Hin's Photo Corner

I have nothing to do in dinner time when I get fed up with my own cooking. Not that I can't cook, there are times that I want my dinner made by others and be served with some decency after a verrry down day with work. All test shots without PP and straight from K-x in auto-ISO with 100 to 1600 and 3200. No PP on noise.


All along, I love my DA 35 for close up and the DA 21 comes close as second in terms of close up. And I thought 4.0 may be a bit slow for indoor shots. The lighting is not the worse kind but dark enough that the shutter is not appropriate in iso 800. I used ISO 1600 on f/4.0 and ISO 3200 on f/5.6. Corners may be soft -- how the hell I know. I don't pixel peep and I don't test lens with charts. I field test them with what I see. It seems alright in indoor.


What I am getting is that the lens seems to do okay for indoor with K-x. Yes, we won't get outstanding pictures in ISO 3200/1600, but the results are quite good to me. The close up in DA 15 limited makes it an interesting candidate to bring along for food shots. And it can cover the interior shots though a bit slow when compared to other limited. Its minimum focusing distance is 0.18m whereas 21 limited is slightly longer in 0.20m.

I have just finished my vacation trip to New Zealand and I will have a more thorough reports on the limited lens and K-x on the trip. The DA 15mm limited is quite outstanding in the trip. I have 15/21/35/70 and a long zoom with Tamron 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6. In hindsight, I could have done it with only 15/35/70-300mm and K-x. The 21mm works better on street shooting, night scenes, portraiture with landscape as background and indoor while the 15mm really takes over in landscape and scenery.











My crew of lens include 15/21/35/70 limited plus the Tamron zoom. I love the 70mm limited but it is the least used lens in the trip. It just happens that in my trip to NZ, my shots mostly goes for the landscape and hence the less use of 70mm in the trip. The 70mm is sharp and does wonder in portraiture. I tried using the 70mm on sunset photos but I later find the longer zoom to be more flexible. The 70 flare control though good can not match up to the 15mm. The 15 has the crown for best flare control.

All in all, the limited lens are a joy to bring in the trip. Small, compact and big on image quality. And I balance it out with a longer zoom on the Tamron. The DA 55-300mm would have been an excellent choice, so is the Sigma 70-300mm, to mix with limited to round out a focal range of 15 to 300mm in traveling. I need the long zoom as some part of my trip involved butterflies and birds from New Zealand.


Related

• Mirchi Cafe with Pentax DA 15mm f/4.0 limited
  
• Pentax DA 15mm f/4.0 limited purchase
• Tamron 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 Di LD in Traveling
• Limited Lens in traveling
• Pentax K-x White arrival
• Hin's Camera Gear
  

Pentax DA 15mm f/4.0 limited is surprisingly small. Those who love the pancake will love the DA 15 in terms of size and compactness. The following is a side by side with the 21mm with hood mounted. It offers the minimum focusing distance of 0.18m which is the shortest among all the DA limited primes. It is very likely that it offers the best close up among DA limited but more tests and use cases are needed to confirm.



And a visual differentiators is the thin metal screw cap. The inner lining seems like dust magnet as it is made of some cloth material like suede similar to other DA limited lens. The manual focusing is much more dampened than the 21mm. AF is a sweet baby. The close up is at 0.18m in the DA 15 as compared to 0.2m in DA 21.


Casual Initial Test Shots












Impressions & Notes

• It is too early to draw any conclusions but here are few notes that come to my attentions.
  
  
• It is surprisingly small. Very close in size to the 21mm limited
  
  
• The focusing ring is well dampened when I compare it to 21mm limited. Not that I use it in manual focusing but the quick shift focus in DA prime with a dampened focusing ring is a welcome thought.
  
  
• Close up is very decent and offer better close up than the 21mm limited
  
  
• A bit concerned on the fringing that I see in daytime in f/9.0 in the corner
  
  
• Sharpness is great in center. Yet to see corner sharpness.
  
  
• Handling, size, compactness is good with the 15. Surprisingly good.
  
  
• The lens cap is one of a kind unique among the DA limited. I like its thin cap design and the screw mount cap will take some time to get used to but I think Pentax design it well for the 15mm.
  
  
• Outstanding in flare control in shooting into the light. The 21mm is already quite good in both flare control and protection from the square opening of the lens hood but the 15mm is simply outstanding in flare control. The lens hood in 15 limited is pull-out type and hence it doesn't protect the lens as well as the fixed lens hood on the 21mm limited. The lens hood is of a petal shaped hood.
  
  
• Unlike the 21mm limited, it is much easier to add a filter or a diopter to the lens front as the built in lens hood don't intrude the mounting of a filter. That is not the case in the 21mm where the lens hood is fixed and the only thing one can do is to get a 43mm odd sized filter. And I honestly don't know if a 43mm filter will work well with the built-in lens hood on the 21 limited. On the 15, it is plain and simple just like any front loading lens front and the beauty lies in that the lens hood continues to work for the 15 limited.
  
  
• The built in hood is great to use and not as flimsy as the DA 35mm. It is of the same kind as in pull in extended hood with a petal design
  
  
• This will become my night shooter on a street scene. Fringing concerns me but I am hopeful that the fringing that I see is moderate
  

Related:

• Mirchi Cafe with Pentax DA 15mm f/4.0 limited
  
• Traveling with Pentax K-x and DA limited lenses
  
• Traveling with Pentax DA 21mm f/3.2 limited
• Traveling with limited lens
• Pentax DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 fish-eye
• Pentax K-x and DA limited primes
• Tamron SP 17mm f/3.5 adaptall-2 (51B)
  
• Hin's Camera Gear