[officiousbystander]

This is the DA15 with the K5. It's at f8. Speed isn't everything. With more modern cameras with better ISO performance it would be even less of a concern.

[johnha]

Museums like these are really awful places to shoot. Not only are they often dimmly lit, they pack the exhibits in very tightly, often overlapping each other. Going really wide and close helps avoid people, but often doesn't allow you to separate one exhibit or a clutter free background.

I can't help with APS-C lenses, I'd use my FA20-35 on the K-1 - if that's not wide enough I'd have to look at isolating detail instead. If you're allowed a tripod (or can rig up a beanbag or similar) and if your camera supports it, you could use Interval Composite mode to blur people out of shot.

[clackers]

I was lately visiting Armored Weapons Museum and found my 35mm 2.4 severely lacking. Both in speed and in wideness. It was great for detail shooting as they were highlighted, but when I tried to shot whole tank I realized that I need both to crank up my ISO to 1600+ (lightning was poor inside) and need to get away pretty far which meant lots of people in frame.

As I often visit museums I started to look for wide and fast lens. Ok, most have good lightning and stuff displayed is smaller then T-72 but still, having good lens is not bad.

Any ideas? Or is Sigma 18-35 f1.8 only option? I suppose I could live with f2.4-2.8 as stabilization in K-50 is great and if I really try I can get up to 1/2 second without blurring image (not that I like it - it's more hit/miss so to be avoided). And as I intend to by K-New as soon as it gets out I hope stabilization will get only better. But nothing more then 2.8.


I would love a prime, but that means legacy lenses and I rather avoid it. Not great fan of old lens on DSLR.

Yeah, I agree with Johnha.

If your problem is that ISO 1600, buying an f2.8 pro lens won't help you, your current little plastic fantastic is faster.

Whatever you do about the wider lens (lots of good suggestions made by people), the cheapest way to do this is to put a tripod on it, then you can shoot at ISO 100. This is no different from landscape shooting. You can even do Pentax Pixel Shift and get great accurate details out of all that marvellous old equipment.

[mikesbike]

And as I intend to by K-New as soon as it gets out I hope stabilization will get only better. But nothing more then 2.8.

The DA* 11-18mm f/2.8 is a good suggestion, yet it is a bulky lens. However, the K-new will undoubtedly be a game-changer as to low light performance with higher ISO settings having little or no loss of quality. This can yield results from a slower lens with low noise comparable to what you'd get from a faster lens at much lower ISO with your K-50, yet with better IQ.

I bought the Sigma 10-20mm f/3..5 and have been very happy with the quality it delivered in low light performance on my KP. The cost was a fraction of that Pentax DA* lens, yet only about 1/2 stop slower, and also 1/2 stop faster than the very good Pentax DA 12-24mm f/4. . But they are getting quite hard to find, since unfortunately Sigma evidently did not sell enough of them to continue making this model in the Pentax mount. The DA 15mm f/4 with its amazingly small size is appealing for such use, but its edge performance at wider aperture could be better.

Unfortunately, the Pentax DA 12-24mm f/4 is also discontinued. it and the Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 can provide very fine performance if you can find a good used copy or a left-over new one. Very good to excellent edge-to-edge performance, and distortion in the mid focal-length area is nearly nonexistent. Lets hope Pentax will provide an updated version of the DA 12-24mm f/4 having WR and a DC motor for a more affordable WA zoom lens to be available.

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Last edited by mikesbike; 08-03-2020 at 07:31 PM.

[DeadJohn]

1) I don't think 18mm (Sigma 18-35) is wide enough on APS-C for indoor photography of large machines like tanks and especially airplanes. It's a personal choice, though, and varies with the photographer, museum, and composition. 18mm is enough for many art museums.

2) You might not need a superfast aperture. Ultrawide composition is often forgiving for handheld slower shutter speeds.

3) Are you shooting in JPG or raw format? Raw DNG and processing on a PC can improve low light performance by lifting dark shadows and reducing noise.

4) I've owned the following ultrawide lenses:

Tamron 10-24: This is the lens I recommend if you can find it. Fairly priced and decent image quality. It's a very versatile zoom range. Reasonably sharp wide open.

Pentax DA 15 Limited f/4.0: Very compact with great colors, contrast, and legendary flare resistance. Corner sharpness is not great (but usable). f/4 is a limiting factor in darkness. Not as good as the 10-24 for museums IMO due to lack of zoom, but if you also want to use it for landscapes or night cityscapes I would get the DA 15 before the Tamron.

Samyang/Rokinon/Bower 14 f/2.8: Very sharp provided you get a good copy; order from someone with a good exchange policy. There are many comments about decentering of brand new Samyang lenses due to poor quality control, but the Samyang 14 seems much better than their 24mm 1.4, and if you get a good copy they are sturdy and don't get worse over time.Manual focus only.

Pentax DFA 15-30 f/2.8: I don't recommend this with the K-50 because the lens is large, heavy, and expensive compared to the camera. Great image quality, though. Get this lens if you intend to upgrade to a K-1 in the future.

(Note re. Tamron 10-24 vs Sigma 10-20 vs Pentax 12-24. I only owned the Tamron, but IIRC from reviews while selecting between those 3 lenses, the Sigma 10-20 is competitive with the Tamron. The Pentax seemed worse to me. )

[aslyfox]

. . .
[/INDENT](Note re. Tamron 10-24 vs Sigma 10-20 vs Pentax 12-24. I only owned the Tamron, but IIRC from reviews while selecting between those 3 lenses, the Sigma 10-20 is competitive with the Tamron. The Pentax seemed worse to me. )

there's a couple of " in depth reviews " that might be of interest:

Sigma 10-20mm F3.5 vs F4.0-5.6
Introduction
Have you ever wished for a do-over on a project? Sometimes you finish up a project and realize that maybe you should have done something a little different. Well, this one of those situations. After completing the comparative review of the Pentax 12-24mm, Sigma 12-24mm, and the Tamron 10-24mm, a lot of forum members said that we should have selected the Sigma 10-20mm, instead of the Sigma 12-24mm. Well you can’t rewrite history, but you can to listen to your forum members. We listened! . . .

Read more at: Sigma 10-20mm F3.5 vs F4.0-5.6 Review - Introduction | PentaxForums.com Reviews

DA 12-24mm vs Sigma and Tamron 10-24mm Comparison
Introduction .. .

Read more at: DA 12-24mm vs Sigma and Tamron 10-24mm Comparison Review - Introduction | PentaxForums.com Reviews

[Wiltshireborn]

The DA 15mm Ltd is my go to lens for tight interior shots and a cracking lens it is too

[jersey]

Thanks guys. With all pros, cons and a K-New on horizon I decided on DA15 Ltd. and compact monopod from Manfrotto.With a Pentax 10-17mm fisheye zoom in near future for some funky airplane shots. Thanks for all help

[aslyfox]

. . . I decided on DA15 Ltd. . . .

now you did it

for some of us, once one " limited " lens arrives, others become " very interesting "

[Serkevan]

now you did it

for some of us, once one " limited " lens arrives, others become " very interesting "

After I bought the 77 Limited, the 43 suddenly started to look more appealing despite me having been very happy with the 50/1.7 for years...

[aslyfox]

After I bought the 77 Limited, the 43 suddenly started to look more appealing despite me having been very happy with the 50/1.7 for years...

tell me about it

every one of the SMC " limiteds " primes except the 31mm are in my house

[Pedrodelta]

Thanks guys. With all pros, cons and a K-New on horizon I decided on DA15 Ltd. and compact monopod from Manfrotto.With a Pentax 10-17mm fisheye zoom in near future for some funky airplane shots. Thanks for all help

Congratulations on your choices and I hope they serve you well.

[mikesbike]

Thanks guys. With all pros, cons and a K-New on horizon I decided on DA15 Ltd. and compact monopod from Manfrotto.With a Pentax 10-17mm fisheye zoom in near future for some funky airplane shots. Thanks for all help

Congrats! I have that lens also, and it is so remarkably compact it lives in the front accessory pocket of my mid-sized belt-loop+shoulder-strap holster type camera case! A little jewel of a lens. It is a delightful lens to use and delivers very fine imaging.

[jersey]

Bit update, I am very happy with this lens. With stupid virus attacing it's hard to get into museums, but this lens is such a gem it started to replace plastic-fantastic 35mm as my walkaround lens. I just love how it draws image, even shoting flowers is something different with this lens then with 35mm, so full of live and natural. smc-DA now looks like tits of Pamela Anderson

Shooting in museums is harder but with monopod it is managable

This is train model shot inside Railway Museum in Warsaw, Poland with this lens:



and some flowers I shot today when I was stretching legs ater 8 hours behind computer:




Thanks for help, this was best spent money regarding photography since I got into digital. And yeah, I started to think what I would like more: K-New or 35mm macro Ltd