My Photography Articles and Comments

In the past, I used Pentax film cameras, because they were light, compact, and well designed. Pentax has been sufficiently nice to consumers that you can still use lenses made almost 30 years ago on their newest cameras with a high degree of functionality. I have collected together summaries of published tests of Pentax K-mount lenses from various sources, along with my own interpretation.

I have conducted my own tests of several Pentax lenses in the 35mm to 50mm range, with samples of enlarged photographs of the same scene. The lenses tested include the 40mm f/2.8 "pancake" lens, one of the smallest and lightest lenses ever made for a 35mm SLR.

I have also written up some views on focussing accuracy with Pentax cameras.

SLRs I have known. My subjective impressions of the features and quality of several old and new Pentax and Olympus SLRs.

In 2001, I started turning to digital photography. For my views on the merits of film versus digital cameras, click here. One of my most pleasant discoveries is how easy it is to do things like perspective correction, even with cheap software. For details of how it is done, and before and after pictures, click here..

Most recently, I have acquired a Canon Digital Rebel SLR camera. I liked Pentax cameras in the age of film, and Pentax has introduced two nice digital SLRs, the *istD and DS, but I felt that the resources of the Pentax system were too limited when it comes to digital, which has more to do with electronics and computers than lenses. However, as an afficionado of nice old metal-bodied manual lenses, I was pleased to discover that adapters are available to use them on Canon digital SLRs. To see how classic manual focus Nikon lenses can be used on Canon DSLRs such as the Digital Rebel (EOS 300D), click here.

Selected photographs by Peter Spiro. I will be posting here photographs I have taken at various times and places, arranged by subject category. As I live in Toronto, many of them are of that interesting and diverse city, and may be helpful to potential travelers. And of course, there are pictures of flowers, to drive the cold winter away.

I sometimes get e-mails from people asking about a variety of lenses. If I have not discussed them in the above articles, there is not much point in asking me, because it means that I have no experience or knowledge about them. You should check with the links below for information.

Some Useful Links

A large number of reviews of cameras and lenses can be found at photographyreview.com and camerareview.com. I find the camera reviews particularly good. These sites allow both a numerical rating and extensive written comments. People appear to put a lot of thought into them.

The best internet lens test resource is the survey of tests by Klaus. However, the user input there is not nearly as useful as the above sources, since it consists only of numerical inputs rather than comments.

Another good source of lens tests is photodo.com They do their own MTF tests of several hundred different lenses, and I generally find their tests pretty reliable.

The definitive collection of specifications of all the Pentax K-mount equipment and lenses is Boz Dimitrov's Pentax K-Mount Equipment Page.

One of the best photography discussion groups on the internet focusses on Pentax users. It is found at www.pdml.net. To post messages to it you have to be a member, but you can read the archive (updated several times a day) without joining.

The best overall photography website I have encountered is at luminous-landscape.com It has terrific columns, reviews, and very clear technical "how to" pages. The best site specific to digital photography is dpreview.com, which has very useful discussion forums.

For more information on stock photos by Peter Spiro available for downloading from istockphoto.com, please click here.