Snap with DA14

With the wide angle-of-view of the DA14, I don't usually snap with it. However, in some circumstances such as congested city, it's good to have the extra coverage for snap.

On the other hand, the DA14 is a very good performer. You probable know it's a sharp lens, and you probably know it's excellent distortion control... but I think it's also very good in color and contrast reproduction. See the metallic color of the bike, and the rich color of the wooden doors.

Snap

Hey lady, should you wanted to feel if there was rain, please take off your glove first... LOL

Ten Thousand Buddha Temple

The weather is bad, so just focus on the interesting buddha sculptures there.

By DA14/2.8:

By FA77/1.8:

By FA77/1.8

Flower Show 2009, Hong Kong (with Vivitar Series 1 105/2.5 Macro)

Some shots with my Vivitar 105/2.5 Macro at the Flower Show. The lens is very old, the sharpness in great, but the pics are noticable light in color and low in contrast. These problems are easy to fix with digital, but the biggest issue is the poor performance in flare control.... I need a better macro lens for more serious works.

My first submission to online stock photo site

Ok, the photos from K20D was passed.

While the old 6MP istD is not technically good enough for stock photos, the K20D do a good job for that. Remember, the stock photo request a 48MB file, which is good enough to print a full page newspaper, on art paper.... I really think the file from K20D is as good as the old slides, if not better.

Why 6MP in Pentax istD is not good enough?

Recently I tried to upload some images to a stock photo site. The site is very picky in the technical details (I am glad that they are so), and they require the uncompressed file size to be no less than 48MB, that means the long side should be >5000 pixels (assume a 3:2 aspect ratio).

I enlarge some images from istD + DA16-45 @f/8 accordingly. The resultant image is too soft and been rejected by the stock photo site. See the 100% crop below (click image to enlarge):



I admit the image was shot with jpeg mode and not best from istD, but the RAW file don't give me much room either.

Then I try another image from K20D + FA/77@f/4 (also shot in jpeg mode, and also need a little bit enlarging in PS to meet the 48MB requirement). I am still awaiting the response from the site, but the 100% is much sharper (click image to enlarge):



Cross my finger....

p.s. I will give the istD one more chance and find some RAW file and do the same up-sizing... but I don't think it will look good....