[Singulariter]

Point taken

[Wheatfield]

Yeah i was going to come in here and yell 'LTD PRIMES!' but I see your doing weddings. so... probably have to suffer with zooms :P

Why should he. I've shot weddings for 40 years without zooms.
Tried em, decided they were poop and never went back.
Decided that the whole "must use zooms for weddings" is coming from people who don't know how to shoot weddings.
I was doing "reportage style" weddings in the 70s before anyone had tacked that stupid name onto the style...with primes.

[Singulariter]

Actually had to fact check that:

16-135 (3.5-5.6)
Pentax SMC DA 18-135mm F/3.5-5.6 ED AL (IF) DC WR Lens 21977 B&H

18-55 (3.5-5.6)
Pentax DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AL WR Zoom Lens 21880 B&H Photo

50-200 (4-5.6)
Pentax SMC Pentax DA 50-200mm f/4-5.6 ED WR Zoom Lens 21870 B&H

(for WR anyway)

[psychdoc]

If you are new to slr photography, one way to do this is to get a do-it-all third party lens like an 18-200. Then shoot with it and see what focal lengths you shoot the most and then spend serious money on the lengths you prefer.

From the brief info you have given it looks like you want one zoom lens for indoor and a longer lens for outdoor.

I have the pentax 50-135, its long enough for me and takes great pictures.

The 16-50 takes nice pictures: but its a big fat lens for indoor use and some people tend to freeze if you point it at them. [I rented that lens from CameraLensRentals.com - Canon, Nikon and Pentax Lens Rentals. which by the way is another way to 'test' lenses especially the more expensive ones]. I am still looking for a fast indoor zoom that is also fairly small. I may still get the 16-50 but have deferred the decision for now. I am looking at the new sigma 17-50 that just came out but not a lot of reviews out there...

[twitch]

I
This is what I will be shooting..

Indoor Events - Weddings, Parties, Church Events
Outdoor Events - Zoo, Vacation Trips, Parades, Wildlife.

I was thinking for indoors either the 16-50mm DA* or 17-70mm. Which is the better choice?

Thank you
Chuck

I think the DA*16-50 + the DA*50-135 would be ideal for events, especially indoor events. Indoors 2.8 makes a big difference over f4.

For zoo and wildlife, a 55-300 would be adequate for some (certainly for the zoo, a 50-135 and 55-300 should be fine), however it depends a lot on what wildlife exactly you want to photograph. Many here who a getting serious about their wildlife photography use a Sigma 50-500, or the combination of a DA*300 with a 1.7x TC.

[conradcjc]

Thanks for everyone's input on this.

[blockamon]

To me, it's really hard to recommend only one or two lenses to meet all your needs. For example, the difference between outdoor vacation/parade shots and wildlife is huge.

The two best lenses to cover 90% of what I want to shoot (seems similar to yours) are the DA* 16-50mm f/2.8 and DA* 50-135mm f/2.8. That will give you 35mm equivalent coverage from 24 to 200mm at f/2.8. I do notice that the 16-50mm is a little short sometimes, but as a previous posted noted, croping is definitely an option with 16MP.

However, if you do a lot of wildlife shooting, then you might want to consider the DA* 60-250 f/4.0, as Adam suggested. 135mm is really not long enough for wildlife without a lot of croping.

Ultimately, if you want portraits with a nice background blur, you might want to consider adding either the DA* 55mm f/1.4 or the FA 50mm f/1.4. Of course, there is also the 77mm f/1.8 Limited if you have the cash (say, the extra $800 you saved by not buying the D700).

[dmoisuk]

Love my 18 to 250