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  Saturday  September 20  2008    10: 35 AM

photography


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This is a test shot with my Pentax Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 50mm/1.4. It's one of the lenses that sat on my window sill for the summer burning out the yellow. A very remarkable lens on a 35mm camera but it takes on very interesting qualities when mounted on my digital Pentax *ist DL. The *ist DL does not have a full frame sensor. It has a 1.5 crop factor. This makes a 50mm lens, which is normal on a 35mm camera, equivalent to a 75mm lens when mounted on my *ist DL. A 75mm lens that can open up to f1.4. One of the problems with zooms is that they are slow. The zoom on my *ist DL is f4.5-5.6. At 50mm it is at the f5.6 end. One advantage of the f1.4 is the ability to use it in much lower light but also, when using f1.4, to have a much narrower zone in focus which allows you to separate the subject from the background, like in the shot above. The 50/1.4 is also legendary not only for it's sharpness but also for it's smooth out of focus areas. The 50/1.4 makes for a very compact portrait lens on the digital *ist DL. I will be playing with this some more!