Christmas Help....

[Pooh_Girl]

Ok, so I am REALLY needing some help here as I have stretched my mind to the limits. My DM has been asking me what I want for Christmas this year and I can't come up with SQUAT. I'm the type that when I find something I want, I buy it then rather than waiting. So right now, the only thing I can come up with is maybe there's something out there for my camera I can tell her to get me. This is where everyone here comes in. If I give a small rundown of what I have, could everyone give me some suggestions as to what I else I could use? Here's the list:

Pentax K100D/lowepro case
Pentax 18-55mm kit lens
Tamron 70-300mm lens
Pentax 50mm f/1.4 lens
tripod/case
remote shutter release
Photoshop Elements 5.0/reference book
The Moment It Clicks and Understanding Exposure books
Polarizing Filter

So what else would be useful/beneficial/usable?? The only limitation is that I need to keep this around $100, give or take. THAT'S where the problem comes in. In our hobby there's not a lot under that price. Thanks for any help!!!!

 

[ukcatfan]

Pentax 10-17mm lens
Zoom with f/2.8 through the range
Giottos Rocket Air Blower
RAW software like Lightroom or Bibble

 

[Pooh_Girl]

Pentax 10-17mm lens
Zoom with f/2.8 through the range
Giottos Rocket Air Blower
RAW software like Lightroom or Bibble

Knew I could count on you Kevin! You and Groucho are my go-to guys when it comes to my camera, being Pentax users and all. Keep 'em coming!

 

[InsertWittyNameHere]

If you enjoyed Understanding Exposure you should check out Understanding Shutter Speed.

 

[tripodjw]

How about a Gorillapod (or equivalent table top tripod) or a Monopod.

A filter you always wanted.

A hard case to store all your kit in when not carrying it around (at home or in the car)

Or you could just be a skank and ask for the cash telling them you want to put it towards something you really want, then use the money towards a more expensive lens.

 

[gokenin]

If you are willing to look beyond the autofocus only lens then Pentax has a whole world of glass that is still fairly inexpsensive. You can pick up alot of the K,M,A and even a lot of the Takumar lens for less than $100 each. You will have to do manual focusing but it opens up a world of great old glass. The Takumars will need a M42 adaptor since they are screwmount lens.. You will not be able to get alot of glass these days in the autofocus level for less than $100

 

[Groucho]

Yeah, I think Kevin missed the "$100" part of the message.

Op/Tech strap... Rocker blower... microfiber cloth (I'm partial to the ones that tuck into a pouch, I keep a Spudz 18% gray one attached to my camera strap at all times, Disney sells a smaller Mickey mickey at the parks)...

And like Gokenin said, it's fun to check out the old lenses. Some are quite pricey but many are affordable. I'm sure you could find, say, an M42 adapter and a Pentax 135mm F3.5 lens for under $100 total - they're terrific lenses but cheap because they're so darn common. The feel of the lens is just fantastic!

(Man, I've written about M42 lenses two message in a row... I'm on a real M42 kick in the past couple weeks. )

 

[ukcatfan]

Yeah, I stopped reading at the end of the list. Bad habit I have picked up from so many wordy e-mails at work.

 

[AndrewWG]

How about a gift certificate to Amazon or B&H photo? If you had an extra $100 to put towards something more expensive, it would always be helpful.

Also, a book I would suggest is Bryan Peterson's Understanding Shutter Speed. I just finished it and it is GREAT like Understanding Exposure.

 

[RBennett]

Yeah, I think Kevin missed the "$100" part of the message. .......
And like Gokenin said, it's fun to check out the old lenses. Some are quite pricey but many are affordable. I'm sure you could find, say, an M42 adapter and a Pentax 135mm F3.5 lens for under $100 total - they're terrific lenses but cheap because they're so darn common. The feel of the lens is just fantastic!

Yeah, I saw that too, but I appreciate any and ALL suggestions! I just jotted them down for potential purchases for myself later on. And I LOVE the ideas that you and Gokenin had! I didn't even think about the older lenses (mostly because I know NOTHING about other lenses and what to look for and what would work.) I'll have to research the lens/adapter and see if I can slip that to my mom. If anyone thinks of anything else, please keep 'em coming!! (Oh, by the way.... I just realized I was posting this response from my login and originally I posted it from my DW's. Just so there's no confusion, I AM the original poster!

 

[RBennett]

One thing I did forget to ask that I just thought of..... what's the benefit of the 135mm f/3.5 over the Tamron 70-300mm? Like I said, I know NOTHING about lenses!!

 

[gokenin]

One thing I did forget to ask that I just thought of..... what's the benefit of the 135mm f/3.5 over the Tamron 70-300mm? Like I said, I know NOTHING about lenses!!

The advantage is that at 135 mm the prime lens will have a faster shutter speed than the zoom lens will have and it will also tend to produce a picture that will have more detail and clarity to it than you would get with the zoom. THe disadvantage is that it has a fixed range that it can get good pictures in so you may have to move in order to get a good picture as opposed to the zoom where the camera will basically do the moving for you by zooming in closer. There is also a K version of the lens thats a 2.5 so you will get one stop faster but it also more exspensive as well.

 

[RBennett]

The advantage is that at 135 mm the prime lens will have a faster shutter speed than the zoom lens will have and it will also tend to produce a picture that will have more detail and clarity to it than you would get with the zoom. THe disadvantage is that it has a fixed range that it can get good pictures in so you may have to move in order to get a good picture as opposed to the zoom where the camera will basically do the moving for you by zooming in closer. There is also a K version of the lens thats a 2.5 so you will get one stop faster but it also more exspensive as well.

I found this a second ago. Is that what you were talking about??

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bright-Telephot...oryZ3323QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[Groucho]

That's not "the one" but it may be a decent lens - I'm not really familiar with the Sears-branded lenses but from what I understand, they're like Vivitar - there's some good and some not-so-good. 135mm was a pretty standard telephoto lens back in the day (when most photographers would carry a 28mm, 50mm, and 135mm lens) and so nearly everybody made one.

Here is a Super Takumar 135mm F3.5 M42[/url] currently on eBay - 99 cents with three days left! The price will surely go up as it gets closer to the end but it will probably be under $50 - and the feel of the lens is just stellar! It's also surprisingly small.

There are several other Pentax 135mm lenses... the F3.5s are pretty consistently very good, but the F2.5s are a mixed bag. Some are so-so, one or two are really good... but you do pay extra for them. I was playing with a Super Takumar 135mm F2.5 M42 at a photo shop the other day but just couldn't bring myself to spend the $79 when I already have two F3.5s, to say nothing of my modern 50-135mm F2.8 lens! (I did also finally get a chance to mount a Zeiss M42 lens on my camera... very nice! But I'm not sure that it was that much better - those old Takumars are pretty legendary, and many non-Pentax-camera users get adapters to use those lenses on their cameras.)

FWIW, the 135mm F2.5 "Takumar Bayonet" is apparently one of the ones that's not so good, and hence doesn't go for that much. It's pretty unusual to find a less-than-great Takumar but I guess they can't all be great.

 

[RBennett]

So I have one last question to anyone that can answer this: How do you use the M42 adapter on a manual lens?? Do you thread the adapter onto the camera and the lens pops onto the adapter, or do you attach the adapter to the lens and then it slides onto the camera? Just curious! And does anyone know, is it the old Minolta lenses that work on Pentax, or am I completely out of my mind??

 

[gokenin]

First thing is make sure that you have an original k-mount adaptor from Pentax some of the offbrand versions will now allow you to focus to infinity as the flange sticks up just enough to stop that, The way I do it is first you put the adaptor into the camera making sure its secure then you screw the lens into the mount. the reverse it unscrew the lens then remove the adaptor from the camera

 

[Groucho]

You ask, I'll tell. In pictures no less. How's that for service?

First thing you need is an M42-to-K-mount adapter. The official Pentax one is the best. You can buy it straight from Pentax here. You may be able to find it somewhere else for slightly cheaper. Based on what I've read, avoid the third-party knock-off ones, which are more difficult to remove.

Next, you need a screw-mount lens. Here's a very cool lens that I got a couple months ago along with an old camera. You want old? This baby was produced from 1957 to 1961 and is still capable of terrific image quality. It's a Takumar 135mm F3.5 preset lens.

Next, thread the adapter onto the lens. This will make it look like your usual K-mount lens, complete with red dot.

Now, remove the current lens and mount this one like you would any other lens. Once it's on, you may want to give it a little extra twist to make sure that it's on securely.

When you're ready to switch lenses, just unscrew the lens, leaving the adapter behind. If you're going to mount another screw-mount lens, you can screw it into your camera, just like on a "real" screw-mount camera. If you're going to go back to using a K-mount lens, you'll need to remove the adapter. I think the new ones may come with a tool for this purpose, but I've always been able to easily just stick my fingernail in the necessary slot (by the red dot) and push the retaining tab in slightly, at which point it rotates off just like a K-mount lens. Needless you say, you'll want to do this as quickly as possible and with the camera facing downwards if you can, to minimize dust getting in there!

One other note... most M42 lenses have an Auto/Manual slider. Set it to Manual, otherwise you'll always be shooting at the maximum aperture. The pictures lens doesn't, but most have a pin that sticks out the back, which is depressed when the picture is taken in a proper screw-mount camera, which stops the lens down to the chosen aperture. Since your DSLR cannot press in that button, you have to leave it in manual mode, where the aperture is set immediately by the ring. The downside is that as you go to smaller apertures, the viewfinder becomes dimmer. The upside is that you can usually shoot in Aperture Priority mode and the camera with automatically adjust the exposure. Otherwise, you'll need to shoot in Manual mode and hit the AE/L (or Green button on K10D/K20D) to get the proper exposure.

And yeah, you'll want to be in manual focus mode, too. But you can leave it in AF and hold the shutter down, and it'll fire when you nail the focus. This is called "catch-in focus".

Non-Pentax owners - you can do basically the same thing to use M42 lenses on your camera, but the adapters are different, and most cheap ones won't do exposure metering or AF confirmation.

 

[Groucho]

Just curious! And does anyone know, is it the old Minolta lenses that work on Pentax, or am I completely out of my mind?? [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

Whoops, I missed this part. No, you won't be able to use old Minolta lenses. However, Fuji, Olympus, Zeiss, and countless others produced lenses in the M42 mount - there's an enormous selection of lenses! (I recently just barely missed buying an Olympus 200m F4.0 M42 lens on eBay...)

 

[RBennett]

Let me just say.......... WOW!!! gokenin and Groucho you two are PHENOMENAL!!!!! Because of you two, you've given me a whole new world of options as far as lenses go! More times than not, if I can afford it, I want to use Pentax lenses. But it's great to know that there are alternatives with great glass!! I have to say, everything I've learned about photography came from this board. A year and a half ago all I had was a Sony Cyber-Shot and I would just snap away. Now, I have a DSLR and I put SOOO much thought into a shot and fire away.

 

[gokenin]

Takumar 85mm f1.9

Takumar 105mm f2.5

Takumar 35mm f3.5

All manual focus all lens are over 25 years old as well