Hello all! Found this list after intensely studying Stan's Pentax page trying to figure out what in the world I was doing with lenses for my new baby.
I learned on my dad's K1000 (more later) and after a hiatus until early adulthood I got back into photography but went Canon with an EOS-3 and a Tokina 28-80/2.8 as my mainstay lens and a couple of primes. I went broke feeding film into that camera so when digital started hitting it big I grabbed a Canon G3 and ditched my EOS system. I then had a Sigma SD-9 and then a Sony DMC-V1 that I went to the extent of getting a Metz 50 MZ-5 system for. The Sony has long since been wanting to be retired so I started looking at another bridge camera. That's when I saw reviews for the new Pentax K digitals. I had thought about an ist-D a bit back but never made the leap. I went and found the trusty K1000 and sure enough the M 50/2 and Takumar 135/2.8 were still with it. Not the best lenses in the world but hey, a start. When I saw these would work with the new digitals I made the leap and went for K110D deciding I really didn't need shake reduction. After much confusion and screwing up of my order I ended up getting the kit lens which isn't too bad but after doing my first Christmas photos in Lightroom and PS CS3 beta I saw just how many shots I was taking at 50 or 55mm. I was going to get an ultra-wide zoom but decided to get some manual primes instead given these results but I can't find an FA50 in stock anywhere with a UPC intact (with the Pentax rebates going on I wonder where those UPCs went?? hmmmm). After much debate, back and forth, etc, I picked up an A 50/1.4 from KEH and saw by complete accident an M 28/3.5 at Adorama and grabbed both along with the new Metz SCA adapter so hopefully I should be doing some decent flash work soon. I did Christmas completely in RAW with the kit lens, the M 50 and the Takumar and I was really pleased with how the shots came out aside from the obligatory tweaking I had to do in Lightroom and PS. After working with JPEGs for a long time since the SD-9 (which has a proprietary RAW) working in a RAW workflow is a godsend. It was actually a joy to work in Lightroom and then send images that needed more care over to PS if they needed it and then have Lightroom recognize the PS update and add that to the shoot. Adobe has been doing some great work there. So, I look forward to tips and suggestions, any thoughts on lens areas I may wish to fill in would be welcome. I'm considering holding out a few months until the new f2.8 zooms come out, the 17-50/2.8 likely being the prime target. My meager start is up at http://www.flickr.com/photos/wgfinley Thanks, Guy -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
