Looking forward to seeing some of your pics. I share your appreciation
of both the DA 16-45 and the FA 29-105, although my use of the later
has declined steeply since I purchased the DA 50-200. Coupled with the
DA 16-45, it gives one tremendous range in a very compact kit. The
solution to the battery problem is lithiums. I started with lithiums
then switched to NIMH. I soon went back to lithiums after experiencing
the kind of difficulty you encountered. You'll get 1000 frames from a
set of lithium.
Paul
On Oct 2, 2005, at 12:57 AM, David Oswald wrote:
I just got back from two weeks of vacation in Hong Kong and
Philippines. I brought with me the following camera equipment:
Pentax *ist-DS
SMC Pentax-DA 16-45mm f/4 AL
SMC Pentax-FA 28-105mm f/3.2-4.5 (IF)AL
SMC Pentax-FA 50mm f/1.4
SMC Pentax-FA 135mm f/2.8 (IF)
AF330FTZ
2.5 gigs of SD cards.
110V quick charger
Two sets of NiMH batteries (one in the flash, one in the camera).
Waist / shoulder bag large enough for all of the above, yet small
enough to carry everywhere.
Things I discovered:
Lenses: I've renewed my appreciation for the 16-45 lens. Around my
home town it doesn't get as much use for some reason, but on vacation,
especially travelling with my wife's family, it's just so convenient,
and a great working focal length range. Image quality leaves nothing
to be desired. And its build quality is solid. Since I don't have a
lot of time to devote to each shot when I'm on vacation with a group,
the convenience of this zoom lens really shines. Its wide angle
capability is also really useful. I liked the lens before this trip;
I love it now.
The primes, while good for low light use and extremely sharp, are just
a little too much hastle to use on an on-the-go type of vacation. At
the beach I was reluctant to change lenses a lot, and when with the
rest of my wife's family I just didn't want to slow down enough to
mess around with these lenses. This is a complete 180 from how I am
around my home town. Near home, I take the time to get the most out
of these nice lenses. It really surprised me to find how little I
used them on vacation though.
The 28-105 continues to be a great companion to the 16-45. What can I
say... I loved this lens on my ZX-5n, and still like using it on the
*ist-DS. Again, the convenience of a zoom on vacation outweighed the
performance gains of the primes. Maybe I just got lazy huh?
Flash: The AF330FTZ has got to go. It's obnoxious to have to dive
into the camera's menu again and again until I get the right level of
flash for the picture. In general, it overexposes my shots, but
individual results are so varied that I can't just set it and forget
it. I'm going to have to get an AF360FGZ and step into the 21st
century. It was a complete disappointment when I tried to use it to
punch up the foreground in a near-dusk shot. I had to fiddle several
times to get it right. On my ZX-5n, it just worked, every time. The
*ist-DS is too sensitiveto overexposure, I suppose. Whatever the
reason, I think I need a flash more dedicated to the *ist-DS's needs.
Batteries: I should have carried one additional set of NiMH's, or at
least a multi-voltage charger so that I could charge in my hotel room
in the Philippines. I never missed a shot due to depleated batteries,
but at one point I did find myself running my charger across the
street to an Internet cafe where the attendant allowed me to plug it
into one of his 110V power supplies. I tipped him. I should have
carried a multinational charger.
At my rate of shooting, I was able to get about three to four days out
of a charge. To accomplish this I had to keep the LCD viewing to a
minimum.
Bag: The Tamrac bag finally gave out. It came unstitched along one
seam, and one of its die-cast buckles shattered. ...strange, the same
thing happened to me on another Tamrac bag a couple months ago.
Anyway, I'll have to start looking for a replacement.
Dave
