Pentax *istD DSLR
I started using this from past few months(April 2004). I have enjoyed this camera at all times. *istD with Pentax FA 100mm f2.8 Macro
is like a dream come true for me. Following are +ve things of this camera
*Compactsize: Fits well in my small Indian hands
*Continuous focus: This is the first time I am using a camera with Continuous focus. I am amazed at its accuracy of focussing and
helps very much while taking macro shots in windy condition.
*Multifocus points: Again, for the first time I am exposed to such sophistication and it helps a lot.
*High ISO: Good quality at 800ISO, makes me loose very few shots when you do not have the liberty of tripod. I have used 800ISO to take
macro shots in windy conditions.
Pentax Mz-5n Film SLR
I purchased this camera 5 years ago and never regretted it. There are some features that I like the most.
It's lightweight camera. I consider the metering as the most important feature of any camera system and
MZ-5n excel in this area. MZ-5n has very good multi segment metering and spot metering is an indispensable
tool. "Depth Of Field Preview" is a creative tool if you could exploit it. "Depth Of Field Preview" could
be used to isolate main subject from background. As well-known Mz-5n is compatible with old K, M
manual focus lenses.
My Film Scanners
I have used 3 film scanners. Nikon LS4000, Minolta Dimage Scan Dual II & Minolta Scan Elite III.
Scanners are one below the DSLR. Film scanners introduced me to digital imaging technology and used it before
using DSLR. I am proud to say that I grew along with the industry.
Scanners is great tool to digitize the print & slide films.
Nikon LS4000 Film Scanner
This is my 3rd film scanners. Minolta Dimage Scan Dual II & Minolta Scan Elite III are the two earlier ones.
LS4000 is a good scanner and does fabulous work with consistent results.
Minolta Dimage Scan Dual II
Minolta Dimage Scan Dual II was a very good scanner except for the absence of Digital ICE. This scanner does not have
IR channel so no DICE. This is cheap also and compact looking.
Minolta Dimage Elite III
Minolta Dimage Elite III looks like improvement over Minolta Dimage Scan Dual II. This has IR channel so can do Digital ICE.
There seems to be quality assurance problem regarding these models. Some scanners do have banding problem. This is
dreaded problem and to be avoided at all costs.
One good thing about Minolta scanners is film strip & slide holders. Its very easy to load the -ve strips
on to holders. And slide holders takes 5 slides at a time.
Minolta scanners are real value for money.
Scanners & Upgrading of PC
One thing that I did not like about the scanners is the
size of the images is too large, 8bit TIFF would take up around 40mb. Editing these large files in Adobe Photoshop
on my 1Ghz Athlon, 256MB RAM machine was re...lly pain. Opening a single file used to take minutes; forget about
resizing & cropping. Then I upgrade my RAM to 512MB; this only improved the situation partially, I was able to load
the images in less than a minute.
I started using LS4000 and output file size started reaching 60mb. I desparately needed fast machine to because
editing was taking too much of time. Then I upgraded to Athlon XP 1.8GHz, 1.5Gb RAM, Av7600 VIA chip set.
This improved the image editing speed a lot and made my life...
Pentax FA Macro 50mm/2.8
This is my first prime lens and before this I was using 30-70 consumer zoom. Once I I changed over to
FA 50mm/2.8, the superior quality was very apparent. This lens is physically well built. This could be
used for macro work but it is bit short for portraits.
Pentax FA Macro 100mm/2.8
Performance of my first 50mm macro convinced me to buy 100mm macro. This is ideal for portrait and macro subjects
like flowers. Slides shot with this lens look sharp when projected using my Ektapro projector. With my current
knowledge of photography, slides/projector combination is the most convincing and easiest way to measure the
optical quality of the lens. This is well built lens and is heaviest among my lens collection.
Pentax A 24mm/2.8
This is my first wide-angle prime lens and I purchased it in second-hand market. This manual focus lens is compact
in size and also a smart performer. This lens made in mid-1980's lens works with my new AF body. The lens does not
do auto focusing but hexagon in viewfinder will blink when subject is in focus; this level of backward compatibility
amazes me. Such compatibility helps armatures like me to get access to second-hand manual focus lenses at comparatively
less price. Ex: A new Pentax AF 24mm/2.0 AL lens costs USD 370+, where as Pentax A 24mm/2.8 is available for USD 200
in second-hand market. I use this for my landscape photography and this is not free from aberrations like pincushion
and vignetting. Vignetting is apparent while using polarizing filter. Physically... it must be good because it's
performing even after 20 years.
Pentax DA 16-45mm f4.0
This is specifically for my *istD which has APS sized sensor. This lens is not for 35mm. APS Sized DSLR has advantage on log
focal length side because focal length of all the 35mm lenses gets multiplied by 1.5 time. This advantage harms the wide angle lenses.
My favourite Pentax A 24mm f2.8 lens became useless as wideangle lens on my *istD because of the 1.5 multiplication factor.
I thought of buying 15mm prime lens, I decided against that because these primes are expensive and have bulby front element. Bulby front
element may result in flare and does not take normal filters.
Tamron 28-75mm f2.8
Light weight and focal range is very good for a DSLR(42mm-112.5mm). Looks like lesswarm.