5+ years with the Sony A850 - looking forward to the K1.

Heya folks!

Not sure who still remembers me - I bought a Sony A850 6 years ago and haven't posted a lot here since then. I still have my Pentax *ist DS, though, it just turned 11!

The A850 was the first FF camera with shake reduction and its mirror flip mechanism meant that basically all old SLR lenses would clear the mirror - not like the then-current Canon 5D. Nikon was out for me, because I couldn't mount M42 lenses to it. Like Pentax, the Sony has weather sealing, just giving this extra bit of security.

The Sony has 24MP and of course is over 6 years old by now - so how much is there to learn from it in 2016? I don't regret going FF when and how I did. M42 lenses on the A850 are probably easier to use than on Pentax, because the flange focal distance means the adapters can stay on the lens and the adapter's chip tells the shake reduction the focal length. But selecting it in the Pentax lens-menu is also very convenient, I'm sure I can get used to it.

I am looking forward to a modern, live-view capable SLR with a great Pentax user interface and the ability to not only use my M42 primes, but also my KAF zooms and primes - and have them stabilised, geo-tagged and without AA filter!

I have taken 75000 photos with the A850 and all of them with lenses that fit or are available for the K1, hence why I thought this might be interesting for a few people here.

I did photograph two weddings with M42 primes, mostly S-M-C Takumars and the photos turned out beautiful (those in focus, anyway ). But I mostly used the Tamron 28-300, Cosina 20/3.5 and then switched to the Tamron Adaptall 17/3.5.

So not exactly the type of premium glass common wisdom would deem necessary for FF, but is has worked well for me and I did heavily use the DA 18-250 on the DS before, I guess it's my normal mode of operation...

If you want to see, here's my photo-a-month collection:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22070130@N07/albums/72157625474241521

If the exif shows a proper aperture value, it's shot with the 28-300. If it shows focal length, but f/1.0 it's an adapted M42 lens, usually either the 20mm or 17mm. Sometimes the adapter had poor contact, in which case the focal length doesn't show at all :-/

Any questions, I'll do my best to answer them

Best wishes
Jens

Welcome back! A blast from the past indeed.

Haven't got time to go through your A850 photos at the moment, but I surely will. EDIT: I just went through them - rather beautiful they are too.

Me? Nothing clever. I plan to just stick my FA43 on the K-1 and let it live there for a few months

Finally a Pentax you find worthy of replacing your *istD!

> M42 lenses on the A850 are probably easier to use than on Pentax, because the flange focal distance means the adapters can stay on the lens and the adapter's chip tells the shake reduction the focal length.

Interesting, I'm surprised.

>, here's my photo-a-month collection

I looked for the trees, and wasn't disappointed!

Looked at your account Jens - not sure the K1 will be able to take shots that good 

I think I will buy this camera and hope to use it as long as you have used your 850

didn't you have a camera converted to IR ?
still stay up late...

Nice to see you back on the Pentax board. Hopefully the K-1 is everything you are hoping. I bet the DS will look comically small next to it.

Heh, Jens, good to hear from you after such a long hiatus. I, too, have been gone from this board for several years but been back for a little while since picking up a K3 last year. Like your work with the old FF Sony. I went with Fuji about a year ago; just got lazy converting all those RAW with PS scripts, actions, opacity adjustments, et al, and really love the Fuji JPegs SOOC. Glad to see you're alive and kicking and looking forward to your future posts.

Don in Shaoxing, China for the next 10 months.

Here's one SOOC a couple of days back.

Welcome back Jens; I do remember you and it will be great to have you back.

Dale

I think you'll be happy, jens. The Pentax system is really the only home for those of us who cherished the Late Minolta/Early Sony alpha virtues of simple, direct controls, IBIS and lens compatibility. I made the switch over the past two years. While my a850 was in the shop (twice in two years), I test-drve the Pentax K5IIs. Soon, I was happy to sell the Sony. It was clear that sensor tech had moved enough for the little crop camera to outperform the FF Sony in every way that mattered. The only things I miss are the handy AF/MF toggle button, right in the perfect place, and the effectiveness of Sony's DRO (you can do more in LR with the Pentax's noise-free shadows, though). Oh, and the big, bright OVF- but that's going to be available in K-mount land, too.

Hi Jens,

Welcome back to the Pentaxian family!  Like you, I've been using other brands (Fuji, Leica, Sony) lately, but I never actually left Pentax and I currently love my K-3ii with the DA 16-85 zoom.

About 6 months after the K-1 becomes available I expect to buy one, along with the DFA 28-105 zoom, and I anticipate many happy hours using my extensive Pentax lens collection on it. Hopefully I can get a Black Friday deal on them!

In brief, my K5IIs feels like the a800 that Sony never bothered to build, replacing the a700.