Returning to the fold, NX300 + Lenses

pixelpushing wrote:

After going with E-Pens, Canons, Sigmas, an X100 and a long run with an A57, I'm coming 'home' to Samsung (former NX100 and 200 owner).

I've ordered a brown 18-55 OIS III (loved the 20-50 sharpness but want IS now that I've had it on some of my other rigs, and the III supposedly comes close). Now, which lens(es)? Trying to keep the budget as tight as possible. Wanted black, but the best deals were on the brown and white kits.

I do a lot of macro, low light, street and landscape with a smattering of birds and indoors. For long zoom I'm getting an m42 adapter to run my old but pretty sharp Accura 300mm. I think I'm looking at the 30mm f2 and possibly the 10mm, but not sure. I have an m42 Super Takumar... For macro I can cheat it a bit with diopters, but I'll miss the nice vintage Minolta 50mm macro on my A57.

Well, the 30/2 is a no-brainer, it gives so much for the money and is very compact. Excellent lens for street, landscape, low light and portraits. The 10mm fish is superb as fisheye lenses go and I can only recommend it, if you have use for a fisheye. The compactness of the 10/3.5 is nothing short of amazing, basically a fisheye pancake and very good optical quality. There's some good deals on the fish if you just look around. As far as close-up shots go, the 18-55 can focus amazingly close with manual focus - significantly closer than with AF. I'm quite satisfied by the 18-55's close-up abilities.

here's a few from the 18-55:

preserved fish at around minimum manual focus distance

small, preserved fish at around minimum manual focus distance

here's a few dozen shots from the 18-55 and 30/2: http://www.pbase.com/arn/samsung_nx20

here's a few at 2560x1600 resolution: http://www.pbase.com/arn/samsung_nx20_wallpapers

exif is intact, so you can see which shot came from which lens.

and finally, 10/3.5 shots (roughly the first two rows, the rest are Sigma 10/2.8) http://www.pbase.com/arn/sigma_10mm_fish_samples