[Jennifer Azzopardi]

I am relatively a beginner and in need of a Pentax lens that is good to use indoors in poor light conditions. Any suggestions on what kind of lens I need and what specs?

[westmill]

Hello Jennifer,
I would recomend the Tamron 17-50mm F2.8
Perfect for your needs ! High quality at a very reasonable cost.
Check here to check lenses for yourself
Tamron AF 17-50mm f/2.8 SP XR Di II LD Aspherical [IF] (Nikon) - Review / Test Report
Dont worry it comes in pentax fit too.
This lens often needs setting in the camera fine focus adjustment to get the best from it. minus 5 seems about right.
A word of warning regarding the Tamron 17 to 50..... Its not very usable with the built in flash, as its big lens, small camera, and it causes bad
vignetting. It Can be used towards the longer end of the zoom if you remove the lens shade though !
Just summit you never see mentioned !
If that is important, I would then opt for the pentax 17 to 70 has good performance although a stop slower at F4.

[Adam]

If you want a zoom I can second the tamron 17-50:
DA* 16-50mm vs. Sigma and Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 Comparison - Introduction - PentaxForums.com

However for real low-light shots you need a faster prime, like the 50/1.4.

Wrong forum, btw. This should be moved.

[RioRico]

There are always trade-offs when shooting indoors in poor light. A fast lens like the excellent FA50/1.4 captures more light and so allows you to use d faster shutter speed for less motion blur. But the area that is in focus, called the DOF (depth of field) is very thin with fast lenses, so getting an entire person or other subject in focus is difficult. For that, a slower (but still pretty fast) lens like the Tamron 17-50/2.8 is good. Sometimes it is best to raise the ISO (sensitivity) to a higher level, although this may increase digital noise somewhat. Trade-offs, oh bother...

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Last edited by RioRico; 01-03-2012 at 04:05 PM.

[alphanerd]

I am relatively a beginner and in need of a Pentax lens that is good to use indoors in poor light conditions. Any suggestions on what kind of lens I need and what specs?

Are you willing to manually focus?
Are you willing to use a prime lens (one without the capacity to zoom)?

If the answer to both questions is 'No', then buy a f2.8 zoom (several mentioned here)
If the answer to both questions is 'Yes', then buy an old manual focus prime lens. (28mm f2.8? 35mm f2? 50mm f1.7? these can be had well under $100)
If the answer to the second is yes, then consider an autofocus lens. The Pentax DA 35mm f2.4 is relatively cheap for a lens (~$180), and is relatively standard focal length. Other good, cheap options are older and must be bought new (Pentax-F 28mm f2.8 (~$200), Pentax-F 50mm f1.7 (~$200). If cheap isn't necessary, there are lots of good new lenses to choose from.

If you are thinking about buying a prime lens, try using some tape to lock your kits lens to a single focal length and see if it works for you.

[DaveHolmes]

I shall second both the tamron17-50mm-f2-8 AND the SMC-Pentax-FA-50mm-F1.4 depending on the size of your poorly-lit-indoor space...

How do you feel about manual focus?
A SMC-Pentax-A-50mm-F1.7-Lens could serve you well and would certainly cost you a lot less than the other 2...

Shooting with a Fast-Fifty will teach you a thing or Three....The A-50mm 1.7 is a good place to start with primes and if you combine it with a Pentax-A-28mm-F2.8-Lens you should have a good yet fairly cheap set of manual primes to go with your kit lens... The money you save could go towards a flashgun and a wireless trigger...

[Docrwm]

Welcome aboard. Lots of good recommendations but, what camera are you using and how close, and to what, are you going to be? A Fast 50 is often too tight for indoors despite being a great choice for low light and sharp photos. I have several and they're great lenses but sometimes you need 35-28-or even wider indoors. Also, what budget are you looking at?

The FA50/1.4 is very fast, is an excellent lens, and can be had used for in the $250 range.
The 35/2.4 is fast but not super fast, has a wider perspective so is often more useful indoors, and is a genuine bargain among Prime lenses at around $169 brand new.
As Adam pointed out, there is a review here on Zooms that are for lower light - f2.8 at best - and the Tamron 17-50 does really well at half the cost of the equivalent Pentax model.

There are, as have been pointed out, older manual focus lenses that are less expensive and can bring lots to the situation but those are the main two auto focus lenses that are more affordable.