PENTAX Limited Lens SPECIAL SITE

“Which lens should I use tomorrow?” It might sound trivial, but it’s one of the greatest pleasures for those who love their lens-interchangeable cameras. While visualizing prospective shooting locations and imagining the situations they might encounter, they always think about which lens will let them capture a specific image at a certain location. It’s a very enjoyable part of photography.

When I happen to find an extremely high-quality single-focus lens, I’m filled with many thoughts: what subject do I want to capture with the lens?; what kind of image will this lens produce for me? Although it’s nice to carry it around with me every day, I’d rather take it along on a journey. The HD PENTAX-D FA 21mmF2.4ED Limited DC WR is exactly this kind of lens. It’s an ultra-wide-angle lens compatible with full-frame SLR cameras. When mounted on the APS-C-format PENTAX K-3 Mark III, it provides a focal length equivalent to 32mm in the full-frame format. This focal length is perfect for taking snapshots while strolling around the city. With it, I can deliberately compose images exactly the way I want, and also be ready to capture unexpected, once-in-a-lifetime encounters in a flash. This lens challenges my creative potential, makes my heart pound with excitement, and causes time to go by very quickly as I begin to think about possible destinations.

For this trip, I decided to head for the Ise, Shima and Toba regions of Mie Prefecture, simply because I wanted to go somewhere warmer in midwinter. More importantly, though, this destination provided me with many impressive scenes every time I visited there in the past.

I started my journey from Daiozaki in the Shima region, a beautiful, picturesque port town often called “a town for painters.” When I visited it a few years back on an assignment, I found it very exciting and intriguing. In fact, I fell in love with its slopes and fishing port. Since this was my second visit, however, I was able to contain my excitement. Unlike the last visit when I had to work on a rush assignment, I could take a close look at places like alleys and katsuobushi (dried bonito) shops, which I had missed on my previous trip. Although it was basically the first time I used the lens, I felt very comfortable with the combination of the PENTAX K-3 Mark III and the HD PENTAX-D FA 21mmF2.4ED Limited DC WR. It was as if I had had this pair as my partner for years. I was also impressed with the lens’s machined aluminum barrel because it not only enhanced its external beauty, but improved the ease of operation as well.

After I moved to Ise City and had a bowl of Ise udon noodles for lunch, I headed for the Kawasaki district, where traditional merchant residences stood along the street. After a stroll at dusk, I stayed overnight at an old-fashioned inn established in 1926. Although Okage Yokocho (Blessing Lane) was redeveloped recently and has now become a popular tourist spot representing Ise’s traditional townscape, Kawasaki boasts a number of merchant residences and storehouses that were built in the Edo period when it prospered as a wholesale district. To be honest, I only discovered the area for the first time when I was looking for a place to stay, even though I just talked with pride about its history. Unlike the heavily congested Naiku (Inner Shrine) district, people here were engaged in ordinary activities of everyday life, and time passed quietly in this district.

The next day, I took a ferryboat from Toba Port to Kamishima Island where the famous Japanese author Yukio Mishima staged his novel Shiosai (The Sound of Waves). I set foot on this island for the first time and immediately fell in love with its steep slopes leading up from the port, houses built on terraced land, and alleys intersecting with one another like a maze. If I were using a zoom lens, I might have been indecisive about what focal length to choose. Since I was very familiar with the 32mm focal length in the full-frame format, however, I had no trouble positioning myself exactly where I needed to be.

I left Kamishima in the late afternoon — though very reluctantly — and took a ferryboat bound for another remote island called Toshijima. I had taken a day trip there about 15 years earlier, and I remembered what an elderly local lady told me back then: “Our island serves tasty seafood and offers great views in the morning. You must come back and stay here.” That’s why I decided to stay here overnight, and take my time to look around the island the following day. I picked an inn where the landlord also worked as a fisherman, and was impressed by the freshness and abundance of seafood served at dinner. The following morning I was lucky enough to see the launching ceremony of a new fishing boat — a rare event that happens on the island only about twice a year — against a spectacular morning glow. I was thankful to the elderly lady for suggesting my return trip.

Upon returning to Tokyo, I checked the photos I captured during the trip, and realized that the clear winter air allowed the sunlight to reach unhindered into alleys and the sea. The PENTAX K-3 Mark III’s rich color reproduction was further enhanced by the amazing imaging power of the HD PENTAX-D FA 21mmF2.4ED Limited DC WR. When I briefly used this lens on the PENTAX K-1 Mark II immediately after its launch, I had the impression that this was a luxurious ultra-wide-angle lens combining sharp depiction and fine details. In the case of a telephoto lens, the imaging power is defined by the expression of the bokeh (defocus) effect. I believe, however, that the imaging power of a wide-angle lens lies in the description of lines — how faithfully the lens can reproduce fine, straight lines, and whether it can produce identical lines both at the middle of the image field and in peripheral areas. Based on this definition, I must say that the HD PENTAX-D FA 21mmF2.4ED Limited DC WR is indeed a spectacular performer.

To tell you the truth, I have frequently used the HD PENTAX-DA 21mmF3.2AL Limited, which is identical in focal length with this new lens. The HD PENTAX-DA version is designed to be slim and lightweight, while delivering extra-sharp images. Compared with the former lens, the new HD PENTAX-D FA 21mmF2.4ED Limited DC WR seems to provide finer lines, and brings the camera’s imaging performance to a higher level. More importantly, its open aperture is nearly a stop larger than the former model. This large aperture results in some immediate benefits, such as a beautiful bokeh effect in close-up shooting and a lower ISO sensitivity setting at dimly lit locations. But what I like most about it is its clear, well-defined viewfinder image. I could clearly and effortlessly observe the fine blues of the sky and the sea, the rich contrast of light and shadow, and many faces smiling at the camera, through the camera’s viewfinder.

Where should I travel next with this lens? I will most likely spend a lot of time thinking about my future trips.