[Jim Olson]

I have decided to move from Canon to a Pentax K5 after seeing one in one of the local camera shops. I bought my Canon equipment to shoot weddings which I did part time for 8 years. I now want something smaller for my personal use. My biggest question is how does the 50-135 2.8 lens compare to the Canon and Nikon 70-200 2.8 lenses . Now most of my shooting in of my grandkids ranging from portraits to high school wrestling and basketball .

Thanks for your comments

Jim Olson

[Frogfish]

Jim ... whilst I don't personally have the 50-135 there is a thread specifically for shots from the lense on here. Some superb shots. However you are also comparing it to probably the best 70-200 ever built (Nikon 2.8 with VR) so that is rather stiff competition for any lense ! Since you now have the K5 you might also want to consider the DA*60-250 .. although it is heavier.

I'm sure there will be someone on here who has experience with either the Canon or Nikon as well as the 50-135. Sigma also make a 50-150 that is supposed to be rather good too.

[Rondec]

The DA * 50-135 is considerably smaller than any of the 70-200 f2.8 offerings out there. Not sure if you were shooting with full frame or not, but it will give similar field of view to a 70-200 on a full frame camera. The strengths of the 50-135 are its sharpness, contrast and colors. The weakness is that it is a slow auto focuser. It has a really long focus throw and uses micro SDM motors which aren't exactly speedy.

I would not hesitate to recommend it for portraiture, but if you are shooting much sports, you would probably do better with a Sigma 70-200 with HSM.

[Jim Olson]

I used a Canon 5D for the weddings and did use it for some sports . I think for the lighter weight outfit I would gladly accept the slower focus as I will use the lens as much for portraits as I would for sports. Thanks for the replies.