Thanks for all the great input! It seems that most say to get the 24-70 anyway. Maybe I will...just need to think or get used to the price/non-*-ratio first and maybe use the 12-24 and F50 in the meantime...unless I stumble upon a good offer for and try one of the F/FA zooms, of preferably if I find that sigma 20-40, looks better than many other final-pentaxavailable-gen-sigma-zooms.
A couple of thoughts regarding a few of the suggestions:
Originally posted by cmohr I know you mention the F20-35, but the FA 20-35/f4 is a cracking lens for the money, and perfect on FF, Back before I went digital and APS-C , on film, my trio was this FA20-35/f4, FA*85/f1.4 and FA*200/f2.8, diddnt need much more for normal shooting days out.
Yes, the F/FA of this lens seem ok, and you mention film, which is always something but I hoped to see if someone can compare any of them to a more modern lens on digital, but thanks for the input! (Or did you use it on digital as well, and if so on what bodies?)
twomonger: Thanks for the info about solutions outside pentax, but at the moment I'm not very keen on switching or getting additional systems (for various reasons...I think I might have gone with pentax even if getting in from 0 today as well).
Originally posted by Gedeon solution is sigma 21-35mm. FF lens, i personnaly make some tests and it's pretty damn good, very surprising piece of glass....
It's manual though? Or is there an AF version as well...didn't see it in the reviews section.
Originally posted by UncleVanya Oh my, I had missed this one, looks really promising by just reading about it but will need to research it more. Probably not a lot better than 24-70, if at all, but if less than half the price it might be a more agreeable compromise...seems rare though.
Originally posted by RAART Does it has to be zoom or you can get away with 2 primes (manual focus or auto focus) and a zoom lens... I meant 20mm and 24mm primes and get the zoom from 28mm. This is the compromise as you said you barely use 20mm width therefore you have it only for occasional use and you can get it later if you feel you need one and you have to swap only for tight places to 24mm.
You have there multiple choices for 24mm and for 20mm only two,
Pentax FA 20mm (AF) and Samyang 20mm (MF).
There are Sigma's 20mm and 24mm, AF primes but not sure how they perform.
Personally if I were in your shoes I will get
Pentax FA 24mm or Samyang 24mm (prefer Samyang, but MF) and maybe Tamron zoom 28-70mm.
Thanks, but no, with small kids I don't have time to fiddle too much with switching lenses so the main goal is not having to switch in the 24-35mm range (so don't want to split it into 24+28-X, and preferably about 20-40 in the same lens). AF is also a requirement since they move arounbd quite a bit. IQ-wise, if I were single, or perhaps just without kids, I'd go more with primes as you say to get the most of each shot, but don't have that "luxury" now =)