First shoot with 50-135 F2.8 John Shafer

[Tom Sparks]

I just received my new DA* 50-135mm F2.8 lens in the mail a few days ago. I tweeted about wanting a subject to test it out on. John Shafer answered my tweet and we met up the next day near the University Hospital at the U of U at the foothills of the mountains. John wanted a portrait of himself with his biking and photo gear.

I used a single Sigma 530 Ef DG Super on a stand with no umbrella and a poverty wizard, to camera left to fill in shadows in the evening sun.

I found the 50-135 to be smooth. It is much lighter than the Sigma 70-200 which I have used and like. I waffled for months on which lens to get. I decided the Pentax glass would do what I wanted best. Shooting people, glamour, boudoir, events. Some day I will add the Pentax 300mm to my glass library to take care of the longer end of things.

The 50-135 is lighter than the 70-200 and makes it much more comfortable to use. So far I find the auto focus with my K10d to be quick and accurate. I like the bokeh, and find images to be very sharp. I will write a review in about a week.

It was nice meeting John.

[Photo-John]

Ha - "poverty wizard." Never heard that one before. As long as it gets the job done, right?

Thanks for sharing these, Tom. It was nice to be able to help you out and get some really nice portraits done of me at the same time. And I do think these are very nice. I hope the testing was useful to you

[Frog]

Welcome, Tom. Saw the shots John took of you up the list and wondered if the ones you took of him were here.
Hope to see more from you....maybe something more attractive

John, how often do you wear sunglasses while shooting?

[Photo-John]

John, how often do you wear sunglasses while shooting?

Most of the time when I'm shooting outdoors. My eyes are pretty sensitive to bright sunlight.

[ken1953]

Awesome Tom...I have been patiently waiting for these!!! hehe...John...sorry, but like frog, I'm waiting to see something more attractive...you should have brought the other half along...hehe But the shots were fantastic, Tom!!! You made our Fantastic leader look really good!!! hehe

[Photo-John]

Tom takes plenty of pictures of more attractive subjects. maybe if you ask nicely he'll show off some of his more serious work

[Tom Sparks]

"More Serious Work" haha. If the finger is close to the trigger, its serious!

[yellowboyy]

How come you only posted it in a small size?? Might as well keep this all in 1 thread, its all about the same camera.

[mattb]

Nice shots! I love that Pentax color rendering - so rich. I'd like get get that lens one day too. I rented one to shoot a bike race once and it is a very nice piece of equipment! It seems big to me but I'm used to much more compact primes. But for a fast zoom of that range I guess that's as big as it needs to be. Looks like you had some good light too. Thanks for sharing these!

[Luv2bumit]

Nice images!