I will sell you my Tamron adaptall 28mm f2.8 in excellent condition if you can get an adaptall mount your self. I never ever use it, because I also have a Pentax A 28mm. My adaptall mount I will keep - it is sitting on my 3.5/75-150mm Tamron, which is quite good for candid portraits.
Why don't you make me an offer at [EMAIL PROTECTED] ? Unfortuneately I already sold my M 2.0/85mm as well as my A 2.8/135mm a few weeks ago. Cheers Jens Bladt mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://hjem.get2net.dk/bladt -----Oprindelig meddelelse----- Fra: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sendt: 6. august 2004 20:48 Til: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Emne: Re: first question >should >be looking for a 100mm prime lens for the portrait lens, but I can't seem >to >find much on ebay. Actually none, except for some screw mounts. There >are >a lot of 135mm lenses. Would the do similar things? The normal "portrait lens" range is 85-120mm, but a 135 might work for some sorts of portraits. The issue is that a 50mm lens tends to produce a little bit of "wide angle distortion" of features compared to what we are used to, whereas the slightly longer focal length of 85-120 "compresses" the relative size of the nose and ears back to what looks normal or attractive to most people. For many many people an 85mm lens is the standard portrait lens, rather than 100. Much longer than 105mm and you start to get a portrait that some people see as unnaturally "compressed" in the facial features. If you are actually looking for a telephoto lens rather than a "portrait" lens, I might recommend a 200mm instead. They are cheap and plentiful. Pentax made a couple of 85s, all of which are a bit spendy and hard to find, to wit: 85mm f/1.8 SMC ("K") which is very rare and sought after, thus expensive and hard to find. 85mm f/1.4 A* and 85mm f/1.4 FA*, both very nice lenses but WAY too expensive to cut your teeth on. 85mm f/2.0 M, which is small, light, and somewhat affordable. It has a mediocre reputation, primarily due to a bit of softness at large apertures. Depending on what your portrait preferences are, this may not be an issue. This is the lens you are most likely to find on the market. Pentax made a couple of 100/105s, all good, and also relatively expensive and hard to find. 100mm f/2.8 M, which seems to go for about $175 in used camera shops and has a good reputation. 105mm f/2.8 SMC ("K"), which is rare and sought after. I have not seen one of these on the used market in a while. 100mm f/2.8 and f/4 macros, which have a good reputation but macros are likely to be larger and more expensive than would be ideal for portrait work, and by definition a macro lens is optimized to be equally sharp across the field in one flat plane (so you can photograph stamps and the like) which may well mean that theya are less well optimized for portraiture of 3D objects at longer ranges. Pentax made a couple of 120mm lenses, but I have never seen one on the used market. I think they were designed for portraiture. Given that the 135/3.5 M lens is cheap, good, and readily availible, it might be a good alternative to finding or paying for one of the above. Two 135s to avoid would be the 135/2.8 A and the Takumar Bayonet 135/2.5, which have poor reputations. They might serve, but you can do better for not much extra money. >As far as the wide angle goes is it worth trying to hunt down a 24mm or >is 28mm just as good? As a novice, I'd steer you aggressively towards the 28. Optically, 28s are better than 24s almost uniformly, plus they are substantially cheaper and easier to find. I'd recommend the 28/3.5 M as the best choice for "good and cheap". I find 24mm to be a bit of a challenge compositionally because of the wide angle of view. You have to get very close to make smaller subjects fill the frame, and perspective distortion is very easy to achieve whether you want it or not. I have always had a 24mm or 20mm lens in my bag, but I find the 28mm is still my standard wide-angle. Mind you, 24 IS noticeably wider. Often, this is not a good thing until and unless you know what to do with it. DJE
