Learning to love my K-5 all over again: Agapanthus.

You know its coming up to Christmas when the Agapanthus starts to bloom. Mine is always a bit later than everyone else's because its in shade a lot of the time.

Shot this with the K-5 and my now quite elderly MC Rokkor f/1.4 50mm lens. It was left over from my film SLR days. I love the really thin DoF that I can get with this, and some of my other prime lenses.

View attachment 45948
Agapanthus by kyte50, on Flickr

Its actual focal length is a bit of a mystery. Its 50mm in the old money, but I have to use an adapter for it to work on the Pentax, and the adapter has some glass in it, which will affect the optics and f/l, not to mention the difference because its a full frame lens on a crop sensor.

I tried to get the same shot from my 50-200 zoom, and found that I had to shoot at 125mm (f/4), and even that did not quite make it. I need to find some easy way to check the real focal length of this lens, not that it matters that much, but I am curious.
 
Sue,
Don't have the K5, but do have the K20 and after using the smaller cameras without the VF, I am back to the wonder of the old film days and good MF lenses. The Tak 55 f2.0 (m42 with adapter) I'm using, is giving that smooth OOF background that causes the main subject to really stand out. I feel like a photographer again. Still like the smaller cameras for "with you all the time" use.
 
perhaps you could make a shot of a sheet of paper with square lines (like they use in math class), with the lens parallel to the paper, and measure the angle between the line that could be drawn on the paper so that it'd just be on the left hand side of the photo, and the corresponding line on the right hand side. That way you'd know the horizontal field of view, and I'm sure you could look up on the internet which diagonal FOV, and thus effective focal length, corresponds with that...
 
Sue,
Don't have the K5, but do have the K20 and after using the smaller cameras without the VF, I am back to the wonder of the old film days and good MF lenses. The Tak 55 f2.0 (m42 with adapter) I'm using, is giving that smooth OOF background that causes the main subject to really stand out. I feel like a photographer again. Still like the smaller cameras for "with you all the time" use.

Ditto on the small cameras, I'm really chuffed with the XZ, Ricoh and F550. But I love the K-5 and breaking out the old lenses, even with an adapter, gives me a sense of how it used to be for me. No digital help there, and no auto anything :)

perhaps you could make a shot of a sheet of paper with square lines (like they use in math class), with the lens parallel to the paper, and measure the angle between the line that could be drawn on the paper so that it'd just be on the left hand side of the photo, and the corresponding line on the right hand side. That way you'd know the horizontal field of view, and I'm sure you could look up on the internet which diagonal FOV, and thus effective focal length, corresponds with that...

To be honest, I just can't be bothered to go to that much trouble. I guess my curiosity isnt that strong after all :) but, thanks for the suggestion and I will keep it in mind if I change my mind. In the meantime its a nice short (if a bit heavy) lens with a focal length I would have to pay lots to get, in a prime. Just have to re-learn to use manual settings. I've gotten lazy with all these autofocus this and auto shutter that.
 
I just bought a k20d as I had loads of pentax k mount lenses so dying to get out to try it! Its very very heavy after using compact cameras for so long :( dont think ill be bringing it anywhere unless im going in the car!
 
Great photo again Kyte!!! I love flower closeups like that :)

I took a few the other day with the EP3 bt haven't done anything with them yet, you have inspired me to do something lol :)
 
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