Your FF Travel Kit

repaap · 12-09-2018, 01:29 PM

Originally posted by northcoastgreg

The fisheye zoom is on the roadmap, so it looks like Ricoh is going to be "wasting" their efforts on it, one way or the other. As a big fan of fisheye zooms, the DFA fisheye zoom is the lens on the roadmap I'm most looking forward to. The Rokinon fisheye is a prime, so it doesn't do anything for me.

I agree completely. For me, the biggest problem with FF and the reason why I stayed away from the K-1 until quite recently is the size and weight of FF zooms. So smaller FF zooms like the DFA 28-105 and, hopefully, the DFA 70-300 fill an important role keeping the overall weight of the kit to reasonable limits. Moreover, I'm somewhat inclined to think that the DFA 70-200/4 may be a bit of a mistake for Pentax. Not that they shouldn't at some point come out with a lens of that description, but it seems to me that f4 zooms are not significantly smaller or less expensive than the f2.8 zooms, so they don't end up filling as big a gap in the line-up.

There are users for 70-200/4 zooms. With FF it is not that much of an problem. Mistake? Perhaps. But that 70-300 if good, it will be interesting for many. I have 55-300, while it is usable, it is not good enough for FF. Size would not be issue and one could still get more serious lenses for the time when they are needed..

Mountain Vision · 12-09-2018, 02:51 PM

You can always take the 55-300 and use crop mode. I know this isn't ideal but it's a decent compromise since the 55-300 is an excellent APS-C lens and very compact. That's probably what I would choose to do for now.

myrdinn · 12-09-2018, 04:06 PM

Originally posted by Mountain Vision

You can always take the 55-300 and use crop mode. I know this isn't ideal but it's a decent compromise since the 55-300 is an excellent APS-C lens and very compact. That's probably what I would choose to do for now.

Indeed. The 55-300 mm is an excellent lens. And using it on 300 mm you have a good chance that you even don't have to use the crop mode as there will be hardly any vignetting.

Mountain Vision · 12-09-2018, 05:12 PM

Originally posted by myrdinn

Indeed. The 55-300 mm is an excellent lens. And using it on 300 mm you have a good chance that you even don't have to use the crop mode as there will be hardly any vignetting.

That's good information to know. Thank you.

**monochrome** · 12-09-2018, 06:38 PM

Originally posted by robbiec

Travel kit for me would be K-1 and the three Limiteds with the 43 being the default option.

The K-1, Three Princesses and DFA 28~105 is my grab and go bag. I keep them in a Domke F4-AF on a shelf in my closet and drag it out for anything from grandchild snapshots to airplane travel as my carryon. Otherwise, KP.

btnapa · 12-09-2018, 06:42 PM

Originally posted by Kerrowdown

K1's plus "Good Lady” (Pentax-A 20mm F2.8), "Special Lady” (Pentax-A 50mm F1.2), “Sweetheart” (Pentax-A* 85mm F1.4), “Gorgeous Lady” (Pentax-A* 200mm F2.8 ED) covers most eventualities for me.

That is a fantastic line up.

niblue · 12-10-2018, 01:21 AM

Originally posted by monochrome

The K-1, Three Princesses and DFA 28~105 is my grab and go bag.

I've been toying with getting something like a 28-105mm but do find that I miss a little at the wide end and prefer something that goes down to 24mm if I'm only carrying one lense. At the moment that leaves me with the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 but back in my film days I had a Sigma 24-135mm F2.8-4.5which was a reasonable performer and I might see if I can track one of those down.

While I kept most of the lenses from my film days there are a few I regret parting with and that 24-135 was one of them. It wasn't remotely useful on APS-C but is a very useful range on FF.

**Kerrowdown** · 12-10-2018, 04:23 AM

Originally posted by btnapa

That is a fantastic line up.

Thank you, certainly between them, these “Ladies” get the job done.

northcoastgreg · 12-10-2018, 08:00 AM

Originally posted by Mountain Vision

By all means, make every lens possible once you've got a full catalog, but fill the catalog.

Yes, I think everyone wants a filled catalog, with as many options as possible. But given how slowly Ricoh is working to fill things out, questions arise as to priorities in regards to which lenses should come first. Ricoh hinted that the next lens to appear after the DFA 70-200/4 and the DFA* 85 are released next year will be the other telephoto zoom, which we are assuming will be a 70-300. If so, we could see a lens line-up that features four DFA telephoto zooms, two DFA standard zooms, and only one DFA wide angle zoom. The FF prime line-up is also somewhat tilted toward the telephoto side of things, with only two wide angle primes and no primes wider than 31mm. Why is the FA and DFA line-up so heavily tilted toward the telephoto side of things? I thought one of the big advantages of FF was for use with wide angle lenses, but that doesn't seem to be Ricoh/Pentax's orientation at present.

zjacreman · 12-10-2018, 09:45 AM

Originally posted by northcoastgreg

Why is the FA and DFA line-up so heavily tilted toward the telephoto side of things?

Wides are harder to design well than telephotos are, and there aren't a whole lot of existing third-party wides to license. Tokina's got full frame wide zooms in their lineup but, having used some of their Nikon DX wides, it wouldn't surprise me if the FX models are not up to Pentax's standards. Only Sigma makes third-party wide primes and Pentax hasn't licensed any of their lenses for rebranding so far.

I definitely wouldn't mind seeing the updated Tamron 17-35 f2.8-4 get the 15-30 treatment, as I quite like the old 17-35 and the new one has a lot of positive buzz.

**SteveinSLC** · 12-10-2018, 10:18 AM

A lot of my travel involves possibly shooting in less than ideal conditions. Humidity, rain, snow, dust. So the weather sealed zooms are my normal kit for travel.
I'd be happy with weather sealed updates to the Limited lenses that made those more of an option for me.

repaap · 12-10-2018, 12:05 PM

I'm Happy with my 15-30, but could see my self buying 18 or 20 mm sealed lens to go instead of that, with AF ofcourse. OR Fisheye zoom, or both

**monochrome** · 12-10-2018, 12:28 PM

Originally posted by niblue

I've been toying with getting something like a 28-105mm but do find that I miss a little at the wide end and prefer something that goes down to 24mm if I'm only carrying one lense. At the moment that leaves me with the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 but back in my film days I had a Sigma 24-135mm F2.8-4.5which was a reasonable performer and I might see if I can track one of those down.

While I kept most of the lenses from my film days there are a few I regret parting with and that 24-135 was one of them. It wasn't remotely useful on APS-C but is a very useful range on FF.

The 15~30 and 24~70 are wide enough, but heavy and large. That’s why I start with these 4 or 5 lenses and add as called for.

A 24~105/4 would be nice, to go along with the expected 100~300/4.

**Mallee Boy** · 12-10-2018, 03:51 PM

Hi folks,
recently returned from a 7 week trip to the US with the K1.2 and a bag of lenses, mainly primes.

In my opinion the perfect travel kit for the Full Frame is:
Pentax DFA 24-70 f2.8. Gives me all round capability, is on the camera most of the time. Yes, can sometimes be too short, but can also occasionally not be wide enough. A 15-30 would be a good companion, but already have a Tokina 20-35, and the bag is at its max weight now.
Pentax FA 43 Ltd. Say no more.
Sigma EX DG 70 -200 f.2.8. A quality lens that gets a lot of use, fast, sharp, covers most tele situations....and then there is the crop.

Even that with a laptop will struggle with some airlines 7kg carry on limit, we have one in Australia that weighs your bag at the gate (be warned if flying with the orange colour)...you can pay more if its over 7 kg or it goes into the hold, again at a fee, think staff must be on some sort of commission. I did not encounter this with several other Australian & US airlines we used throughout the trip.

Anyway, moving on.....that kit leaves many good lenses at home, namely 100, 200 & 300 primes.

What I would like to see for the full frame is a quality (say F4) super zoom in the 28-300 or longer range, if they could make a good one at price point around that of the 60-250 I believe they would have a winner.

It wont be everyone's "cup of tea" but they have a place in that travel situation where time is often limited and opportunities are sometimes fleeting.

northcoastgreg · 12-10-2018, 07:23 PM

Originally posted by zjacreman

Wides are harder to design well than telephotos are, and there aren't a whole lot of existing third-party wides to license.

That's an interesting theory, but it doesn't explain why one of the three lenses to be released next year is a very ambitious APS-C wide angle zoom. I can think of three possible reasons why Pentax has made the DFA 70-200/4 a priority over seemingly more needed useful lenses like a slower aperture wide angle zoom or a DFA 24-120/4 and why the DFA line-up is turning out to be so telephoto heavy:

(1) FF telephotos are more likely to be used, not merely by FF users, but by APS-C users as well. So a telephoto lens can equally serve both systems. Of course, theoretically, you can use an FF wide angle zoom or standard zoom on APS-C as well, but realistically, how many people are doing that? My guess is that there will be a lot more APS-C photographers using the DFA* 70-200 and DFA 150-450 than the DFA 15-30 or DFA 24-70.

(2) Perhaps Pentax has received a lot of complaints about the size and weight of the DFA* 70-200 (it's the heaviest such lens ever made) and they feel need to address these complaints as quickly as possible with a lighter version covering the same range.

(3) Perhaps Pentax feels that there are better legacy options on the wide end of things. Other than the FA* 80-200 (and the heavy and rare F/FA* 250-600, none of the AF telephoto zooms in the system are all that inspiring. In any case, none of them are as good as the FA 20-35, F 17-28, or even the F 24-50.

12-09-2018, 06:38 PM	#80
monochrome Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Working From Home Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 26,276	Originally posted by robbiec Travel kit for me would be K-1 and the three Limiteds with the 43 being the default option. The K-1, Three Princesses and DFA 28~105 is my grab and go bag. I keep them in a Domke F4-AF on a shelf in my closet and drag it out for anything from grandchild snapshots to airplane travel as my carryon. Otherwise, KP. Last edited by monochrome; 02-15-2019 at 03:48 PM.

12-10-2018, 04:23 AM	#83
Kerrowdown PEG Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Highlands of Scotland... "Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand" - William Blake Photos: Gallery Posts: 57,835	Originally posted by btnapa That is a fantastic line up. Thank you, certainly between them, these “Ladies” get the job done. Last edited by Kerrowdown; 12-10-2018 at 01:25 PM.

12-10-2018, 03:51 PM	#89
Mallee Boy Site Supporter Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: South Australia Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 3,904	Trip report Hi folks, recently returned from a 7 week trip to the US with the K1.2 and a bag of lenses, mainly primes. In my opinion the perfect travel kit for the Full Frame is: Pentax DFA 24-70 f2.8. Gives me all round capability, is on the camera most of the time. Yes, can sometimes be too short, but can also occasionally not be wide enough. A 15-30 would be a good companion, but already have a Tokina 20-35, and the bag is at its max weight now. Pentax FA 43 Ltd. Say no more. Sigma EX DG 70 -200 f.2.8. A quality lens that gets a lot of use, fast, sharp, covers most tele situations....and then there is the crop. Even that with a laptop will struggle with some airlines 7kg carry on limit, we have one in Australia that weighs your bag at the gate (be warned if flying with the orange colour)...you can pay more if its over 7 kg or it goes into the hold, again at a fee, think staff must be on some sort of commission. I did not encounter this with several other Australian & US airlines we used throughout the trip. Anyway, moving on.....that kit leaves many good lenses at home, namely 100, 200 & 300 primes. What I would like to see for the full frame is a quality (say F4) super zoom in the 28-300 or longer range, if they could make a good one at price point around that of the 60-250 I believe they would have a winner. It wont be everyone's "cup of tea" but they have a place in that travel situation where time is often limited and opportunities are sometimes fleeting.

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12-09-2018, 01:29 PM	#76
repaap Pentaxian Join Date: Oct 2010 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 6,242	Originally posted by northcoastgreg The fisheye zoom is on the roadmap, so it looks like Ricoh is going to be "wasting" their efforts on it, one way or the other. As a big fan of fisheye zooms, the DFA fisheye zoom is the lens on the roadmap I'm most looking forward to. The Rokinon fisheye is a prime, so it doesn't do anything for me. I agree completely. For me, the biggest problem with FF and the reason why I stayed away from the K-1 until quite recently is the size and weight of FF zooms. So smaller FF zooms like the DFA 28-105 and, hopefully, the DFA 70-300 fill an important role keeping the overall weight of the kit to reasonable limits. Moreover, I'm somewhat inclined to think that the DFA 70-200/4 may be a bit of a mistake for Pentax. Not that they shouldn't at some point come out with a lens of that description, but it seems to me that f4 zooms are not significantly smaller or less expensive than the f2.8 zooms, so they don't end up filling as big a gap in the line-up. There are users for 70-200/4 zooms. With FF it is not that much of an problem. Mistake? Perhaps. But that 70-300 if good, it will be interesting for many. I have 55-300, while it is usable, it is not good enough for FF. Size would not be issue and one could still get more serious lenses for the time when they are needed..

12-09-2018, 02:51 PM	#77
Mountain Vision Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: America's First Wilderness Posts: 529	You can always take the 55-300 and use crop mode. I know this isn't ideal but it's a decent compromise since the 55-300 is an excellent APS-C lens and very compact. That's probably what I would choose to do for now.

12-09-2018, 04:06 PM	#78
myrdinn Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: belgium Posts: 96	Originally posted by Mountain Vision You can always take the 55-300 and use crop mode. I know this isn't ideal but it's a decent compromise since the 55-300 is an excellent APS-C lens and very compact. That's probably what I would choose to do for now. Indeed. The 55-300 mm is an excellent lens. And using it on 300 mm you have a good chance that you even don't have to use the crop mode as there will be hardly any vignetting.

12-09-2018, 05:12 PM	#79
Mountain Vision Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: America's First Wilderness Posts: 529	Originally posted by myrdinn Indeed. The 55-300 mm is an excellent lens. And using it on 300 mm you have a good chance that you even don't have to use the crop mode as there will be hardly any vignetting. That's good information to know. Thank you.

12-09-2018, 06:42 PM	#81
btnapa Pentaxian Join Date: Oct 2013 Posts: 1,621	Originally posted by Kerrowdown K1's plus "Good Lady” (Pentax-A 20mm F2.8), "Special Lady” (Pentax-A 50mm F1.2), “Sweetheart” (Pentax-A* 85mm F1.4), “Gorgeous Lady” (Pentax-A* 200mm F2.8 ED) covers most eventualities for me. That is a fantastic line up.

12-10-2018, 01:21 AM	#82
niblue Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2018 Posts: 181	Originally posted by monochrome The K-1, Three Princesses and DFA 28~105 is my grab and go bag. I've been toying with getting something like a 28-105mm but do find that I miss a little at the wide end and prefer something that goes down to 24mm if I'm only carrying one lense. At the moment that leaves me with the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 but back in my film days I had a Sigma 24-135mm F2.8-4.5which was a reasonable performer and I might see if I can track one of those down. While I kept most of the lenses from my film days there are a few I regret parting with and that 24-135 was one of them. It wasn't remotely useful on APS-C but is a very useful range on FF.

12-10-2018, 08:00 AM	#84
northcoastgreg Pentaxian Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Northern Michigan Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 6,174	Originally posted by Mountain Vision By all means, make every lens possible once you've got a full catalog, but fill the catalog. Yes, I think everyone wants a filled catalog, with as many options as possible. But given how slowly Ricoh is working to fill things out, questions arise as to priorities in regards to which lenses should come first. Ricoh hinted that the next lens to appear after the DFA 70-200/4 and the DFA* 85 are released next year will be the other telephoto zoom, which we are assuming will be a 70-300. If so, we could see a lens line-up that features four DFA telephoto zooms, two DFA standard zooms, and only one DFA wide angle zoom. The FF prime line-up is also somewhat tilted toward the telephoto side of things, with only two wide angle primes and no primes wider than 31mm. Why is the FA and DFA line-up so heavily tilted toward the telephoto side of things? I thought one of the big advantages of FF was for use with wide angle lenses, but that doesn't seem to be Ricoh/Pentax's orientation at present.

12-10-2018, 09:45 AM	#85
zjacreman Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2017 Location: Bogota Photos: Albums Posts: 120	Originally posted by northcoastgreg Why is the FA and DFA line-up so heavily tilted toward the telephoto side of things? Wides are harder to design well than telephotos are, and there aren't a whole lot of existing third-party wides to license. Tokina's got full frame wide zooms in their lineup but, having used some of their Nikon DX wides, it wouldn't surprise me if the FX models are not up to Pentax's standards. Only Sigma makes third-party wide primes and Pentax hasn't licensed any of their lenses for rebranding so far. I definitely wouldn't mind seeing the updated Tamron 17-35 f2.8-4 get the 15-30 treatment, as I quite like the old 17-35 and the new one has a lot of positive buzz.

12-10-2018, 10:18 AM	#86
SteveinSLC Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2017 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 568	A lot of my travel involves possibly shooting in less than ideal conditions. Humidity, rain, snow, dust. So the weather sealed zooms are my normal kit for travel. I'd be happy with weather sealed updates to the Limited lenses that made those more of an option for me.

12-10-2018, 12:05 PM	#87
repaap Pentaxian Join Date: Oct 2010 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 6,242	I'm Happy with my 15-30, but could see my self buying 18 or 20 mm sealed lens to go instead of that, with AF ofcourse. OR Fisheye zoom, or both

12-10-2018, 12:28 PM	#88
monochrome Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Working From Home Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 26,276	Originally posted by niblue I've been toying with getting something like a 28-105mm but do find that I miss a little at the wide end and prefer something that goes down to 24mm if I'm only carrying one lense. At the moment that leaves me with the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 but back in my film days I had a Sigma 24-135mm F2.8-4.5which was a reasonable performer and I might see if I can track one of those down. While I kept most of the lenses from my film days there are a few I regret parting with and that 24-135 was one of them. It wasn't remotely useful on APS-C but is a very useful range on FF. The 15~30 and 24~70 are wide enough, but heavy and large. That’s why I start with these 4 or 5 lenses and add as called for. A 24~105/4 would be nice, to go along with the expected 100~300/4.

12-10-2018, 07:23 PM	#90
northcoastgreg Pentaxian Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Northern Michigan Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 6,174	Originally posted by zjacreman Wides are harder to design well than telephotos are, and there aren't a whole lot of existing third-party wides to license. That's an interesting theory, but it doesn't explain why one of the three lenses to be released next year is a very ambitious APS-C wide angle zoom. I can think of three possible reasons why Pentax has made the DFA 70-200/4 a priority over seemingly more needed useful lenses like a slower aperture wide angle zoom or a DFA 24-120/4 and why the DFA line-up is turning out to be so telephoto heavy: (1) FF telephotos are more likely to be used, not merely by FF users, but by APS-C users as well. So a telephoto lens can equally serve both systems. Of course, theoretically, you can use an FF wide angle zoom or standard zoom on APS-C as well, but realistically, how many people are doing that? My guess is that there will be a lot more APS-C photographers using the DFA* 70-200 and DFA 150-450 than the DFA 15-30 or DFA 24-70. (2) Perhaps Pentax has received a lot of complaints about the size and weight of the DFA* 70-200 (it's the heaviest such lens ever made) and they feel need to address these complaints as quickly as possible with a lighter version covering the same range. (3) Perhaps Pentax feels that there are better legacy options on the wide end of things. Other than the FA* 80-200 (and the heavy and rare F/FA* 250-600, none of the AF telephoto zooms in the system are all that inspiring. In any case, none of them are as good as the FA 20-35, F 17-28, or even the F 24-50.