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I noticed people in general are interested in how each lens sounds (myself included), so I thought it would be helpful to put together a video demonstrating a set of lenses and how they sound when doing auto-focus (AF). This set is Pentax as it is the brand I use currently. The other benefits of this video is that you can get a feel for how the lens handles and what the focus travel is, if any (some lenses are internal focus). Here is the video on Youtube (720p version available): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3hOiOpCYsA The camera doing the auto-focus is a Pentax K-7 and the one taking the video is a Pentax K-5 using 720p 30fps video mode. The lenses included in the video: Pentax DA 14mm f/2.8 ED IF Digital Auto Focus Lens Pentax SMCP-DA 10mm-17mm f/3.5-4.5 (IF) Auto Focus Fisheye Zoom Lens Pentax D-FA 100mm f/2.8 Macro WR (Weather Resistant) Auto Focus Lens Pentax FA 31mm f/1.8 AL Wide Angle Auto Focus Limited Edition Lens Pentax DA 50-200mm f/4-5.6 ED WR Auto Focus Telephoto Zoom ...

Recently I had a question about the Kenko teleconverter about if it functions with SDM lenses and if the teleconverter hurts image quality. I thought this was a good request and warranted an article or two on the blog. If you are not familiar with teleconverters (TC for short), they attach between the camera and lens allowing you more reach, or rather more magnification. Some people feel they are not necessary and hurt image quality, but I personally feel they can be of use and some of the available teleconverters don’t cause large drops in image quality. Here is the Kenko teleconverter sandwiched between a DA* 300mm lens and K10D camera body: The lens, teleconverter, and camera. Pentax does not have any teleconverters available in the USA for sale, but private sellers at places like the pentaxforums.com marketplace have a few options available. The Kenko Pz-AF 1.5x Teleplus SHQ is an older teleconverter that is still available in Japan that is available here through those secondary me...

Disclaimer: There is no warranty or assuredness that the text provided is accurate, so you must try at our own personal risk. Know that you could screw your camera up if you are not careful and the risk is only yours to take. If you don’t want to take the risk, send the camera in to Pentax for servicing. It’s that simple! Now with the Myth Busters-esque disclaimer out of the way… I recently took the K10D w/ FA 50mm f1.4 to a park around sunset after a meeting with my friend. I was planning on using the images for a review of the FA 50mm f1.4 lens. Upon skimming through the resulting photos such as the one below: Missed focus My thoughts from this previous post I had made about an auto focus anomaly the K10D had with the DA 14mm f2.8 were confirmed. My most used shooting style is to be in selectable point auto focus mode with a gravitation toward the 4 “rule of thirds” points. I had noticed in those images that the subject I had intended to be in focus was not. What was in focus...

I was planning on writing an article about my three wide angle lenses (14mm f2.8, 10-17mm fisheye, and Zenitar 16mm fisheye). I started taking a few sample photos with each and noticed something strange. The images at wide aperture with the 14mm f2.8 looked really poor. Initially I was thinking that user error was involved, so I went through various processes about… 3 or 4 times with the same result. Eventually I tried the 14mm f2.8 on my other camera body and received an extremely sharp image at the same aperture setting. It’s just a fact of life that there are tolerances and levels of variation when electronic and mechanical devices are aligned and configured. What I know now is that my K10D has an issue with something called front/back focusing, so far I only know it happens on the 14mm f2.8. The mechanical device inside is slightly miss-aligned so when I take a large aperture shot, the intended area of discernible focus isn’t where I expected it to be producing a seemingly un-sharp...