I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but at least y'all are an
audience that appreciates some of the same things I do ...
So landing a new-to-me Pentax means, of course, being able to use
all my old Pentax glass. (Yay.) Though not having that aperture
simulator coupling means I don't get to use all my older K-mount
lenses with all of the conveniences they could be supplying. (Boo,
but I do have a handful of A lenses, and two autofocus, so not a
crippling situation.[*]) Having an M42-K/M adaptor means being
able to use my _macro_ stuff, like my Vivitar bellows. (Bigger
yay -- not having to buy more stuff to be able to shoot macro+digital!)
[*] I don't yet have any autofocus primes; I'll be keeping
an eye out for a 50mm once I come up with the money to
pay off the camera debt. But I'm liking the Sigma 28-135
zoom more and more on the *istD.
So I pulled the bellows off the camera around lunchtime, but thought
I might be wanting to reattach it soon[**] so I didn't want to go to
the hassle of removing the M42-K adaptor. So I just screwed an SMC Takumar
55/1.8 on the front. It looks pretty good there, really.
And it feels like a reasonable length for me (before it got stolen,
I really liked my 85mm for film).
[**] Okay, one wee gripe about the *istD: the overhang
for the pop-up flash gets in the way of the screw
that tightens the mounting ring to hold it in one
position -- so if I attach a tripod to the bellows,
the camera pretty much has to be in portrait
orientation. But do any modern cameras _not_ hang
over the lens mount like that?
So I shot a few pictures with the SMC Takumar, and then got to
grinning about the fact that I was using a lens forty years older
than the camera, with no hitch. (Yeah, I have to stop down manually
with the "manual-auto" switch, but whatever.)
Little things. Like using a lens and a body from different centuries
and having it all just work as expected. Little things that amuse me.
And occasionally come in handy. (I really ought to go looking for a
lens that was discontinued before I was born, just to be able to tell
people, "Oh it's a fairly recent body, but the lens is older than I
am." And grin.)
Y'all know that I wound up being a Pentax user pretty much by luck,
right? I had no idea what Pentax's advantages were, nor even what
kind of camera I'd be getting -- a friend saw me trying to use a
cheap plastic toy (think of a 35mm equivalent of a Holga, only not
even that good) and offered me one of his old cameras. He gave me
a choice of either a point-and-shoot, or "a really old camera where
you have to set everything by hand -- it doesn't even have a light
meter". That's where I got my first H3. (And why I then accumulated
more screwmount gear.) Trying to get some idea what it was that I'd
gotten my hands on and how old it was, was how I wound up on this
here mailing list.
Between the various M42, K, KA, etc. bodies I've used and enjoyed,
and the nifty (and _kind_) people I've met here, I have to feel that
my winding up with a Pentax was not merely fortuitous but downright
fortunate.
I've got to do a little shopping this afternoon. Although I've got
the 50/2.8 macro and the 28-135/3.8-5.6 zoom right here next to me,
I'm tempted to just leave the SMC Takumar and the M42-K adaptor on
the camera when I go out, Just Because I Can, and because I like the
lens.
Little things ... add up.
-- Glenn
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