My wife bought a potted lotus plant recently, and the timely was just perfect today with good light, and the flower is just about to open. I use my DA70mm f/2.4 (some shots with Canon 250D attachment) to capture best part of the flower. There isn’t much nice background, but shooting it at a higher angle with some clever cropping, it still brings out the mood I wanted.

I edited it in Adobe Lightroom, and added a touch of vignetting to make the flower stands out a little more. This is very much the same treatment I would do for human portraitures, and it works just fine with nature shots like these too.

Even at the wide open aperture of f/2.4, the lens is outright sharp already! Coupled with its small size, it’s easy to handhold, without the hassle of long protrusion, especially in a very crowded situation. I encountered this yesterday, at a recently concluded annual Photo Fair held at Berjaya Times Square. There were so many people and most of them will be holding their big guns (70-200/2.8), and I was knocked a few times on my head with those big lenses. I really appreciate my small ‘package’, and manage to get the shots I wanted.

The photo above is out of camera, taken in RAW (DNG) and converted/resized for web display. Skintone is excellent. As the ambient lighting was poor, I used my Metz 54 flash in bounced position. The bokeh is another great virtue of this lens, it’s silky, creamy smooth. I only remember seeing this quality from possibly the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 or a Zeiss/Leica equivalent. To note, I was never impressed with Canon’s 85mm f/1.2 USM. I think the Pentax DA70mm f/2.4 can take it on anytime!

This lens is very reasonably priced at a local currency of RM1,380. I can never think of any other lens at that focal length that can be had at that price, not even the Sigma 70mm f/2.8 macro!

Give this lens a try if you’re seriously into portrait photography. You will be fully rewarded!

[eminimall products="Pentax DA70 lens"]

Amazing what you can do with just a piece of black cloth. Nevertheless, I will like to share with how I took the shots, as in what camera setting was used, exposure, etc.

First of all, you gotta have an external flash gun, either the Pentax AF540 FGZ or any other Pentax compatible ones. I was using my trustworthy Metz 54 MZ4i with SCA 3720 M adaptor. I use a diffuser called ‘Demb’ which look like this:

The back flap is flexible enough to be used effectively on portrait or landscape mode, and can be flipped back for better control of bounced flash light. The front plastic pieces are shaped like inverted’ Sydney Opera House’ which effectively provides fill light without causing hotspots.

On to the settings on the camera, in my case the Pentax K10D, I chose ‘P’ mode and setting the aperture to f/8.0 for deeper Depth of Field (DOF). I used my FA 31mm f/1.8 Limited prime lens, and the working distance is just perfect. The Pentax K10D automatically selects the shutter to 1/50s, eliminating any possible camera shake. Shake Reduction is on, which provides double insurance against any shake.

For the black background, I tried setting the flash at EV0 but apparently found out that conservatively, the exposure will try NOT to underexpose the shot (although my Metz flash is running in Auto mode, no P-TTL). This create a problem. I can ’see’ the cloth a bit too clearly. The logical way is to underexpose the shot by about 2/3 stop, so I dialed in a Flash compensation of EV-2/3. Now ‘black’ is black. Perfect.

For white background, EV0 gives the same problem, so my advise is to dial in a flash compensation of EV+2! You will get a near perfect white, but watch out for any hotspots created on your subject.

I shot in RAW so that I have sufficient headroom for shadow/highlight editing and recovery. Loading the images into Adobe Lightroom, I checked the histogram accordingly, and the ‘Black’ slider comes into good use for low key/black background shots. To further enchance the darkness of the background I export the image to Adobe Photoshop, and use the Burn tool for Shadows to bring the R-G-B value to a perfect 0-0-0. For high key/white background shots, do the reverse, and use the Dodge tool on Highlight to bring the background to a perfect white.

Now that the background has been taken care of, I worked a little on the subject. To bring it to ‘life’, I added some ‘Vibrance’ in Adobe Lightroom to about 30. Vibrance works way better compare to Saturation as it only brings out the colours which are more subtle, without severely causing an oversaturation/fake looking image.

The final touch is a little contrast bump (+10 to +25 depending on images), and a minor shapening, again to taste, depending on intended output.

Hope this tip works for you too. Happy photographing.

[eminimall products="Pentax FA31 lens"]

My reasons are:

• ~50mm angle of view
• Aperture f/1.8
• Very sharp with very high resolving power!
• Excellent bokeh

This lens is already very sharp from wide open and peaks at f/4.0. To demonstrate how well it performs with real world photos, I took a shot of my daughter last night, with bounced flash:

Noticed the nice bokeh at the background? If not, view this:

This was taken at wide open f/1.8, with natural lighting at Star Bucks Coffee.

At near 50mm angle of view, it’s perfect for street photography, and this is what I have intended to use it for. Physically it is by far the largest pancake lens I have in my collection, but it looks very nice on the K10D body, even without battery grip. It’s almost like having a rangefinder lens on a SLR body.

We all know that DSLR will head to full frame in very near future, and I guess it does make sense to start investing in some really good prime lenses (esp. pancakes) now. Not sure if Pentax is continuing production for the FA pancakes, but I will not be hesitating to recommend it to anyone who is willing to fork out the price for one. It’s well worth it!

[eminimall products="Pentax FA31 lens"]

While still contemplating whether to get a dedicated macro lens, I think this combo still works fine for me. Nevertheless, I’ve been eyeing the following:1. Pentax D-FA 100mm f/2.8 macro

2. Voigtlander 125mm f/2.5 SL APO-Lanthar

3. Tokina 90mm f/2.5 (no longer in production)

Among the three, only (1) is auto focus. Bokeh quality is stellar on (2) and (3). At 125mm, the Voigtlander bokeh is sweeter than Tokina, but working distance is increased. Not too sure if it can work well with the Canon 500D attachment to bring it to a near working distance and increasing magnification ratio at the same time.

Please feel free to comment and share. Thanks.

[eminimall products="Pentax 50-200mm lens"]

[eminimall products="Canon 500D Close-Up"]

This is the last missing piece in my ‘quest’ to own all three Pentax pancake DA lenses. I love the pancake lenses for its small physical sizes, and covers all the important focal lengths. This is especially useful and beneficial for me when I travel during my business trips where I don’t have to carry a big camera bag.

One of my favourite camera bag is (you won’t believe it) the Lowepro Apex 110AW. It’s the smallest in the series, however with the pancake lenses, I am able to pack in a DA 70mm f/2.4 AL together with either a DA 40mm f/2.8 AL or DA 21mm f/3.2 AL attached to the camera (without battery grip).

This is the bag,

Back to the DA 21mm, it’s one very sharp lens! According to photozone.de, the MTF is highest at f/5.6, which I took (advice) literally when I shot this at the top level of a 17th storey apartment in KL,

Click here for the full size image.

When I showed this image to one of my photographer friend, he was so amazed at its quality and sharpness, and the amount of details it captured, and asked if I had taken the shot at f/9 or f/11. He was dumbfounded when I told him….f/5.6!

In fact, the shot of the Lowerpro bag was done with the DA 21mm too, at wide open aperture of f/3.2, 1/40s, with bounced flash.

I know I’m gonna love this lens, more happy with the thought that I’ve now owned the all the three pancakes!

An auspicious day for weddings it seems. It so happens that I was asked to help take photographs for a churchmate’s wedding. This is the best time to put the Pentax K10D to the test as to whether the AF will be fast enough, the lenses good enough for such an assignment. I packed my camera bags with:

1. DA 16-45 (main lens)

2. DA 50-200 (sniper!)

3. DA 70 (bokeh king)

4. DA 10-17mm Fisheye (wider, weirder)

Good news is…as opposed to what have probably been mentioned in forums, the AF works very well! No hunting issues with all the lenses I used, and accuracy is spot on. When I review my shots, it’s 100% focused and sharp. I can’t say the same when I had my Canon 30D and EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS USM more than four months ago.

I use my Metz 54 MZ4i (with SCA 3702) as my main flash almost throughout the wedding. It works very well, as there’s almost no hint of flash in the shots above.

The nice bokeh from the Pentax lenses does wonders to create depth and 3D-look which is essential for wedding shots. I selected maximum aperture on the lenses most of the time. Here’s one with DA 70:

These were shot at f/2.4 with flash. Comparing to this,

The bokeh quality is very much similar, but it is actually taken with DA 50-200 at 150mm f/5.6. The joy of using Pentax lenses is all the shots seem to come from one lens (with consistent bokeh). Let me show you a few here,

…it’s taken with the DA 16-45mm, but notice that the bokeh quality is very similar. It also seems that the lenses render the same color tone, and this really eases my post processing work.

For more photos, kindly click on this link to enter my gallery.

I shall discuss more about flash performance and experience I have with the Pentax K10D in a separate blog. Keep in tune!

By default, the DA 50-200mm f/4-5.6 ED AL does not have a favorable minimum working distance for macro work, not does it really provide good magnification. I don’t have a dedicated macro lens, and is probably not too keen to get one. As the saying goes, there is always more than a way to skin a cat. I use the Canon 500D close up lens.

The 500D denotes 500mm working distance, or 50cm (~19.7 inches, or 1.5ft) which essentially halved the minimum working distance of the lens. There is actually another close up lens, the Canon 250D, fit for use with lenses which are 50mm or less. I love this combination as the double aspherical elements on the Canon 500D does not degrade the optical quality as much as the cheap close up filters. Furthermore it does not induce chromatic aberation i.e. purple fringing. It’s sharp when used on the DA 50-200 which is already famed for its high optical quality.

It is another great weight saving feature especially when traveling. It is also not expensive, at least not as expensive as a dedicated macro lens.

I cannot, however test on the SDM (Pentax’s version of Supersonic motor) as the K10D firmware has to be upgraded to version 1.3 before tha function is activated. Nevertheless, the AF speed is fast although the motor whining sound can be heard, much like all the other DA lenses.

Build Quality

How it feels in the hand? Well, it’s not of metal construction but high quality plastic and it feels very similar to Tamron SP Di lenses. It is therefore not heavy at all although the filter size on the DA* 16-50mm is 77mm, while the DA* 50-135mm is 67mm. It feels very balanced on the K10D. It is as you know, weather sealed, and both the zoom and focusing ring is very wide to hold.

Optical Quality

In this aspect, it delivers in flying colour, true to Pentax’s * lens tradition. I only tested the lenses at wide open aperture of f/2.8, and the sharpness (albeit the shallow DOF), color contrast is very high already.

Test Samples

For larger images, visit my DA* lens test gallery at Flickr.com

DA* 16-50mm 16mm f/2.8 37.3mm f/2.8 50mm

These images were taken at the minimal focusing distance, which is almost 1 ft, similar to the DA 16-45mm.

Bokeh is excellent! It’s creamy smooth, Zeiss-like quality. I’m a bokeh freak, and I truly admire that these lenses can produce.

Let’s move on to the DA* 50-135mm f/2.8 ED AL SDM:

f/2.8 50mm f/2.8 75mm f/2.8 135mm

These images were taken at the minimal focusing distance, which is almost 3.3 ft.

The DA* 50-135 has a angle of view of 75mm-202.5mm, which is just perfect for portraiture shots. I reckon is this a very wise move of Pentax, not to follow the trend of making another 70-200mm lens on a digital body. Again, hats off to Pentax for brilliant design consideration and thinking out of the box.

If you compare all the six images above, it is almost as if they were taken from one single lens. That’s the beauty of Pentax lenses, which has very similar optical quality and characteristics throughout the whole range of lenses. There’s not even a color shift unlike the N and C makes.

Availability & Price

Nothing is firmed, as least in Malaysia, but in the US it seems that they shall be available by mid August. I have to remain very tight lipped on the prices, but I can assure you that they are way cheaper by N and C equivalent by a significant sum of money!

If you are already waiting to get this lenses, it’s well worth the wait. This is as much as I would like to recommend to all Pentaxians. For me, I’ve yet to enjoy my DA lenses to the fullest, and am surely not in a hurry to get one. The forthcoming DA* 300mm f/2.8 may look more tempting to me right now.

I don’t own the D-FA 50mm f/2.8 macro because I don’t do copy work and 1:1 scale ratio is not my priority. While it can literally ‘zoom’ into a subject up close, I would prefer to frame my shot to relate the subject to the background. I have seen many prime examples of Sigma 30mm f/1.4 for close up work, especially for food photography. The DA14 (with 90º angle of view) does an equally good (if not better) job, but how about focusing almost 1cm away, at 100º angle of view?

At the longest end of 17mm, the DA 10-17 Fisheye gives you just that. So, what does 100º angle of view do for me? Here goes:

Having the versatility of 10mm to 17mm (zoom range), provides me the flexibility to use it differently,. As you notice, at 17mm I can get away with almost imperceivable barrel distortion. It’s there, but if I compose it correctly, you can’t really see it. When I compose the two shots above, I am very very near to the yellow screwdriver and the lamp.

Using it at 10mm, I have to be careful not to accidentally include my feet in the frame…because it’s a full 180º view! At a wide open aperture of f/3.5, it’s sharp enough, but the real sharpness comes at about f/5.6, which you can fixed it all the way from 10mm to 17mm. Depth of field can be insufficient though if you are using it as a super duper close up lens, hence f/8.0 is a viable choice as long as your shutter speed is fast enough to avoid camera shake. Then again, on K10D and K100D, Shake Reduction works for you!

The DA10-17 helps me to think out of the box, for an otherwise boring shot. It’s highly recommended to have one for every Pentax DSLR owner! Price wise, you’ll be surprised to find that it cost lower than the Tokina version! ‘Nough said.