I shoot outdoors almost exclusively. Back when I first started shooting for publications, some forty years ago, I didn't make much effort to take care of my equipment. I stored lenses in socks and wiped them with my t-shirt. Some of those lenses were ruined. Today, I'm cautious. I still shoot outdoors a lot but never touch the glass unless i've brushed it or blown it off first, and then I use lens cleaner and a microfiber rag. I use a lens cap whenever I won't be shooting for a while. And I don't' drop lenses. Ever. That's because I use a neck strap or sling. I find that I don't have to clean the sensor more than once every couple of years as long as I keep the camera upside down when changing lenses and avoid doing so in really bad environments. Taking good care of equipment is much less expensive than replacing lenses.
Paul On Mar 23, 2013, at 7:15 PM, Zos Xavius <zosxav...@gmail.com> wrote: > I've done some testing and decided that my FA 28-80 was completely > decentered to the point of being unusable, especially over 50mm. I'm > guessing its likely the sloppiness in the barrel....bad, bad, bad > design and construction... I have to stop down to f13 to get a usable > image that has ok sharpness across the frame. I'm going to retire this > one. For a basically free lens I can't really complain. Its been on my > camera pretty full time for a while now and I'm guessing I've just > knocked it around too much or something. I tend to be pretty hard on > gear and carry a camera pretty much full time, so it get exposed to > the elements on a daily basis. What I'm getting at is that I'm about > to switch to just fully using primes. I may get a 55-300 as that would > be useful and I think I still want a 16-45 for city walk around shots > and street. > > I have a 12-24 that I should be fixing soon, and hopefully won't need > sent off for realignment. I got the aperture on my M 28mm 3.5 working > again and am finding it a joy to use. It still needs sent off for a > serious cleaning, but even with some dust and a bit of haze it is > still giving nice sharp contrasty images stopped down. I think I might > find another nice copy since they go for so cheap. I have an A50 1.7 > that is razor sharp and an M 50 1.4 that is right up there with it, > but I prefer the contrasty rendering of the A lens for landscape > personally. If I could get an 18 and a 24mm prime for a reasonable > price, I could have an all prime setup with my 12-24 for wide angles. > Unfortunately 18 and 24mm lenses aren't plentiful or cheap for pentax. > So I will have to use a zoom to fill in some gaps there until I can > get rich and afford a 21 ltd. > > Ok, sorry this is turning into a long ramble. My question is that how > do I deal with constant dust accumulating in my primes? Is this > something that's just to be expected and I should look at sending > lenses out every few years for cleanings? I have a nice tamron 60-300 > sp that I eventually retired due to it becoming a dust pump and it has > loads of internal dust just after using it to shoot flowers for a few > months. Maybe the seals aren't very good in the lens anymore...too > bad, it was a sharp zoom that is unlikely worth the cost of cleaning. > I try to keep just keep my normal walk around lenses down to a minimum > for this reason. Hence why I was using the cheap fa 28-80 for a while > because I rather dislike the old 18-55 lens I have. > > I'll just be down to a 28mm and a 50mm for a while it looks like, so > I'm trying to think about how I can better take care of my lenses or > maybe if I should just start accepting that they are going to get > dirty with constant use. I know a lot of you shoot in the outdoors and > I hate lens swapping outside in the dusty air, but when you shoot > outside all the time its kind of unavoidable. Especially with primes. > I use a rocket blower a lot and wet clean the sensor as needed. My > lack of a gear budget at the moment is really crimping my style. I > seriously need to get some focal lengths available again. :( > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
