wonders and mini-miracles

My most recent post strongly implied two things:

1. I'm done buying camera lenses/gear for the next several months
2. I'm not quite satisfied with the setup I have - but it'll do just fine

So what comes up online but a trade option: DA Limited lenses for DA* zooms.  There's the Answer!

Don't get me wrong, the DA* 50-135 is quite excellent and among the best lenses I've owned.  Also on that list are the DA 40 and 70mm Limiteds.  I had been seeking a DA15 (or 14mm) to go wider than my K24, but settled on the 10-17 fisheye instead.  I also admitted that I'd prefer the 40 and 70 Limiteds to my 50mm f/2.  I cannot take all four DA primes for my 50-135 so I settled for an offer of the 15 and 40..and it seems to have done the job.

What does this adjustment mean?  Plenty:

• the 55-300 takes over as my sole telezoom.. the DA* was being left behind anyway so I'll be OK
• the prime set just became 15-24-40 (..135..400), a well-spaced & fun setup (esp. with the 55-300)
• the 10-17 fish-eye just became expendable if the 15 joins my bag.  Money back, yay!

So my kit is more satisfactory and I didn't violate the no-buying-lenses promise.  I can even pay a bill or two with the departure of the 10-17.  It would be great fun to keep, but really the 15mm is wider than I ever expect to need and saves some grams and cubic centimeters.

Slightly more complicated is the DA17-70.  It came into my life for two-plus reasons: it was insanely on sale, it filled the wide-midrange nicely and its filter size matched the 50-135.  Reason three is gone, and the primes look so much better now.. and the 18-55wr is really not that bad of a zoom option (and is far less bulky).  Hmmm.. I believe that two zooms just reached the boarding platform!

The one loss is weather sealing, which for now doesn't matter much since the K-r body has no protection.  The 18-55WR is still here in any case, so I won't weep long.  Bad idea anyway, weeping on non-WR gear..

So here is kit #42a, my Best Kit Ever*

DA15 - SMC24 - DA40 - DAL 55-300

backups: DA18-55wr, smcA50, smcM135, Vivitar 35-105, Hanimar 400mm

*I'm either lying or am myself misled; such a thing is entirely mythical!  Still, it's a mighty good kit..

Power Team

My LLfaW arrived today¹ - the DA10-17 Fish-Eye.  First tests look nice, and this will get some wide use as a nearly-normal lens.  Really though it's a specialty item for creative imaging.  I was seeking a nice 14-16mm prime to round things out, but the price on this was quite nice.

The zoom combo of 10-17fe, 17-70, 50-135 and 55-300 make a fine collection, and one that I cannot afford to improve even if I wanted to.  And if I wanted to.. what would change?  The 17-70 is the weak spot only for complaints about its AF (SDM motor issues and some complaints on accuracy above 50mm) and lack of full weather seals, and so far my copy is doing fine.  Although filter size is not a strong reason to keep a lens, it's nice that the 17-70 and 50-135 take the same filters for simplicity's sake.  While I'd like more range than the 55-300 offers, I will manage by cropping.

I've tried many lenses in all these ranges: xx-300, fisheye primes, nearly every wide-normal not sized 17-50 and the Sigma 50-150.  Given what I've learned from all my dealing I am very satisfied with these!  When WR below 50mm is vital I still have my 18-55wr, so I'm set with 18-135mm in the rain (though on a K-r) and 10-300mm for fair-weather zooming.  The 17-70 has a single seal-like ring on the mount, so it may die in wet weather but the body might be safe -- I hope never to test that!!

As for primes - I have 24 50 and 135mm, similar to the classic film trio -  plus a 400mm f/6.3 preset.  One more below 24mm would be ideal, but only a few Samyang models and the DA14/15 are enough different from the 24.  Something in the 200-250mm range would be cool, and some day I'll find a bargain 300-400mm f/5.6 catadioptric mirror lens for compact entertainment.  I admit that I'd prefer 40+70 to replace the humble 50/2.  However: none of this dreaming will result in new lenses in the immediate future - hence the LLfaW tag on the DA10-17!



¹ Last Lens for a While

the thrill of cheap cell phones..

I suppose if one pays $200 or more for a cell phone it's all good cheer and happy endings.. right?  Well not always, but I shall never know.  I paid about $65 for my previous phone, a mystery 5"-screen Android that does the job well enough.  However it's been dropped a few times (and thrown once, I admit), and recently the grey screen of impending death has appeared more than once.  When looking up the solution, all sites but one said to trash and start over; the other site said to drop it again (and it worked for me too!).  I fear that's a temporary solution, so I went shopping online again today.

I had just done this for Lórien, as her 3" v2.2 Android phone wasn't holding a charge.  I got her one quite similar to mine with matching v4.2.2 software.  Well that's what they claimed: it's actually a v4.4.2 model.  It has the 5" screen, the various generic apps.. but it's quite a different phone, and nicely built.

At the same time I'd learned two things that I dislike about my 5" phone:

• it's enough too big that it can fall out of my pocket and ultimately produce grey screens, and
• the flimsy cardboard-cutout protector really .. doesn't.

With that in mind I went looking for a 4.5-inch screen to help it stay pocketed and a more protective cover than the current one.  

from eBay atop_service

Wow, it's amazing how rare sub-5" screens have become!  It's cheaper to buy a generic 5" than smaller screens in most cases.  Add to that the hope of v4.4 software and a nice cover, and it looked hopeless for a time.

I did finally find one however.  One site says 4.2.2 and others say v4.4.2 so I bought from one of the latter.  I also avoided those with $15 shipping*. It has all the usual stuff like two cameras, a generously big battery, apps galore and a gel-type rear cover like my 7-inch tablet.  Exactly what I'd hoped for!  Compared to my grey-screen phone the battery is larger but screen is smaller, and each update of Android brings energy savings.. so hopefully this one will need less nursing overall!   The site I found with v4.4.2 and a 14-day return policy (and $4 shipping: thank you!) had only white phones; bright colors would be fun but white is fine with me.

So once again I take the plunge into mystery-brand Android phones and hope to do as well as last time.  Better in fact, if it can stay with me and the softer cover can provide some real protection.  We'll see...


 * I can send a 2-pound lens across the country via Priority for $12 & they charge $15 for a thick envelope to go first class?  Err, no thank you

fair trade

Rather than deal with the issues that selling many items entails, I packed up a large group and sent them off to a dealer.  I knew that I'd make much less cash that way but I had hoped to swap for a useful lens and still have some funds to put back in the kitty for later.

image from pentaxforums.com

While they were processing  and evaluating, the lens I'd hoped for got away.  When I did hear back I'd found another interesting used lens on their used-gear page, though for more money.  After a brief promise to do better next time about the kitty, I agreed.

And so my next wide-angle lens is one that I've contemplated several times - the DA 10-17mm fish-eye.  Despite the field coverage it's small and light, fast enough, and has Pentax goodies like quick-shift.  It's not weather resistant but no extra-wide lenses are right now except the DA16-85.. and that wasn't available for the trade offer that I received.  Users state that at 17mm it's barely a distorting lens at all compared to 'straight' 17s; we'll see about that soon.  I really liked the 17mm SMC fish-eye in the past; now I'd have it again and a lot more!

Given the 10-70 and 50-135, the 20-40 is the ideal fit for me.  Not yet though, as I caved and bought the absurd-bargain DA17-70.  It's larger and heavier than I'd wish, and not truly WR (with just one seal), but it's a nice solution for the sub-$250 price.  And if rains come hard I still have the underrated 18-55WR lens.  At some point I will acquire the 20-40, but in the meantime I shall put the 17-70 through its paces to see how it compares to other copies.

Now that I look closely at the pentaxforums ratings, I see the only DA zoom lens less liked than the 17-70 is.. the WR kit lens (and the type-1 kit).  That's silly and absurd for several reasons - one of which is that the 18-55II non-WR lens gets better ratings than its optically-identical WR version!  And both are preferred over the 17-70 with f/4 at 50-70mm, a bit wider wide angle and silent SDM motor??  Yes that motor is a fine source of fear and doubt in the Pentax world, but let's be real about it.  I do recognize that value affects ratings; for its average price of $475 I suppose that the 17-70 is a 'weak' lens .. especially if I had paid full price and the focus motor failed.  Also - why am I working at this when even I want to dump this lens!

So the Big Three (plus 2) kit right now is DA 10-17fe, DA17-70, and DA*50-135
with DA18-55wr and DAL55-300 in reserve.. plus K24, A50/2, A100/4 1:2 & M135 primes
 plus the NX300 + 16/2.4, 30/2 +  K-adapter for small-cam shooting and panorama stitching!