Julia, Welcome aboard! The main thing to remember is that the photographer is the most important ingredient. Next is probably the lenses. You didn't tell us what kind of lens(es) you have. To do portraiture, it is always nice to have a short telephoto (between 75 & 135) with a fairly wide aperture to allow you to selectively blur the background. The 85mm is considered a typical portrait focal length with an aperture from 1.4 to 2.0 range.
On this page, scroll down a bit and you will see sample shots taken at various apertures to give you an idea of what you might look for in a portrait lens. http://www.phred.org/pentax/lensgal/fa85_14/fa85_14.html Right now your camera is just fine. Learn technique and get a portrait lens and you will be well on your way. Don't be afraid to look at used lenses, even the older K or M lenses. When doing portraits, you will want to control both the aperture and the focus, so an A lens or AF lens doesn't really buy you much. Right now, KEH has an M 85/2.0 in Excellent Plus condition for $379 and an M 100/2.8 in Excellent condition for $189. Either would make a very fine portrait lens. HTH, Bruce Dayton Monday, April 08, 2002, 3:46:49 PM, you wrote: JG> Hi All, JG> This is my first message here and I've never seen this format before - JG> Wow... JG> I have been studying photography for a little over a year (mainly, just JG> reading a lot and shooting a lot). I have a ZX-M. I bought it simply JG> because it was the most basic camera with no bells and whistles and I JG> figured that it would be the best to learn on. JG> Here is my dilemma. I would like to pursue portraiture more seriously JG> in the future (kind of starting now) and I'm torn on how to upgrade. Do JG> I 1) go for a better body - MZ-S? or PZ-1P 2) go for better lenses (in JG> which case recommendations would be greatly appreciated) 3) Keep saving JG> and eventually go to either medium format or digital. Budget is an JG> issue - so I can't do all at once. JG> Help? JG> Thanks for any replies, JG> Julia - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
