Can you help me choose a lens for my K10D?

[PUN]

I am a beginner in photography. I currently own a K10D with 18-55mm + Tamron 70-300mm. I hardly use the Tamron as it's too heavy, and its nonpracticality.

I just met someone who was using Canon rebel with 50mm lens ($70 he said) with less aperture size (prime lens, giving better details under low lighting). Where can I find one for my k10d for my daily family photos? I dont need anything fancy...just something light and great under low lighting.

I need something that would autofocus, but dont need the zoom necessarily. Thanks in adavance!

 

[PUN]

anyone?

 

[ElFenix]

pentax FA 50 f/1.4 is nearly $400 new now (optically the same as the older SMC Pentax-F 50mm F1.4). it was about $200 new earlier this year before the dollar tanked and hoya decided to stop selling stuff for loss. for that price you might as well go with the SMC Pentax-FA 43mm F1.9 Limited.

pentax doesn't currently offer a 50 f/1.8 lens, which is the cheap canon lens. it did offer SMC Pentax-FA 50mm F1.7 in the past, and you may be able to find it for less than $200. even older is the SMC Pentax-F 50mm F1.7, which may be less than $100.

you may be more interested in SMC Pentax-FA 35mm F2 AL, which will offer a slightly more workable focal length, as 50mm is a short portrait lens on a crop camera.


pentaxforums' fantastic lens review database


1979-mgb on ebay is selling the F 50 f/1.7 and the FA 28 f/2.8. the 28 gives you ~42 on a pentax crop, almost perfect normal. that'd be a very useful FoV, though it's nearly a stop and a half slower than the f/1.7 lenses.

 

[funks]

Considering you have an APS-C camera w/ a crop factor of 1.5 - a great general purpose lens would be the Tamron 28-75 f2.8 - it's sharp, fast, and pretty lightweight and should makes a pretty good portrait / taking pics of kids lens (got it for my Canon).

Note: your cam has a 1.5x crop factor so you are looking at 42mm - 112.5mm range field of view when compared to full frame camera.

I also have the Canon EF-28 f/1.8 USM, and the Canon Nifty-Fifty EF f/1.8 MK1 and the Tamron made these lenses redundant. The Canon primes are quite soft at their f1.8 setting and needs to be stopped down to 2.8+ before the pictures become sharp.

The only other lens I would buy is a prime wide angle lens at around 24MM (equivalent to a 35mm in your case) for taking pictures at parties (nigh, low light) use. That way, you'll be carrying a really lightweight setup great for such occasions.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Could consider searching around for old m42 screwmount lenses to use with an adapter. If you don't mind manually adjusting focus and aperture.

I just got my K7 over the holidays. I love it....but I switched from a Canon system (gave it all to my Dad, who's just entering the DSLR world), so it's gonna be a while for me to acquire a few lenses.

I do wish Pentax had its own "nifty-fity" or "plastic fantastic".

 

[funks]

I do wish Pentax had its own "nifty-fity" or "plastic fantastic".

It's too bad the dollar went down in value against the yen because the pricing on lenses have gone up alot because of it. The canon plastic-fantastic were available for around 70$ a while back, but now - they cost over 30-35% more (100-105$ range).

 

[PUN]

Considering you have an APS-C camera w/ a crop factor of 1.5 - a great general purpose lens would be the Tamron 28-75 f2.8 - it's sharp, fast, and pretty lightweight and should makes a pretty good portrait / taking pics of kids lens (got it for my Canon).

Note: your cam has a 1.5x crop factor so you are looking at 42mm - 112.5mm range field of view when compared to full frame camera.

I also have the Canon EF-28 f/1.8 USM, and the Canon Nifty-Fifty EF f/1.8 MK1 and the Tamron made these lenses redundant. The Canon primes are quite soft at their f1.8 setting and needs to be stopped down to 2.8+ before the pictures become sharp.

The only other lens I would buy is a prime wide angle lens at around 24MM (equivalent to a 35mm in your case) for taking pictures at parties (nigh, low light) use. That way, you'll be carrying a really lightweight setup great for such occasions.

Thanks for our feedback guys! I will look into Tamron 28-75 f2.8 and a prime wide angle lens. what prime lens do you recommend for my camera?

 

[funks]

With your current 18-55 MM lens - what focal length are you using most of the time when you take party pics and such? (Your lens is equivalent to 28mm -> 82.5) - check the EXIF on your jpgs.

If you were to get a 50mm prime for your camera, then it would be fairly redundant if you have a Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 (It's quite fast, and darned sharp too, and works well taking portraits to boot). I found that nifty-fifty focal length on a crop body on useful for taking portraits (half body) and such, and basically not very useful if you want to take a group photo.

Personally, when I take pics at parties - it's usually in a range between 28-35mm (full frame), with the crop factor conversion take into account - try looking for a prime between 18 - 24.. I don't know much about Pentax lenses, but you should be able to find a prime in that range that's relatively small, light, fast, and sharp compared to a slow wide angle zoom.

 

[PUN]

With your current 18-55 MM lens - what focal length are you using most of the time when you take party pics and such? (Your lens is equivalent to 28mm -> 82.5) - check the EXIF on your jpgs.

If you were to get a 50mm prime for your camera, then it would be fairly redundant if you have a Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 (It's quite fast, and darned sharp too, and works well taking portraits to boot). I found that nifty-fifty focal length on a crop body on useful for taking portraits (half body) and such, and basically not very useful if you want to take a group photo.

Personally, when I take pics at parties - it's usually in a range between 28-35mm (full frame), with the crop factor conversion take into account - try looking for a prime between 18 - 24.. I don't know much about Pentax lenses, but you should be able to find a prime in that range that's relatively small, light, fast, and sharp compared to a slow wide angle zoom.

My range is 18-30mm. I'll take your advice and go with the Tamron. I rather simplify things by having one lens. Thanks tons!!!

 

[kalster]

I suggest looking at the tamron 17-50 instead of the 28-75, its a better range on the crop. I have a k10d as well with a 28-75 f/2.8. Its a great lenses but lot of times i wish it was wider, i still have the kit lens for the wide end but its not as good as the 28-75 , atleast until its stopped down to f/8

 

[funks]

It truly is a dilemma - lol.

Some like the 17-50 especially for crop cams, and others like me like the 28-75 which I primarily use outdoors. Note that most of my the pics I take are portrait type pics - family stuff, maybe even a dog or two (extra reach helps - lol). Not really architecture, nor scenery. The only time I use the wide angle stuff is when I take group photo's indoors (and usually at a party, low light, mostly at night).

PUN, you should definitely consider the Tamron 17-50 if most of your pics are inside the 17-50 range.

Samples for the Tamron 17-50 f2.8 - Note: NON-VC
Samples for the Tamron 28-75 f2.8

Note, I personally have not used the Tamron 17-50 but I do know from reading the Canon forums that the newer model of the 17-50 with VC (Vibration Compensation == Image Stabilizer) isn't getting such great reviews (seems like lots of people are running into soft copies) compared to the older non VC model (which got great reviews and is cheaper to boot).

Other options for Crop

1) Sigma 17-70MM f2.8-4 DC Macro w/ OS, HSM (will be released real soon, preorders happening now, not much feedback yet on how sharp the lens is, and it's not f2.8 constant).
2) Sigma 24-70MM f2.8 EX HSM (released, pricey, but is full frame compatible on Canon, and doesn't weigh like a brick) - samples on this link.

I'm not sure if those two lenses will be better than the Tamron's. I do know that Sigma generally runs into more AF issues (front, or back focusing - usually means that you'll have to send it to Sigma for AF calibration) on Canon bodies which may not be an issue on the Pentax. Note, the 24-70 HSM is several hundred dollars more expensive than the older non HSM model (899$ vs 569$ respectively), frankly - dunno what Sigma was thinking when they priced the new HSM model.

 

[kalster]

Another lens to consider is the pentax 16-45 f/4. its a pretty good lens , and its a lot cheaper these days since the pentax da* 16-50/f2.8 has been released. If you dont mind the relatively slow f/4 go for it. i like pentax's color rendering better than tamron's.

 

[PUN]

Another lens to consider is the pentax 16-45 f/4. its a pretty good lens , and its a lot cheaper these days since the pentax da* 16-50/f2.8 has been released. If you dont mind the relatively slow f/4 go for it. i like pentax's color rendering better than tamron's.

f/4 would be horrible under lowlight condition, no?

 

[ElFenix]

f/4 would be horrible under lowlight condition, no?

it's not great, but then f/2.8 isn't fantastic in the dark either. then again, there are very few wide angle lenses on crops that are faster, and they're all huge.

 

[pdo]

If you want to shoot in lowlight then I would recommend getting a flash and learn how to use it properly.

 

[kalster]

If you want to shoot in lowlight then I would recommend getting a flash and learn how to use it properly.

the pictures in your gallery are truly excellent. What flash setup do you have currently, also can you suggest some good books to get started with flash photography. I recently bought a flash (should be here next week). I am mostly interested in taking family portraits (kids, wife etc) in less than ideal lighting circumstances

 

[pdo]

Hello Kalster, thanks for the compliment but I'm still a newbie. I've really never read any books on lighting so I wouldn't know what to suggest but I would recommend checking out http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/discuss/ . You can do alot with 1 flash, wireless trigger and shoot through umbrella. Once you learn to see the light that's when you'll stop making flat image.

Oh and I shoot with Pentax K20D, K-X 16-50mm and 50-135mm. I own some Calumet Travelite but lately I just use 1 light for shoot.

 

[yhelothar]

Pentax's own 50mm F/1.4 is a very awesome lens and costs less than competing brands at around $170-200 <-edit: nm just saw elfenix's post.

If you don't absolutely need autofocus, you can get an older, but with much better build quality, manual focus 50/1.4 for a fraction of the price at around $50-80.
The optical quality is pretty much identical.
Pentax primes kick ass.
Here's a guide on Pentax's venerable 50mms
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-02-11-24.shtml