Think lenses are too big and heavy these days? Anyone care to guess what this one is?
[IMG]http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff250/johnriley1uk/019-New-Lens.jpg[/IMG]

It certainly wouldn't be the smell of bacon as Sue can't stand that first thing in the morning!

This was shot at Greystoke in the northern lakes, very early one morning. We were away with friend for a few days. They were still in slumberland but we were out and about in that fantastic misty morning.

It's very different in design terms, apart from the obvious of covering full frame.

There are quite a few 19-35mm lenses about from various manufacturers of the same era, and it always leaves me thinking that they probably all came from one original source. Especially when they all have the same large front element, the same maximum aperture, the same number of elements....

I've never used this lens, but I have heard that is gives a respectable performance on film.

That's very honest of you, and there's nothing wrong in that. Most of us don't admit that to ourselves very readily!

There is a lot of dirt on the slide - if you didn't dust the slides before scanning you need to do that very carefully. Otherwise, use dust & scratch removal technology (does it have ice?) or finally do lots of cleaning up in Photoshop.

The eyes are the thing in portraits, be they people, birds, animals or whatever else, so focusing on the face is the right way to go but maybe not precise enough, depending on the DOF.

1/125 sec handheld for a 400mm lens is borderline with SR for a static subject. The biggest problem here may be subject movement coupled with a bit of camera shake.

My solution would be to up the ISO and maybe use a tripod, but with the head left slightly loose so that the camera can be moved.

Hope that helps!

I'll bet it wouldn't be a nice price though. Long Pentax telephotos tend to be top class professional optics and there's a price tag to those.

What I don't like about No 1 is the lower contrast - there are no highlights left whatsoever, which does reduce the "sparkle" of the image.

Just out of curiosity, where exactly did you focus and what aperture and shutter speed did you use?

This is why I try to avoid terms like "Mint" or "Exc++" or whatever in my eBay listings and opt for describing in more detail instead. These terms can be very loose and wooly and mean different things to different people.

Could be better on eBay, but if on here might be better in the Classifieds section!

The K20D remains amazingly good value at £499 or thereabouts.