Pentax SMC-M 28mm glued to the camera for over a year

[William]

I've neglected to post here for quite a few years now. In the interim I bought a Canon 6D, thinking that I'd enjoy full frame more. However I didn't get along well with the EF 50/1.4 that
had been bought alongside it. The AF didn't seem particularly good and the lens lacked character. Why I didn't just put on a beautiful M42 50mm such as a Super Takumar or even tried
the 40/2.8 Canon pancake is a mystery.

I'd been eyeing up the Fuji X cameras for a while, thinking it'd be great to have such high quality in a small, beautiful form with a real shutter speed dial and looking at images and
being blown away by the colour and quality of the rendering. A brilliant deal came along, a new XE-1 with the 27, 16-50 and 50-230 lenses for about half what I'd paid for the second
hand 6D body alone. The zoom lenses were sold, as was the 6D. The camera had to be shipped to Dublin and upon finding out the cost of sending it insured to Ireland I realised that I
could travel there myself for the same amount.

A trip across Ireland between it's Eastern and Westernmost points with the XE-1 and 27mm was the inevitable result and I learned to love both Ireland, this camera and the true normal
FOV. (I'll post a thread in the AF section.) It fits in a large pocket and the AF is very accurate if slow. Having real time exposure preview in the EVF meant that it was near impossible
to under/over expose. Sadly, after two years the 27mm seemed to die on me. The dreaded "Turn the camera off, then on again" message appeared.

I dug out a SMC-M 28/2.8 and at first it seemed a poor substitute. After a while I grew to love it. Using the Velvia preset as a basis for RAW editing brought a huge boost to contrast
and colour saturation. Instead of fighting to achieve good contrast as I used to with MF lenses, I've started dropping the contrast slightly and restraining certain colours a little. The
quality of the sensor and image processing has also played a huge part. Once while changing lenses I handed the 28/2.8 to a friend who dropped it so now I'm using an SMC-M 28/3.5
instead which seems pretty similar and in these examples it's tricky to spot where the lenses changed over. While this Pentax isn't without flaw it is certainly a very capable standard lens:


Richmond Park, London.


The ridge between Catbells and High Spy, Lake District.


Kings Cross, London.


Brentford, London.


Natural History Museum, London.


Gunnersbury Park, London.


Home Park, London.


Virginia Water, Surrey.


Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, London.


Southall, London.


Romiley, Stockport.


Salford Quays.


Castle Howard, North Yorkshire.


Castle Howard, North Yorkshire.

[Sjak]

These images not only display the quality of the lens, but also you ability to use it. Well done and thanks for sharing!

[sarrasani]

very pleasurable images. and good lens, I use and like it (I know and use also olympus 28, zeiss-contax 28 and leica-r 28, and this last one is my favourite).
All the best,
Sandro