[DarkNexiz]

Hey guys, I've had my Q for about 8 months now and I'm ready to get my first lens other than the 01 Prime and I've got a couple questions.

First, I'm planning on doing primarily street photography with this new lens, so I'd preferably like one where I can get a good focus from far away and preferably zoom in. I looked into the native lenses and the 06 Telephoto looked pretty good, but that leads me to my question.

As someone who literally started their photography with the Q and it's 01, would it be a better idea to buy a K-mount adaptor and a K lens or stick with the Q's native ones? Budgets pretty tight since I'm an almost-broke highschool student, but I really want to get into street photography and the 01 is a bit tough to catch those little "moments" with and still end up with a good shot.

Hope you guys can help me out, this is still all so new. Thanks,
-Myke

[tclausen]

Hey guys, I've had my Q for about 8 months now and I'm ready to get my first lens other than the 01 Prime and I've got a couple questions.

First, I'm planning on doing primarily street photography with this new lens, so I'd preferably like one where I can get a good focus from far away and preferably zoom in. I looked into the native lenses and the 06 Telephoto looked pretty good, but that leads me to my question.

As someone who literally started their photography with the Q and it's 01, would it be a better idea to buy a K-mount adaptor and a K lens or stick with the Q's native ones? Budgets pretty tight since I'm an almost-broke highschool student, but I really want to get into street photography and the 01 is a bit tough to catch those little "moments" with and still end up with a good shot.

Hope you guys can help me out, this is still all so new. Thanks,
-Myke

Hmm....the 01 is really the ideal "street lens" for the Q. General wisdom would be to get a "slightly wider than normal" lens for street photography (cf. the Ricoh GR), but the only wider (prime) lenses for the Q are at the time "toy" and "fisheye" lenses. Idem for longer primes.

The 02 is a "normal zoom", and is nice - but lagging behind the 01 in optical quality. The 06 is a "tele zoom" and is (imo) slightly better than the 02, but far from as good as the 01, speaking in terms of optical quality.

I have the 01, 02, 03 and 06 myself, and I use almost exclusively the 01. I'm really hoping, personally, that Pentax will release something in the "moderate tele" range for the Q, but with the same optical quality as the FA Ltd lenses.....

You know that with the K-adapter, you will loose AF, right?

[DarkNexiz]

Hmm....the 01 is really the ideal "street lens" for the Q. General wisdom would be to get a "slightly wider than normal" lens for street photography (cf. the Ricoh GR), but the only wider (prime) lenses for the Q are at the time "toy" and "fisheye" lenses. Idem for longer primes.

The 02 is a "normal zoom", and is nice - but lagging behind the 01 in optical quality. The 06 is a "tele zoom" and is (imo) slightly better than the 02, but far from as good as the 01, speaking in terms of optical quality.

I have the 01, 02, 03 and 06 myself, and I use almost exclusively the 01. I'm really hoping, personally, that Pentax will release something in the "moderate tele" range for the Q, but with the same optical quality as the FA Ltd lenses.....

You know that with the K-adapter, you will loose AF, right?

Yeah I'm aware of the lack of autofocus with the K-mount but I really do enjoy manual focusing and I would love to get even better at it. Maybe that wouldn't be quite as good for street photography but I'm still open to it.

Any K-mount suggestions for street photography for around the same price as the 06? And if I were to get a K-mount telephoto would it have better optical quality than the 06?

[tclausen]

Yeah I'm aware of the lack of autofocus with the K-mount but I really do enjoy manual focusing and I would love to get even better at it. Maybe that wouldn't be quite as good for street photography but I'm still open to it.

Any K-mount suggestions for street photography for around the same price as the 06? And if I were to get a K-mount telephoto would it have better optical quality than the 06?

Well, I'd say that in general any prime would be better than a zoom. I have a (non-Pentax) K-> Q adaptor, but I honestly haven't used it enough to really know what K-mount lenses are worth it on the Q to feel confident giving advice. To me, if I need a K lens and a big adaptor, then the "charm" and compactness of the Q really vanishes and I prefer to grab a native K-moung body....

[crewl1]

Remember that the crop factor will make any k lens x 5.

If you want telephoto candids the 06 will give you the best solution up to 250mm equivalent.

Personally I prefer the 01 or 02 on the Q for street, as on the K-5 I like the DA21.

[tclausen]

Remember that the crop factor will make any k lens x 5.

If you want telephoto candids the 06 will give you the best solution up to 250mm equivalent.

Personally I prefer the 01 or 02 on the Q for street, as on the K-5 I like the DA21.

Good point: the 15mm Ltd would become a 75mm.....interesting thought.

[DarkNexiz]

Well, I'd say that in general any prime would be better than a zoom. I have a (non-Pentax) K-> Q adaptor, but I honestly haven't used it enough to really know what K-mount lenses are worth it on the Q to feel confident giving advice. To me, if I need a K lens and a big adaptor, then the "charm" and compactness of the Q really vanishes and I prefer to grab a native K-moung body....

Yeah, the Q is my only camera body as I snagged it and the 01 for $200 last year on Groupon after Christmas. I guess I'll stick with the Q's lenses most likely and that puts the 06 square in my sights.

[DarkNexiz]

Remember that the crop factor will make any k lens x 5.

If you want telephoto candids the 06 will give you the best solution up to 250mm equivalent.

Personally I prefer the 01 or 02 on the Q for street, as on the K-5 I like the DA21.

I guess I'll give the 01 more of a chance while I'm saving for the 06. That seems to be the best option and since both the Q and it's lenses are so small it makes it really appealing to keep with me for everyday shots and more planned shoots both street and everything else.

[tclausen]

Yeah, the Q is my only camera body as I snagged it and the 01 for $200 last year on Groupon after Christmas. I guess I'll stick with the Q's lenses most likely and that puts the 06 square in my sights.

That does sound like a good idea, I'd say. The 06 is - for what it is - rather good. I'm not good at (or interested in) street photography, so I would trust the advice of somebody other than me on its usefulness there, though

[pinholecam]

The 01 is the best lens for this (FOV, fast aperture, fast focus,size ) and is also the best lens optically for the Q right now.

Using K lenses on the Q is punishing on the lenses due to the high pixel density. In other words, good quality lenses are needed and also ones that score pretty high in the resolution scale from wide open or at f2-f4.
Then there is the crop factor which makes most lenses a bit on the very long side.
I'd not think of this as a first option.
If you have the lenses, no harm to play with them, but I won't recommend specifically buying them for the Q (unless you have special needs like macro or tele for slow subjects)

If you want a longer lens, try the 06.

[theeggplanthunter]

One suggestion I have is to pick up a pentax/cosmicar 8.5 f1.5 c-mount lens and c-k adapter. It has a pretty good scale and the focus ring is pretty nice to use(much better than the 01's fbw. IQ is way below the 01, but it has that old-timey film look to it and it works great for B&W.

If you plan on shooting on the street, I find it's easier to set the lens and zone focus with the screen off to save juice. Check out the adapted lens database for some test shots another member took with it.

[Sandy Hancock]

Forget about the adaptor. Get the 02 Standard Zoom.
Or get the Q-7, which will make your 01 Prime even better for street work

[ScooterMaxi Jim]

Hey guys, I've had my Q for about 8 months now and I'm ready to get my first lens other than the 01 Prime and I've got a couple questions.

First, I'm planning on doing primarily street photography with this new lens, so I'd preferably like one where I can get a good focus from far away and preferably zoom in. I looked into the native lenses and the 06 Telephoto looked pretty good, but that leads me to my question.

As someone who literally started their photography with the Q and it's 01, would it be a better idea to buy a K-mount adaptor and a K lens or stick with the Q's native ones? Budgets pretty tight since I'm an almost-broke highschool student, but I really want to get into street photography and the 01 is a bit tough to catch those little "moments" with and still end up with a good shot.

Hope you guys can help me out, this is still all so new. Thanks,
-Myke

I'm not about to tell you definitively which route to take one way or the other. While a lens like the 06 is decent, convenient, auto focus and easy to use, it probably won't greatly enhance your abilities as a budding photographer - and there are less expensive alternatives if you have the desire to learn about manual focus and exposure (which are important aspects as part of the learning process). For instance, if you want to spend under $100 you can come up with a generic brand adapter (such as the Fotodiox) and a quality prime m-series such as the 50mm f/1.4 that produced this image:
Q miscellany - James Robins - Powered by Phanfare

Note that the following two photos in the album (black dog and bird) were also taken with an adapted lens - an 85mm.

If you get more serious about photography in the future, undoubtedly you'll expand into something beyond the Q. The K lenses you acquire that are adapted can then be further utilized on a native K mount body (or sold off at little or no loss).

[cesium]

The 01 is already the best street lens in the Q lineup. The 03 is second best.