Getting ready for winter (Pentax FA31 f1.8 and the Panasonic GH2)

While swapping out the summer tires for winter snows on the Honda S2000, I took a moment to appreciate the engineering of the car as well as the wonderful patina left by 7 years in the Northeast. The FA31 f1.8 mounted to the Panasonic GH2 feels like a really nice match. The combo feels good in the hand and it's easy to toggle viewfinder zoom for sharp manual focus. The 31mm becomes 62mm FOV of course, making for a moderately long normal lens. My primary use for this combo will be video of course, but it really is quite nice for stills as well. I can also shoot square format and compose for the square too with the EVF, which is quite nice.


Here's the upper A-arm of the rear suspension. It's cool to see how slender the arms are, even though they are helping to transfer over 250HP to the rear wheels. The rear disks are large but I wish that I had taken photos of the front vented disks as well:

The rear brake caliper. Love the finish and the fins for cooling:


The rear wheel hub and carrier. They can get frozen in place after several months, but I am now smart enough to use the weight of the car to unseat the wheels.


For those interested, I'm using Michelin Primacy Alpin snow tires. In the dry they are a little squidgy, but not as squidgy (and noisy) as other snow tires that I've used (Bridgestone Blizzaks). In the snow they are very very good. They got the little S2000 through a blizzard last year. Maybe not as sure-footed as the Blizzaks, but a good compromise between dry/wet grip, noise, and wear. Recommended.