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Originally posted by biphers Near as I can figure, there is no lens to duplicate the Oly 12-60.
In APS-C land this is ~15-77.
The closest I can think of is the Pentax 17-70 f/4.
Perhaps a bit too slow for you.
Most other zooms that are this wide and f/2.8 don't reach to 70mm.
Have a look at
this comparison between the Pentax 16-50/2.8, Tamron 17-50/2.8, and Sigma 18-50/2.8. The Tamron does get a lot of praise from Pentaxians but in the comparison the Sigma came out very well too. I was surprised by how comparatively bad the Pentax 16-50 came out. It gets a lot more praise then these results would warrant. Not sure where the problem is. Perhaps they used a bad copy (quite possible, there were a number of QC issues with this lens in the beginning).
I'm afraid of the ones I mentioned, only the Pentax 16-50 is weather resistant.
BTW, the f/2.8 on the wide end of the 12-60 Oly lens translate to f/3.6 in APS-C land. So you might not need an f/2.8 zoom? So you might even want to consider a weather-sealed 18-50 kit lens? In terms of IQ, it won't be up to par with the f/2.8 zooms I listed above.
Originally posted by biphers Flashes? I'm thinking Metz.
Good choice.
Sigma flashes might be cheaper?
To address the longer range, you could go for the Pentax 60-250 if you've got the dosh, or the Pentax 55-300. AFAIC, the latter is a steal for the price.
For the wide end, I'd recommend a Sigma 10-20. It comes in two versions (f/4-5.6 or constant f/3.5), both are great.
Finally, one of the niceties about being a Pentaxian is to be able to mount one of their nice primes. So once you've sorted your "go to" lenses have a look at these too. I'd love to have a FA 77/1.8 and the FA 43 and FA 31 are too die for too.
Hope you'll have fun with your new Pentax gear.
EDIT: Sorry for the repeating some of the things the previous posters said. When I started to compile this post there were no replies yet.
Last edited by Class A; 12-10-2010 at 06:47 PM.