Mark, Good Luck with your new 200 macro..I also have one and use it a lot..Joe
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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