[NancyK]

Hey all, we're going to Hawaii in December and I'm looking for the one prefect lens to take along with my Pentax K-3. I'm thinking maybe the Pentax smc FA 77mm f1.8, but I need some opinions 'cause I still have soooooo much to learn. I picked up on the 77mm on the Pentax website...maybe they're trying to sell a bill of goods, but it sounds like the perfect lens for both portrait, street photography and landscape, which of course will be the main focus. Does anyone have this lens and if so, would you recommend it? Or, do you have another lens you'd recommend? Thanks for the help!

[jlstrawman]

Wrong forum. Try asking your question(s) here:

Pentax SLR Lens Discussion - PentaxForums.com

[Parallax]

Moved to the proper forum.
The Wanted Items forum is for soliciting specific items that you wish to purchase.

[NancyK]

Wrong forum. Try asking your question(s) here:

Pentax SLR Lens Discussion - PentaxForums.com

Thank you, I think I did it.

[CDW]

While the 77 1.8 is certainly a great lens to have, it is not the one lens I would choose to photograph Hawaii. The photographic opportunities are too broad to restrict yourself to one lens. I shoot here with everything from a 14mm to 300mm. With beaches, lava flow, volcanoes, water falls, flowers, city and village scenes, you'll need more than the 77 to shoot Hawaii effectively.

[SpecialK]

Wide angle will prove useful.

[sergysergy]

water camera to take pictures of the beautiful fish and ocean creatures

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Last edited by sergysergy; 09-30-2016 at 09:02 PM.

[pepperberry farm]

what sort of things will you be doing there?

I'd be taking my DA 18-135 at the minimum.... plus a couple of primes.....

[rrstuff]

Hey all, we're going to Hawaii in December and I'm looking for the one prefect lens to take along with my Pentax K-3. I'm thinking maybe the Pentax smc FA 77mm f1.8, but I need some opinions 'cause I still have soooooo much to learn. I picked up on the 77mm on the Pentax website...maybe they're trying to sell a bill of goods, but it sounds like the perfect lens for both portrait, street photography and landscape, which of course will be the main focus. Does anyone have this lens and if so, would you recommend it? Or, do you have another lens you'd recommend? Thanks for the help!

Don't take just one lens. I used everything from 10 mm to 300 mm during my trip. In fact consider buying a waterproof compact camera, like olympus tough for coral reefs.

- during the hike, you will appreciate a wide angle
- if you take a boat you will want to have a medium telephoto
- in commons tourists spots, such as waterfalls, there is no place to step back, so again a wide angle will be a plus

I took almost everything I had for my trip. Sigma 10-20, DA40, and olympus 17mm and 40-150mm got the mouse use.

[UncleVanya]

The FA 77 is fantastic. On the k-3 it reminds me of a sharper, faster 105 f2.5 Nikon from back when I shot them. It is a medium telephoto used primarily for portraits and shots where some subject isolation is wanted. Street shooting from a less in your face viewpoint would work. Landscapes that benefit from a telephoto viewpoint will also work. However, most landscape shooting is done with wide angle lenses. If it were me I would take at least three small primes (15/40/77) or one super zoom (18-135, 16-85, 17-70, 18-250, 18-270) and one fast prime (77, 50).

[MikeD]

I would take a 16/17 - 50 for landscapes and my 60-250 for portraits and other stuff and my 1.4 tc. The birds in Hawaii are quite accommodating so you don't need that long of a lens. I wouldn't worry two much about taking several primes. I have a nice 90mm macro f 2.8 but would leave that home unless I was really interested in Hawaiian bugs. You may want to take a 50mm 1.7 for low light (luaus) If you can find a 1.4( used) so much the better.

[chrisfer]

15mm Limited for Wide angle, Landscape.
20-40mm Limited for it's construction quality and it's WR, to have nice set with your 77mm.

If you can, add a DA* 200mm...

[clackers]

*One* prime? The DA21 would be a traditional FoV.

The 18-135 is a zoom to cover many contingencies.

[Alex645]

Can we presume you already have the kit zooms? I live on Oahu and once a year, I go to a neighbor island on a ʻphoto safariʻ. I decide before leaving if I want to just enjoy the experience, but have my camera at my side to record things, or if Iʻm there to produce my signature photography work.

If itʻs the former, then I prefer the 16-85mm WR zoom. If itʻs the latter, then I need to decide what my specific opportunities and interests will be. Rare birds, surfers, fat sunsets? Then the 55-300mm. Close ups of flowers, geckos, and a smiley face spider? Then the 100mm WR macro. For my style of images, I take two primes like the 15mm and 35mm macro Limiteds. Light, compact, relatively fast and sharp. The 77mm is a special lens if your main interest is shooting portraits.

[jddwoods]

Wide angle is more important than telephoto here unless you will be photographing birds. Of my lenses I would take my DA 15, 21 and 35 macro limiteds and perhaps a telephoto zoom such as DA 55-300WR or DFA 100 Macro WR. If I had it, I would also bring along the FA 77 1.8 limited. My thought is if you do not have enough reach with a small high quality prime, you can crop, but if you do not have something wide enough then there is little you can do except get only part of what you want.