Plastic Fantastic

On a trip to Italy last autumn, I came by an unusually well equipped camera shop in Siena. Amidst a lot of other stuff, they had several Pentax lenses on their shelves. One of them being the SMC Pentax DA 1:2.4 35mm AL. This is a fairly cheap piece of glass already, but the price … Read more

Color-Ultron

Color-Ultron på min K-5 II

I have been fiddling around with a new lens. Well, not actually quite new, to be honest. It’s a Color-Ultron 1.8/50 from Voigtländer, a company which was founded in Vienna in 1756, making it the oldest optical company in the camera world.

My lens is only around 40 years old, though. It is from the time when Voigtländer was owned by Rollei, but based on a design by the previous owner of the brand, Carl Zeiss. Despite its name and heritage, this particular lens is made in Singapore, not in Germany.

But it has all the characteristics of a classic 50 mm of the film SLR-era: bright, sharp and solid all-metal construction. This particular lens is also featuring an M42 screw-mount. It can be used on a modern DSLR, such as my K-5 II, with the help of an adapter – in this case an M42 to K-mount.

Read more

K-5 II: First impressions

In recent years, my DSLR has been a Pentax K10D. It is in many ways an excellent camera, but it also has its weaknesses, and since the model was launched in 2006, it is in many ways outdated by today’s standard. In fact, Pentax has launched four new top models since K10D. Finally, I thought it was time for a replacement, and have bought a K-5 II. These are some of my first impressions after a few weeks of use. The target audience is primarily other Pentax users, who might be considering an upgrade.

Read more

Leica SMC-A

In the middle of Copenhagen there is a rather posh photo store. Often, when I pass by, I see a small mountain of Holgas in the shop window, sitting between Leicas and Linhofs. FYI the Holga is a Chinese toy camera, known for its cheap plastic lens, false light, heavy vignetting and unpredictable colour rendering … Read more

Grabbing the long end…

…using the SMC-A 135/2.8

Most of my pictures are shot with focal lengths below 55mm. But sometimes its fun to change perspective.

Nytorv
Nytorv (1/250, F7,1)

One of the nice things about being a Pentax use is that you don’t have to be a millionaire to try out different types of lenses. Since you can mount any Pentax lens manufactured since 1975 on a present day Pentax DSLR, there is a wide range of second hand lenses to choose from.

Read more

Pentax – dead in Danmark?

Seems like Pentax is becoming a rare species in Danish photo shops. As far as I know, the only shop with a decent selection of Pentax cameras and lenses in the greater Copenhagen area is …. in Malmö, Sweeden.

Read more

New camera

Since the introduction of K20D, the new Pentax top-of-the line model, the price of the 1½ year old K10D has plummeted. At the time of writing, it is available for less than 5.000 DKr. (approx. 665 €) with the kit lens. That is so cheap, that it would be almost irresponsible not to by one. … Read more

News from Pentax

Pentax has announced two new camera bodies: K20D is an update of the “enthusiast-model” K10D, where the most notable new feature is a newly developed 14.6 MP sensor from Samsung. K200D is an update of the “entry-level-model” K100D. However, features-wise this new camera is very close to the present “enthusiast-model” K10D. More information can be found here, … Read more