Big Decisions

[fox_c]

What could prompt me to break such a long silence? Why a new camera of course!!

I think for anyone who's been reading me for a while knows, I'm a pretty keen amateur photographer. About 5 years ago, I upgraded my otherwise perfectly lovely Olympus point and shoot for a "bridge" camera in the guise of a Panasonic DMC-FZ50. The biggest reason I didn't

Comments

[kuoirad]

I'm glad the lenses and flash are in a loving home. ;)

My guess as to the softness of the focus? It's the lens. Kit lenses aren't that good.

I would recommend saving up your shekels and looking for a (used) Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 lens - it was my primary lens with my K10 and gave me some good shots. I think this is the right one, actually:

http://lnk.nu/ebay.com/1w6e

There's also a 24-70mm version of that lens that incorporates a "High Speed Motor" (HSM) for autofocus - that one costs a bunch more.

I'd set the kit lens aside for good and make the 70-300 your "daily driver" for the time being - it's not the fastest lens, but unless you're shooting in low(er) light or faster motion, it should be fine for now.

[fox_c]

Obviously my brain is still in a fog as I had completely forgotten you were on LJ! silly me.

Thanks again for letting me relieve you of your spare bits of kit! I've not played much with the new lenses (cue getting sick immediately upon arrival), but I'm super excited about them. I'm not sure the 70-300mm will be my standard lens if for no other reason that it's much heavier than I can carry comfortably for an extended period. That said I have it now and as you point out the other alternatives are pricey. Best use what I have for now! As suspected this DSLR kick is going to be something of an expensive hobby.

[kaveypie]

If you can, test your lens on another Pentax body and check your body with another lens (preferably one someone knows for sure is pin sharp).

We bought a lens that backfocused and I had to return a couple of replacements before got one that didn't!

[fox_c]

Thanks for the tip - I need to go out shooting with my new lenses from kuoirad soon and that will probably tell me much. The sample photos I've seen on flickr, dpreview.com and the pentax boards suggest it probably is more of a lens issue than a camera one.

What is backfocusing?

[kaveypie]

Its' where the lens isn't aligned correctly, so it actually focuses short of where you "ask" it to. And I guess you can get forward focusing too, logically speaking, though not come across that term... hmmm.

Basically, I tested mine by using a ruler and tripod, then focusing on particular distances, with very shallow DOF so there was only a narrow plane of focus and looking at the image to see where it actually focused.

[fox_c]

Woah, that must have been really tedious to bottom out, but well done! I think I would have assumed it was me misfocusing!