[fobia]

hi can some one tell me what would be the next step up lens after the 18-55mm kit lens that came with my k100D.
I like the way i can use 28mm to 55mm but i always wish that i had a little more zoom after 55mm. I'm not into long range photography, i think 200mm is to much.
so a lens that can cover that 28mm to lets say 100mm would be perfect.
Allan

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Last edited by fobia; 12-18-2008 at 11:42 AM.

[Isaac314]

the kit lens' range is 18-55, not 28-55, perhaps you are thinking of older film cameras' kit lenses.

both pentax and sigma make 17-70 lenses which would be a slight step up for you, with a longer long end but the quality and performance will not be hugely more. The pentax 17-70 has SDM for quiter focusing.
sigma also make an 18-200, and pentax make their own 18-250, which would both be great walk-around zoom lenses for you with a really huge range..

[kthung]

if you dont feel the need for the 18-28mm range, I think you might like the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Its fast, not too exensive and purportedly very sharp. If you still need a little more reach maybe get a prime around that range, perhaps the tamron 90mm macro or the pentax 100mm macro.

Other than that there really is no lens that goes from 28-100mm. The closest equivalents i can think of are the sigma 18-125 and the tamron 28-200, neither of which i know much about.

[fobia]

oh, thanks Issac for pointing that out, as you can see i already made the correction.

[Just1MoreDave]

hi can some one tell me what would be the next step up lens after the 18-55mm kit lens that came with my k100D.
I like the way i can use 28mm to 55mm but i always wish that i had a little more zoom after 55mm. I'm not into long range photography, i think 200mm is to much.
so a lens that can cover that 28mm to lets say 100mm would be perfect.
Allan

There are a number of older designs intended for film that you might consider. Pentax has three different FA 28-105mm designs, for example. I have the Power Zoom version, f4-5.6. I don't like it much because it's in terrible shape and not too fast. I also have the Vivitar Series 1 manual focus f2.8-3.8, made by Cosina. It has a good reputation, A position on the aperture ring, works OK but a really warm tint to the images. Easy to fix in RAW but you still have to fix it.

The lens I actually use in this range isn't quite what you want. It's the Pentax-F 35-135mm f3.5-4.5. They also had a 35-105mm. It has hardly any reputation but works well for me. I use it a lot at this time of the year with a flash (needs a lot of power) for photos across a room at Christmas.

[ve2vfd]

My "step up" from the kit lens was the Tamrom 17-50 1:2.8

I am very satisfied with it and most people who bought it seem to like it (check out the lens database and the many many threads on this lens in the forum).

Pat

[Marc Sabatella]

I don't think the Sigma 18-125 is very highly regarded, and I'd be really nervous about replacing the kit lens with something that can't get below 28mm - 28 just isn't very wide on APS-C.

When you say you're looking to get up to 100mm or so, are you still thinking in 35mm film terms? If so, that's under 70 on APS-C, so the 17-70 would make a lot of sense.

Personally, though, I'd recommend keeping the kit lens and getting a *different* lens for telephoto, like the DA70 or a 100mm-ish prime lens lke the macro, or maybe the DA50-135 if you wanted to splurge and didn't mind the size. If you get one lens to cover the whole range from wide to telephoto, it's going to be disappointing slow at the long end (eg, f/4 or even f/5.6), so you'll end up wanting to get a faster lens to supplement it anyhow.