[Na Horuk]

Welcome!
So.. get Samyang 16mm f2.0 if you want cheap, high quality, and don't mind manual focus. Samyang 14mm if you want a little wider and are thinking of also using it on film. Get Something like Sigma 10-20mm or Tamron 12-24mm if you want wide angle on a budget, with AF and zoom. Or any of the wide angle Pentax lenses if you want the full package (DA 14mm, DA 15mm, DA 12-24mm).

Btw, Samyang is also sold as Rokinon, Bower, Falcon, ProOptic, Walimex, Vivitar and other brand names. They should be all optically the same, but they might different in prices and even appearance (especially the Vivitar version, has a red stripe and different rubber). Sometimes the same store will sell the same lens as Samyang and Rokinon and they will have different prices

Regarding the focal length issue.. just remember that the focal length is a lens value, but the field of view is also affected by the camera. Since you have a crop-sensor camera, all lenses of a given focal length, will have the same field of view. But this field of view will be different than mounting the lens of that focal length on a camera with a different size sensor (like film, full frame, medium format, micro four thirds, Pentax Q, etc.). A 35mm is wide angle on full frame and really really wide angle on medium format. On a Pentax Q it would be tele, on a Pentax crop sensor camera it would be in the "normal" range. But you only have one sensor size. So for your usage, forget the "equivalences" and remember that on crop sensor cameras (APSC), approximately wider than 25mm is "wide angle", wider than 18mm is "ultra wide."

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Last edited by Na Horuk; 04-14-2014 at 06:26 AM.

[seventysixersfan]

I don't have a chance to use mine much, but I took my Tamron 10-24mm zoom out yesterday to take pictures of the Cherry Blossom Trees in full bloom in Washington, D.C. The 10mm wide angle was extremely useful to capture all of the tree limbs and the view of the Tidal Basin water behind them. But I also found it super convenient and helpful to be able to quickly zoom closer, to 24mm, to get nice snapshots of my children and wife. I should really use this lens more often, for the price I think it is a winner, especially if your keep your expectations within reason (it's sharp if stopped down, so great for outdoor use).

[ChristianRock]

I quite like my Tokina 19-35mm f/3.5-4.5. It's much cheaper than your budget, but if you shoot from f/5.6 and up, it's very sharp. I use it a lot outdoors, and also indoors with a flash. If you don't mind using a flash it is a great lens. Just don't use it wide open, as its resolution suffers if you do that, and colors and contrast look pretty weak, at least with my copy. It also has the advantage of being a full frame lens, so if you still shoot some film like me, or if you are planning on buying the much-anticipated Pentax Full Frame camera, that's a big plus.

But for APS-C only lens, lots of good suggestions already in this thread.

[interested_observer]

While you are gathering information and deciding what you might want to do, there is another approach that you may be interested in. Its stitching. You can take overlapping images (by about 25%) either horizontally or vertically and then use Microsoft ICE (its free) to stitch them together in to a single image. You can use any lens - any focal length, to accomplish this.

• Microsoft Research Image Composite Editor (ICE)

[Siskan]

Thank you everyone for the support. I find it incredible being able to exchange opinions with people from all over the world here! That's soooo cooool! BTW, I haven't bought my lens yet... Still looking. I Think Samyang will be a good choice. Looking in manual lens, I saw that they are less wide than digital. Is this because they are designed for ff? Do you think Pentax will ever go ff?

[TER-OR]

Don't open can of FF worms!
Yeah, a 50mm lens on FF is like a 28-35mm range camera on APSC - "normal" view. That's why people like the 15 and 21mm lenses, they're not UWA but wide enough to catch a good view of a scene.

[Siskan]

they're not UWA

What does this mean?

[TER-OR]

Ultra Wide Angle - generally below 15mm - like a 10-20 or 12-24 but not fisheyes, which are a separate category. You will get some very noticeable distortion, which is expected with this view.
That said, the 10-17mm fisheye at 17mm is an UWA lens, and at 10mm it has a 170degree field of view - a very fun lens.

[mgvh]

I was in a similar position to OP not long ago. (Decision thread here.) I have the Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6, but it is a bit large and not particularly fast. I ended up getting a used DA 21 f3.2. It turned out not to be a do-it-all lens, but it is fast enough and certainly is more than good enough and small enough. It works well on landscapes, and it is much easier to stitch a few shots at 21mm [which has little distortion] and get better results than to just shoot at 10mm or to stitch a couple of uwa shots [which will always have some distortion].