Staff note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means Pentax Forums may earn a small commission if a visitor clicks through and makes a purchase. If you would like to support the forum directly, you may also make a donation here.
Originally posted by igabc Guys please point me to a good zoom in the range between35-150 and 70-200
For my new K3. I'd like to stay below 300 dollars
Love
Gabriele
AF or MF?
If you want MF and can find one, a vivitar series 1 70-210 F3.5 ( first version of the lens with constant aperture). Sharp, fast easy to use as it is a single ring push pull zoom, reliable and quick to focus with 180 degree throw from minimum to infinity, but enough throw to be accurate. It is a true zoom, so bulling straight back does not change focus, and it can do 1:2.2 macro with no adaptors. They usually go cheap,mount are very high quality
---------- Post added 02-13-2015 at 02:02 AM ----------
Originally posted by igabc The range is too big. I consider this lens to be a very good one for those who choose to have ONE multi purpose lens, only one.
Thank you
---------- Post added 02-13-15 at 12:18 AM ----------
Ok after 3 hours spent on this topic, reading all the reviews about the lenses you suggested, I think I have more clear what I need...
manual focus: important
sharpness: important. but maybe post production will help.
CA: I can't compromise here. can't be fixed in post.
weight: not a problem
not too big zoom range. I rather buy 2 higher quality smaller range zoom lenses, rather than 1 big range.
performance in low light: important but the K3 is amazing at high iso so maybe that will help where the lens lacks. Plus, a good flash is always on my camera. Guys, do the same. Light is almost never perfect out there so flash, always ready.
I love the idea of a full frame lens, as it won't matter if it loses image quality at the corners and edges. nice.
Bokeh: important. I don't get it...I've read someone complaining about a bad bokeh on a zoom lens at wide. bah!
auto focus speed: not important at the moment. manual focus is more fun and challenging.
Maybe I'll go for the 50-300
Do I make sense?
P.s. I think those who write reviews should never miss to state the cameras they tested the lenses with.
Ok, so in reading this,myounwant to use flash, so, any lens must be KA or later to use your flash , so strike the series one lens I suggested,
One thing to note, you are wrong about CA. With the right post processing tools Lateral CA can be easily fixed in post processing, as can purple finding, but sharpness cannot.
Also note that edge sharpness and lateral CA go hand in hand. I did a series of posts looking at a lens that had very bad lateral CA. Pentax photo lab , Photoshop, and many other programs and photo shop compatible plug ins have lateral CA correction which is done by rescaling the three Color layers. Lateral CA is the result of slightly different magnification at different wavelengths, and if your CA correction works by rescaling the color layers (by changing the magnification of each) you can almost completely eliminate it, and the resulting improvement in edge sharpness is quite noticible