the voice said"simplify."

And so I shall try.

A nice copy of the 18-200 Sigma caught my attention, a PGE lens I have known since 2009 in Quantaray disguise and Alpha mount.  It was essentially my only lens on the Sierra hike and allowed me to zoom in on coyotes across the valley.  At $120 it can replace every prime, though with far slower light collection; is that a really big deal right now though?  Later, yes - but not now.  For longer shots and to replace the outbound 100-300mm, I won a bid for yet another famous  PGE lens, the Pentax DA-L 55-300.  I also picked up  an old Sigma 50/2.8, a true 1:1 macro, with 'A' contacts; I bid lower than the asking price and despite crossing my fingers.. the seller said OK.  However this clinches it: no more bids or offers!  I lost two other bids over the past week - and I feel just fine about that!

*as noted before PGE = Plenty Good Enough*

The next step was contacting Adorama to offer a blockbuster trade of fairly fast primes and a few seldom-used zooms in K and NX mounts and my lone MD/NX hybrid, the Rexatar 200/3.3.  I shall miss several of these, but not enough to rend my garments.

So the Lucky 7 are

• 24, 50, 100 macro, and 135mm primes plus Hanimar 400mm for rare use
• 18-200 + 55-300 zooms 

Which 50mm lens is TBD, either the A50 f/2 or Sig50/2.8 macro.  That decision could also determine the fate of the 100mm 1:2 macro!  Two 18-55wr lenses are in storage with a second K-r body, for when my wife is ready to team up with a matched camera/lens pair.  The NX300 now has 16 and 30mm native primes - and an adapter for the K lenses.

In my dreams the simple kit would become 20-40Ltd, DA* 50-135 and that 55-300, with a 14-15mm prime for when 20mm won't do.  These would mount to a K-3 or perhaps a K-s2.  The alternate dream is a Samsung NX1, the 16+30mm tiny primes and their 50-150/2.8 S. If either dream comes true it must wait 6-9 months, perhaps even a year..we'll see.

may I, can I - will I Stop?

As vaguely noted in the previous post, a new-to-me SMC 55mm f/1.8 lens is coming my way.  It incubated for several months as I dared to look at 'the K club' posts at pentaxforums, where images from this lens looked mighty good and owners posted a 9.2/10 rating.

pentaxforums.com image

My reasoning is weak: a lens sitting between 30 and 85 should be closer to 55mm than 50.. and oh ys, the SMC-A 50mm f/2 gets poor reviews while the K55 is among the best!  And this was a mere $35 shipped, unreasonably good for this lens.   And how exciting I've just learned a new excu-er reason: 52mm filters, of which I have many more than mere 49s!

Have I not rationalized well? 

All right already, buy the silly thing.  But promise you will stop now!  You say it to yourself, you say it to the dedicated reader of this blog and to any who arrive here by mistake.  Say less, act more - and act in line with what you say.  Please?

In more relaxing news, the Tamron 90mm has sold and all sale threads are closed. The M85 is free of competition from the 1:2 macro.  At some point I shall re-post the KatzEye screen and the 28mm lens whose place is now filled by the nx30/2, so a few more funds may trickle in before the books are closed on the Great Purge of November 2014 :-)

sweeping changes!

While selling a few good Pentax lenses to 'trim the fat' as it were, I encountered more than one post in the 'Wanted' section. These were for items I planned to keep, but sale items were not moving so why not capitalize on the available interest? So the DA18-55 wr and DAL55-300mm lenses, the two great kit staples, are now gone. Immediately after that, interest bloomed on the other lenses I had expected to go, and the K-01 swap did not happen as the trade options diminished.  Now I have NO Pentax body, several very nice K-primes, and a Samsung NX300 with K-adapter arriving momentarily - and the sale continues.   Wow.   

So where are we now?

• primes: 17/4, 50/2, 85/2, 90/2.5 1:2*, 135/3.5 
• zooms: NX 20-50 II, 100-300 
• future prime: NX 30/2 pancake 
• future zoom: NX 50-200 III OIS
• primes for sale: 28/2, *85 or 90 above 
• zooms for sale: 21-35, 28-90 1:2 

ch' cha' changes

Apologies to mr. Bowie!
Changes are coming to the kit, big time!
Sorry mr. Gabriel!

So it occurred to me after scouting the K-s1 that a few new features were worth waiting for that it did not have.  High on that list was on-sensor AF and a tilt screen, and others say cameras like it need WiFi options too.  At the same time I find that I'm not at all happy with the photo chaos within my hard discs: I have several programs now (ps elements, LightZone, AfterDark.. others?) a redundancy which actually adds to the clutter!  What to do??

Go shopping?  Really?

Let's talk about Samsung and cameras, and how little I knew a week ago!

• they make very popular phones (we owned some long ago, they were .. OK)
• An electronics giant, at least as large as Panasonic and Sony 
• once partnered with Pentax & supplied K20 and K-7 sensors
• now a big player in compact/mirrorless cams
• use their sensors on their own NX-mount cameras
• a line with viewfinders, and one without

... er that's about it.

Somewhere on the network I bumped into some commentary about Samsung cameras including Lightroom software.  Most LR users really like it as a tool for both organization and  image improvement.  While every camera comes with software to work on images, each company does something different; for example Pentax has a light version of SilkyPix for their cameras.  Well Samsung was giving out the complete v4 of LR with several of their cameras (and now v5) - that's a nice bonus that one can set against the price of their cameras if one chooses.

And so I met the NX300, a slightly-aging camera with LR4 and no finder.  Reviews indicate that it is a large step up from their previous models in several ways:

• sensor with PDAF layer for very fast 'hybrid' focusing
• tip screen for odd angles
• touchscreen controls but with redundant controls elsewhere
• 20Mpixels for more resolution and crop-ability
• decent noise performance at high sensitivities (better via raw, as always)
• multiple WiFi connection tricks like view and xfer via phone
• video with multiple recording options and full-time AF
•  NX300 gets 4-5 stars (yes, out of 5!) in almost every review

  So it has the K-s1 "missing" features, adds many the Pentax cam lacks, matches the 20Mpxl pixel count, includes great software tool to clean up my photo-centric clutter, and it can use my classic K-mount lenses with an adapter.  NX-mount lenses are pretty scarce yet review well and are fairly inexpensive, so if/when the time comes to grab more native-mount gear the pain will be minimal; their 50-200 OIS would be a good choice as it provides stabilization for long shots.

Going deeper into the reviews it seems that Samsung learned many things during their Pentax days, as many of their features feel familiar to me.  Some like the i-function lens control are very much their own though.  Several Pentax features are definitely not here though, so I will have some learning to do.

Checking the dxOmark data shows the sensor to be slightly behind the K-5 series and essentially a match to the K-s1 and K-01.  Samsung made the K20 and K-7 sensor several years back which was well behind the Sony equivalents in several areas; those days are now behind us, it seems.  And its body is smaller than the K-s1!  I confess that a big part of the new Pentax' appeal for me was APSc imaging in a smaller body size.

OK, nice - but what does it cost?
A bit more searching shows $500 is common with the stabilized 18-55 or the smaller, no-OIS 20-50 zoom.  A browse on the Global Auction Site (GAS) found a demo body for $250 * (silver with warm brown 'leather' grip!), $60 for a well-used 20-50 and $14 for a basic PK adapter.

 For $325 I can have this setup:

• Stylish NX300 body w/ a very good 20Mpxl sensor
• 20-50mm DX lens
• Adapted PK 17, 28, 50, 85/90 and 135mm primes
• Adapted PK zooms up to 300mm

I can sell most of the Pentax gear and put a lot of funds elsewhere.. or I can grab a bargain K-01 and have two good systems!  I will miss weather seals and SR stability on every lens by doing this, but both my camera bag and budget will be lighter burdens for a while.

Also of note is that my wife might be happy with the nx300 as she is with the Pentax Q - maybe even more so with the tippy screen.  Small is big for her so Q and NX are nice options.

* turned out this great bargain was truly 'body only' = no lens flash or battery.  Also no CD with Lightroom :( yet the camera is worth keeping at this price especially with the bargain I made on the 20-50 lens.