The Power of Light

The beauty of nature is everywhere. You just have to look for it, and you will find it.

Only minor adjustment in curve.

Broken lens - Tamron 70-300

A careless accident, I dropped my Tamron 70-300 lens on the floor. The zoom ring probably gets off-geared, and the lens doesn't zoom with the zoom-ring. However, it still can be zoom with push-and-pull of the lens barrel. Focusing and optics seems fine to me. Here's a few shots AFTER the crash - I think it's fine.

istD - the very strong camera!

I get my istD at Apr 2004, almost 4 years from now. I fired it over 40,000 times; dropped it for several times; and it's still going. Over all these years, it only hung in 2 incidents, and both were because I use it when raining for a few hours.... in both cases the camera get life on when it was dry after an hours time. Amazing, hug?

What's more, I recently took it to a trip again, and find myself still satisfy with the picture quality of this old bleed DSLR. The photo gallery is here, and below are some of the pictures:

(by FA77/1.8)


(by DA16-45/4)


(by DA16-45/4)


(by Tamron 70-300/4-5.6)

Go Karting

Just took a few shot in-between my own karting session. Since photo is not my main objective, just bring my cheap (and light) Tamron 70-300. It doesn't let me down.

A few portrait shot with Tamron 70-300/4-5.6 LD

All taken on a trip to Ocean Park, Hong Kong a few years back:

A few bird shots with Tamron 70-300/4-5.6 LD

My hiking and travel combo

Pentax DA16-45 plus Tamron 70-300/4-5.6! The combination is reasonable light, and it provides a wide range of focal length plus the capability of macro shot. I use this 2 lens in most hikings and travel.

And I just go for a short hike with my 5-years old son today.

by DA16-45/4


by DA16-45/4


by Tamron 70-300/4-5.6


by Pentax 16-45/4

More samples shots with Tamron 70-300/4-5.6 LD

Both photos taken with istD, in jpeg mode. Slight unsharp mask was applied.

I am always positive with this lens, and I keep thinking so.

At macro range, the lens is less sharp at f/8 or larger apeature. So I have to use flash, which is not a big problem for me cause I only use this lens to take macro shots of fast moving inserts - flash is the way of life for these photos. For stationary subjects, I still prefer my 105 macro lens.

The bird shot here also proof the lens has a very nice color.

Tamron 70-300/4-5.6 LD macro

"Butterfly" was the only reason I purchase this lens. But it became my most used long zoom after I get it (well, I don't have much good long zooms).

At that time, I want to get a handy lens for taking butterflies, but Sigma 180 macro was the only reasonable choice for me. The Sigma was not cheap, and it is Sigma. I hesitated for a long time. Until I chatted with a shop manager in a camera shop, he recommended this Tamron because it's cheap, and it can give reasonable result.

So I get it at a little over HK$1,000. It's cheap indeed.

The lens is very plastic, very cheap in construction. It doesn't not give a good displacement turn for focusing, so the Pentax may mis-focus it at long focal length, and it's a pain in the ass to focus manually. At it's price, the image quality is not bad, but don't expect razor sharp image from it.

I don't care all these disadvantages. The lens can focus to 0.95m at macro mode, and it's 1:2 at 300mm. It's the macro function I want from it, and it can deliver.

In use, I seldom zoom all the way-up to 300mm because it's quite soft there. But that's the common problem with cheap long zooms. I can still take butterflies or other inserts very comfortably at 180mm (the shortest focal length allowed at macro mode), or zoom up to a bit over 200mm. The result very not bad if you are do a correct job at Photoshop.

Because of it's versatility, I carry this lens together with my DA16-45/4 for traveling. Not that it's very good (I indeed think the DA 50-200 will be better), only because it's the better long zoom I have on hand.

It's not a Pentax lens, so don't expect it can give you the natural tones legendary for SMC lens. The colors from Tamron is a bit too saturated and high in contrast, but I don't have much complain.