Sorry again. For some reason I only use these forums to ask questions, someday I'll contribute something useful, I swear.
In the last couple days I hit upon some unexpected funds, so obviously the first thought was "I need more lenses!", not anything smart like "I should put this in the bank", or "I should get around to actually fully paying off my student loans". I thought I was done with buying lenses (at least for the Pentax, my EP3 is starting to feel left out); but thanks to a fellow Pentaxian here I picked up a nice 40 limited.
I'm quickly falling in love with it. The build quality is awesome, and even if it is a bit less sharp and contrasty than I like, it renders naturalistic portraits and black and whites better than anything else I own. The black and whites are just buttery and gorgeous, with the bare amount of PP. Also, 40mm is a very nice FL, I found 35mm to be a bit inconvenient, and at times 50 is to long. 40mm seems just right. The whole limited things is very appealing, as well, the build of this lens is absolutely fantastic. It feels like a bona fide bit of engineering, especially sitting next to my almost 100% plastic zooms (the FA100 2.8 macro still wins, that thing will outlast us all; it is a tank).
Looking around these forums I've noticed that most of the pictures that really grab me are shot with either the 15mm or the 70mm limiteds. The 35 looks fantastic too, but it just isn't the right length for me, and I have a DA 35mm 2.4 that I barely ever touch. I'm pretty certain that I'll grab one of these. But I'm not sure which. I know that no one can actually tell me which is right for me (if only life was that easy); but I'd like to know how restrictive these lengths are, since they are both on the extreme of what I shoot with. My widest lens is a MF Sigma 24mm Super Wide II (thanks to another person here), and my longest is a DA L 55-300, which I barely ever use. I did take the 55-300 to a local park today, and it made me feel rather guilty for never taking it out (even if it almost got attacked by geese several times).
So... the question is... what do you use these focal lengths for? Is the 15mm mostly only for landscapes, and the 70mm mostly only for actual portraits of people? How restrictive is either of these lengths? I'm more worried, to be honest, about the 70mm, but that might be mostly because I never really shoot around that length.
Last edited by Omestes; 02-17-2013 at 01:06 AM.