Follow up: I got my Pentax K-5!

You work @ B&H o0? Just test any lens then, the 50/1.2 is very cool too if you're into that sort of thing :) Otherwise just go all limited. They're all good.
 
Lenses to consider? I own and can vouch for the FA 77/1.8 Limited. I can also vouch for the FA 35/2. If I did not already own the 35, I would probably have purchased the 43/1.9 Limited. (Not interested in the 31 Limited...too large and there are so many lenses in that focal length range that are so good.) Manual focus and M42 Pentax primes are uniformly good with the possible exception of K-mount "faux" Takumars.

For fun, just about any of the metal-bodied Vivitars are worth trying. Ditto for the FSU Jupiter-9 85/2 and Zenitar 16/2.8. M42 primes from Yashica, Mamiya/Sekor, Ricoh, and Yashica are consistently very good to excellent.

Leaving the best for last, I strongly encourage any owner of adaptable cameras to try any of the FSU Helios-44 58/2 variants. I own the Helios-44 M and could not be happier for the $10 USD spent on this lens. On APS-C, the Helios is nicely sharp at ALL apertures with excellent contrast and "interesting" colors and bokeh.


Steve


(BTW...Shoot with the 18-55 kit before making any judgment on that lens. I have been very pleased with the kit.)
 
I think Leica users would really enjoy the 31, 43, 77mm FA Limited set. Maybe add a wide and tele DA if you need them. I have the 50-135mm f/2.8, which is okay (caveat: it's at the shop for infinity focus failure), but it does not give you at all same feel as the FA Limiteds.

I really love my 31mm Limited... But, it feels even better on my film MZ-S, where it excels as a "real" 31mm instead of APS equiv. The 31mm has the solid-metal, Leica lens feel, plus autofocus the way Leica would design it, perhaps.

I bought a 21mm FA to give me the 30mm equivalent experience on the K-5, but it doesn't quite feel right.

APS sensor dynamic range keeps improving, so for IQ I have no complaints about these latest crop-sensor cameras. Lenses are cheaper, especially in the telephoto range.
 
I will never get rid of my Pentax Super Takumar 35/2
3025588408_5c1326a6ec_z.jpg


and 200/4 in M42 mount.
And I'm not even a Pentax user :)
 
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That is supposed to be a very good camera - K5. Love Pentax for many reasons, never had or worked with though. I have seen some tests at image recourse and discovered a very strange thing... at high iso 3200 both K5 and k7 struggled to produce a red color, yes, only red color texture, while other the same class cameras at the same iso did a better job with red color. Just wonder if the test really reflects reality, or maybe it was just something else and in real life they reproduce red color texture at 3200 iso at the same level as nikon, canon do
 
andredossantos said:
Very nice! Did you shoot raw or are those jpegs straight from camera? Either way, the colors are really great.
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All raw. I don't bother with JPEG. I tweak the colors a lot to give each image a unique feel. I find digital straight out of camera to be very accurate when everything is set right, but accurate (for me) rarely conveys the visual impact I'm going for.

There is always that line of post processing, you wanna go right up to it, but not cross into over processed images. I basically try to get my pictures to look like film emulsions.

I SO WANT THAT FA31! And I'm probably going to get the 16-50 2.8 as well.

Oh and off topic...MY FUJI X100 IS SHIPPING TOMORROW!
 
Cool. I agree with your philosophy on digital files and post processing completely. I was late to really delve into digital and Im slowly teaching myself, or rather, figuring out a workflow and an ultimate "look" that I like.

In any case, the shots from the botanical garden look really good and have fabulous color. Cheers :)
 
The K28 is a beaut but expensive and hard to find but another one to keep an eye out for is the K30/2.8. Also a superb lens with really delightful rendering. If I wasn't having increasing difficulty with manual focus in general I would use this lens a lot more; especially considering that on a 1.5 crop APS-C camera the focal length equates to a (for me, at least) "perfect" 45mm. These can be quite pricey but I lucked out a few years ago and got one in a box of mixed Pentax gear I picked up for $30. I don't usually have that kind of luck...
 
LKeithR said:
The K28 is a beaut but expensive and hard to find but another one to keep an eye out for is the K30/2.8. Also a superb lens with really delightful rendering. If I wasn't having increasing difficulty with manual focus in general I would use this lens a lot more; especially considering that on a 1.5 crop APS-C camera the focal length equates to a (for me, at least) "perfect" 45mm. These can be quite pricey but I lucked out a few years ago and got one in a box of mixed Pentax gear I picked up for $30. I don't usually have that kind of luck...
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Oh my, what a score. Do you in fact own the K28? Any thoughts about it?

I once bought a K 15mm on craigslist for $100, that was pretty sweet.
 
mabelsound said:
Oh my, what a score. Do you in fact own the K28? Any thoughts about it?
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I wish. A buddy of mine had one many years ago and I got to play with it a few times. Nice lens! I probably have pics around somewhere but my old negs and prints are very disorganized. I'd have no idea which ones were taken with the 28. The sad part is that I could probably have bought the lens from my friend--he switched to Nikon--but I wasn't really focusing on photography at the time and never did anything. The K30 was a very nice find--I didn't even realize what I had till I took a closer look a couple months later. I'll post a couple pics if I can find some--I just had a computer crash and lost a lot of my catalogue info.

I once bought a K 15mm on craigslist for $100, that was pretty sweet.
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We all get lucky on occasion but really good deals only pop up once in a while. I guess that's why I still check our local Craigslist every day...
 
Since reading the post at PF remind me way too much of The Sky is Falling rants from Chicken Little, have any of our K-5 users experienced any focus issues with thier cameras. I do want to and will get around to buying one at some point, but input regarding this from some grounded folks would make me feel more confident. I will mostly be using the FA limited lenses and an A20/2.8 for my wide days.

(FF or BF errors, not focus speed)
 
Re: focus issues.

There was certainly front-focus problems on the K-5 that I experienced in low-light situations up through March 2011. This was supposedly fixed with the latest firmware, but I haven't had the opportunity confirm the fix.

Much as I love my K-5 for the design and handling, once you have experienced focus problems it is hard to be completely confident with Pentax focussing. Time will tell; Nikon focussing has a long standing reputation for good focus.
 
I haven't had focus issues in low light, not yet anyway. I did have the notorious "sensor stain" problem, but Pentax replaced the camera and evidently all new production cameras are fine.
 
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