[studiocrocevia]

I'm plannig to buy a new lens for my camera and in future i'll buy a D20 or D200,
now i'm plannig to buy a "definitive" normal zoom lens. Atcually i have only the 28-70 F4 and the 50 F1,7 and i wanto to move to someting for walkaround.

I don't like to much tamron or sigma and i'm wondering for a DA*.

I wrote to pentaxitaly and pentaxUSA to know about DA*16-50 problems.

They told me that Pentax know all problems about it and now the controls on this lens are much high.

I've read all the posts about this questions but more are 3 or 4 months ago.

So what about, this is a common questions, and i hope to decide soon. I can't wait because next week i come to USA from Italy and i like to buy the lens for the trip.

So 16-45 or 16-50 is the questions, no other lens !

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Last edited by studiocrocevia; 04-11-2008 at 07:03 AM.

[kyrios]

For you trip shake, buy DA 16-45mm. I'm afraid if you bought DA 16-50mm, you won't bring any lens but kit lens.

[bymy141]

I'm plannig to buy a new lens for my camera and in future i'll buy a D20 or D200,
now i'm plannig to buy a "definitive" normal zoom lens. Atcually i have only the 28-70 F4 and the 50 F1,7 and i wanto to move to someting for walkaround.

I don't like to much tamron or sigma and i'm wondering for a DA*.

I wrote to pentaxitaly and pentaxUSA to know about DA*16-50 problems.

They told me that Pentax know all problems about it and now the controls on this lens are much high.

I've read all the posts about this questions but more are 3 or 4 months ago.

So what about, this is a common questions, and i hope to decide soon. I can't wait because next week i come to USA from Italy and i like to buy the lens for the trip.

So 16-45 or 16-50 is the questions, no other lens !

Hi,

I bought the 16-50mm last august.
Since there was a lot of discussion on the quality of this lens on this forum, I took my K10D and a laptop to the store. They had two lenses in store.
We made a number of test shots with both lenses and examined them carefully, I took the best one home.
The other copy was not that much worse, but not as sharp as the one bought.

The 16-50mm is an awesome lens!
You should try it.....

- Bert

[lesmore49]

I've got a Pentax 16-45....on my K10D. Very happy with this lens, Quite sharp and fast focusing. I take indoor shots with the shake reduction on, no flash...seems ok to me.

[Canada_Rockies]

I use the DA* 16-50. For me the choice was two fold: the extra speed, and the weatherproofing. I hit it lucky and got a good one first try.

[frank]

Got my second copy of DA*1650 (thanks again Hiep ), seems to be an excellent copy The first one I got had some hunting problem under low light, and mis-focused quite alot. But it worked pretty well w/o using SDM (like K100D).

Now I won't hunt for a wide zoom lens anymore

[Peter Zack]

You might want to read this discussion as well. I just got the DA16-45mm after trying 2 DA*16-50's that didn't focus correctly.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/24796-wide-zoo...ng-issues.html

[ericc]

I spent some time using a friends 16-45. To be honest, I didn't see that much improvement over the kit lens in terms of image quality. But, I wanted that extra bit at the wide end and the constant f4 was a bonus. I was ready to pull the trigger on the 16-45, when I noticed that B&H had the *16-50 for "only" $300US (€150) more. Granted, I've also spent an extra $155 getting UV + CPL + ND4 filters for 77mm threads, but I would've spent similar to that on the 16-45. Plus, I've got that full extra stop to play with and it's weathersealed and has SDM focusing.

I don't regret the decision one bit. This was a quick snap of my daughter after she'd been playing in the mud. I did very little to this photo in terms of post-processing, just cropped and applied a slight color curve to the towel and bathing suit.

[Peter Zack]

$300???? Somebody messed up the pricing that day! Lucky you!

[Peter Zack]

great shot Btw Ericc. Love the eyes and the expression

[nostatic]

no, he said $300 *more* than the 16-45 I believe.

I would love to find a good 16-50* just so I don't have the lens end moving in and out (I assume it doesn't, just as the 50-135 doesn't).

[Peter Zack]

Duh, I'll learn to read....

[nostatic]

Duh, I'll learn to read....

feh...reading is over-rated. As long as you can operate a joystick you'll be fine

[frank]

I would love to find a good 16-50* just so I don't have the lens end moving in and out (I assume it doesn't, just as the 50-135 doesn't).

IIRIC, so far there is no IZ (Internal Zoom) wide zoom lens w/ F2.8 aperture like that, yet, not even from big boys like Canon/Nikon/Sony ...

[hinckc]

Hi all!

Here's another vote for the DA* 16-50...

I just picked mine up this past weekend and got a chance to put it through it's paces this week on a trip to North Carolina.

Weather-sealing is what drew me in, but the sharpness and SDM are what have really impressed me since I've had it. You don't hear it, it just focuses!

The only down-side, IMO is the size. It's a big lens, especially compared to the DA18-55.

Instead of buying the lens before your trip, why don't you get it when you get here? I always hear about how much cheaper Pentax equipment is in the US, compared to Europe...

Here's one of my favorite shots from my trip. I took this week with my new DA*. It's a swarm of bees that was temporarily hanging out (literally) in a tree. The shot was sharpened and just a bit of fill light added in ACR. 50mm, f/5.6, 1/60th + on board flash for fill:


and a 100% 800x600 crop from the same:


I had been tempted by the 16-45, but couldn't justify "replacing" my DA18-55 with an even slower lens, at least at the wide end. I'm planning on keeping my DA18-55, just because of it's size, and will use it when that's important.

Good luck deciding and have a great trip!

-Chris