for the last time..

The choice of standard zoom remains for me to select a winner. Lumix 14-42ii or 12-60? Miniature bulk or maximum versatility? What would I use more /miss less among the features?

Both these zooms receive generally good marks in online reviews. The larger lens has more range, weather seals and has not reached f/5.6 at 40mm so is a bit faster at the 14-42's long end. Adding hoods make them look similar in overall size but it's definitely not so - the 14-42 takes 46mm filters compared to 58mm on the 12-60. Weight isn't quite 2:1 but it's fairly close to that ratio. I like having 12mm but I can stitch two shots at 14mm when wide is a big deal.

So each has its values and drawbacks - no surprise there.

Here's the most valuable point of separation for me: close focus ability. Both get to nearly the same distance from an object but a 60mm closeup will out-scale a 42mm closeup every time in that circumstance. This is something I can see clearly, and that I will often use when I don't have my 10mm extension tube handy. I really don't need 1:1 closeup for my typical use (the 4Thirds 35/3.5 is for slide duplication more than general use) so flower shots and the occasional bug will do fine with the 12-60.

The last-body-ever hunt ended when a GX85 body was found for only slightly more than I expected to pay for a healthy GX7, so that's that. Complexity wins (as does updated shutter and better/dual IS!).

So here's where the kit stands now:
Body - GX85 (still holding GX1 and YI M1 w/kit lenses)
General-use lens: Lumix 12-60
Tiny telephoto: Lumix 45-150
Wide prime: Lumix 14/2.5
Bonus 4Thirds lenses:  ZD 35 macro & 70-300 tele

I'd love to spend a bit on more primes some day, and maybe the 35-100/2.8. Some day will not be any time soon, barring a massive financial windfall. Not much chance of that.

convergence

Two different paths come together this week - and a new/old friend will come of it.

First path was one in search of a new-ish prime lens for the µ43 system. I figured it would be a Lumix 20 or some variant of a 25mm (of which many are available). With the 14mm and the Pentax 40 and 70mm Limiteds in hand, what would be the better fit?

Another path was an old, familiar one: backpacking. I had been contemplating a Sierra trip to a familiar area - well it was so in the mid-90s at least. It was a short hike to pretty country, and a pony ride would be available to carry my wife.. and maybe some nice extra camp comforts? Hmm..

This path led me to reconsider my dear old hiking slides that were wasting away inevitably in a corner of our garage. I'd really like to revisit that trip - but of course the slide projector has been dead for a decade or more. Time to reconsider the task of digitizing the slides?

My plan for that has been in the works for a few years. In fact I had planned to use an Olympus E500 and the 35mm digital Zuiko macro. That pairing was long gone, but I did have a 4Thirds adapter for my EP5 and G85. Wonder how much that lens costs now?

Convergence occurred - and off I went to look over sale copies of the 35mm f/3.5. I put up a bid and today it worked in my favor. The lens will arrive soon, and for well under $75! Just for old times' sake I looked at the imaging-resource lens tests, and remembered why I bought a copy before. This is an excellent 1:1 macro lens, even more so for such an absurdly low price.

This purchase tells me that the 20mm will be a better future fit than a 25mm lens. It also fits nicely with the nagging thought that I should let the 40mm Limited prime depart with some other Pentax gear. The 70 will remain however!

Time to take another look at those old 1990s Sierra hike slides..

Well, I'm back I

- back in my comfort zone with a Pentax camera. No surprise there, but the trip was a strange one; I’ve had no Pentax digital SLR for several months now, but many lenses remained that had near-zero resale value. 

First off let me confess (again): I have owned so many camera bodies since 2010 that I’ve lost count. My best guess is K100d then K-7, whose sensor drove me to try G1 and GH1. Then I found the joys of owning a K-5. After that it gets hazy, and includes two K200d, every flavor of K-5, two each of K-r, K-s1 and k-01,  a silver K-3ii and at least two K50. We can also include EM10, EM5, ePM2 and ePL5/6/7, G7, GX7, GM1, GX1 and GF2 – not to mention a couple of Samsung NX300 bodies. And don’t bother asking about lenses!

The pattern that caused this amount of turnover repeated often, sometimes in the same year. Assemble a good kit for decent prices, then sell it cheap and step up. Immediately encounter a financial issue that requires a selloff (other things too but mostly easily-moved camera gear). Pick up a consolation prize soon after for cheap and repeat the cycle. Occasionally alternate between Pentax and Panasonic, just in case.

Our finances have been seriously strained for a while, so two GX1 and kit lenses were all we could manage. As things began to look up at last, I looked over what was missing in my kit. The major point to me was weather seals; I recall worrying about the GX1 as it sat on a glove surrounded by a foot of snow as we cruised past it on saucers. I could do better, and either system could make it happen. How best to address that on a budget, given that I owned no sealed lenses?

The bargain µ43 setup would be an EM5 and the Oly 12-50mm lens, which would be at least $350. The better options to my mind would be an EM1 or G85 paired with a Lumix 12-60mm - but that would be $700-950 to make that happen.

My other issue to be addressed is the hidden electronic manipulation of 4Thirds images. I’ve learned to live with focus-by-wire, but when images are autocorrected for distortion and color fringing I get.. nervous. Those corrections are optional in Pentax bodies but only by developing micro43 raw files with ‘non-conforming’ software can I see the untouched image. Results are still good – but it still feels uncomfortable.

I searched optimistically for a K-s2 but the budget suggested a lower price would be best, so I settled for a lightly used olive-green K50 with repaired aperture-control part that is prone to fail on mid-tier Pentax bodies. The 18-55WR and body came to less than $250, which no µ43 body can match!

And so my elder lenses have a natural home again. Sigmas 28-80 and 100-300 ‘slowpoke’, Rikenon 70-150 f/4 XR, and Pentax 18-250 (no autofocus), A50 and M100 can be used as before.

If I can trust my previous post (and the title says it all!), this is my fourth K-50.. ergo K-54?

If I start looking to acquire a higher-spec body I hope I remember writing this!

Here's the latest olivine camera and its stylish '70s strap!

For shame. Timeout.

I've just skimmed my past posts* and learned just how big a problem I have with holding on to camera gear. Several absurdly excellent kits were tossed back into the pool for pathetic reasons. I called myself out several times, and then excused my behavior as financially driven. That's only true because I overreached when I already owned really nice gear but wanted more - and that's entirely on me and my collecting/hoarding illness.

* Of course I don't read my own blog, I write all this for mythical others.. or so I've told myself.


Therefore read, and Learn!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Could anything embarrass me more than this note from April 2015?

For a total of $118 I have two |k-r|bodies in like-new condition with a total of 130 shutter actuations.  

Well perhaps this from July of 2011?

The k-x became a k-r, and several lenses came swiftly. Some were bargains, others simply irresistible - but the result was too many lenses, especially considering that family health issues kept us from traveling to photogenic places. I took some great shots of the yard and my bike commutes to work.. but any camera could do such things justice.

Or even Nov 2010?

So why don't I just buy more Pentax stuff with that gift card? Fact is, I'm all out of 'needs' there.   I have modern lenses (16-45, 50-200 and 55-300) plus a half-dozen manual primes and intermediate zooms.  I have a nice tripod and a flash sufficient for my needs, and several SD cards.  Not only is that enough, it's too much - especially as I've been homebound and not able to use much of this.  
A smaller camera with decent IQ would provide just as much camera satisfaction and be a smaller cash drain.

The occasional great image I've taken in the intervening thirty months since I owned the K-r would certainly look no worse with that camera. Or a K200d and Sigma 18-200 (March 2011). Or the K100d, 16-45 and 55-200 Sigma (June 2010).

What cameras have I owned in the past five years? Let me gasp as I count them - and several were owned more than once..

• Pentax 200d/k-r/7/5/5ii/5iis/3ii/s1 
• mu43 pm2/pl5/pl6/em10/em5/g7/gm1/gx7/gx1 
• fuji f550, nikon-1, oly e500 and Samsung NX300 
• lenses: easily a few dozen in K mount, perhaps twenty µ43/4Thirds
• imaging-related tags in this blog: ~190

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

What have I gained from all this? Precious little.

What I lost: time energy.. and now, self respect.

And with this fresh in my mind,

I shall walk away from 'gear talk' on this blog for a spell.

some times I surprise myself

I had a chance to pick up a Sigma 60mm for an excellent price.. and I didn't. A tempting 14-140 Lumix f/4-5.8 also was shunned, a lesser surprise but still: well done.

I'd been sure for quite some time that my new kit would include that 60. So why did I decline? The fact is I already have a nice little 50/1.7 Pentax-A that has not even been tried yet, and being 2/3 stop faster is no little thing. The Lumix bodies have focus peaking for such lenses so their occasional use is hardly painful. Both my zooms include 60mm (with less light grasp) so it's redundant three different ways.

And yet..  a few short hours later I bought the 30mm Sigma EX DN! (the Old One with a grip - shown here)

So why did I make this deal for a lens that must compete with the 4thirds 35mm 1:1 macro? Unlike the 60mm it's less redundant, faster than the 35/3.5 and the 12-60, and also creates a fine little 17/30/45-150 kit for days when the 12-60mm is less appropriate. I don't always need to reach 12mm after all, the 17 and 30mm lenses gather more light, and weather seals on the zoom are less useful on an unsealed body. The 12-60 is still a fine lens though and will get plenty of use!

The 35mm may still win out for image quality.. but with the adapter it becomes a lot larger than the Sigma, so it could win but still lose.

Note that the same arguments can be used for the Pentax 50 vs the Sigma 60mm! To that I suggest that the size difference is smaller between those two, and light penalty greater. 
We shall see if the 60mm eventually forces its way back into contention..