I’ve often struggled to be comfortable using my A70-210 with my K5, likely due to a combination of focus throw, weight/balance and my tendency to shoot at low ISO because it is a film habit I just can’t break. When I got a K135/3.5 years ago, I was amazed at how much smaller, brighter and easier to handle it was. So I couldn’t pass up on a recent opportunity to get its big brother, the K200/4. It has the same special feel about it.
I’m still learning how to use the lens. And the morning I took these was somewhat cold and windy (-4 C, but my hands can’t handle the cold any more so I’m learning how to take photographs with gloves). So I don’t think these are anything special but still wanted to share. The one downside? I started at ISO 400 and somewhere between f8 – f11, so I sometimes hit shutter speeds as low as 1/100. Not a huge problem for largely stationary objects, but not nearly fast enough when a few birds decided to fly by or do a water landing. For an A lens, I might have used TAv mode and let the ISO wander as needed, but this isn’t an option for a special K. Very little post-processing other than auto adjusting of the colors/brightness in Faststone and some cropping. It is another reason I think many of us find old glass so joyful to use.
