[MichaelBilson]

Hi there,

I'm not sure if this has been discussed before. At least I couldn't find anything.

I was wondering what you guys think is the best lens trio (4 lenses are also ok). Please keep in mind, that it should be easily (and relatively cheaply) upgradable should a FF Pentax camera ever be available. I.e. you shouldn't have to replace all 3 lenses once a FF Pentax camera can be bought.

My current trio is the 15mm + 43mm + 77mm (still saving for the 77mm ). Should a FF camera come out, I will make it a 24mm + 43mm + 77mm combo.

The reason I didn't buy the 31mm (instead of the 43mm) is because I will be unhappy with the focal length on FF.

What about you guys? I'd love to hear your opinions.

- Michael

[twitch]

Start with a FA31, FA77 and add a 24, 50 or 100. That suits my prime preferences anyway.

[SpecialK]

Your question has no answer :-)

Only you know what and how you like to shoot. Only you know what is important to you.
You seem to be going for primes but there are a lot of excellent zooms that provide flexibility,

You might look at the lens reviews and lens sample images. Everything else has been said and opined :-)

[adpo]

what do you shoot? for a while, i shot with a 24-55-100 trio for portraits and it worked quite well. Zooms won out in the end though due to having to shoot a lot of events lately and i ended up with my current 17-50, 55, 80-200 trio, although i'm hoping to replace the 80-200 with either an 85 or 100 at some point, once i start picking up more portrait work

[MichaelBilson]

Hi thanks for your replies. I should have been more specific. I am more of a landscape-street photography-prime lens-guy. I am not much of a portrait shooter.

What I meant to ask is what would be a good setup that can easily be upgraded to FF with a lens or two; and also keeping a similar setup in terms of focal length (considering the 1.5x). I really like my 15mm and I'll replace it with a 24ish lens if FF ever comes out. I won't buy a 31mm, because I don't link the focal length on a FF camera.

[elpolodiablo]

In terms of AF primes what I did is I got F28 FA43 FA77 DFA100Macro WR and FA 135 to cover the focal length, if Pentax FF becomes a reality then I will swap my Tamron 17-50(A16) for a 28-75(A09), and my Tammy 70-200 f2.8(A001) will cover the long end.

Meanwhile all these lenses work wonderfully on my K-5

[Jean Poitiers]

Bonjour,

One of the best and most versatile prime available ... should have "Limited" written on this lens! Only "Limited" prime that's WR & FF that I can think of at the moment ... my favorite premium lens.

Salut, John le Frog

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Last edited by Jean Poitiers; 05-13-2012 at 06:58 AM.

[rbefly]

Hi Michael,
Depending upon what you're photographing, would you consider a M/F lens? If so, the Sigma 24mm f/2.8 "Super Wide" might be a good choice.
At f/8.0 the hyperfocal setting puts everything from 2 meters to infinity, in focus.
Ideal for landscapes and street photography. They're selling for about $150.00 USD, sometimes less on eBay.
Also, I agree with John, Adpo and Twitch, a 100mm (or 135mm) is a must-have for serious shooting. On digital it's like a 150-200mm and for FF it's the perfect portrait length. Even if you get an 80-200mm zoom, a 100mm fast prime has about a million uses.
There are several f/2.8's available in various Pentax series (M, A, F, FA, etc) based on the degree of automation you want.
My vote would be for an M 100mm f/2.8, but I'm biased! Check the reviews for other opinions.
Ron

[creampuff]

Here's something most people don't know. If you're gonna step up from a cropped sensor to FF, there will be greater demands on lens quality than ever before. Old legacy lenses made for 35mm film may have the image circle to cover a FF DSLR sensor but they would be hard pressed to deliver the resolution and detail on current FF sensors. In other words, you can use them but image quality can be crap. It's not just about image circle coverage alone.

One thing I've discovered when trying the new Nikon D4 and D800/D800E is that you got to put the best quality lens in front because the sensor will just as easily show up the shortcomings of the lens as well as the photographer's technical competency. Personally I have serious doubts that if and when Pentax does decide to produce a FF camera, the current crop of current and legacy glass will simply not be able to resolve that much contrast and detail. I'd love to be proved wrong but as things stand, a Pentax FF camera is a non-starter proposition imo.

[interested_observer]

..... My current trio is the 15mm + 43mm + 77mm (still saving for the 77mm ). Should a FF camera come out, I will make it a 24mm + 43mm + 77mm combo.

The simple response is to stick with the K, M, A, F, and FA lenses for full frame compatibility. Avoid to some degree the DA lenses, since in most cases they are tailored to the smaller cropped sensor size image circle. There have been at least a couple of threads in the past few years that have discussed using DA lenses on full frame sensors, in terms of which ones would provide suitable image circles on the full sized sensor. I found one, but I think there was at least one other also.

• https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/31629-da-lens-...ts-thread.html

What I don't remember is on the DA 15 in terms of what it might look like on a full frame sensor, but I do not believe that it would be really useable.

Hi thanks for your replies. I should have been more specific. I am more of a landscape-street photography-prime lens-guy. I am not much of a portrait shooter.

What I meant to ask is what would be a good setup that can easily be upgraded to FF with a lens or two; and also keeping a similar setup in terms of focal length (considering the 1.5x). I really like my 15mm and I'll replace it with a 24ish lens if FF ever comes out. I won't buy a 31mm, because I don't link the focal length on a FF camera.

Then you are really to some degree looking at lenses with focal lengths below 50mm. Would you consider manual glass only? If so, the old Contax lenses remounted to the K mount are wonderful. They are full frame, and are used extensively on the current crop of Canon digital bodies, with excellent results - as they have the lens resolution for digital imaging. The problem is that with the wider angle lenses, they are getting expensive. So much so that the current Contax 25/2.8 is essentially now going for the same price as the new Zeiss 25/2.8 ($750 if you look around) before you factor in the cost of the new mount ($100). The 21's and 18's were already prohibitively expensive. In terms of prime there really nothing that is wider than 15 degrees for full frame - that is rectilinear. The physics of optics that applied to film cameras are still in effect for digital cameras. It takes complex optical designs with lots of high quality glass to pull in the edges in to the frame and get them focused on the sensor plane, with as little distortion as possible.

[MichaelBilson]

Thank you for your replies. The D FA 100mm is definitely a lens I've been eying for a long time, especially for its macro capabilities. On a crop camera, it is a little too long for my usage.

As for a manual lens, I am not a big fan, but I think I can handle them if they are wide angle. If there's a FF camera sometime, the Zeiss 25/2.8 sounds like a very interesting replacement for my DA 15mm. I will do some research on this, thank you interested_observer!

@creampuff: do you think that the FA Limited lenses could work on a FF camera? From what I've heard about old legacy lenses on digital cameras is that there may be heavier vignetting than on film. This because a sensor is most effective if the light arrives at a 90 degree angle, while on film it doesn't much matter. Older lenses were not optimized for this issue. I forgot about that, thank you. In that case, I'll wait for the first test results if a FF camera comes out.

[sterretje]

I have FA31Ltd and DFA100WR as my main AF kit; for full fame, which I probably will not buy, I would add FA43Ltd. Gain a bit at the wider side with the FA31Ltd, loose a little at the long side.

[zapp]

Hi there,

I'm not sure if this has been discussed before. At least I couldn't find anything.

I was wondering what you guys think is the best lens trio (4 lenses are also ok). Please keep in mind, that it should be easily (and relatively cheaply) upgradable should a FF Pentax camera ever be available. I.e. you shouldn't have to replace all 3 lenses once a FF Pentax camera can be bought.

My current trio is the 15mm + 43mm + 77mm (still saving for the 77mm ). Should a FF camera come out, I will make it a 24mm + 43mm + 77mm combo.

The reason I didn't buy the 31mm (instead of the 43mm) is because I will be unhappy with the focal length on FF.

What about you guys? I'd love to hear your opinions.

- Michael

Come on you basically answered the question yourself. You have your line up already.
If there will be a FF Pentax, you would need to replace the DA15 to a yet to show up 24 mm lens.
The DA 15 is a great wide angle for the current Pentax sensor sizes. I would also replace the 43 and the 77 in the long run. The design is old, the AF is loud and does not allow focus overrirde. The DA40/70 also cover the image circle of a full frame camera - you would lose one aperture stop.

[MegaPower]

My choice will be FA43 and FA*80-200.

However, I already have the sigma 12-24 and 28-70/2.8 for my FF canon.

[MichaelBilson]

Come on you basically answered the question yourself. You have your line up already.

No reason to be rude. I didn't ask what I should do, I have already made up my mind. I was asking whether other members see other possible set ups that might also be interesting.