Originally posted by jc_leblanc I will be going on a Med cruise in May 2015, I bought a k-50, to replace my old SF1, had been shooting with point and shoots for the last 15 years and decided to go back to SLRs, so I still have my sigma 70 to 210 macro lens, and the kit 18 to 55, I will be in Venice and planning to visit the Doge, Instanbul the Bue Mosque, Basilica Cistern, an under ground structure, and lost of roman ruins, I've been practicing in churches and other dark places with the kit lens, with good results, but could be better(my fault) I noticed that the Pentax-DA 35mm F2.4 AL Lens is on sale on amazon.ca for $179, and am contemplating buying this lens it has good reviews. Would it be much better that the kit? A have to have or want to have? wish i could rent one.....
For what it's worth, after tripping while hiking in the rain forest on the first day of my honeymoon and smashing my 18-200 lens, I used my 35mm (it was a nikon 1.8, very similar) for my entire honeymoon and there were only a few times I *really* regretted not having a longer lens (photographing surfers in Rincon, snapping shots of the harbor in St. Thomas (whatever USVI it was, I really don't remember) from the top of the cruise ship, and trying to photograph diving pelicans at some beach. (I wished for a wider lens a fair bit more often, but I could do pano stitches for that). It worked fine in the cisterns beneath El Morro, once I used a flashlight to get it focused and the flash working (it was pitch black in there - it's not part of the normal tour, but they'd recently found that there were paintings on the walls that hadn't been seen before they were cleaned during a dry spell or something), and everywhere else I took it, though I had to stop it down a bit in bright sun on the beach.
But you could certainly rent a lens. I'd probably look for a wider one since you're talking about visiting lots of expansive indoor places.
CameraLensRental.com - Pentax Standardlens rental CameraLensRental.com - Pentax Wide Anglelens rental
Sigma 28mm/1.8 is $50 for 30 days. 31mm ltd is 160 for 30 days. 15mm ltd is 97 for 30 days, 14mm/2.8 is 135 for 30 days. 10-17 fisheye is 75 for 30 days. 8-16 is 118 for 30 days (that's as wide as you can get without using a fisheye). Or you could rent an 18-250 for 67 bucks. They don't seem to have an 18-135, but LensRentals does, that's 126 for a month.
I don't know how long you're going to be gone, so I went with a month. It's less for a shorter time, but much of the cost is for the first 3-4 days
Also
LensRentals.com - Rent Pentax > Lenses and
Rent professional cameras or camera lenses for Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus, Leica and Pentax
---------- Post added 12-18-14 at 05:34 PM ----------
oh. I missed that you're in canada. Not sure if they rent to there or not