Advice wanted

[pplater]

I'm an amateur photographer with a keen interest in motorsport and I need some help.

An uncle of mine has given me some screw mount Pentax lenses (100-300 zoom, 300 prime, 135 fixed, 2x tele and more) and a spotmatic film camera.

I want to use the lenses, which are in superb condition, on a digital camera.

Is the Pentax *ist my only choice (they can be used with an adaptor here), and is the *ist any good.

Thanks.

[philneast]

I have a Pentax *istDS that I use for mainly karting photography. I am quite happy with the camera, the main shortcomings are with the photographer.


Check out www.kartpic.com for some examples taken with the Pentax and mainly a Sigma 70-300 zoom

One of my favourite lenses is a Vivitar 200mm prime with a screw mount, so the older lenses can be good value on the new digital models. Iuse this lens in duller conditions as it is faster than the zoom(f5.6) at maximum apeture of f3.

[R59]

While the Pentax is a darned good camera, you may be better flogging the lenses on eBay or similar, and get yourself something like the Nikon D70, or a Canon EOS10D or 20D with some lenses. With those, you have the option of using manufacturer's own lenses, or aftermarket ones like Sigma, Tamron, etc...

I personally use a Sigma SD9, with which, I'm stuck with the factory lenses, though they do a professional spec (EX) and standard quality. For example, I recently bought an 18-50mm lense, which was the "boggo" version and only £70. The EX version would have cost nearly £300 more!

The Sigma SD10 has some better features, but has the same Foveon Technology CCD in it which produces very very nice results. The output could be compared with a film camera using Fuji Velvia 50. The downside is Sigma's quirky software which is, to put it simple, lousy. The camera is not "Mass Media" compliant, so when you plug it in, Windows doesn't "just see it".

I'd pick up a copy of Practical Digital Photography or similar, and have a look at what you can find. Offers and deals change by the minute, so be prepared to do some shopping around.

At the end of the day, it's down to how much you're willing to spend....


Rob.