> 2. The 77mm is, as you mention, a good lens, but expensive. > However, I think you can expect to afford more than that from > selling the Contax system. I hesitate to recommend other lenses to > you since I don't know your needs, but it might be a good idea to > sell the pentax zoom and buy eg. the FA*28-70/2.8 instead. If you > can manage to carry it on your travels. Or maybe the 31mm and 77mm > limiteds.
Thanks Jostein. I had the FA*28-70/2.8 before. It was too big. From Contax I learned the importance of having a small cute camera and a small cute lens. The models we shoot would perform much better, even though 90% of the time we are not shooting for money. > 5. I'm a bit surprised that you don't mention Nikon's alternatives > (I assume that you are the same Bo-Ming as the one maintaining the > Nikon FAQ; at least it's the same mail address). If you have > considered Nikon, would you mind sharing your thoughts with this > list? It would be very interesting for us to hear what you think. Yes I am the same Bo-Ming. I have sold off all my Nikon AF equipment many years ago, but I am still keeping some manual focus collectibles, such as an Angenieux 35-70/2.5-3.3 zoom lens. Well, as collectibles I don't really use them, though I can certainly sell them for cash. I do not consider Nikon because they have broken compatibility much more badly than Pentax and I do not have even a single piece of Nikon AF equipment at the moment. Canon was very frank and honest in 1986 and the pain has proven to be a one time deal. Film or digital, many of the Nikon bodies no longer take manual focus lenses with metering, and all their new lenses do not have aperture rings. I was a camera freak back then, cameras were toys rather than tools. Nowadays I am much better getting back to the photographic side of things from the equipment side, thus this "streamline" idea to partially alleviate the hangover of my too-much-gear syndrome. My girlfriend is a good photographer. We are learning from each other a lot.
