It looks like it would be quite useable with perhaps a little cropping on some shots.

John

Unless it's an extremely dark church, use a 50mm f1.4 and leave the flash at home. It's more natural and will be less likely to upset the clergy.

The flash could be useful for those macro shots though.

John

Well I had a go with the trial version. I added a lovely setting sun effect to a landscape and the dull colours were brightened up considerably. But somehow it just wasn't my picture any more.
If both the landscape photo and the cloud photos were both my shots and I'd blended them myself I would be happier than having someone else's work involved.
Given that half the photo would be taken by someone else, I wonder who owns the copyright?

John

Yes, four days in and nothing. It wasn't like that when the K-5 came out.

John K

I wonder if some of the testing is a bit careless. There is a sentence which reads:
The link here goes to the DA 15mm review, not the 14mm.

The test results are only as good as the person doing the test, and if the camera used has an issue, such as back focussing the results will all be skewed. I'm not saying that is the case but it is odd the results differ so much to other test results. However test results are not everything unless taking pictures of test charts is your thing!

In the 70mm test is the strange statement:

The lens is what it is therefore that is a somewhat naive comment. Surely a larger aperture = a larger lens so it's no longer a pancake! I never thought of f2.4 being slow in any event.

John

Hello David,
Welcome to the forums by the way - just noticed these are your first posts on here.
If you show me some recent links to a virtually brand new K200D mint and boxed with lens that sold for around the £200 mark I may well reconsider. However if I saw a brand new one at that price I may even be tempted to buy another myself! The price is negotiable though, but I'm not in a rush to sell it just for the sake of it and if you prefer a more used one for less money then I understand.
The ones on eBay that I can see presently for sale are all over £300 with P&P and I doubt are in as good a condition.
The lens is the AL II version as supplied with the K200D (WR ones came later.)
The price I mentioned includes Royal Mail Special Delivery within the UK whereas the eBay ones seem to show P&P as an extra.
Anyway, show me what you've seen and I'll certainly have a think about it.

John


If any one else wishes to offer David a K200D as well, please do not hesitate.

How about one with just 600 shutter actuations, boxed with all original items and really is just like new - all for £295. Includes the 18-55mm lens originally supplied with it too.

The going rate on a well known auction site looks to be around £300 plus, but no doubt will have had much more use than this one.

John

Unless you want a smaller, lighter lens I don't think you would gain much by changing. Optically, the 12-24mm at 15mm would seem to match the prime.

Compare lens tests of each here:

http://www.photozone.de/pentax/463-pentax_15_4?start=1

http://www.photozone.de/pentax/133-pentax-da-12-24mm-f4-al-ed-if-review--test-re...

The DA 14mm would give you an extra stop but is much the same size and weight as the 12-24mm. I've recently added a 12-24mm and wondering if it is worth keeping the 14mm, especially as I have the 8-16mm and 10-20mm Sigmas. Too much choice! I find the results from the DA 12-24mm do have that "pixie dust" quality you mention.

John K

This series is very much like the Michael Portillo Railway 'Bradshaw Guide' programmes, but without the trains.

John

A Full Frame image is 36mm x 24mm. With a 35mm lens this gives a horizontal field of view of approx 54 degrees.

An APS-C image is 23.4mm x 15.6mm (K-5, other cameras may vary slightly) i.e. the sensor is only 2/3 the size of a full frame one. So now a 35mm lens gives a smaller horizontal field of view of only approx 36 degrees.

You'll often hear the term crop factor, this refers to the equivalent focal length of a lens being used on a full frame camera. For a K-5 this factor is approx 1.5x. Therefore a 35mm lens used on an APS-C DSLR gives the same field of view as a 52.5mm lens on full frame camera.

John