Hin's Photo Corner

I have setup a tumblr page http://hintheman.tumblr.com/ and it is more to do with work more than pleasure as I need to get acquainted with Tumblr for the the work that I do in daytime with software engineering. If you have an tumblr account, I will gladly follow yours and I hope to have some Pentaxian followers as well.


And on the front, I posted two of my shots of a beautiful singer with wonderful voice by the name of Kate Earl. Shots were taken in 2009 with K20D and Tokina ATX SD 80-200mm f/2.8 in manual focus.

1/640 sec, f/6.3, 135mm, iso 160, 0 Ev

1/500 sec, f/6.3, 180mm, iso 160, 0 Ev

1/250 sec, f/6.3, 180mm, iso 160, +0.3 Ev

I seldom use my Tamron SP 17 mm f/3.5 adaptall-2 (51B) on digital and yesterday I brought it out with K20D for my walking routine at night after dinner.



I have been missing my sold copy of DA 21mm limited and I am finding lesser use gear to help funding purchase of K-5 and re-purchase of 21. I especially love this lens on film and I am tossing in the thought of parting good-bye. And it is difficult to have gear for both film and digital, something have to give.

The last picture does show some flaws in the lens. There are flare seen as blue lights in the middle. I don't have the original lens hood and this lens does not have the usual threads for a normal lens hood. I should have used my hands to help shielding stray lights in the shooting with long exposures.

And it is one of my odd lens that does have 3 built-in internal optical filters that reads 81B, 80B, and Y2 besides the normal setting in a frontal ring. I used the Y2 on b&w film on sky and it works quite well.

One of the gripes on my K20D is on inaccurate auto-white-balance for indoor and low light shooting. In the series, I prefer most of shots to turn to b&w. As for the missing lens hood, I am looking at http://www.lenshoods.co.uk/ that provide free paper lens hood printing.

I have been absent for months in photography. I want to drop by and say Hi to many of you. My family visited Berkeley Botanical Garden last weekend and I picked my gear bag wanting to get myself back to my hobby. The garden is a unique place to visit with all sorts of wonderful plants from different parts of the world.

In the last 6 months, I did not take any pictures other than three wedding photo shooting for my close friends. And the flower shooting becomes a treat in my hiatus from photography.

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Impressions & Notes:

• I love the color and bokeh from the Kiron lens
  
  
• The lens is heavier than my previous lens with Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8. While it is good in macro, I find it harder to use as a short tele lens for portrait. I remember my old copy of Tamron and Sigma that I can easily double up for portraits.
  
  
• I like the built in lens hood as compared to the Sigma 105mm f/2.8.

Related:

• Hin's Camera Gear
• K-x and Vivitar 100mm f/2.8 1:1 Macro by Kiron
• Repurchase of Kiron Macro
• Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 1:1 Macro (non-Di version)
• Sigma 105mm f/2.8 1:1 DG Macro

I got the DA zoom as a replacement for my previous zoom with Tamron 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 Di LD Macro 1:2 zoom. I have been missing my old Tamron zoom for its lightweight, good image quality and surprisingly good close up at 1:2. The DA zoom is priced higher as in two times the cost of Tamron Zoom and it is without the close up in Tamron zoom. In terms of build quality, the Pentax DA zoom is better especially in the zoom ring that is tight and unlike the Tamron zoom, the zoom position pretty much stays in place reliably.

Both zooms share the quality of sharp images and good to use in traveling with single zoom lens that cover the long end needs while my short ends are covered with primes. The DA zoom has another positive advantage in not fringing which I have a difficult time with the Tamron zoom.

It was my first year visiting San Francisco close to Pier 39 for the Fleetweek Air show. My family visited by Bart and we walked from Embarcardero Bart station to Pier 39 area. I should have gone a bit further down to be located in the middle section of the fly path.


I brought along few gear to the airshow:

• Pentax K20D as my Pentax K-x is still in repair from CRIS into the 6th week
• Pentax F* 300mm f/4.5
  
• Pentax AF 1.7x TC
• Tamron SP 70-150mm f/3.5 adaptall-2 20A for casual street shooting
• Pentax FA 43mm f/1.9 for Bart station indoor shot
• no tripod or mono-pod as it hinder my framing
  

I set my SR focal length for 100mm for the adaptall-2 70-150 lens and later in the air show shooting, I mounted the F* 300mm f/4.5 with the 1.7x AFA TC but I forgot about resetting SR SR focal length from 100mm to 500mm. All of my shots have the registered 100mm in the EXIF. I think most of my shutter speed is faster than 1/1000 sec and hence the absence of correct SR focal length doen't seem to have an effect.


There were 6 blue angels and most of the time, they have 4 flying very close to each other. They are so fast and loud. I was not in the middle section of their flying path but I did catch some of the shots that I like. It was breathtaking to see how close they fly together in the air show.





They are spectacular to watch as a group or a single solo flight. They have done a marvelous job in the performance






One final shot is done in close distance when the planes fly very close to my location.

I got this old zoom lens knowing that it is a auto-only M42 lens. I had the previous experience in altering an auto-only diaphragm into manual diaphragm m42 lens. It is equivalent to switching to M in most of the M42 lens with A/M switch. For manual stop-down, one has to use M setting as most of the current digital bodies don't have the mechanics to depress the aperture pin for the proper stop-down.

Every lens is different and this one does not come as a surprise in terms of difficulty. I first found the aperture pin not working even upon full depress into the lens. I later found a stuck linkage between the pin the aperture diaphragm. Once I get the pin to work properly, I added a little hollow insert using a fragment of a pen refill tube to make the pin pressing on the aperture diaphragm control at all time.



But once I get the stop-down mechanics working with manual diaphragm opening with the aperture ring, I found another issue and it is something that I have not dealt with before. The old M42 lens leaks oil likely from the helical housing in the focus and zoom compartments.

The lens has potential and I start liking its strong build and unique character that little is known about it.



It works quite well when stop downed properly. And here are some test shots done with Pentax K20D












Impressions & Notes

• It is a bummer to be able to fix a lens with aperture issues and stop short in fixing it completely due to the oil leaking from the lens helical to aperture blades
  
  
• The oil and wet blades don't affect the lens performance immediately as I find no issues in the test pictures but it is something to be less desirable
  
  
• The zoom lens has internal moving part for the zooming. Upon changing from 80mm to 200mm or vice versa, the lens does't extend or retract to a different length.
  
  
• Bokeh and sharpness are found decent. The lens perform quite evenly across the range though I prefer to shoot in 180mm instead of 200mm as I think sharpness is better in 180mm.
  
  
• This M42 zoom can work straight in Av mode in my Pentax K20D from f/4.0 to f/11. In wide open shot in f/3.5, I usually dial in +0.3 to +0.7 Ev.
  
  
• Contrast is sometimes low when I shoot into objects with harsh lighting. It seems lacking on coating like the SMC in Pentax. The contrast is usually a easy fix in post processing.
  
  
• I have decided to move on and sell it for cheap to others with full disclosure on the wet blade with oil issues
  

Related:

• Soligor 200mm Tele-Auto f/2.8 m42
  
• Pentax genuine M42 adapter
• Pentax K-x and M42 lens
• M42 adapter with inner ring for Auto-only M42 lens
  
• Pentax K20D
• Hin's Camera Gear
  

I sold my 31mm limited way early as I totally forgot a party last Saturday in a pitched dark environment where the 31mm would shine in f/1.8 and the wider view. I might have picked the wrong lens in the event as it was too long for getting the view to make a shot.

The K20D in JPG is not bad at all, I honestly don't remember if my K10D can handle well for ISO 800 and ISO 1600. Overall, my impressions for noise handling are quite positive and I am hopeful that the next version will even be better. And I think if I manage to shoot in RAW, the results will even be better.

• AF seems much less hunting for me in the dark environment. I am surprised that my 77mm doesn't hunt in the shadows.
  
• Pictures are very good in ISO 800, better than K10D but ISO 400 are indistinguishable between the two for me. I would say I have more confidence with ISO 1600 with the K20D over K10D. A definite confidence with ISO 800 in K20D over K10D. In ISO 400, I see less a difference if at all between the two in JPG settings.
  
• I am quite happy with the K20D performance in the dark. K20D/K10D still need to catch up on noise in general. But I think K20D is in the right direction for needed improvement in noise handling.
  
• I am a bit disappointed with the use of flash as I don't yet have a diffuser and my sweetie has a great percentage of Lazy Eyes with the PTTL flash
  
• Confidence in low light is boosted for me with K20D in cleaner shots and much less focus hunting.