Originally posted by KoolKool i'm planning to buy 20-40
i really not expect prime limited quality, and even luxury high end DA*
but at least if the len is better than 18-55, 18-135 and maybe on par (or even slightly better?!) to 16-85 (of course, at range 20-40 for comparison)
i would happy to embrace it, my most shooting purpose is landscape and people (event, wedding, familiy)
Well there's primes and then there's primes. Some are good, some not so good. The HD DA 20-40 is the first 'real' zoom i've ever owned, until a week ago I was pretty much a prime guy only. I'm sufficiently impressed enough that I'll be holding onto this one (and I let the HD DA 15, HD DA 21 and HD DA 35/2.8 Macro go), hopefully that should tell you something. Is it on par with a FA43 or FA77? Well no... it's not quite managing some of those feats, however in other regards in bests them (WR and flare resistance, which is what I was after). I can understand now why it is called the 'zoom prime', I think this is quite a fair nickname. I would not at all be surprised if this is quite simply the highest quality compact zoom lens Pentax has to offer. My choice was narrowed down to this or the 28-105, but I think I made the right choice.
You make check out some of my early test shots on the K-1 here >>>
HD DA 20-40 on K-1 (Full Frame Mode) | Flickr