SMC Pentax M 50mm f4 macro

Bought this second hand lens from online market place. It is very light lens, with simple elements but produces sharp image. It has macro capability 1:2. Tested this lens during a trip to botanical garden.

Some pictures taken using this lens

I regret selling this lens. Hope can get A 50mm f2.8 macro.

SMC Pentax 28mm f3.5

I bought this second hand lens and the seller gave me a pentax ME film camera for free. This is K version, it doesn't have "M" letter as my SMC Pentax M 50mm f1.7. K lenses is earlier version of M lenses, their build quality are better than M lenses. From the review 28mm f3.5 is sharper than its M version, and also sharper than more common M 28mm f2.8 lens. 

Here are some shots taken using this lens

Model shoot

Had my first outdoor model shoot with kaskusers in Singapore, there were 6-8 photographers as I remember. The location was Clarke Quay. I brought my 18-55mm kit lens and SMC M 50mm f1.7. At first I used my kit lens, but after taking a few shots with the kit lens and few shots with the prime lens, I decided to shoot using the prime lens only. I was amazed that the IQ from 25 years old lens was much better than the recently produced kit lens. It was also my first time to use a manual focus lens, so at first I had some difficulty to find the focus, the model had to smile and look at the camera for a few seconds longer. In order to use a manual lens, I need to go the the menu and set the camera to permit using a lens with aperture ring, then I need to manually input the focal length of the lens, which I inputted wrongly at that time. It was supposed to be 50mm, but I inputted 28mm instead.

Here are the ones taken using the kit lens

With SMC M 50mm f1.7 

  

and the bokeh

The model was very cheerful and friendly. It was nice to work with her.

SMC Pentax M 50mm f1.7

This was my first prime lens, after seeing how sharp this lens, I bought another copy of this lens. It's on the list of 50mm greatest lenses. I also bought A version of this lens, but in the end I sold it because the build quality of the M version's better than the A version.

This is the example of picture taken using this lens, I used built in flash with diffuser and small aperture.

at 100% crop, it's very sharp

I'm very happy with this lens. At wide open, it beats the M 50mm f1.4, so I think I won't need the faster lens at the moment.

SMC Pentax FA 28-200mm f3.8-5.6 AL Macro

Got this second hand lens, it's big and heavy compared to Sigma 55-200mm. It's soft from 135mm but the color's nice and it has macro capability. Brought this lens to botanical garden and took some shots without monopod.

can see some flare

miss focus, at that time I think I changed the AF to spot accidentaly, but never recompose the image

Actually I wanted this lens as my walk about lens, but since it's quite soft from 135mm and it's a little bit heavy, I decided to part with this lens.

Phuket trip

Went to Phuket in end of April. Brought Pentax K-x with kit lens 18-55mm and sigma 55-200mm. Most of the time took picture using Av mode in RAW, with 11 points AF mode and multi-segment metering, some of the pictures were under/over exposed, and not sharp.

first time taking indoor picture, taken with build in flash and high ISO

taken outdoor at night with build in flash

underexposed image, this was taken during sunrise, I got condensation on my lens when I left the cold hotel room

this was taken during sunset at kata beach

another multi segment metering problem when encounter backlight

Post processed in Lightroom 2.

Understanding Exposure

After searching for information on photography books, I decided to buy this book. I bought it from opentrolley online book store for S$ 38. 

The book described what is exposure, photographic triangle (aperture, shutter speed, and sensitivity) and the effects on exposure. It mentioned about the differences between correct exposure and creative exposure, and why people still want to read the book while the camera has already provided them with "correct" exposure in P mode. The book also described about frontlight, backlight and sidelight. A lot of techniques that are useful for photographers are also mentioned here, such as 18% reflectance and grey card, blue sky brothers and mr green jeans, panning, and few filters that are commonly used by photographers. Overall it was enjoyable book to read.