Some recent events

It's been quite some time since I last posted to my blog. A number of events naturally took place. Notably my trusty F 70-210/4-5.6 bit the dust and my quest for an everyday (zoom) lens finally came to an end.

As for the tele-zoom lens if you have one you're willing to sell, please leave me a message.

Now the everyday walk-around lens quest. It started a long time ago with Sigma 28-135/3.8-5.6 IF AF Macro which was very average. Then came Pentax SMC FA 28-70/4 AL which I think is really the best solution for the problem - small, light, excellent optically. It expired due to dreaded element separation issue. Then came Pentax SMC FA 28-105/4-5.6 IF. It was reasonably good but I wanted better.

Here comes the interesting part. I decided to try modern Pentax SMC FA 28-105/3.2-4.5 IF & AL. I bought it second hand. Ergonomically this is truly wonderful lens. But there is one gotcha. The gotcha is sample variation. Mine was probably not the best sample. It would focus at 105, I mean electronics would say it was in focus, but image would come out soft - the focus missed. I struggled with it somewhat, but evidently my *istD (firmware ver. 1.11) did not quite work with it. So I had to return it to seller.

Thus I was left with no choice but to accept to my Pentax family a non-Pentax member. I chose Tamron 28-75/2.8 (letter soup omitted). This is truly wonderful lens, or at least my sample is. It is sharp even fully open, it is properly integrated with all the electronics, and, luckily, it rotates in the same direction as Pentax lenses do. So, except that Tamron label in front and the letter soup (omitted) around the lens barrel - this could really be a Pentax lens.

My hunt for everyday walkaround lens is finally over.

Here is a shot I took with this lens:

Do it yourself Chocolate

One of our favorite places to spend Friday evening is Rothchild boulevard in Tel Aviv. Furthermore ;-) Max Brenner cafe is our daughter's favorite spot.



So here she is waiting for her chocolate...



And finally it arrives so that now she can enjoy the process of making and ultimately consuming the happiness vitamine.

Sprite

I've decided to resume my "take camera to work" project. So here is a recent shot I made just by the entrance to the building where I work.

Cold Steel of Magnum

Through Mike Joshnston's blog I have arrived to site of this Magnum Photographer. I took my time and looked at all galleries in Stories section... Generally, being rather amateur and not too good at that, I tend to like work of Magnum photographers almost without a question. Among recent works I have seen notably Abbas' exhibition "People of Abraham" in Oslo this August was very strong, very impressive. Here, although several works were very emotional, I got a general impression of rather cold, rather formal, steely approach. I couldn't really feel that the author was truly engaging the subject, so to say.

Naturally, I cannot get even remotely close to the level of work presented, yet it is the very first time I did not exactly like the work of well known maestro...

Fascinating...

Low Light, Extremely Low Light

Hi!

As Jeffery Smith suggested to me I started trying low light near open aperture photography. This is great fun to me. Indeed it is illogical to have fast lenses, such as Pentax Limited series and use them at middle apertures, such as f/8.

Yesterday we took our daughter to the beautiful show performed by children of honorable and famous Yury Kuklachev. So I took with me my longest prime lens, the Pentax 77/1.8 Limited and took advantage of first row sits. I admit I am very unexperienced in this kind of shooting. In fact, I am total kludge.



The lens performed very well here. Which cannot really be said about the photographer. I did not exactly manage to resolve the equation of watching the show, sometimes through the viewfinder waiting for the right moment, and performing focus tracking manually...



Undoubtedly Dmitry and Marina Kuklachev are doing very well walking the path of Dmitry's father. Our daughter Galia was very happy she agreed to come with us.