I'm now selling my photos!!!

I now host galleries of my favorite photos @ www.lloydshell.zenfolio.com Feel free to surf over there to see photo's that may have drifted into the darkest reaches of the archives here on Blogspot.

I also have begun selling my photographs when requested, I can handle most sizes and finishes either locally or via my on-line printing service.

Thanks for looking!

Lloyd
lloydshell@gmail.com

Monday, August 11, 2008

Lens Lust

Found an excuse to go to a local camera shop (Inkley's, a Ritz affiliate) that stocks Pentax equipment. Wanted to pick up a step-up adapter, which is a thingy that allows you to put filters on a lens that are larger than the threads on the front of that lens. Saves you having to buy too many filters. Just buy one large enough for your largest lens then buy adapters to put it on all the smaller lenses.

Anyway, while there I looked at two wide angle lenses, the Pentax DA 10-17 fisheye, and the Sigma 10-20. I have lusted after the Sigma for awhile and I wanted to look at them both. They are both unique lenses and not really comparable despite the similiarity of their focal length. Here is what I thought, in no particular order:

Pentax DA 10-17 F3.5-4.5 Fisheye:

What a wild point of view! This lens focal length is equivalent to 15-26mm in film camera terms. The widest I had for my Canon was 20mm. And this lens is fisheye too which really creates a uniquely distorted field of view. It could be a fun lens to play with perspective. The feel is pretty good, not as heavy as I expected but heavier and more solid than the DA 18-55 "Kit" zoom. The zoom ring is light to turn and not particularly damped.

Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6:

What a BIG Solid chunk of lens. This thing is huge, and being an EX lens (Sigmas designation for "Pro" glass) this thing just feels well put together. Did I mention it was huge? It is really large in diameter... it feels......good! The zoom is MUCH more tight and takes more effort to move but it feels like if I bump it accidentally, it will stay put. This lens will definitely stay on my lust list. It will have to wait for lots of other things, but one day it will be bought and I think I will take some magnificent pictures with it.

1 comment:

Mark & Kay Duke said...

Lloyd, glad to see another Pentaxian around the place. I have the Sigma 10-20 and absolutely love it. I live in West Valley City, and would be happy to meet up, you could even take the lens for a spin if that would help. Go to www.markdukephoto.com - take a look at the What's new section, and look at the Kolob Canyon shots. All of them taken with the 10-20.I took these shots last Saturday, Aug 16. My contact info is on my site. Looking forward to hearing from you