closeup thoughts

In the past few months I had been thinking about macro options that did not require a dedicated lens.  I have owned several now and like them, but not enough to pay the premium price they command nor the bulk they exact in my bag.

img from thecamerasite.net

 I picked up a few closeup filters but I am not convinced this is my answer.  I then stumbled into the Vivitar 2x teleconverter with a dial to make an adjustable extension tube of it.  These are not a new thing but it sounds interesting and has some potential!  Prices vary a lot on these, and they come with and without auto-aperture contacts.  I suppose I could punch out the optics if desired; we'll see about that.


Well a decent price came along for the 'A' version today, so I'm in.  Time will tell how it suits me.  It will be fun to see the DA40 xs as a tiny 80mm f/5.6 macro lens, and the 56-150 Tamron too :-)  And heck, the 50mm f2 would be nice also as a 100mm f/4!

the importance of timing

Wow: the 21Ltd and 105macro sold immediately upon listing... due mostly to a price discount for the pair, which was irresistible.  So now the DA18-135 is paid for, that's a relief.  I'll miss those two primes, but perhaps in a year or so they will come 'round again.

I must accept that, after trying several dedicated macro lenses, that's not a style that holds my attention for long.  Hmmm 'several' = Sigma 50, Tamron 90, Promaster 100, Sigma 105 - oh yes, the SMC-M 100mm f/4 as well!

And so I'm down to SMC-A 24, DA40xs and 70Ltd¹ primes, along with 8mm and 400mm bookends.  I plan to keep these, and maybe pick up a 135/3.5 for longer shots; I love the size of that lens, and stopped down a click it does fine work.  Another option would be a short TC, we'll see about that; I had one before and seldom used it, but with the 40 and 70 it could be .. interesting.

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¹ Five hours later the DA70 is gone!  Losing that one hurts, but I received some cash and a Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 as consolation. The zoom nearly matches the DA70 for speed and fills many focal lengths I use with f/2.8 speed when needed - and will do great closeups to boot.  The K-5ii has an f/2.8-aware AF sensor too, so it will be made use of!  Yup the 28-75 is a bit of a beast (relative to most of my kit) at 500g + 67mm filters, and no weather seals - but when the need arises this will be put to good use!

salve for my disappointment

Several new Pentax products have been announced for the CP+ trade show: a 1.7x teleconverter, some medium-format updates, compact cameras (now labeled Ricoh not Pentax, as expected).  No 17-85± or 130-380± zooms - although a new 70-200± was placed on the list of future items.  I had hoped that one or two future lenses would become imminent ones.

Given no 17-85 option is forthcoming, I have picked up another copy of the DA 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 - my third.   Recent shots in snowstorms demonstrated the value of a wider weather-friendly zoom, and since I really don't want to change lenses at ~50mm any more this is the answer for now (i.e. this coming week).  It's not that it's a poor lens, but shooting at the long end revealed color fringing beyond my tolerance, and my unwillingness to engage the in-cam corrections led to many results that left me dissatisfied.  If I stop before 100mm and stop down more at the long end, this should be satisfactory.


I have felt that the 18-135 lens has been overpriced since its inception, but this used copy was 'properly' priced at about 3x the 18-55WR.  Quiet, WR and good range; just remember to go to f/8 above 80mm and you'll love it, I keep telling myself.  It's the doing that matters though!

no way I need this: Quantaray 28-70 f/2.8-4

While I am quite happy with my 21-40-70-105mm prime set, some days a zoom fits best.  Those are days when the image isn't known until it's known, or lens changes aren't what I choose to do - lazy days, I guess.  Even so, just tossing any lens on the camera isn't the answer either; too much lost quality or light grasp isn't a good thing!  So I'd been looking over the midrange options, and wondering...

The ~28-70mm lens range has been popular for decades, especially in the film days.  With aps-c it's more like 40-100 which is not much for wide angle, but for urban shooting I haven't found much need to go wide and pull in power lines, traffic and such.  Most of the lenses in this range are either indifferent or built for full-frame digital at f/2.8 throughout, and those are heavy and expensive - not what I'm seeking right now, but a nice idea.  Choices would be the Sigma 28-70 (replaced by the 24-70), the Tamron 28-75 and little else.  Looking into older models I find things like I already have, the Quantaray/Sigma 28-90mm macro - nice but f/3.5-5.6 which is OK but not great.  Anything else?

Hmm, Sigma once made a 28-70mm f/2.8-4.0 in both manual (UC) and autofocus (DG).  The lens looks pleasantly small, though reviews are rather mixed - especially for the UC model.  I found one online and put in a fair bid for the Quantaray variant, thinking DG - but I confused a screw-head with the AF drive pin, so in fact I bid a bit high for the UC model.  The price didn't go that high, so for $35 I picked up an indifferent lens that was bound to fall short of my 28-90.  Drat.

Drat?  Hmm first tests look quite good in fact!  The K-5ii does not drop from f/2.8 in the readout screen, but blank-wall tests show this is f/2.8 to nearly 40mm, f/3.2 to 50mm - much better than I expected and substantially faster than the 28-90.  Yes it's manual focus but with a bright lens that's not a huge deal, and leaving AF enabled allows the AF points to light up when I get to focus.  So much for regret: another $35 bargain lens joins the collection, and the DA21 plus this will cover a lot of focal length!

two pancakes, one crêpe

Many have extolled the virtue of the Pentax DA pancakes: 21mm, 40mm and 70mm Limited primes that serve very well and are tiny to boot.  At one time I owned the DA40 and 70 at once, and I liked them very much but the budget demanded a sacrifice.  I later picked up the DA21 so my lifetime triple was complete!

Now I have picked up a new 40mm - not the DA Limited but the XS model that came with the K-01.  If the others are pancake lenses, this is surely a crêpe as it's substantially thinner.  It loses quick shift but is optically the same excellent lens; I look forward to using it to replace my lens cap! :^)  Actually the lens-cap for this is about the size of a rubber quarter, so hopefully I shall be able to keep track of it.

The fourth prime is a Sigma 105mm macro, which is larger and heavier than these three combined.  Hopefully I can justify carrying such a 'beast' now and then!