On Jul 25, 2005, at 3:18 AM, Bertil Holmberg wrote:
Paying dearly for a [used] Pentax lens and then only using part of it for the rare shot that needs these extreme angles seems a bit silly to me. So I'm considering the Zenitar instead that can be had brand new for $105 + S&H from Russia.
I have both the DA14/2.8 and the Zenitar-K 16/2.8 fish eye now. Haven't gotten much time to use the Zenitar yet but it is quite a nice lens for the money: nicely made, excellent resolution and contrast, not overly prone to flare. Fish eye lenses render quite differently from rectilinear lenses, of course ... due to the *ist DS' smaller format, the curvilinear rendering is not as pronounced as it would be on a 24x36mm format, but the native field of view is certainly wider than the 14mm prior to rectilinear correction if you feel so inclined. After correction, however, they seem about on par.
I like the Zenitar but it doesn't replace the DA14. The latter's correction and imaging qualities are excellent, it's full support for all the DS metering functions is a big plus, and I generally am more inclined to want rectilinear rendering than curvilinear rendering, without having to go to the trouble of post-process correction.
But if you only rarely want/need the ultrawide field of view, the Zenitar is certainly a good, very inexpensive option. I ordered mine through Rugift: it took a total of 24 days to arrive from Russia to my door in the USA.
Godfrey
