Big swell hittin' the coast...

Shot last week in Oregon looking down on the Pacific...

Shot with the Pentax DA* 16-50mm f/2.8 @ f/8 on the K20D. Converted to B&W in Lr...

PENTAX-DA* 50-135mm vs Tamron 70-200mm Comparison and Shootout

It was rainy all day today, and I needed something to do while the boy was napping... so I fell to this :p.

Edit: The validity of the comparison photos below has been called into question by several folks on DPR. They claim and I can't dispute that they get better results than I present here from their copies of the DA* 50-135 Like I say below, it's possible that some error in my focusing or methodology caused the DA* 50-135mm to look weaker / softer than most peoples experience shows it to be (or perhaps I have a weak copy of this lens). Regardless of these results, I think it can be assumed that based on everyone's experiences the DA* 50-135 is a stellar lens, whether or not mine lives up to the general population. I feel that the Tamron 70-200/2.8 is too, and what I'm really just trying to highlight is that the choice between these two lenses (and probably the Sigma 70-200/2.8 - which I've never used myself) comes down to usage / needs / preference rather than image quality.

Edit 2: After finding that my DA* 50-135 needed a -2 focus adjustment on my K20D, I've figured out why those photos looked worse than those from the Tamron 70-200mm... So the photos are removed, but the discussion is still valid.

We see the questions all the time... "which should I buy?" Which is a question I asked before getting the first one, but now having handled both it seems such a silly question - they're so different, they're almost incomparable.

Pluses for the Tamron:

• much more tele reach
• much better "macro" ratio/magnification
• slightly sharper :eek: (photos below for those who doubt - though you'll still doubt - I know you ;))
• you can fit your hand in the hood to put on and remove the lens cap
• tripod collar
• six year warranty

Minuses for the Tamron:

• much bigger
• noisy focus
• much bigger
• lacks quick shift focusing
  

Pluses for the DA*

• smaller / less intimidating when pointed at someone
• SDM / quickshift focusing
• weather sealed
• 50mm is very handy indoors or when mixed in to the crowd (weddings etc.)

Minuses for the DA*:

• annoyingly small hood / hard to put cap back on (wah... wah.. I know)
• "long end" is still pretty short (for me)
• close focusing capability very lacking (1:5.8 according to B&H)

If I had to give one up...

If I were a wedding shooter, I'd hem and haw and give up the Tamron... The Pentax is well suited to event shooting as long as you can get in fairly close when needed.

Since I'm more of a landscape / nature shooter... I'd drop the Pentax if necessary. The closer focusing and the longer long end are both sorely missed when I use the Pentax, and these are areas the Tamron shines in (I'd miss the wx. sealing though).

Unless I get a layoff notice or let this itchy LBA trigger finger do something rash, I'll keep both and have options :D.

[Photos Removed]

I hope this helps someone out there make a decision ;).

P.S. - If anyone out there wants to mail me a Sigma 70-200 or a Sigma 50-150, I'll throw those into the mix too :D.

Rainbow in the back yard...

Lens Report: Takumar 1:4/300

I recently scored four Takumar lenses of various vintage with a Spotmatic body on ebay, and one of them is a Takumar 300mm f/4. Based on info from the defunct m-fortytwo.info site (available via the wayback machine), I believe this is the second version of this lens which began production in 1962. The manually actuated aperture is not far behind the front element unlike the more traditional placement on the later Super and SMC Taks...

The aperture has 18 blades... it's a beaut...

The focus travel from close focus to infinity is about 355° which really allows for precise though not fast focusing. The closest focus distance marked on the ring is 18ft/5.5m, but the ring stops slightly past that for probably about 15ft minimum focus distance.

Today I had a chance to take a few sample shots on a tripod... Nothing interesting photographically here, strictly putting the lens through it's paces on a digital body (K20D). For these shots, the lens was tripod mounted and the camera two second timer was on (so SR was off). Initial metering was with the green button, and then manually adjusted for most shots. I shot a frame at f/4, f/5.6, and f/8 for each scene. Photos were captured as RAW files and converted in Lr with no changes (other than one set where auto exposure was applied to balance the exposure across the three shots).

I'll post the wide open shot, followed by 100% crops for comparison, all the originals are available for download in this gallery (up to full size - huge).

General findings: Wide open the lens tends to be somewhat soft, and display quite a bit of CA. Sharpness and CA both improve with one stop, and by f/8, IQ has increased significantly.

click pics below to see the larger version...
f/4

f/5.6

f/8

100% crops...

f/4

f/5.6

f/8

100% crops...

another from the broad side of the barn... (out of order - bad photoshoping - f/8 is the middle shot)

High Desert Panorama...

Shot from the top of the hills in the center of this map, the pano looks northeast across the western end of the Antelope Valley,
which is the western end of the Mojave desert.

The town of Tehachapi is about 30 mi. northeast behind the mountains center-left, and
downtown Los Angeles is about 50 mi. away behind and to the right of the camera.

click the photo to see a larger version (do it - it looks better)

To create this shot I took 15 shots hand-held with the DA*16-50 @ 16mm f/8 1/200 iso 100. Initial PP (curves, vignette correction) applied in Lr,
then individual shots exported and stitched w/ Hugin and then the final tiff was edited in PS for color and contrast.

Pollen Doom...

So... I have some lovely big old trees in my backyard (I'm sure one of you will tell me the type when you see the pictures - my dendrology knowledge is lacking), which apparently produce pollen this time of year... I didn't know this before, because normally in winter, we get storms through the area on a regular basis, and between the wind and the rain, the pollen either gets blown away or washed away, and doesn't just hang around getting in my eyes and sinuses. However, since California's drought has decided to come back and the high pressure demons are just camped on top of us, I now know about this pollen nightmare... Touch a branch, and an explosion of yellow pollen comes billowing out... You'll see...

Here's a tendril lurking...

Threaten it with a bat, and it keeps it's cool...

but give the branch a little tap, it retaliates...

And if you throw a stick at the tree, it releases a full dose of it's pollen weapons...

Gah, my eye's are itching just proofreading my post.

Alien Robot Flowers?!?!?!?!?!

Ok, I suppose they're just wind turbines...

Taken near Tehachapi California today.

K20D, Tamron 70-200/2.8, converted in Lr. I don't know how I settled on this tone for the monochrome conversion, but I kinda like it...

Sea of Clouds...

Shot this today on my way to socal for work... Actually, I took a fair drive out of the way up into the mountains to find an overlook where I could shoot back into the sea of low clouds which is the San Joaquin Valley of California in winter. I found the view from this point looking essentially north.

Shot handheld with K20D and the Tamron 70-200/2.8 @ 200mm.

Snow Day...

Back on the Dec. 23rd I took a drive on a beautiful day during a break in a cold storm... Shot quite a series that day, here's some samples...

All shot with the K20D and either the Pentax DA* 16-50mm or the Tamron 70-200/2.8, RAW, and processed to various extents in Lightroom.

This link should show all my uploads from that day...

Yosemite Sunset from Glacier Point

Two days ago I wanted to shoot the largest full moon of the year rising over the Yosemite high country. The weather looked iffy but I had nothing better to do, so I headed up to Glacier Point high on the west rim of Yosemite valley and set up next to several like minded shooters... The moon never showed but some nice light from sunset peeked through before we were forced to leave by a ranger as they were closing the road for the season and had to be sure none of us were locked in (the ranger was a really nice guy - gave us about 30 extra minutes while we all waited, hoping the moon would peek through the clouds)...

All shot with the K20D, RAW, with the Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 and processed to various extents in Lightroom.