Having looked at QuestionableCarrot's Portra NC thread, I dug around for some LR profiles for emulation.

These actually look pretty excellent, from Michael Gray.
Some freebies here on this old blog, but the 'meat' is available on 'XeL' X-Equals (again by Michael Gray).

Looks nicely arranged, and $29.99 for the film pack... tempted

Matt

The DA*50-135 is stonkingly special. Incredible sharpness, colour, and bokeh. Weather sealed, non-extending zoom (wish the DA*16-50 was too!) and highly portable. Every time I use it there's pixie dust all over it

The DA*16-50 is lovely, but has a different quality about it.

If I could only have three lenses, it'd be the DA12-24, DA*16-50, and DA*50-135. (The DA12-24 has the IQ to match the others, but not the WR or quite the same finish).

Matt

Hit the "Download" icon (bottom right) and Flickr will show "View all sizes"
From there you can look at the 8256 x 6192 original

Wow!

Done

Wow.

...Metz filing for insolvency.

You do have to be aware that light can leak through the eyepiece and affect the exposure. (The light meter is in the pentaprism housing IIRC)

With no ND the light through the lens and through the eyepiece are going to be close enough.
With an ND, any light through the eyepiece will make the camera think the scene is brighter than it is (and will underexpose as you found out!).

Can't remember if there's an eyecap included with the K5... probably (and most wonder what it's for! :lol

Matt

But it's not persistent

I hit apply and all is well. Restart the browser and I'm back to 16.
Have you got a default of 16 lurking in your code that should be 20
Matt

I'm getting the gallery defaulting to 16 pictures at a time... sometimes. Just looks odd with a lone image centred at the bottom!
Applying the filter for 20 makes it work.

Probably a coding leftover from the old site...
Matt

There's nothing quite like the DA*50-135, alas. It's seriously sharp and has beautiful rendering.

However, the DA17-70 is a very fine lens optically. There's one being sold here...
The DA16-45 might be a bit on the short side, focal length wise, but is seriously good value for money. Very sharp.

For longer focal lengths, the DA50-200 is not that bad. It can produce very sharp results with good contrast. Very compact. Have seen these go for £50.

Another suggestion: SMC-A 70-210/4 is pretty stunning optically. Mine was under £40 (Now nabbed by my son!) It's much better than the Vivitar (which isn't a slouch).

A lot will depend on the focal lengths you use...
Matt

I found using a filter ok on the K7. It needs very long exposure times, and/or high ISO. Frame without the filter, then add filter.

Here's about the only example that worked for me - coloured with grads in LR.

However, the K5 has a massively strong IR filter and I couldn't get the same results
I haven't (yet) tried the K5iis... in part because I had the DA17-70 with a 67mm filter when I had the K7. Now I have the DA*16-50 with a 77mm filter and no IR filter to match

Matt