jptreen

<p>DA 18-55 kit lens (version 1) shot below:<br>

<img src="http://jptreen.com/gallery/d/124-4/Westminster+Bridge.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="428" /><br>

DA 70/2.4 Ltd shot below:<br>

<img src="http://jptreen.com/gallery/d/577-2/_K7A6753.jpg" alt="" width="425" height="640" /></p>

<p>DA21/3.2 Ltd. shot below:<br>

<img src="http://jptreen.com/gallery/d/632-2/Last+shot+of+Kini.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="425" /></p>

<p>--- so what the hell does all of this tell us?<br>

Not much. The quality of your lens is often not even the third or fourth factor limiting picture quality. You'll often only notice at 100% and at full size. Having said that, and you may know all this anyway, there ARE some stellar lenses in the Pentax stable, for the price, one of them is the kit lens, but based on personal experience I would say the DA70 Ltd, the DA 35 Ltd and the DA*50-135 are my pick of the special current issue Pentax lenses. All are excellent if you happen to be excellent enough to get excellent results out of them (or just occasionally lucky enough).</p>

<p>If people bought and sold reviews as if they were shares then yours would be todays biggest winner. No bad assets in that review!</p>

<p>I'll second that. Every time I buy something from them it comes fast in top condition, if I ever need to have it sent back then the refund is almost instant. Their stock is great, they never lie about what they have, their service is second-to-none.</p>

<p>Oh, and if you don't believe us two, <a href="http://www.pentaxuser.co.uk/forum/topic/can-srs-microsystems-be-trusted--8781">Check out this thread!</a></p>

<p>As the owner of 2 SDM lenses I am always fearful. I have not had any problems so far, but all this talk does worry one.</p>

<p>Firmware updates are so large nowadays!</p>

<p>The only problem with the Pentax problem of not saying what they've done is that the only news that comes out is hearsay and no-one ever knows for sure...peeves me somewhat.</p>

<p>Mis,<br>

Yep! It does sound like the K10D and K100D all over again. I think this time around it's slightly different though. I'm perfectly happy with high ISO on the K-7, I wasn't on the K10D. The K100D Super let me shoot where there would have been no point even taking the 10 out of the bag. It's not about relative sizes and 'the K10D wasn't really that bad, you're comparing apples to oranges' either, I found that K10D files fell apart when you'd exposed them at all wrong from ISO800 upwards whereas you could get usable results (if you don't mind a bit of noise, which I don't) from ISO3200 pushed a stop on the 100 Super. None of the horrible banding or chequer board patterns there.<br>

I'm not saying that isn't annoying, but I've found that K-7 files hold together very well indeed when you've made a mess-up of the exposure and I've got a few ISO1600 shots I've had to push a stop or two and they still come up OK. No wierd patterns, just more noise. How it should be. With that being the case I don't think it's the issue it was with the K10D and the K100D Super, at least for me.</p>

<p>yes...preview is gone...</p>

<p>this whole thing is really good, really really good.</p>

<p>Well done, Pentax! A couple of misses but then you should see the Canon entry level stuff...if you had just bought an EOS 1000D and then saw this you would start crying...</p>

<p>what I want are metalic scratches on the body, DA* on, water droplets everywhere, less clinical backgrounds (remember the K10D - it was on a rockery by a pond...by a pond for god's sake! Surely a trans-national company can find a better location than a pond! Have you seen the Nikon ads for the D300s? Looks sexy as hell.<br>

I think that we could do a better job than that...far better. 'be interesting' but then have boring adverts...</p>

<p>PS - I actually quite like the above ad, it's better than the one on the website for <a href="http://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/">SRS Microsystems</a> in the UK.<br>

They've got K-7 ad and D300s ad right next to each other...see what you think the difference is.<br>

How about a Pentax run competition to find the best user made photo ad for a K-7, the winner recieves a brand new lens of their choice?</p>

<p>you could also go hyper-recessionary and chuck the lot in, get an 'M' 50/2 and live happily ever after. Just ask yourself if your photography would get any worse...</p>

<p>get the 50/1.4 and keep the others :-)<br>

I'd go <strong>ii)</strong> and sell the 43/1.9. Great lens, limited quality, but then you've already got an 50/1.7 (I also have the 'A' version, it is a lovely little lens) and the 1.2, I'm not sure the 43 is needed.<br>

In fact, thinking about it unless you use the 50/1.2 wide open then dump it for the 1.4, and unless you're going to go wide open a lot with that then don't get that either, sell the 43/1.9 and the 50/1.2 and keep the 1.7.<br>

You'll still have a great kit and you'll also have a lot of money back! If you're going to streamline then go the whole way!</p>

<p>Oops, my bad, Mis. I didn't look into the 12,800 7D shot. The 3200 didn't impress me that much and I failed to investigate more...you're surely right though, I shoot candle-lit sometimes and I wish I had another couple of stops beyond 3200 - looks like this camera would provide.<br>

If this camera *really does* have good weatherproofing then I'm interested...despite myself.</p>

<p>looking at that ISO3200 image, it doesn't look 'that' good - and I come from Pentax land...</p>

<p>the FA50 is gone from my favourite seller completely in the UK. Even when it was almost always out of stock a couple of years ago they kept it on their website - now it's just 'over'. Just like the 35/2.</p>

<p>I really wish Pentax would bring out two or three rebadged FA lenses as DA primes. Just the 35/2, the 50/1.7, and a something else maybe (135/2.8?).</p>

<p>People have been wishing that for a while though...</p>

<p>great photos! I'm gona point out the Metz 58 AF-1 of which I have two, they are cheaper than the Pentax 540 (in the UK market by about £70), have a higher guide number and AFAIK recharge faster. Some report more reliable exposure with them too but I have no context for that so I'm not owning that statement. All I know is that I like them lots!</p>

<p>the ridiculous level of competence needed to get those with an MF 300mm lens really impresses me, you bird guys are something else. Love the shots! No. 1 for me, yeah I know it should be #2 but I just prefer the moment and background of the first.<br>

I'm glad I don't own anything longer than 135 or I'd be spending years of my life working out those arcane bits of duck photography javier loves so much!</p>

<p>From that angle a well-aimed K-7 could knock all the Canon right out of him :-)</p>

<p>Rest In Peace, Caney. You were so lucky to have a dog who was at home on the trail. I am sorry for your loss. Looks like he'll be top dog somewhere else now instead!</p>

<p>am I the only one who has been really impressed by the 55/1.4 then? I seem to remember a lot that I've seen from it has blown the 50/1.4 out of the water - sharpness wide open, purple fringing, for instance I seem to remember corner sharpness is better on this lens at f/1.4 than the FA was at f/5.6 from a pretty decently carried out test that I saw over at pentax forums back near it's release...I'd say that was pretty great.</p>

<p>As for SDM being slow, yeah, no defense there, it's just the way it is :-(</p>

<p>The samsung D-Xenon is exactly the same just rebadged and still sells new. It seems the US price is high, but in the UK it's what teh Pentax always used to be...</p>

<p>no arguements from me on true B+W vs Digital. I wish it wasn't so and sometimes I've convinced myself it isn't so...but whenever I get a roll of BW film back...(I really need to start processing my own but life is short and as long as labs <em>will </em> do it, I'll probably keep sending it out.)</p>

<p>Really good to hear it seems to be working out, be interested to see more of your shots when you get them processed and scanned. I'm following you carefully with this one, Justin! I've been looking at the prices on ebay for over a year and I find it difficult to keep saying 'no.'. I've never shot MF, but by all accounts you may as well start with a Pentax due to the similar handling, I have a hunch that MF isn't a problem due to the massive viewfinder but don't know for sure.</p>

<p>I have a decent film scanner that will do MF negs which is also giving me the itch. From my research if I operate in the studio at ISO100 the resolution will blow away APS-C Digital at a fraction of the cost of the other options (I think you may have pointed this out when you got the camera in the first place). The <strong><em>only </em> </strong> problem I have is that I don't need to blow it away for anything I'm going to get paid for. A pleasure purchase, which means it'll probably, sadly, remain the back of the queue for a while yet.</p>

<p>Keep the updates coming, Justin, even if it only gets me frantically searching ebay again!</p>

<p>Ah, the great AF-button divide rears it's head again! I just use it for the extra control it gives, if that's not important in your shooting then hey! That's why they give us the option...shame to hear about the K-7 being a disappointment to you, Javier. I am really looking forward to Justin's fuller review - even if it is a mixed bag.<br>

Checking the forums, the K-7 reception has been interesting. I imagine I won't be getting my hands on one for at least six months, however I will have this camera...the K10D is a great camera, a really great camera, but they don't build 'em to last fifty years any more, which is a shame.</p>

<p>Dan, you may be right about that - I am an AF-button person myself so it wouldn't be an issue for me. It's a shame that in Contrast AF Pentax seems so much slower than Canikon, that does suck.</p>

<p>J-P</p>

<p>All DSLR live view AF is very slow. Not sure that makes it useless, but yeah, sounds useless for what you wanted to do!</p>

<p>Lindy, you'd imagine the Mag Alloy shield is a great heatsink!</p>

<p>On the other hand, those same threads you've been reading have been saying that a lot of the problems happen in high temp. This would tell me that the mag alloy is conducting the heat in pretty fast and the smaller internals don't have that much volume and get hot fast. Damn you, physics!</p>