Not so long ago I picked up the Pentax 77mm Limited f/1.8 lens on a bit of a whim. I’d bought the 43mm f/1.9 Limited a few weeks before and was impressed, so when the 77 surfaced in my local London Camera Exchange I decided to take a punt. At the time, I didn’t think I would use it as much as the 43, but a month or so in, I’ve used it significantly more!
I have to confess, I have a bit of a panorama problem. I absolutely love panoramic cameras and cameras with a panorama mask feature. I love them big and small, expensive and cheap. Some people find the panorama masks that were all the rage for a hot minute in the 90s to be a cheap trick or a useless fad. And I completely understand that point of view. You could, after all, simply take a full frame photo and crop it to a panoramic aspect ratio in Lightroom or photoshop later.
In my recent Pentax MX review I touched on the fact that I’d only really been shooting it with the 40mm f/2.8 pancake lens. This is a lens that seems to divide opinion a little bit, so I thought I’d share some of my currently-slightly-grumpy-about-photography feelings toward it.
There’s a certain joy that comes from handling vintage lenses. Whether it’s the well-defined movement of the focus ring, or the generally rugged build, or even the well-defined clicks of a physical aperture ring – there’s almost a sense of romanticism between a photographer and their gear.
I think that it would be unfair to judge and review Pentax MZ-S separately from the FA Limited line of lenses – it’s my opinion that you have to look at them together as one set. They look good together, they are good in use together, and they are all ODD together. There is something about this kit that reminds me of the Contax G2 with its 45mm, 28mm and 90mm lenses. I understand that this argument may sound a bit strange, but for me this comparison somehow confirms that this kit should be reviewed as one.
