Sunday, January 03, 2010
Fishing Trip with K-x and DA16-45mm
We gave our oldest grandsons a fishing trip for their Christmas present. So right after the New Year, I spent a nice Sunday afternoon off the coast of Dana Point, CA with my two sons teaching the grandkids how to fish. I had seen quite a few posts on various forums asking about the DA16-45mm lens, so I shot their entire outing with the K-x and this lens. Photos shot at ISO 400 at apertures between f/5.6 and f/8.0 thanks to great light on the Pacific ocean this particular afternoon. Images shot in RAW and processed into jpegs for posting on blogger using Adobe Camera Raw 5.5 and PhotoShop CS4. Click on either thumbnail to see larger image.
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8 comments:
An excellent lens. But is it not discontinued now?
This was a great lens when it was new, and when it is not underexposing. The range, fixed aperture, size and weight are all just right (except that it blocks the RTF at 28mm and wider).
Although mine was shipped back to Pentax Japan for calibration years ago to make it exposed better, I still sold it finally as mechanically it deteriorated such that more and more image corner blurness was seen at the wide side.
I am now with my new K-x and re-considering to get the final stock of this discontinued lens. I hope it will work well for the one to two years to come before I'll get rid of it again (or before that may the DA line have already been abandoned. Who knows?).
Robin and RiceHigh,
I am not sure where this misunderstanding comes from, but the DA16-45mm is still a "current" model, it has not been discontinued, and we still sell this on a regular basis here in the US. Hope this info helps.
Ned
Ned, the information for the discontinuation of the DA 16-45 comes from the Pentax Japanese homepage in which the lens has been listed as discontinued for quite a while now:-
http://www.pentax.jp/japan/imaging/digital/lens/index35_others.html
I guess if US still have the supplies, those are possibly the last stock of production for the lens model - my wild guess, though. In contrast, I think you should know much better than any of us for whether the DA 16-45 is really discontinued and possibly you should be able to find out the source of your goods being marketed anyway! :-)
Will there be an update to the K-x and K-7 for full manual control of video recording?
They're such great cameras, I have the K-x my self, sold my precious K10D to get it, and I love it. But the lack of full manual control makes them less great than they could have been.
And the fans want full manual control as can be seen here: Maybe An Email Camapign To Persuade Pentax To Give Us Full Manual Video Mode.
And now Canon is coming with the new EOS 550D that has 1080p 30FPS with full manual control as well.
RH,
Probably a matter of semantics or language, but to clarify the 16-45mm status: Japan Sales decided to stop selling the 16-45. However,it is still available in other countries.
I decided to take it on my fishing trip, as I have not shot with it in awhile, and I wanted to see how it performed with the new K-x sensor.
I was happy to see that it's still a great value lens, not overly fast, but light weight, relatively fast focus, overall nice optical quality, and reasonably well controlled distortion at 16mm.
I have plenty of inventory left here in the US, so if you want to replace your tired, older copy, I'd be more than happy to give you the measurebator's discount.
Ned
Well, Ned, thanks for your kind and special offer (which I do not need anyway)! :-)
I am now thinking of getting either the old DA 16-45 or its successor, as widely believed, the DA 17-70. In Hong Kong, I can get from the last stock of the DA 16-45 at about US$325 whereas the DA 17-70 is for around US$600, which is almost doubled the price.
As you had mentioned, the DA 16-45 excels in its lightweight and a little bit less distortion at the widest end. It is also 1mm wider for the FOV. As for the DA 17-70, it has more tele reach, less obvious CA (as I know) and it does not block the RTF at the wider side but I have not much confidence on its SDM for what it has been widely reported by many Pentaxians for its failure and lower reliability.
So, my decision is almost up, its the DA 16-45 (again)! Well, I think I do need a better standard zoom after all.
Well, Ned, just to let you know I have just purchased a new DA 16-45 (again, in HK), the cost is about $333 net, which is a good deal IMO. This price is much cheaper than the B&H price of the same lens, which is just $600!(?)
I once wished to buy the DA 17-70 but finally this option is rejected owing to various reasons.
Like you, I shoot kids a lot. And, your recent kid shots just "push" me to buy the DA 16-45 sooner and faster. What a Blog! ;-)
Thanks, Ned, for sharing from time to time!
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