A couple weeks ago I stumbled into a remarkably golden colored hog-nose
snake. I broke out my macro setup to get a photo, but to my dismay the
shots were way over exposed. I managed to make some adjustments and was
able to get good shots in the field, but it looked my my A* 200mm Macro,
which was repaired a year ago, was again on the fritz. A few days later
I was home for lunch and spotted a red admiral butterfly on a bush in my
back yard - again, major problems with exposure, though I was able to
work around them.
Examining my old lens I saw that it stops down two stops off from where
it should - for example, set the camera body to f 16 and it stops down
to f8. But the shutter speed will be set to the f16 speed. If I use the
aperture ring, it stops down correctly. I looks like the repair I had
done last year has come undone....
So - I bought a "new" A* 200 off ebay last week. I've been out of town
on business this week, and just picked up the lens last night. Ran just
a few quick test shots, but I have to say it is just smashing to have
what is essentially a brand new A* 200mm macro back in the kit. I hope
to take it out this weekend - the Dot Tailed Whiteface dragonflies
should be appearing about now....
I plan to sell my old A* 200 off to help recoup the costs. While I am
super happy to have this lens, the only thing that is depressing is that
two of my last 3 lens purchases were to replace legacy lenses that you
just can't get anymore for the Pentax system. That would be the 200
macro and a Tokina 400mm f5.6 (my original Tokina got clouded with
fungus).... The Tokina was only about $300 to replace - but it bugs me
that I'm spending money on old lens to maintain my lens lineup, and
there are no NEW Pentax lenses to fill the slots. Well, I plan to be
first in line for that 550mm lens when it shows up....
On the plus side, I set aside a portion of my income from photography to
reinvest in what is now my hobby and over the last could years, since
there is not much to buy in the Pentax world, the account got pretty
flush. Not such a bad situation - I've finally spent more on a gear than
on film and chemistry.
Lastly - I almost wound up moving over to Nikon as a result of all this.
If I could not find a good replacement for my 200mm macro, I figured to
get a D7000 ($1200), a NIkkor 200mm Micro ($1400) and suitable Nikon
flash and cable (~$350). I put a slight premium on sticking with Pentax
and won the A* 200 by a tiny margin over the last minute snipers. Pentax
once offered the most complete lens line up of any manufacturer. With
limited lenses etc they have offered a great lineup of lenses. But they
are still short of the specialty glass - super telephotos, serious
macros (beyond 100mm) and ultra wide-angles. Hopefully they are on the
way back there (and again, the 550mm lens is a good sign....)
Here's a link to the photos of golden hognose snake I mentioned above:
http://www.markcassino.com/b2evolution/index.php/title-5
And here is a link to the Red Admiral also mentioned above:
http://www.markcassino.com/b2evolution/blog6.php/2012/05/11/red-admiral
MCC
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