Field testing the SuperTak 135mm in an event

cmontoya

UP Otaku Fest 2009 (Dec. 12)

I didn't post-process these photos so I can see what the camera recorded from the lenses. It will take me some time to learn to perfectly focus most of the time and to compensate for bright scenes.

The 6 below are the only ones out of 179 that I think are ok. And even then, they don't come close to the Nifty Fifty's sharpness when using AF. Again, these aren't the len's fault but rather the results of my less than a month experience with them.

A 3.352% success rate Sad

I'll be happy if I could increase this to at least 25%. I better practice with stray dogs, me thinks Smile

See the others which I consider as failures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlo_montoya/sets/72157622984562328/

Excalibur · Expire: 2014-04-21

Well I'm a film user and I'm not impressed with my super tak 135mm f3.5 for sharpness (now what can be better than a Pentax lens made for a Pentax body for testing)...... well yeah but also checked it out on a MTL3 and Canon with adapter.
As some members praise this lens it would seem Pentax's quality control was lax if the "not so good" copies got onto the market.

TBaker · Joined: 02 Dec 2009 Posts: 344 Location: Canada

You pics seem dull but sharp none the less. After some PP these would be better.

I just received this lense and boy...it's smaller than I expected. Still waiting on the adaptor. Sad

rbelyell · Expire: 2014-01-31

i think you are much too hard on yourself! i think the photos are lovely and one persons dull is another persons atmospheric. i dont have personal experience with the super taks, but from what i have seen on this forum, the 'atmospheric' nature of the renditions seem to me to be a quality of the lens. for me, i would work with it just as you have and not fight it in pp.

cmontoya · Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 11:11 pm Post subject:

@rbelyell: You're not the first to say that to me Smile

Thanks. I'll post the photos of the static objects taken in the event in my "Super Takumar 135mm Field Test" thread. I just have to keep at it until the control of the lenses is 2nd nature.

@TBaker, Excalibur: Eh, what happened to my reply to you guys. I think I didn't click on Submit after I clicked on Preview. Ha ha ha. I can't remember what I wrote but thanks for the comments.

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

these look good to me!
of course one could add contrast and / or saturation, but I like the natural look.

montoya, about focusing: are you using any help in your cam, a split focus screen and / or a viewfinder magnifying eyepiece? Both are very helpful and recommendable!

best greetings to Cebu,
Andreas

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

The contrast appears to be rather soft in all of the photos, but nothing that a bit of PP couldn't easily handle. I'd say sharpness is quite good, really.

I notice your tag line mentions a 450D, so I wonder if you were trying Live View at all? I have an XS (1000D), which is one step down from yours in the Canon line. Same viewfinder image size, though. And I have quite a bit of trouble focusing MF lenses with my XS because the viewfinder is so small. Live View eliminates this problem.

cmontoya · Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 1:43 am Post subject:

@cooltouch: No, I didn't use LiveView. I didn't want to use my camera as a P&S while manually focusing. Smile

@kuuan: A POTN member said I should get a split focus screen but my camera is still under warranty until December 2010 (I extended it) but I'd take a look at your viewfinder magnifying eyepiece. Thanks a lot.