Archaeologists can make sensible decisions once you ignore the choice of career...

K.

I'm organising a coach outing for my local society to Greenwich Park. Does anyone have a photo I could use for the poster to advertise the trip? I can only promise "exposure" (see Gartmore's post!) and my gratitude.

I'd rather not just "use one from the web" and infringe someone's copyright.

Thanks, Kris.

I love the Steichen image, personally. I couldn't afford it, but I do like it. K.

To be frank, the only thing that tempts me is having a decent sized viewfinder once more. All this staring down the wrong end of a telescope stuff is tiresome... It is a lot of money to pay for just that, though.

K.

Quite some time ago I discovered that Pentax made this odd lens. Only odd in the sense of "who makes a 30mm lens?" Well, Pentax of course (one thinks of 31/43/77...). I then discovered how expensive they are! Then about a year and half ago I managed to pick one up from a forum member for a sane price. I used it on film a bit, but usually by the time the film came back from the lab I had no idea which lens was used for which image.

Last month, I decided to try the "Single in April" challenge on the US fora, and chose the K30 for my lens. Since getting the K-3 I haven't shot nearly as much film as I had been. I tried to take at least one image I was half-happy with using the K-3/K30 combo every day. I failed, but did manage a fair number of images which were OK, and one or two I really like.

As a result, I have a much better feeling for the K30. The images are, when I nail the focus, superbly sharp. When I nail the focus being the operative word as I find critical manual focus on digital bodies a bit of a pain. Admittedly, I'm only using the centre of the K30's image circle. The bokeh seems smooth and pleasant, the colours are easy to edit to get what I want. All in all, I am very impressed by the lens.

My only gripe is that the green-button metering on the K-3 is still pants and often leads to over exposure. Often I found it quicker to guess the correct exposure, shoot, check the histogram, adjust and reshoot. It isn't a lens, on the K-3 at least, that lends itself to quick spontaneous shots. Using it on the LX is much easier, if less quick to see the results. Perhaps I should make myself shoot a roll of Ektar with nothing but the K30!

Perhaps the best thing was being made to try and take a photo every day, a bit like the 365 challenges. It was good to force myself out the door to look for photos. I hadn't really done much since the Lofotens in November.

May's lens is going to be the K85...

Cheers, Kris.

I have plenty of full frame wide angle lenses, the K15, K17, M20, K24, K, M or A 28, K30, K35...

It will be interesting to see how they fare at the edges though. The centre used by APS-C works fine to superb, but the angle of light into the photosites may be more of a problem around the edges. Only one way to find out...

K.

I was given an A3 a while back. I think I ran one film through it. Good as a manual focus P&S, especially with the M40 pancake on it. Not subtle though...!

K.

In 2006 it sold for $2.928M which was then a record price for a photo. I don't know if it has been resold recently, or if another photo has subsequently sold for more.

K.

Re-post of the photo.



Pentax ESII with a Superlite II and a SMC Takumar 55mm f/1.8 lens par Kris Lockyear, on ipernity

Best wishes, Kris.

Re-post of the image.



Pentax ES, ESII and SMC Takumar lenses par Kris Lockyear, on ipernity

Best wishes, Kris.