What is your favourite lens?

[Trojansoc]

I join the chorus of cheers for the DA*50-135. Without question, it is my most versatile lens, with the produts of the lens exceeding the ability of the photographer at every level. Just a few of the situations in which I have found it useful. Night-time soccer (only one of these shots taken with my new K20--at ISO 6400--others are the K10)











It has become my walk-around lens, although the number of bird shots I take from a distance means that the Phoenix 100-400 is probably on my camera more. A lens to which I am getting more attached by the day is my Sigma 28mm f1.8 DG Macro. This cat portrait came when one of my cats just couldn't resist checking out my light tent.



Thanks for looking,

Paul

[rfortson]

simowills wrote:

wow... I'll second that. how much pp did you need to get thoes 4 to that stage rfortson?
Simon

Heh heh! :-) Youknow, I didn't even notice they were all in step until well after I was sorting through the shots. I was checking the focus (marveling at the focus, actually) by looking at their faces and the wrinkles on the shirts. You can even read the handwriting on some of the bib numbers. Later, I zoomed out and noticed that they were in perfect step off the ground. Someone on another forum suggested a crop of just the feet and legs from the knees down. I think it would make an interesting shot.

If you go to my Flickr site and see the set for the Rodeo Roundup race, you can see the full sized image. The focus is dead-on!

[Monza76]

I am hoping to have a K10D to play with soon, I am hoping that my Sigma 24-135mm will work well with it. It is an f2.8-4.5 lens so it is quite fast at the wide end and acceptable at the long end (just over one stop, SR should manage that much). My only experience with SR is to occasionally use my wife's K100D Super (which I try to avoid since I do not want to be spoiled).A K10D, even one with possible focus issues (it is used), will be a great step up from my DS/DL combo in terms of resolution and features. I believe that a different camera body may actually have an impact on which lenses which I use, the DL with fast 50mm will still be the low-light king but a K10D with the Sigma may well become the constant companion camera.

Glad to see so many responses, I found a blog site http://raffee.blogspot.com/ (please excuse the name, not my fault) which is entirely made up of images shot with fast primes, including quite a few with the Pentax 50mm f1.4 and even a few with the old 50mm f1.2. Worth a look since some of the images fit the "look" I referred to at the beginning of this post.

Ira

[TDN]

Monza76 wrote:

Glad to see so many responses, I found a blog site http://raffee.blogspot.com/ (please excuse the name, not my fault) which is entirely made up of images shot with fast primes, including quite a few with the Pentax 50mm f1.4 and even a few with the old 50mm f1.2. Worth a look since some of the images fit the "look" I referred to at the beginning of this post.

Ira

Damn, this guy has some of the best lenses in the world!

Don't click that link if you have LBA, people

Tom

[mtngal]

This is a fun topic, and certainly reflects how we all look at the world.

My favorite lens changes often. What's my favorite lens yesterday isn't my favorite lens today, and that one won't be my favorite tomorrow. As others have said, my favorite is to agreat extent situational.

I have 4 lenses that are living in my daily camera bag at the moment - A*300, Viv 105 macro, DA*50-135 and the DA 12-24. The DA*50-135 is my walk-about lens and probably spendsthe most time on my camera. Since I've had the K20, I've gained a new respect for it. The A*300 is probably the best lens I have -there is something I can't define about pictures taken with it. The Viv is a work-horse ofa macro and since I love close-ups I use it constantly.

But at the moment, the DA12-24 is my favorite lens. It's just so versatile, and it's easy to be creative, changing perspective andaltering reality to something new, fresh and unusual if you want, or faithfully portraying what's in front ofyou. It can be used as a close-up lens, too, showing more "real estate" than a normal lens.

The thread I did saying good-bye tomy K10 is also a tribute to the DA 12-24, and a link to it belongs here. http://forums.steves-digicams.com/fo...mp;forum_id=80

[DigitalAddict]

Same as many: my favorite lens changes far too often. But the one I really like the most is DA 70mm F2.4 Limited. I still have the FA 50mm F1.4 which I rarely use, yet I can't get myself to sell it.

Over time I went to favor FA 50mm F1.4, FA 35mm F2, D-FA 50mm F2.8 Macro, Sigma 10-20mm and DA 50-200mm. Still have them and like.

Lately I got into other photographic gear buying addictions: tripods (big and small), clamps (big and small), flashes, triggers, timers, reflectors, you name it.

It never ends, people. I am doomed:-)

[Monza76]

How about this, I just loaded the Nova 3 with a DS, and three M-series manual lenses, the 50mm f1.7, the 200mm f4 and the 100mm f4 macro (which shows some "fogging", (lenses elements separating?). I want to really get back to basics for a while, I have already gone through my one autofocus prime lens stage (the FA50mm f1.4 and then the FA35mm f2.0 -AL-).

This may seem like some form of masochism, but remember that these three represent some of the finest K-mount lenses. Good glass is good glass, I need to adapt to use them more effectively.

Ira

[Monza76]

Keep answering my own post here but, as someone has already said, favourites change. The FA50 is without a doubt my lens of choice for low light photography (usually people), expecially on the *istDL. In terms of image quality (not necessarily sharpness as much as some indescribable quality) it is the best. The Sigma 24-135mm f2.8-4.5 is the most versatile lens I own, it covers all of my normal focal lengths from slightly wide to medium long telephoto (it covers the entire range I owned in the film days except for the film 28mm).

My new best friend is, of all things, a cheap FA 28-80mm f3.5-5.6 film kit lens. I have two of these, the nice Pentax semi macro model and the -AL- version built by Tamron (which focuses in the wrong direction I might add, I accept that from the Sigma but from a lens with SMC Pentax written on it:shock. The non-Tamron model focuses closer, looks better and has proven to be very fast and accurate to focus on the K10D. The slower aperture makes it less useful than the Sigma (although from 2.8 to 3.5 on the wide end is less than one stop as is 4.5-5.6 at the long end), but its light weight and small size makes it much easier to carry. Here is a little test I did for focus accuracy, check out the clothes line tensioner that I used to focus on. (just resized, no other pp. I will post a 100% crop in my next post.

Ira

[Monza76]

Here is the 100% crop, not perfect, but not bad at all.

[Driver3]

I missed this the first time around!

At the moment I don't have what I would consider a dud lens.

Pentax DA 16-45 F4-Sharp and the only thime I have any ca is when it is really bright out and seeing as how most of the time I use it is very early morning light it is a non issue.





I have a Sigma EX 100-300 F4-Great lens. I wish it was longer but within range it is fantastic.





When the 100-300 isn't long enough I have the Bigma





Vivitar Series 1 105mm f2.5 macro. Cult classic, super sharp and great rendering.



The 2 telephotos are for one type of shooting, the 16-45 for landscapes and the Vivitar for close up stugff and flowers.

I was holding off to see what the K20 was like before I bought the Bigma. I wasn't ever really ecstatic with my K10's focus. It is at Pentax for a factory cal right now. I have read that persons that sent them in since the K20 came out have been very impressed with the focus after the factory got done with it. I'm hoping.

I want to buy some primes this year, too. I'm just not sure which one. When I go back and look at my shots with the 16-45. I end up with a bunch at 24mm. So what is a good 24mm lens. I know there is a FA*24mm F2 but those are astronomically priced used. I'll probably try to find a nice A 24mm f2.8.

Dennis