Do you think we should start a new forum sub section for newbie Pentaxian's where we can undo some of the lobotomisation they have received photographically from the other brands and smartphones? -just thinking out loud
Ref the original posters question, some of the 3rd parties have nice zoom and prime designs, I think Pentax thought ahead of you with the FF and picked up 2 highly rated designs before you (15-30/2.8 & 24-70) from Tamron, possibly because they knew and trusted the lead designer.I would like Zeiss to start doing ZK designs again, because they would fill a void in our wider prime end but they are expensive and pretty esoteric. Sigma is an interesting case, their ART designs have been raved about because they bench exceptionally well but they have a very different design philosophy from Pentax in that they will throw elements and glass at the problem whereas Pentax will rather lose a stop in aperture and put overall rendering in place of numbers and a nice small design.
I see you use the K-3, in the view of Pentax your lineup would be the DA* range of 16-50/2.8 & 50-135/2.8 or a very nice wide to telephoto lineup of 16-50/2.8 & 55/1.4 & 60-250/4. There is a DA* lens club here where you can judge for yourself the capabilities of these lens designs. There are quite impressive once you figure them out.
S!
Robbie