Pentax 15mm f4 DA Limited

Pentax 15mm f4 DA Limited, originally uploaded by pincolatino.

Pentax 15mm f4 DA Limited.

Prototype on display at Pentax stand at Photokina.

It should be available in Spring 2009.

Being a DA lens, this lens may vignette seriously when used on a 35 mm SLR or Full frame sensor whenever Pentax decides to manufacture one.

Pentax has a good 14mm f2.8 lens in the DA range with Extra-low Dispersion (ED) glass and Quick-Shift from AF to MF. It correspond to a 21mm and costs around 600$.

Pentax KM

Pentax KM + DA Limited lenses

At Photokina, Pentax displayed the new KM digital SLR amateur camera. This is an interesting and compact new body.

It basically has the same specs of the K10, K200 in terms of resolution - 10 Mpix CCD (Sony made?) and a Pentax K bayonet.

So it is compact like a bridge camera, although it offers full SLR features and the possibility to mount almost any Pentax K lens (K, KA, KAF, KAF2); screw-mount M42 lens with an adapter ring; and 645- and 67-system lenses with an adapter.

Add as a bonus the on-sensor stabilization that helps to gain a couple of stops on any lens.

The processor managed dynamic-range expansion function avoids washed out areas in high contrast scenes and generally a wider range of exposure.

Ok, don't expect a super bright and large viewfinder but certainly a better one than the electronic view finders found in bridge cameras. In this regards, it would be interesting to compare viewfinder performances with the Lumix G1 which sports an HD electronic viewfinder to compensate for doing without a mechanical reflex mechanism and prism. I would suspect that optical reflex will always be better.

You can't use the 2.7-inch LCD monitor to compose because believe it or not there is no live view function.

Using KM with Pentax Limited lenses

The KM will be available in November as a kit only package with a simpler (ie plastic bayonet) version of the 18-55 DA zoom.

The great thing is that you can use the Pentax limited fixed lenses on this camera, although the sensor multiplication factor (x1.5) should be taken into account. So for instance, a 50mm equivalent on KM would be roughly a 33 mm lens. While the 21mm lens becomes a 31mm and so on.

The lenses in this Limited range are all beautifully made (especially the first series), they are auto focus lenses, very compact and reasonably priced for what they offer.

The KM is just perfect with Pentax Limited lenses. You can achieve a compact and high quality kit for a relatively good price. The ideal is a KM with 21mm combo for wide angle street/travel photography, as you end up with slightly less than a 35mm, ok at f3.2 this is no Summilux.

The KM with 40mm f2.8 is also a compact and lightweight combo although as a 60mm equivalent it may be less useful everyday. But the use of K bayonet allows a wide range of possibilities, although I don't know if I would like to mount 645 lenses on it.

Pentax KM with 40mm f2,8 DA Limited

SMC FA Limited Lenses

• smc FA 31 / 1,8 AL Limited
• smc FA 43 mm / 1,9 Limited
• smc FA 77 mm / 1,8 Limited

You should note that the existing smc FA limited lenses are in principle not optimized for digital. But given that they are good lenses and the sensor would use only the center of the image, avoiding any light fall off or softness at corners, you may of course use them. The trade-off may be purple fringing. Also, the fact that taking into account sensor multiplication factor you end up with a range of moderate tele lenses (50-65- 115).

On KM 31mm while representing an interesting option, is a bit bulky for what it is (345g) and uses 58mm filters (no problem if you are a Canon user). Also while it has a very nice silver finish, it may not look that good on KM's black body.

The 77mm may also be considered for portraits given its f1.8 aperture although on KM you end up with the equivalent of a 115mm which is in between a 90-105 range for head/shoulder shot and 135mm which is better for head shots. It is compact and lightweight (270g) so maybe you can get closer to your model. Filter is Pentax standard 49mm and it is available in black. Availability of this lens may not be as wide as others.

SMC DA Limited Lenses

Pentax has has issued a new range of Limited lenses for DA that is optimized for digital cameras.

• smc DA 21mm f/3.2 AL Limited
• smc DA 40 mm / 2,8 Limited
• smc DA 70mm / 2.4 Limited

They are on average slightly less bright than the FA series (average 2.8 compared to 1.8 in the previous series). This is a full stop more on average although this may be in part compensated by the KM's shake reduction system in terms of speed but you loose in terms of out of focus (bokeh) areas (which is also diminished by the digital sensor crop factor.) So for portraits with beautiful out of focus backgrounds you have to look somewhere else. On the other side if hyper focal is what you need this may be the good combination.

At Photokina, Pentax had also two other lenses from the Limited range on display: a 15mm f4 DA Limited and a 35mm Macro lens which is new and should be already available.

Pentax KM + DA Limited lenses clockwise from top 21/3.2; 35/2.8 macro; 70/2.4; 21/3.2

Canon Powershot SX1 - cutaway

DSC_7528-2, originally uploaded by pincolatino.

10 Mpixels - HD video - Digic IV - CMOS

Powershot G10 accessories display at Photokina

DSC_7522-2, originally uploaded by pincolatino.

Powershot SX1 IS and G10 Lenses compared

DSC_7525, originally uploaded by pincolatino.

Canon Powershot G10 IS

OK so last Photokina it was G7 which was a disappointment although built around a completely new chassis, as it lost Raw mode, max f2 lens and movable screen.

Instead it added 10 megapixels, optical stabilisation, more tele range up to 210 (35mm eqiv.), DIGIC III and gained a lot of plastic. I don't know the numbers but it seems to me that it may have not been such a hit. So much that a G8 was never released. Instead the G9 was released a year later which further increased pixel count to 12.1, a wide and better 3.0” LCD .

Now the G10 sports wider lens at 28mm f2.8, DIGIC IV and uses a CCD with 14.7 million pixels.

Interestingly, the SX1 features a 10 Mpixels CMOS. It is the first compact camera to use this type of sensor. Although this is a smaller sensor than those used by Canon 400D - 450D SLRs.

It may be expected that, unless Canon engineers manage to stretch the 1/1.7” CCD pixel density (mind this is a relatively big sensor), the next move could be integrating CMOS into the G series. CMOS is considered as less noisy at higher ISO setting.

Using inversion ring on Nikon SLR

It's pretty simple use a ring with F bayonet on one side and adequate thread on the other for instance BR2 for lenses with 52mm filter ring and BR2A for those with a 62mm ring (most recent macros).

But then the back of the lens remains exposed, so I would suggest to use a BR3 extension ring to which can be attached a normal UV filter and shade.

This way your normal lens is re-engineered into a macro lens.

Exposure need to be stopped down for metering as diaphragm does not have any connection with the camera body.