and D-FA100. The DA*200/2.8 will be the icing on my cake
Comment by hefty1 posted on Prime Telephotos at 28/10/2007 - 01:40
Quote:
Wierd, I bought mine three weeks ago with version 1.0. Doesn't bother me though... brilliant camera. I've just spent the last few weeks learning how to use it, and I'm still only halfway through the manual.
I'd recommend the update nonetheless; it adds support for the new DA* lenses, wireless flash capability and a few other worthwhile tweaks. Best of all, it's easy to do and free!Wierd, I bought mine three weeks ago with version 1.0. Doesn't bother me though... brilliant camera. I've just spent the last few weeks learning how to use it, and I'm still only halfway through the manual.
Welcome to the forum btw.
Comment by hefty1 posted on NEW K10D w/ Firmware 1.00 at 04/12/2007 - 22:13
Heres one in HK and you need sunglasses just to look at it
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Pentax-LX-Gold-Limited-Edition-New-condition_W0QQitemZ280167048393QQihZ018QQcategoryZ711QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem