lens porn

[nostatic]

To salve my wounds of being porsche-less, it was time to expand my photography tools. I am thrilled with my D-Lux 3 small sensor camera, so I've been pondering my dslr. My old D70 was ok, but now has a hot pixel and I want more than 6mp resolution because I intend to print very large prints (like the HK photos).

I flirted with a Pentax K10d, but wasn't happy with it. Of course Pentax just started shipping their next iteration, and after reading way too much stuff I was down to the new K20d, Nikon D300, and Olympus E3. Each has their strengths and weaknesses, and after handling all three at my local store, I decided to go Pentax (sorry Steve ). Mostly because the UI and ergonomics just work better for me, but also due to the stunning prime lenses that you can get. Here is one example I picked up yesterday - 77mm ltd. Old-school construction and touted by some as one of the best auto focus lenses *ever* made. All metal and glass. Green felt on the inside of the metal lens cover.











And a shot right after purchase






Next will be the 31mm ltd.

[porsche4life]

Beautiful work... wish i had the time money and ability to do stuff like that. You can come take pics of my porsche to ease the suffering if you want. after its been painted of course.

[Steve Carlton]

I look forward to seeing what comes out of that combo, Todd...

I have an AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/4D IF-ED arriving tomorrow for track and bikini duty. It'll work well with my 1.4x teleconverter for 420mm (530mm 35mm equivalent). No VR and 1 stop slower than the 2.8, but not crazy expensive like the $4K telephotos.

For fun, I picked up this FA manual focus SLR on eBay for $159. Titanium shutter, an early version of matrix-metering, aperture and shutter-priority as well as manual mode, small, and built like a tank:






Ordered an 85mm AI-S f/2 lens for it for $189. Manual focus, all metal, sharp wide open and smooth. Highly regarded.

[9dreizig]

Todd, why was Canon not even on the list of candidates?? How many megpixels did you get?

[Super_Dave_D]

Originally Posted by 9dreizig

Todd, why was Canon not even on the list of candidates?? How many megpixels did you get?

The wife bought me this Friday to replace my EOS 300D

[Don Plumley]

Originally Posted by Super_Dave_D

The wife bought me this Friday to replace my EOS 300D

That's an amazing camera - it can even take a picture of itself, with the lens cap on.

[mjohnson]

Pentax makes a pretty lens. It's SUCH a shame that the brand doesn't seem to have the $tar power of the other makers. Those in the know will realize that you spent less than they did on their kilobux german glass. They will scorn you silently.

Seriously though, an old screwmount 50mm Pentax fooled the Leicophiles in a blind test of images. Yes, the garage sale lens at 1/50 the price of the chi chi stuff.

Mike (biased, with a bag full of Pentax 6x7 stuff)
Los Alamos, NM

[TimT]

Of all the cameras I've owned all the slr have been Pentax. I have an istD now..plus a few point and shoot Canons.

Are Pentax cameras photographers elite cameras?

[nostatic]

Canon just doesn't resonate with me. I find the UI to not be that intuitive, and their good glass is really expensive. Plus they are known for long/fast lenses and shooting sports. That isn't really my bag. For video though, I am a total Canon fan. I love my XH-1A. And their SD point and shoots are about the best "consumer" camera out there imho. I have used an SD400 for a couple of years and gotten great shots out of it with never a problem.

Pentax is kind of a weird duck these days (so it fits me perfectly). Canon is the 800lb gorilla, Nikon is the 500lb gorilla, and everyone else is an also-ran. I think that those two make up about 94% of the dslr market. That being said, somewhat like autos, niche players can make a go if they have something going for them. Olympus created their own lens/sensor spec and made it "open". Lecia has supported it, although not sure if they will continue (that is another interesting corporate tale). They also have other products to help fund R&D.

Pentax's edge is that they are a camera/lens company. They don't do other stuff. But they don't have huge budgets so they have to be creative and limit their reach. One big selling point is that almost EVERY lens that Pentax has made over the past 60 or so years will fit the current dslrs. You won't get auto focus (and with the ones older than 25 years or so, you also won't get auto aperture), but they will mount up and they will function. Pentax historically made some excellent lenses, so for film guys going digital with a bunch of glass, it is a fairly easy choice.

Their bodies are a mixed bag. The new top-end one, the K20d, uses a Samsung sensor (they partnered with them, and likely are getting cash infusion from them as well) that is 14.6MP. That is best in class so far for an APC sensor. Pentax is behind the game though in auto focus performance and in fast shooting (frames per second). Nikon's new D300 has amazing AF and will go 6-8 fps. The K20d will top out at about 3fps. But the K20d has in-body stabilization which makes a difference. Nikon does the stabilization in the lenses. So with Nikon you pay more for a VR lens. With Pentax, you can mount a 40 year old lens and get image stabilization. Pretty cool.

But the Pentax bodies seem like they were designed by photographers instead of engineers. Controls are laid out logically and work like you'd expect them too. Better than Nikon imho, and vastly better than Canon. The Olympus E3 seems like it was designed by committee, and the buttons are made for very small fingers. But those are personal things.

If you go by specs, the K20d has more mp (which doesn't really matter these days) but gets outperformed in AF, FPS, and high ISO shooting. But it is also cheaper ($1229 vs. $1749 for the D300).

The biggest thing are the lenses though. Nikon is making some amazing zoom lenses. But I don't really like zoom lenses. Pentax has a series of "limited" prime lenses. The 77 is one of the FA series which are old-school auto focus lenses. The 31mm has god-like status in the photography world and the 77mm is also highly regarded. (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-02-05-02.shtml). They also make "pancake" primes in 21mm, 40mm and 70mm that are small and light, metal construction, and perform really well.

The bottom line is that it is really hard to go wrong with any dslr made these days. It really depends on what you want to shoot, how you shoot, and what you bond with. Pentax is kind of a funky company with very cool glass and a very good performing system. It will lose in the spec wars, but I don't take pictures of brick walls and newspapers (a favorite of online camera forum guys who I swear never take pictures of anything other than "test" shots).

[Groesbeck Hurricane]

Todd,

I almost went the Pentax route (K200D, less money to spend) but went with Nikon as I have so many old Nikon/Nikkor lenses. I liked both, was leaning to the Pentax but got pushed by The Wife due to the lenses.

Canon does not support older stuff. Buy new generation Canon, better buy new lenses too!! Pentax is VERY good at supporting old optics, Nikon is fairly good.

My new D80 with a 20+ (I think) year old 52mm 70-150mm 1:3.8 MC Macro Focusing Zoom and a UV-Haze filter (this is manual stuff and I'm just learning!!). I did get an autofocus lens but I'm out to have fun with the old stuff.

This is my sixth photo ever taken with this camera, I have lowered the digital quality so it can be loaded on Pelican:

[nostatic]

Nikon has been good about supporting legacy lenses, but the main difference between Pentax and Nikon is that the Pentax has image stabilization in the body so the old lenses benefit from that. Canon seems to change everything with every iteration. That being said, the 5D is an awesome camera, especially in low light, and the 40D is really strong as well. Just depends on what you want to do with it.

The Pentax K200d will be a pretty compelling camera. It has easy shooting modes for a beginner, good manual control, 10mp resolution, image stabilization in the body, and it is weather sealed. No other camera in that class/price range (around $700-800) is weather sealed with IS in the body. And you can go on ebay and buy a really fast old 50mm lens for $100 that will blow away any of the entry or mid level Nikon or Canon glass. It just won't auto focus...

[Steve Carlton]

That was an interesting article in Luminous Landscape. He also was fond of the Zeiss lenses, which is what got me into the Contax G2. Most of those little gems are dirt cheap, including the stellar 45mm. Mildly erotic:






Softcore (I don't have this lens/finder):






Kitten-killing time. Semi-rare black body with $2-3K 16mm hologon (virtually zero distortion):

[Cdnone1]

Not to hijack, but Steve do you know of any digital bodies that will take the Carl Zeiss lens from the Contax G2?
I've got a bunch of Zeiss glass I would love to find a digital body for.
Thanks
Steve

[Steve Carlton]

I googled that and only came up with discussion back in 2003-04 that mentioned adapting them through some place in Japan to an Epson R-D1, an expensive camera even to this day (around $1,600). There was talk of adapting them to fit Leica rangefinders, so maybe they can be adapted to an M8 ($5K). Neither seems practical. The main problem is they're rangefinder lenses, which have focal planes closer to the lens than SLR lenses. I'll ask, though.

Are any of them 16, 21, or 35-70mm? Why not pick up a G1 or G2 body and shoot film?

[stealthn]

I had an all manual Pentex and loved it, but decided on the Canon Rebel EOS XT and haven't looked back. I'm not a great photog but this camera really makes it easy, especially when shooting action. I see Pentex has a new uber pixel digital SLR now, but I think my money is better spent on lenses.

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by nostatic

The Pentax K200d will be a pretty compelling camera. It has easy shooting modes for a beginner, good manual control, 10mp resolution, image stabilization in the body, and it is weather sealed. No other camera in that class/price range (around $700-800) is weather sealed with IS in the body. And you can go on ebay and buy a really fast old 50mm lens for $100 that will blow away any of the entry or mid level Nikon or Canon glass. It just won't auto focus...

I just briefly looked into the K200d vs the K20d. Other than the 10mp resolution, and the use of AA batteries (which is a good thing for me), what are the major differences? The 200d sounds very attractive to me.

[beepbeep]

Call me an old fart but this is real lens-porn for me. I have old Canon FD 1:1.2 55mm S.S.C and FD 1:1.2 85mm S.S.C lenses.

My plan is to find a full-frame digital camera and reuse these beautiful chunks of glass. Digital housings are nice and resolution is getting better all the time but optics haven't followed. Light is light and fast lenses are as expensive as they always were. Grinding optics costs money and it still does. Autofocus and zoom is nice but if light isn't there it isn't there...there is nothing else to do but up the gain on CCD or use faster film. If you have optics that let this much light trough, you have additional margin that cannot be gained by more megapixels or fancier autofocus. Need shallower DOF? No problem, just smack on gray filter.

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by Tim Hancock

I just briefly looked into the K200d vs the K20d. Other than the 10mp resolution, and the use of AA batteries (which is a good thing for me), what are the major differences? The 200d sounds very attractive to me.

K20d is more of a "full manual" camera. It does have a full-auto mode, but it really is designed to be worked with. The K200d has scene modes, and is perfectly happy to be used as a point and shoot.

Beyond that, other than the sensor, things are subtle. The big selling points of the K200d vs the competition at that level are in-body stabilization and weather proofing. Plus it is smaller and lighter than the K20d. I think it should be on people's short list of dslr cameras, especially if you don't run screaming when it starts drizzling (I know, that lets most SoCal people out).

Go check one out. It also has nice touches like a dedicated raw button so you can shoot jpg to save space but if you have a special shot or tough conditions you hit the raw button and it will capture the next shot raw. No menus needed. There are lots of neat aspects to the Pentax stuff.

http://www.pentaxslr.com/bodies

[Cdnone1]

Thanks Steve
I have a G2 as well as an old Nikon Black Body FM with some old fast Nikon glass.
I love shooting film as that is what I do for a living (Director of Photography). The G2 is the camera I carry in my meter bag on set and location. It is the sharpes lens I have ever seen, the problem is finding film on location, carrying it through the airports and getting it processed. I usually use the G2 to take pictures on set of the crew. Last week in Vancouver I shot with my wives digital point and shot, down loaded them to my Mac, a little photoshop and burnt DVD for the client and crew all before I left set.
I would really like to be able to use the Zeiss glass in a digital format. I use to shoot the Zeiss primes for features but now I use the Cooke S4's
Steve

[Groesbeck Hurricane]

Tim,

Todd is MUCH more of an expert than I am, but if it hadn't been for all the lenses I have for Nikon, I would have gone with the Pentax K200D!! It is, IMHO, easier to use out of the box and you can get VERY good lenses cheaper. I have found there is no real market for old Pentax lenses. I ended up basically giving away my 50mm and a 70-210mm zoom. Very good optics in old lenses!