Pentax MZ-7, SMC Pentax-M 100mm f/2.8

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 6/20/19

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Pentax MZ-7, SMC Pentax-M 100mm f/2.8

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 6/19/19

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Pentax MZ-7, SMC Pentax-M 100mm f/2.8

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 6/18/19

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Pentax MZ-7, SMC Pentax-M 100mm f/2.8

Analog Diary: Film photography favorites, images with a Pentax MZ-7, paired with a SMC Pentax-M 100mm f/2.8, a compact, lightweight 35mm film setup capable of shooting in full Manual (M) or Aperture Priority (Av) mode.

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I might not have done true justice to the SMC Pentax-M 100mm f/2.8 here. I had it mounted on the Pentax MZ-7, an excellent camera by itself, but mismanaged in the manual setting for the lens. This ended up with the camera/lens combo not working at its best, and I went through half of the film roll with that.

The SMC Pentax M 100mm f/2.8 is, however, a delight to use. It is compact, light, sharp, and solidly built, and enjoys an average user rating of 9.6 on PentaxForms.com. The lens has always stayed at the top of the enthusiast's choice.

The all-manual lens is of 5 elements in 5-group construction and comes with 5 aperture blades. Images, as you can see from these shots, are not as contrasty and can be boosted or adjusted with image processing.

At 100mm focal length, the SMC Pentax-M 100mm f/2.8 is a great lens for outdoor portraits and landscapes, and should be equally suited for traveling by its small and compact size. It has also been reported that, when used in the field, the lens has the potential for purple fringing issues in high-contrast situations.

Pentax MZ-7, SMC Pentax-M 100mm f/2.8

This is the first time I am using the lens, and as I mentioned earlier, mounted on the Pentax MZ-7. Images were shot on an almost expired Kodak Colorplus 200 and were post-processed on Olympus Viewer 3 (OV3).

Lumix G 14mm f/2.5 Asph., On Microsoft Photos

Cameras and Lenses: Images with an early digital era lens, an ultra-compact pancake-style wide-angle prime Lumix G 14mm f/2.5 Asph., shot on an Olympus PEN E-P5, with edits post-processed on Microsoft Photos.

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I do a fair amount of LRT (Light Rail Transport) hopping on the weekends, where I would first take the train, either to the city or in the opposite direction, dropping off at interconnecting stops along the line, to do the loop before coming back to join the main route I was originally on.

Back on the desktop, I am also warming up (rather slowly) to the new image-editing software from Olympus, Olympus Workspace, which replaced the older Olympus Viewer 3 (OV3) a few months back. Between the two, I do add edits with apps from a standalone version of Google NIK Collection and even Microsoft Photos in the process workflow.

Olympus PEN E-P5, Lumix G 14mm f/2.5 Asph.

The enhancements are done on the 'Filters' section of the apps, where you can go for automated enhancement by just clicking on the 'Enhance your photo' image, or go further and have the image rendered with the menu of filter effects.

The good part about using Microsoft Photos is that the app is installed with the version of Windows you are using. You can access the 'Edit & Create' interface by clicking on any image you have in your image folders, and using it is very easy and intuitive.