26 July 2007

What Am I Doing Up Here?


Took a drive and chanced upon this image. Thought about coming back on foot to find a better angle. As luck would have it, passed by the billboard a few days later. While waiting for the traffic lights, I wound down the windows of my car and took 2 quick shots. Converted as a duotone. Pentax K100D with Sigma 90mm f2.8 Macro.

24 July 2007

My Pentax Journey

Hello and welcome to my blog. I'm Denis Lim and I've started this blog to document some of the images taken with my Pentax K100D. Having used Minolta and Nikon SLRs for the longest time, it was quite a change to "jump ship" and land myself in the Pentax camp. It's been a fun time using this seriously underrated camera amidst the sea of Canons and Nikons that are so prevalent here in Singapore.

What has made me excited about Pentax is the blend of value and performance. Backward compatibility for older manual lenses gets an old manual focus fellow like me rubbing my hands in glee. I've been enjoying the fruits of this with some recent lens acquisitions. Lens buying addiction? Perhaps, but I'm starting from scratch.

One of my favourite lenses is the Voigtlander Macro Apo-Lanthar 125mm.















Manufactured by Cosina of Japan, it is one of the few remaining worldwide in Pentax PKA mount as they have announced that the production run on this and other Voigtlander SL lenses has ended and that they will produce the new Carl Zeiss lenses.

This lens is truly a keeper and I would highly recommend this lens to any Pentaxian simply because it produces images which are extraordinarily sharp and gives very snappy contrast. This lens has no visible distortion, no vignetting, and no chromatic aberration (ie. purple fringing) no doubt due to use of Apochromatic lens elements. The lens is usable right from its maximimum aperture and beats any Pentax macro lens I know. Its 9 aperture blades gives it its characteristic creamy bokeh.

Cosina did a fantastic job on the quality. Construction of the lens is first rate - all metal, no plastic anywhere and about the only negative thing I can say about this lens is that it weighs in at 690g because of this. This lens is probably the fastest macro lens you can find for Pentax and you get f2.5 even at 1:1 magnification! Viewfinder image is very bright. The lens coating is great, plus the rectangular lens hood and metal screw-in lens cap are first rate.

Using this lens is really magical when you look in the viewfinder. You can shoot at something in the distance (as a tele) and continuously focus down up close to objects and see the narrow DOF (as a macro). I find it more versatile than I originally thought.