Originally posted by Loren E H
In regard to your comment Mike Cash, I won't be doing much flash photography, just would like a little fill flash from time to time, and it doesn't make sense buying and carrying around an expensive and not weather resistant flash for my very limited use.
Is that lens weather resistant? My comment wasn't meant to imply that you should buy an expensive flash to go with the lens, but that the image quality from such an expensive and respected lens sort of flies right out the window with what pop-up flash does to photos. An expensive flash is not necessary; an old used flash with bounce capabilities can be had for about $30~50 that would fill the bill on lighting the scene and let the quality of the lens shine through.
Quote: If the pop-up flash is so horrible then why do they put it on there?
Because consumers expect cameras to have built-in flash. I can sort of understand putting it on the lower-end cameras but I will never understand why they include one on the top of the line models. I am convinced what pop-up flash does to photos is the primary reason so many people say they hate flash.
Quote: And if you are from the US then that is a hell of an exaggeration, as the lens retails for $729 from authorized pentax dealers like Abe's.
Well, it wasn't an intentional exaggeration. I went to B&H to look up the price and it listed there for about $1000. If you look under my avatar you will see that I am not in the U.S. (And I wouldn't buy a bag of peanuts from Abe's even if I were).