That Velbon looks an interesting bit of kit. However it is only rated max 3kg so is probably not man enough for a K1 + grip + DFA lens in actual use. Maybe they will bring out a heftier version in future?

Beautiful! A good place to combine with a visit to the Bluebell Railway just down the road.

The short answer would appear to be - yes.

I've not come across this brand before but looking at this glowing review https://digital-photography-school.com/review-kf-concept-tc2534-tripod/ it shows it has an arca style plate fitting i.e. the plate is held firm by tightening a knob rather than the Manfrotto style lever. So just remove the plate and replace with any Arca compatible bracket.

I have them all except the 35mm. Of the ones that I have experience of I feel the DA 21mm might best meet your requirements. The 40mm is a fine lens but a bit limiting on APS-C as a one lens solution. The 20-40 gives good results with very small zoom extension. However it is not nearly as compact as the limited primes. It is also surprisingly lightweight, so lacks the quality feel of the other limiteds IMO.


An alternative suggestion would be to purchase a Ricoh GR. Excellent results on an APS-C sensor and small enough to slip into your pocket. Costs very little more than a limited prime.

The DA 200mm 2.8 is top quality and less than half the weight of the 70-200. Completely full frame compatible as far as I can see. Less versatile but I suspect that the 70-200 is mainly carried for use at the long end.

I'm not familiar with your unit but I have an old Courtenay Solaflash mains powered unit. I had to buy an add on accessory to step down the trigger voltage to make it safe to use with modern cameras. So I would proceed with caution.

In the UK we seem to have got locked in to a cycle of yo-yo pricing, particularly since the adoption of Black Friday. The euro price is tempting but the lens may well be available in the UK for, say, £899 when the next round of promotions comes on stream.

Having read many positive comments about the current Pentax 1.4 TC I bought one last year. I used it for a few months, mainly with the DA 200mm and DA 60-250mm. With both lenses I found that the cropped image without TC was sharper than the image with the TC. So I gave it up as useless and traded it in.

I am interested to see a comparative review of the new lens with the FA 43mm. We can be confident that it will be a big improvement on the existing FA 50mm 1.4 but how much better can it be than the FA 43mm, which is a high quality lens that is much smaller, lighter (and cheaper)? It will have to be something really special to justify trading up.

If it is good enough it will sell. After all the FA 31mm is not exactly cheap but many of us have bought it.