Pentax K-1

If you are a loyal Pentax fan, you must feel like a proud parent.  For many years, Pentax fans have to endure one bad news after another.  Pentax was tossed around, first sold to Hoya, and then Ricoh.  All these changes surely hampers product development.  Add to the fact that Pentax came to the digital SLR party quite late and it was not able to carve out a sizeable market share, although many of its DSLRs are very good.  I owned a K-10D and a couple of *ist bodies.  The K-10D was a stand out, but the *ist were too also ran.  Over the years, loyal Pentaxians patiently wait for a full frame body from Pentax, who first teased its fan with the 6MP MZ-D full frame in 2000 photokina, but suffered the same fate as the Contax Digital N, and never made it to market.  Further ptrototypes of the Pentax full frame appeared over the years but it always turned out to be a disappointment and the camera never materialized, until the announcement of the K-1.

In many ways, I admire Pentax as a company but the digital camera market has not been kind to it.  They don't have the resources as the bigger camera companies do, but always managed to introduce interesting products that appeal to photo enthusiasts.  Not the best specced, but balanced and usable at a fair price, like the K-1 full frame.

I expect the K-1 to sell well at this price point.  Many Pentax faithful will upgrade, no doubt, and many others will be drawn to this camera for its low price and good features.  I think Kajiwara-san would be most pleased.

Sunset over Toronto - Pentax-K 28mm f3.5 & Sony A7.

Canon EF 40mm f2.8 STM Pancake on A7

I failed to mention, when I wrote about using Canon AF lenses on the Commlite smart adapter, is that if you set the APS-C to Auto in the A7's menu, the A7 will default to APS-C mode when shooting with this adapter.  Please beware.

The 40mm f2.8 STM is the first pancake EF lens that Canon makes, and it was the first to employ the STepper Motor (STM).  This pancake lens is a huge success, judging from what the owners have to say; it's almost universally praised, and deservingly so.

Aside from it's petite size, the low price is a major contributing factor.  When on sale, it can be had for about $150 CAD, although the price has gone up somewhat since the Canuck Looney has depreciated quite a bit against the mighty US green buck, but the price is still very reasonable.  A third reason why it's so popular, is because it's optically excellent.

Canon EF 40mm f2.8 STM on A7 with Commlite Smart Adapter

I got mine when I bought the used Canon 5D II as a bonus.  The 5D II is long gone, but the 40mm f2.8 STM remains.  This is one of the few pancake lenses I have.  The other two I often is the Pentax 40mm f2.8, and the Contax Carl Zeiss 45mm f2.8.  All of these lenses are optically competent.

When used on the Sony A7, the tiny size is no longer very tiny when it's mounted on the Commlite adapter.  In fact, the adapter is thicker than the lens itself.  Still, the combo looks quite compact on the A7.  Of all the Canon AF lenses I have tried on the A7, this one works best, but not perfect.

The Autofocus speed is workable, but slow.  The A7 II and A7R II are better bodies to use for Canon lenses since they can use the phase detect pixels on the sensor to drive the lens to focus at a much faster speed.  On the A7, or any other E-Mount or NEX mount cameras, it's definitely not for moving objects.

Lone Tree in Snow - Canon EF 40mm f2.8 @ f8 & Sony A7

There is one bug with the CommLite adapter when used with this lens.  The maximum aperture is often stuck at f3.2 and can not be opened up to f2.8.  Sometimes it can be fixed by turning the camera off and back on, but in severe cases, the lens needs to be removed and re-mounted, or battery removed and re-inserted.  At odd times, it fixes itself.  How weird.

In terms of optical quality, there is very little to complain about.  The lens is very sharp even at full aperture of f2.8, to the corners.  I can't say the same thing for the EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS, although we are comparing apples and oranges, if you look at the price difference, the 40mm f2.8 pancake is a bargain for the quality it produces.

The lens can focus really close, to 0.3 meters, but AF doesn't work all the well at close range.  It's easily fooled with the background.  Full Time Manual (FTM) focus does not work at all, this means you can not focus the lens when it is set to AF after you half pressed the shutter to fine tune focus.  You can either focus by hand, or the lens focuses itself, but not at the same time.

Fiery Sunset - Canon EF 40mm f2.8 & Sony A7

If you shoot Canon, this lens is a no brainer, and if you own a A7 II or A7R II, it's also an excellent buy, since Sony does not make something like this.  If Sony has lenses like the 40mm f2.8 STM, and the 50mm f1.8 STM, it will help Sony sell a lot more full frame bodies.  Not everyone can afford or want the Zeiss 55mm f1.8 ZA, or the 35mm f1.4 ZA. What Sony lacks, is affordable line of full frame primes.  Ironically, their A7 II and A7R II cameras work so well with Canon (and Nikon) AF lenses that people may never buy another Sony lens.  That also makes it easy for them to switch back to Canon/Nikon when they introduce cameras with compelling features.  I know that if I had an A7 II or A7R II, I would definitely buy the Canon 50mm f1.8 STM in addition to this 40mm f2.8 STM.  I would also buy the Sigma 20mm f1.4 Canon mount if I need a fast wide prime.  In a way, this solves the lens problem with Sony.

Chained - Canon EF 40mm f2.8 & Sony A7

Rodenstock Heligon 50mm f2 - Photo Set

I really like this Rodenstock Heligon 50mm f2. It's so small, and yet beautiful to look at and take pictures with.  No complains with the optical quality.  Below are few more pictures taken with it.

All pictures below taken with Sony A7 and Rodenstock Heligon 50mm f2:

2014 - A Year in Review - Part II

Personally, I think the year 2014 marks the beginning of decay for traditional full frame DSLRs, mostly due to Sony's line of mirrorless A series full frame cameras.  I am using the first generation A7 and I think it's one of the best cameras I have used.  Certainly it's not a camera for all situations. If you need to shoot sports, DSLRs still has its place, but it won't be long.  Phase detect autofocus on mirrorless is improving in leaps and bounds in the last two years.  In a few more years, I am sure the speed of tracking focus on mirrorless will be as good, if not better than DSLRs.  The only ingredient that's needed for success, is the lens line up.  This is where the Canon/Nikon systems hold a superior advantage.

Even APS-C sensor DSLR cameras are being corroded by the mirrorless competition.  The likes of Sony A6000, Fuji XT-1, Olympus E-M1/E-M5, Panasonic GH-4, and even the Samsung NX-1 are very capable cameras and some of them even offer 4K video, for those who are video centric. No DSLRs currently shoot 4K (not counting the Canon C-series).  Frankly, I don't miss the optical viewfinder all that much, and the EVF makes a world of difference for manual focus lenses, which I use most of the time.

My wish for the coming years is for Sony to make some nice, fast primes, so that I can sell off the rest of my Canon lenses, and buy the native mount Sony equivalent.

I look forward to 2015, which I believe will be another exciting year for photography!

Sunset - Sony A7 & Leitz Projection 200mm Lens.

Sunset

Sometimes mother nature can just take your breath away. A beautiful sunset can leave me speechless in wonderment. Living in the city, we don't often see the sun disappears into the horizon, at least not for me, but the exquisite colours temporarily paint everything into an amazing picture. This is one of the many reasons I always have a camera with me wherever I go.

Port of Toronto in Sunset - Olympus E-M5 & Jupiter-3 5cm f1.5. Click for larger. 

Cranes - Olympus E-M5 & Jupiter-3 5cm f1.5.

Biking in Extreme Weather in Toronto

Sunset - NEX-6 & Canon FD 35mm f2 S.S.C. Click for larger.

We have had very extreme weather this winter. After the severe ice storm that put hundreds of thousands of households in the dark, the temperature has been very cold. On Friday, when the picture above was taken, temperature was around -30 degrees Celsius when factored in the wind chill, but it was actually colder than that when biking.  The cold is not the big issue for biking; the biggest challenge is the slippery, icy road. The City is doing a good job at salting the bike paths, but during the snow, it's quite dangerous if the ground is frozen. I fell a few weeks ago on my road bike; the small, thin tires are just not very good at gripping the road. I have now switched to a mountain bike/dirt jumper with much better tires. The main streets are actually safer to bike, as they are the first to be cleared of snow, but then you will have the traffic/cars to worry about.

The other annoying thing is the wetness on the boot/shoe/pants from the splash. Fenders are a must in this kind of weather, but unfortunately my dirt jumper does not have provision for fenders, front or back. I can attach a mud guard to the seat post for the rear, but can't do much about the front. My solution is to wear a pair of rain pants, which covers most of boots.

Yes, I know. It would be much easier to drive, or take public transit, but once you get used to getting to work in 20 minutes on bike, versus more twice the time driving (including parking, and walking to the building), and no traffic to fight, you wouldn't want to get to work any other way!

Sunset on Queen Street

Sometimes you can get a glimpse of a sunset in the city; it can even be beautiful. The only trouble is capturing it faithfully.  With today's sensors, it's near impossible to record the shadow details in such a high contrast situation, without resorting to HDR of some kind.  Sensors today just do not have the dynamic range of the human eye yet, but I think they will be in a decade's time, or even less.

Sunset - NEX-5N & Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f1.4 HFT QBM 

Sunset Clouds

clouds -- NEX-5N & Jupiter-9 85mm f2 LTM. Click for larger.

Clouds are a fascinating natural phenomenon.  We know what cloud is, how it's formed, and yet, at least to me, it seems to possess mysterious powers.  We feel the pressure and uneasiness with the forming of low hanging dark clouds before the storm; we marvel at the natural beauty of the clouds that interact with the setting or rising sun.  Clouds can affect our mood and change our feelings, and clouds are infinitely variable -- you never know what shape they will take.