T-Rex Mark wrote:
30km of walking last weekend. There is an amazing grafiti tonnel which has overtaken this post a bit., lots of color and character there.
i typed a bit of a story but lost a connection, will comment on a lens in a reply comments, enjoyed it very much - my first manual focus experience on the street.
Definitely some nice pics there.
I'll be curious to hear what you think of the Pentax - was that the M42 SMC Takumar/Super-Tak, or one of the K-mount versions? I have both the Super-Tak and the Pentax-M K-mount; they're both nice lenses, and I've used the M somewhat more than the Super-Tak, but neither one's really grabbed me emotionally the way the Vivitar (Kiron) 28/2.5 has; that's my current favorite 28.
Thanks very much Travis! This is my only 28mm and the widest vintage lens (all others are 50mm+) so my closest comparison is to Fuji’s modern 35mm f1.4. It is a Pentax K-mount I understand it was only made in 1976-1977 predating Pentax M. I hunted for it a bit after seeing it highlighted by Simon Utak as one of the best 28mm vintage lenses and me wanting a wider angle for the street
Ah! Yeah, I've heard good things about the pre-M 28mm; I've most often heard that generation called either 'Pentax-K' or 'SMC Pentax' lenses.
I believe its color outcome is great, it is quite sharp although some of these images ended with higher ISO which affects resolution but I don’t mind a bit of grain. It is sharp - many of the people shots were candid where I eyeballed the distance when taking a shot. The focus throw is probably the shortest out of all the lenses I have. The handling is great. I think the landscapes and architecture really pop in how they are rendered not just colors.
Yeah, I was seeing that in your pics.
My main opinion of the Pentax-M was formed in a comparison shoot I did in 2020 with several 28mm lenses I'd picked up over the years; this was before I got the Vivitar (Kiron) f/2.5.
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmPnCCuW has the pics.
The main thing I appreciate about the Kiron is how it renders subtle tonality - the gloss on a car, the tonal variations that give clouds a 3D look.
Lumix S5, Vivitar (Kiron) 28/2.5
Lumix S5, Vivittar (Kiron) 28/2.5
one really strange thing is how the focus peaking has a wider range of when camera highlights that things are in focus. Perhaps it’s due to the short focus throw and f3.5 being the widest aperture. Curious of your experiences with wider lenses and focus peaking. It requires you to carefully assess whether you are getting the best out of the range when things are highlighted to be in focus.
I use focus peaking in a couple of ways. I'll pan the focus back and forth across a range as I watch the peaking strengthen and weaken, settling on where it's strongest. Or when it's really tough and critical, I'll use the magnify function to zoom in to get the best view of the peaking.
it’s great to know about the Kiron 28mm, I now will look specifically at Flickr, it would be interesting to see them side by side. I am thinking if I got another wider lens I would probably get to 23-25mm - as I enjoyed going down from 35mm to 28mm, and I know that 16mm is too wide from own experience. Any recommendations / experience with 23-25?
I've used two main 24mm lenses - the OM Zuiko 24/2.8 and the Minolta MD 24/2.8 - plus the MD 24-50/4 zoom. The Zuiko is one of my favorite lenses; the Minolta 24/2.8 is very nice, but kind of bulky. If you can live with the slower aperture, the 24-50 can be very nice.
Sigma fp, MD 24-50/4
