NSW 10th Anniversary - Any Pentax users?

Hi Ron,

I can't help you with a lens swap as Im in Melb for a few weeks.

But I use a Pentax K200D. Most of my shots are taken with the Sigma 18-200 lens and a few with a Pentax prime lens (35mm Limited Macro).

I find the Sigma a good compromise walkaround lens. But its not brilliant at either end of it's range.

Most of the shots Ive taken on our trip blog are with this lens.
The first lap....

I use the 35mm prime for Macros, and where I want better quality non-telephoto shots. I shoot always in RAW and import into Aperture on the Mac. For panorama shots (like this one The first lap....: July 2011 ) I usually shoot with the 35mm lens then join up the photos using Hugin.

As were getting into birdwatching I'm looking at a good telephoto lens like the Pentax 300mm F4.

Have fun.

Cheers
Simon

What exactly are you not happy with? you haven't specified.

having white balance set to manual will make a big difference.

Also the last picture you have posted I think the camera has coped very well with such a contrasting scene it is a tiny bit dark off to the left but even so I would be happy with that straight off camera.

The high ISO can have an effect on the image, both the noise and the colour cast. I don't know how well the Pentax handles high ISO so can't comment further.

The lens you are using (18-200) is most likely soft wide and at full zoom. All the super-zooms suffer from this and in general terms are usually best at around the 100-150 mark.

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Originally Posted by simonmelb

But I use a Pentax K200D. Most of my shots are taken with the Sigma 18-200 lens and a few with a Pentax prime lens (35mm Limited Macro).

I find the Sigma a good compromise walkaround lens. But its not brilliant at either end of it's range.

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Thanks Simon. And thanks for the links to your pics. A prime would be nice. I have an older 50mm prime but it's only useful in manual mode and needs a bit of mucking around to get to work.

For macros I have the 35-70 Pentax F zoom that came with my Pentax SFX film camera I bought in 1989. See F 35-70/3.5-4.5

I also have a Takumar FA 70-200 4.5-5.6 zoom lens which I bought at the same time as the SFX - (it's not shown on Dimitrov's site).

For longer zooms than the Sigma can do, I recently picked up this 100-300mm zoom (for $55) : F 35-70/3.5-4.5.

Of course, one tends to use just the 18-200 if only for convenience.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dullbird

What exactly are you not happy with? you haven't specified.

having white balance set to manual will make a big difference.

Also the last picture you have posted I think the camera has coped very well with such a contrasting scene it is a tiny bit dark off to the left but even so I would be happy with that straight off camera.

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Thanks Lou. I took that pic just to see how the camera would handle the contrast. I was surprised it did it so well.

I shall have to play with white balance. I usually leave it on auto.

What am I unhappy with? I don't know really. I just don't feel that my pics are that good. I'm also lousy at framing a good shot.

I'm reluctant to post many here as I am not a good photographer and feel intimidated by the work submitted by you and others. I don't know how many of the posters do post processing before submitting the pics.

Am I expecting too much? I don't know. Is it the camera or is it me? That's why I'd like to compare (with the same subjects) my lenses on my camera and on a later Pentax DSLR. Mine is one of Pentax's first.

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Originally Posted by dmdigital

The high ISO can have an effect on the image, both the noise and the colour cast. I don't know how well the Pentax handles high ISO so can't comment further.

The lens you are using (18-200) is most likely soft wide and at full zoom. All the super-zooms suffer from this and in general terms are usually best at around the 100-150 mark.

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Thanks Derek.

I shall have to take the same shot with different ISO settings and then try with the lens throughout its range.

I think you might find that the quality you are striving for is unobtainable with your particular lenses. This is because all of your lenses have a very limited aperture range i.e 4.5-5.6 & 3.5-4.5. I think you will find that the photos taken by those whom you wish to emulate have been taken using fast lenses. Lenses with an aperture range of 2.8-22 or better. Generally the quality of your image is directly proportional to the quality of your equipment.

Thats not saying you can't make great photos, just that you are handicapped by the limitations of your equipment. The lenses you are using do not have the focal range to create such rich images. They were designed to allow people to have large range of focal lengths at an affordable price, but the offset to that is your aperture range is very restricted. Unless you go to the more expensive fast lenses.

In saying all of that you might want to try using a lower ISO 100 for scenery shots and as small an aperture as you can and a longer exposure. This with give your camera the best chance of extracting the most detail from the scene. You will also find that early morning and later afternoon is the best light to take photos in.

I am by no means a pro photographer but I did find that the limited aperture range on my zoom lenses was very frustrating when trying to take the shots I wanted to. Investing in a fast lens would be the best step towards those quality images you are striving for.

Interesting point. I have a 50mm F2 prime but, regrettably, it's not AF and doesn't interface to the electronics. It would be purely manual mode.

I haven't worked out how to use it on the camera and get consistent results.

All but the worst modern lenses are going to give quality performance at around mid aperture and away from either end of the zoom range on zooms.

At the resolution we tend to look at images, particularly here, I doubt that the lens (within above) is a major contributor to lack of image quality.

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Originally Posted by XSiV

I think you might find that the quality you are striving for is unobtainable with your particular lenses. This is because all of your lenses have a very limited aperture range i.e 4.5-5.6 & 3.5-4.5.

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I think you have misunderstood the aperture range 4.5-5.6 means that at the shortest focal length it has a max aperture of 4.5 and at its longest focal length it has a max aperture of 5.6 minimum apertures may be up around f22 or higher.

Martyn