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05-19-2017, 09:37 AM   #1
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Lens sugestions

I recently bought my Pentax K-50 camera with kit 18-55mm lens. This is my first Pentax camera ever and i love it. As everyone elase (i guess) i started to search for lenses that are in my budget. I found on ebay few of them at really god price: Pentax SMC 50mm f/1.7, Vivitar 28mm f/2.8 and Tokina AF 100-300mm and Pentax DA 16-45mm f/4.
Any sugestions for some other lens? allround? landscape? for weddings?

05-19-2017, 09:43 AM - 2 Likes   #2
hcc
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This is a tough call and you will get plenty of advice and suggestions.

I think that the best strategy would be:
-use your DA18-55mm
-check your photographs and assess the most common focal lengths that you use.
-plan your lens roadmap
-have a roadmap.

Among your future choice, you may have to consider a variety of points. Do you need longer focal lengths (than 55 mm)? do you prefer zoom or prime lenses? How much are you prepare to spend? Do you value image quality (IQ) over best-value-for-money? Will you fall for LBA (lens buying addiction)?

If I look back at my own initial investment in lenses, my first purchase was an all-around zoom lens (DA18-250mm) and my second was a fast prime lens (Voigtlander Nokton 58mm f1.4). My third was a FA Limited lens (FA31mm f1.8 Ltd).... Generally, Pentax offers a range of outstanding prime lenses for focal lenses up to 100 mm and these primes (FA Ltd series, DA td series, DA* series) are very highly regarded across all camera brands.

Start to shoot with your gears and current lens, and take your time...

Last edited by hcc; 05-19-2017 at 09:48 AM.
05-19-2017, 09:44 AM   #3
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DA 18-135: versatile focal range, weather-sealed, nicely balanced on the body, very good image quality.
05-19-2017, 09:45 AM   #4
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I used 16-45. It is cool. Sharp and colors are very good. Also 18-135 is very good. (I dont know it's price at present)

05-19-2017, 09:54 AM   #5
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I won't fall to LBA don't worry lol ...
I prefer landscape and street photography.
I had an offer to shoot one wedding but i didn't have courage to do it without right equipment.
05-19-2017, 09:57 AM   #6
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have you gone to the top of the page and look under "Lenses" and "Articles" yet
05-19-2017, 09:59 AM   #7
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That's good advice by hcc. Find the limits of what you have so your next purchase plugs gaps.

If you find you take a lot of photos at 18mm or at 55mm your next lens might be best outside that range. For my own path, getting the Pentax 55-300 and Tamron 10-24 gave me versatility to fully cover the 10-300 zoom range. Then I started to add specialty lenses for improved sharpness, low light, macro, etc.

05-19-2017, 10:06 AM   #8
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Are you looking for effect, or for realism?
05-19-2017, 10:18 AM   #9
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Lenses are tools. Tools have purposes. Your 18-55 is OK at everything, amazing at nothing. Use your 18-55 until you feel it is limiting you in some way, and buy a lens that fixes that limitation. Repeat. I will say that the 18-135 is also OK at everything, and is mostly better than the 18-55. It's probably the best next-step.
05-19-2017, 10:24 AM   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by timw4mail Quote
Are you looking for effect, or for realism?
Realism
05-19-2017, 11:04 AM - 1 Like   #11
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I would look to complement your kit lens, rather than replace it at the moment. While the 16-45 is probably a step up from the kit lens, it's not a very big step up.

The reach of the Tokina is attractive if you want a long zoom. They're handy if you do some wildlife, sports, zoos etc. You can likely find a used DA 55-300 for very inexpensive prices now, which is a potential longer zoom to watch for.

Same with the Vivitar 28mm, the kit lens is pretty good at that midrange. If you want to play around with manual focus, it could be nice.

Use the 18-55, figure out what you can't do with it, or what you'd like to do better. Street photography usually implies wide-angle lenses, and Pentax has great ones at 21mm and 35mm (more of normal-view). Set your zoom at 20 and leave it there for a while to see what that looks like.
05-19-2017, 11:06 AM   #12
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There are many, many bargain lenses on the market. It is very enticing to buy a $70 lens or a $50 lens. But after a while you add them up and find you spent maybe $500 on 'bargains'. Which would have easily bought you a brand new, modern zoom that is better quality than all your 'bargains'.

Decide what focal lengths you like and save up and get a good lens that covers that. Unless you like playing with old lenses and trying for different effects, in which case the bargain lenses are just fine.

For the k-50 the 18-55 is a nice lens. You should ask yourself what do I want to do that the 18-55 does not do? Two nice zooms to look at would be the DA 16-85 and DA 18-135. Both would be better than the 18-55 and cover more range. The DA 16-45 you have is also well regarded but it duplicates the 18-55 in many ways, without adding a lot. It is slightly faster and slightly wider but not sure that is enough to have both 18-55 and 16-45.
05-19-2017, 11:08 AM   #13
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And post pictures here! Get feedback, keep asking questions, and shoot like your job is to wear your camera out. That's my advice to myself anyway even if I'm not going about it so well.

EDIT: Okay, I can't help myself, here's some ideas;

Q: allround?
A: DA18-135

Q: landscape?
A: DA15 with a common personal preference for the older SMC version and not the current HD.

Q: weddings?
A: Too many options to list. If you like manual focus, any of the Pentax 50mm f1.4's or f1.7's would work well. Also a Pentax K55 f1.8 seems very interesting to me. Also something like the Sears 55mm f1.4 or Helios 44-2 with attendant M42 mount adapters installed semi-permanently sound nice lately. If you would rather use just autofocusing lenses, Pentax sold a pile of F and FA 50 1.4's and 1.7's over the years. DA70 also seems useful here.

Last edited by pres589; 05-19-2017 at 11:27 AM.
05-19-2017, 11:11 AM   #14
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I love my 18-135. It is very good quality, versatile and responsive. Not to mention weather proof (handy in British weather and on beach day). I had 18-55 (Samsung branded) briefly but found it to be too limiting for all rounder.

If I was to buy my second lens again, it would be DA35mm F2.4. As it is very sharp and gives nice background blur, not to mention it is one of the cheapest Pentax lenses.

As for long lenses. I have two 300mm range lenses and I'm not using any of them as much as 35mm or 18-135mm. It is much easier to crop too wide shot than it is to zoom out too tight.
05-19-2017, 11:11 AM   #15
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QuoteOriginally posted by jatrax Quote

For the k-50 the 18-55 is a nice lens. You should ask yourself what do I want to do that the 18-55 does not do? Two nice zooms to look at would be the DA 16-85 and DA 18-135. Both would be better than the 18-55 and cover more range. The DA 16-45 you have is also well regarded but it duplicates the 18-55 in many ways, without adding a lot. It is slightly faster and slightly wider but not sure that is enough to have both 18-55 and 16-45.
It's not. The 16-45 is a nice lens, and was really good compared to the earliest version of the 18-55, but now there's not much reason to get it now. I have one, and have not used it in a long time. I'll grab my 18-135 first. I should probably sell it, but just haven't. Don't duplicate zooms this way.
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