PENTAX Limited Lens SPECIAL SITE

A shutter opportunity of salmon and sake brought about by the lens

I was back in Murakami, Niigata Prefecture.

When I was looking for the most appropriate shooting location for this new lens, I found a message posted by the owner of an inn where I stayed last December: “The salmon season has arrived!”

I realized that Murakami was perfect for this project. I visited there last year for the test shooting of the PENTAX K-3 Mark III. At that time, I brought two lenses with me: the smc PENTAX-FA 31mmF1.8AL Limited and the smc PENTAX-FA 43mmF1.9 Limited. I was anxious to see what kind of images the new HD PENTAX-D FA 21mmF2.4ED Limited DC WR would create. The message got me very excited, and I immediately sent the reply, “I’m coming!” Of course, the salmon was another factor that greatly attracted me.

What kind of a lens is the HD PENTAX-D FA 21mmF2.4ED Limited DC WR? I was very accustomed to seeing the older smc PENTAX-FA 43mmF1.9 Limited, so by itself the lens appeared slightly larger. When I mounted it on the K-3 Mark III camera body, however, it looked perfectly balanced. The unique touch that it produced when attaching or removing the lens cap, and the elegant appearance of the machined aluminum lens barrel — a design intended to optimize the beauty of the texture. These factors made it a real shame to store it in the camera bag!

After departing from Tokyo, I changed trains at Niigata Station, and arrived in Murakami. As soon as I left the station, I was enveloped by cold, damp air. I thought that air in Murakami was not as sharply cold as the temperature would suggest, probably because of the high humidity. Honestly speaking, I’m usually hesitant to touch metallic lenses in winter. For some reason, however, the HD PENTAX-D FA 21mmF2.4ED Limited DC WR made me want to keep holding it. I think it was because I could feel the quality of a superbly crafted product when I held it.

When I was photographing traditional town houses in Murakami, the owner of a liquor shop that was nearly two hundred years old showed me a door-fastening key called a saru — a monkey. This had been passed down since the Bunsei Era of the Edo Period (early 19th century), from a time when the shop was a rice dealer. Without hesitation, I moved the lens closer to the saru, and photographed the engraving of komeya (rice dealer). Since the HD PENTAX-D FA 21mmF2.4ED Limited DC WR let the photographer move in on the subject to as close as just seven centimeters from the front surface of the lens, I was able to highlight both the characters engraved in the Japanese cypress wood and the owner’s hands, while creating a natural bokeh (defocus) effect in the background to depict a peaceful atmosphere for the scene.

When I left the liquor shop, the afternoon sun poured down on me. I kept walking around until I found something that interested me, looked into the camera’s viewfinder and released the shutter. I repeated this process several times, but it was a lot of fun for me. The combination of the K-3 Mark III’s bright viewfinder, which let me concentrate on the subject, and my favorite lens made it even more enjoyable and exciting. The manual-focus mechanism of the lens worked smoothly, making it easy to adjust the focus point.

I chose the new SATOBI Custom Image mode for this shooting trip. At first glance, this mode produced plain colors. But looking at the captured images more closely, however, I realized it provided very rich, tasteful shades — the visual equivalent of the rich flavor created by thick, tasty dashi (Japanese soup stock). I was confident that this mode was the best choice for the early winter scenes of Murakami.

I decided that I would definitely come back to Murakami the following year. On my way back to Tokyo, I had some time to kill in Niigata City before boarding the Shinkansen bullet train, so I enjoyed an unexpectedly delicious cup of cappuccino at a local café. Leaving the café, I was met with the sight of beautiful rays of sunlight, which I took as a sign that confirmed my decision to come back to Murakami the next year. Perhaps it was just my imagination, but I felt that this new lens had given me a special experience, and provided me with many wonderful shutter opportunities during my trip.