Originally posted by Classvino Thanks for the replies so far,
Actually, I guess I should have mentioned my intended usage...
I'll be doing a bunch of "indoor" shooting - I enclose "indoor" in quotes because I seem to like the natural light shots better than the flash shots... (maybe, just maybe, due to the fact that I just got an AF360 and haven't really figured it out yet - everything seems overexposed...)
I do a fair bit of gig shooting for several local musician friends and bands, and with the weird lighting at most gigs, a flash just washes out the other colours and adds more confusion than anything... That's why I was looking at a constant 2.8, although I will look at the 17-70... Although I was planning on sticking to non "DC" lenses so I could use them on my film body as well...
I agree, the extra 4mm could definitely be advantageous, but using ExposurePlot on files from the last year or so of shooting has shown me that I almost never shoot at less than 35mm (that's 35mmFF factor)
I noticed no-one mentions the Tokina's - is that because no-one has experience with them, or because they're not worth mentioning - kinda hard to come by in any case...
Henry's? - I have purchased there - actually got my K10D there, but only after a lot of comparison shopping, and going in armed with hardcopy price research from other Ontario retailers... They don't carry much in Pentax-mount lenses, and the two stores I've been in carry only the 10-17 and the 18-55, and a few 'slower' Sigmas. All their ordering is centralized in Toronto, and it can take 4 or 5 weeks for a lens to come in - if it does...
Ew..Henrys hahah. (Heavily favours Canikons and fat credit cards). I used to think the same about flash but get a good diffuser and you'll be fine. A Gary Fong type Lightsphere is good. If you don't want to spend $75 on the 'designer label' soft vinyl salad bowl, a noodle cup or any frosted tupperware from the dollar store will do.
If you got lighting in the background like stage effects and stuff that you would like to include it, drag the shutter a bit. I used to crave the concept of owning a P-TTL flash like the 360/540, but I find manual's better. Faster access to what you need and way cheaper. Like normally for flash you shoot say 1/100 f5.6 or something right? Well, bounce the light with a diffuser bowl. Then drag the shutter-->1/80.-->1/60......up the ISO to 400 or 800 until you capture the background nicely as well.