[Raybo]

I have it bad, REAL BAD!

I received my K100DS in October (I bought 2 lenses pre reciept of my camera) and have since purchased 15 lenses.
Will it ever stop? Is there a cure for this madness?
I'm also a coin collector but seem to be more selective about the hobby, maybe when I get more experience with lenses things might change.............

Ray

[TomInJax]

I have it bad, REAL BAD!

I received my K100DS in October (I bought 2 lenses pre reciept of my camera) and have since purchased 15 lenses.
Will it ever stop? Is there a cure for this madness?
I'm also a coin collector but seem to be more selective about the hobby, maybe when I get more experience with lenses things might change.............

Ray

Don't fight it! Sell your coins to buy new glass!!!

[heatherslightbox]

Hey guys...

I'm new here. This is actually my 2nd post after lurking around here for a couple of months now. I really felt the need to get this LBA experience off my chest...

It started a month ago with a Pentax-A 35-70/f3.5-4.5 that I picked up from eBay along with a Pentax P5 film camera. Of course, that wasn't enough so I had to grab a few more of these cheapo lenses to the point of overdose. When all was said and done, I ended up with 9 lenses in less than a months time....ACK!

What makes it worse is that I didn't even have a camera yet! Yeah, this is probably one of the worst cases of pre-camera LBA in the history of LBA-dom. The plan all along was to pick up a K100D and then add a few manual lens to play around with. Well, I started hanging out here and one thing led to another and another and another. I'm sure you guys understand. Anyway, this is what I ended up with:

Pentax-A 50mm/F1.7
Tokina 28-70mm/F3.5-4.5
Sigma 28-80mm/F3.5-4.5
Ozunon 35-70mm/F3.5-4.5
Pentax-A 35-70mm/F3.5-4.5
Vivitar 70-150mm/F3.8 w/matching 2x teleconverter
Vivitar 70-210mm/F4.5-5.6 Macro Focusing Zoom
Tokina SD 70-210mm/F4-5.6 Macro Zoom
Quantaray 70-300mm/F4.0-5.6 Macro Zoom (rebadged Sigma DG, non-APO)

The good news is that I finally got around to picking up that K100D. It hasn't gotten here yet, but I'll be sure to let you guys know when it does.

Now that I have a better idea of what I really want in my kit, I'm trying to overcome LBA. It's easier to overcome when the lenses start getting more expensive and the bank account keeps getting emptier and emptier. Of course, there's always credit cards, but then you have to pay those back. :ugh:

My suggestion to you would be to pick your favorite of the wider angle zooms (I'd probably go with the 28-70 because of the range) and then your favorite of the telephoto zooms. Definitely keep the 50, as it's an all-around good lens. If you plan on keeping your P5 body, you'll basically have a complete setup you can use if you're shooting film. For your K100, keep the 18-55 for the wider coverage and then use one of the telephoto zooms on the other end. Other than the18-55, the other 3 lenses will work on both bodies.

Once you're able to get rid of the other lenses, you'll have some money to put towards some manual primes, as someone else mentioned, or depending on how much you get, perhaps a nice AF prime. My one suggestion for a prime would be a 28, which is s good length if you're shooting indoors--not too wide, not too long.

HTH,
Heather

[hinman]

I'm not falling for that trick....lol! Well, I guess I already have.

Once test some of them, I'll be able to get a handle on which zooms I want to keep. Then I can start unloading some inventory because I really don't want to lug 7-8 lenses around. Ideally, I'd keep the kit lens and maybe sell everything else off to fund a DA 50-200. I definitely the A 50mm/1.7 and maybe pick up a 105mm or 135mm prime. I would think those 4 lenses ought to do the trick.....at least until I learn all the features of the camera.

BTW Himman, your blog was one of the things that really got me motivated when I decided to pick up the K100D. I guess I have you to thank for this.

My Picasa tutorial just get noted in NYtimes and I get many visitors to my blog that I have not updated frequently. I buy too much gear and I have less time with learning and sharing my learning with others. I should have spent my time more focused on learning instead of gear hunting

My article in link titled with techtheman blog page
Learning How to Use Picasa - New York Times

My Picasa demo page noted in NYTimes:
Picasa Tutorials - Hin's Tech Corner

And with the K20D/K200D, I want my K10D bad as I am more than ready to jump but my funds is lacking. And the obsessive buying take away most of my joy in sharing my learning with others in my blog page, I have got to STOP.

Thanks,
Hin

[maxwell1295]

Now that I have a better idea of what I really want in my kit, I'm trying to overcome LBA. It's easier to overcome when the lenses start getting more expensive and the bank account keeps getting emptier and emptier. Of course, there's always credit cards, but then you have to pay those back. :ugh:

My suggestion to you would be to pick your favorite of the wider angle zooms (I'd probably go with the 28-70 because of the range) and then your favorite of the telephoto zooms. Definitely keep the 50, as it's an all-around good lens. If you plan on keeping your P5 body, you'll basically have a complete setup you can use if you're shooting film. For your K100, keep the 18-55 for the wider coverage and then use one of the telephoto zooms on the other end. Other than the18-55, the other 3 lenses will work on both bodies.

Once you're able to get rid of the other lenses, you'll have some money to put towards some manual primes, as someone else mentioned, or depending on how much you get, perhaps a nice AF prime. My one suggestion for a prime would be a 28, which is s good length if you're shooting indoors--not too wide, not too long.

HTH,
Heather

Thanks Heather.....that's pretty much what I plan to do. I'm going to have a shootout with the shorter zooms and the telephoto zooms as well. Once I get the camera you can bet that testing will begin immediately. I also thought about a wide prime lens, but figured I could get away with the 18-55 for while. The majority of my low-light indoor shooting will be done with the 50/1.7 so there's no rush to make a move there yet. I really just need to shoot a variety of shots and then decide where my gaps are.

[maxwell1295]

My Picasa tutorial just get noted in NYtimes and I get many visitors to my blog that I have not updated frequently. I buy too much gear and I have less time with learning and sharing my learning with others. I should have spent my time more focused on learning instead of gear hunting

My article in link titled with techtheman blog page
Learning How to Use Picasa - New York Times

My Picasa demo page noted in NYTimes:
Picasa Tutorials - Hin's Tech Corner

And with the K20D/K200D, I want my K10D bad as I am more than ready to jump but my funds is lacking. And the obsessive buying take away most of my joy in sharing my learning with others in my blog page, I have got to STOP.

Thanks,
Hin

Congrats to the NYT mention! I already had your tutorial bookmarked for later use. I haven't used Picasa or done anything in the way of post-processing or editing, but I figured it might come in handy somewhere down the line.

[jgredline]

Hey guys...

I'm new here. This is actually my 2nd post after lurking around here for a couple of months now. I really felt the need to get this LBA experience off my chest...

It started a month ago with a Pentax-A 35-70/f3.5-4.5 that I picked up from eBay along with a Pentax P5 film camera. Of course, that wasn't enough so I had to grab a few more of these cheapo lenses to the point of overdose. When all was said and done, I ended up with 9 lenses in less than a months time....ACK!

What makes it worse is that I didn't even have a camera yet! Yeah, this is probably one of the worst cases of pre-camera LBA in the history of LBA-dom. The plan all along was to pick up a K100D and then add a few manual lens to play around with. Well, I started hanging out here and one thing led to another and another and another. I'm sure you guys understand. Anyway, this is what I ended up with:

Pentax-A 50mm/F1.7
Tokina 28-70mm/F3.5-4.5
Sigma 28-80mm/F3.5-4.5
Ozunon 35-70mm/F3.5-4.5
Pentax-A 35-70mm/F3.5-4.5
Vivitar 70-150mm/F3.8 w/matching 2x teleconverter
Vivitar 70-210mm/F4.5-5.6 Macro Focusing Zoom
Tokina SD 70-210mm/F4-5.6 Macro Zoom
Quantaray 70-300mm/F4.0-5.6 Macro Zoom (rebadged Sigma DG, non-APO)

The good news is that I finally got around to picking up that K100D. It hasn't gotten here yet, but I'll be sure to let you guys know when it does.

This is flat funny...I love it!

[maxwell1295]

UPDATE:

The camera got here Thursday and I've been getting used to it and testing the lenses for the last few days. I finally settled on these lenses for my K100D setup. They are:

Pentax-A 50mm/f1.7
Pentax DA 18-55mm/f3.5-5.6
Pentax-A 35-70mm/f3.5-4.5
Quantaray 70-300mm/f4.0-5.6 Macro Zoom
(rebadged Sigma DG, non-APO)

I think these few lenses will keep me going for a while. Most of my shooting will be family/travel stuff with some aquarium pics mixed in for good measure. I'm going to keep it as simple as I possibly can until I get the hang of shooting RAW and dabbling in some PP.

Here are some pics from the Quantaray 70-300. All pics were taken at either F8 or F11. I've never really taken bird pics but I caught this guy hanging out in a tree in my backyard yesterday morning. I think it's just a drab looking sparrow, but he was a good guinea pig for some of my early shots with this lens/camera combo. These are jpegs straight from the camera with no PP at all. I'm pretty satisfied with the way they came out...

160mm



300mm






100% crop of the last pic

[hinman]

UPDATE:

The camera got here Thursday and I've been getting used to it and testing the lenses for the last few days. I finally settled on these lenses for my K100D setup. They are:

Pentax-A 50mm/f1.7
Pentax DA 18-55mm/f3.5-5.6
Pentax-A 35-70mm/f3.5-4.5
Quantaray 70-300mm/f4.0-5.6 Macro Zoom
(rebadged Sigma DG, non-APO)

I think these few lenses will keep me going for a while. Most of my shooting will be family/travel stuff with some aquarium pics mixed in for good measure. I'm going to keep it as simple as I possibly can until I get the hang of shooting RAW and dabbling in some PP.

Here are some pics from the Quantaray 70-300. All pics were taken at either F8 or F11. I've never really taken bird pics but I caught this guy hanging out in a tree in my backyard yesterday morning. I think it's just a drab looking sparrow, but he was a good guinea pig for some of my early shots with this lens/camera combo. These are jpegs straight from the camera with no PP at all. I'm pretty satisfied with the way they came out...

Very nice shots from your Quantary 70-300mm, I wish my arriving Tamron 70-300 Di from marketplace can shoot as well as your Quantary. By the way, what happens to your Tokina 28-70. I had a copy of manual zoom with Tokina SZ-X 287 28-70 f/2.8-4.3 and I have great liking on the zoom. Please tell us more about the Tokina if you have time. Your LBA has awarded you quite a couple of inexpensive lens. I love my kit's lens and DA 50-200 very much what I started 10months ago with my K100D and I am sure you will love your Kit's lens as well as your Quantaray as a good combination from 18-300. And you have a great 35-70 as a walkaround too. Nice job with LBA in the worst way.

But a word of caution in LBA activity, having purchased some good lens for cheaper price will easily get you thinking into another purchase. Do watch out for the lurking and have a plan for what you need in terms of zoom and prime and that will hopefully keep you at bay to be content with what you have. Your initial list should cover your needs very much. And that was also true for my DA 18-55, DA 50-200 along with FA 50 f/1.4 but I went on at unstoppable rate in getting one lens after another and I end up spending the last two months doing no shooting but testing unused gear to sell it in markeptlace. Just my open sharing for LBA on the dark side which are good sometimes such as your inexpensive Quantary find but it truly has a negative side.

[update:] Perhaps an idea that we can form in the forum is to pair up with few other buddies in the forum. Every time, we think of getting another lens, we send PM to our buddy for clearance with reason and what we already have and that way, our buddy can either bid up the price and steal the lens from us or talk us not to engage in the bid. Just a thought for making it harder to buy.

[jgredline]

Very nice shots from your Quantary 70-300mm, I wish my arriving Tamron 70-300 Di from marketplace can shoot as well as your Quantary.

I agree those are nice pics...Hin..Interesting comment..One of my first lenses was the Tamron 70-300 same as yours and then I kept reading that the Quantary (sigma built) was better than the Tamron, so I went to ritz and bought one...When I got home, they looked the same, yet from a performance level, they are far apart...That Quantary is a great lens and for the money can't be beat...So after wards figuring that if this old quantary lens was this good, I went out and bought the Sigma 70-300APO and this lens really rocks the quantary...Tamron really needs to go back and rework their 70-300 lens..

[heatherslightbox]

I'm glad that you have finally settled on your lens lineup. BTW, nice bird pics, too.

Hin, I like your idea about having some buddies on the forum to be accountable to when contemplating lens purchases. The little group could simply be called "LBAs Anonymous". For those who are contemplating stupid lens purchases, they might be reading comments such as:
"You need that lens like you need a hole in your head."
"Step away from the computer and nobody will get hurt."
"Step away from your wallet and nobody will get hurt."
"If you have to take out a loan to have that lens, then it's not worth it."
"You already have 4-50mms; do you really need a 5th one?"
"If you buy this lens, are you going to be able to eat for the rest of the month?"
"If you buy this lens, will your wife stick around?

Anyhow, you get my drift.

Heather

[maxwell1295]

Very nice shots from your Quantary 70-300mm, I wish my arriving Tamron 70-300 Di from marketplace can shoot as well as your Quantary. By the way, what happens to your Tokina 28-70. I had a copy of manual zoom with Tokina SZ-X 287 28-70 f/2.8-4.3 and I have great liking on the zoom. Please tell us more about the Tokina if you have time. Your LBA has awarded you quite a couple of inexpensive lens. I love my kit's lens and DA 50-200 very much what I started 10months ago with my K100D and I am sure you will love your Kit's lens as well as your Quantaray as a good combination from 18-300. And you have a great 35-70 as a walkaround too. Nice job with LBA in the worst way.

But a word of caution in LBA activity, having purchased some good lens for cheaper price will easily get you thinking into another purchase. Do watch out for the lurking and have a plan for what you need in terms of zoom and prime and that will hopefully keep you at bay to be content with what you have. Your initial list should cover your needs very much. And that was also true for my DA 18-55, DA 50-200 along with FA 50 f/1.4 but I went on at unstoppable rate in getting one lens after another and I end up spending the last two months doing no shooting but testing unused gear to sell it in markeptlace. Just my open sharing for LBA on the dark side which are good sometimes such as your inexpensive Quantary find but it truly has a negative side.

[update:] Perhaps an idea that we can form in the forum is to pair up with few other buddies in the forum. Every time, we think of getting another lens, we send PM to our buddy for clearance with reason and what we already have and that way, our buddy can either bid up the price and steal the lens from us or talk us not to engage in the bid. Just a thought for making it harder to buy.

I have a very good LBA buddy......my wife! She definitely helped me keep things somewhat under control. Even when I said "It only cost me X amount of $$$", she gave me that look (anyone who's been married knows that look).

As for the Tokina, it's an older 28-70mm lens (pre- SZ-X). It's a decent lens, but the A35-70 seems to be a bit sharper to me. I think all I might need need now is a good long prime lens (85mm, 105mm, or 135mm) to use as an all-around portrait lens. I really would like to take some nice aquarium pics, so my next move will be an off camera flash setup for that.

[maxwell1295]

Okay, I lied...

I couldn't resist picking up a A70-210/f4 and another A50/f1.7 earlier tonight. Provided they're in good condition, I think it would be a pretty good buy for $120 total for both lenses, a K1000, assortment of filters, and a flash.