Another Kayak Outing

After weeks without being on the water it was good to get out on the Exe Estuary today on the kayak. I took the K-7 with me, with its 50-200 DA WR lens, and was rewarded by the sight of three RS Vision dinghies, sailed by students on an Exe Sailing Club instructors course, accompanied by the club safety RIB.

I have reverted to the out-of-the-box settings for the control wheels, and had no problems. A selection from the shoot can be seen here.

The Shower Test

I have just come across this - and wonder if I have got the bottle to try it for myself (with salt water, of course...)

Another Piece of Legacy Equipment

I have found the lens I used to use most of the time with my K-1000. It's a Sigma 35-135 f3.5/4.5 I bought in the early 80s, so it's nearly 30 years old. It's an 'A' lens, so it works on the K-7 in manual focus mode. Zoom/focus is by the same "one touch" ring; push-pull zoom and twist focus. This has a very smooth, well-damped action. At 135mm it has a macro mode, too. Many holiday snaps have been taken with this lens over the years, and as they were seldom blown up beyond 6x4 I never really saw what the lens was capable of.

The answer is - it's rather soft and images definitely lack contrast. A lens hood (I have mislaid that) might help a bit with the contrast. Overall verdict: still a useful, versatile lens but image quality not up to what I now find acceptable. I am still amazed that such an old lens can be attached to a modern camera body and be fully functional. Try doing that with a 30 year old item of computer equipment! It says a lot for Pentax's original design for the K-mount.