Originally posted by Timea Pentax HD DA Limited 35mm F2.8 Macro Lens - any other opinions?
I think this would be an excellent choice. I was just about to recommend the Pentax DA 35mm f2.4 which is cheaper, your choice should offer better IQ. 35mm is in my opinion the most flexible focal length on crop sensors. You can mix it up a little bit, depending on the budget and get a 35mm (either the HD 35 or the cheap DA 35) and a DA 50 1.8, or the HD 70mm. For street photography, I think something in the 70mm range is quite good, as it allows you to keep a little bit of distance from your subjects... with 35mm you need to get pretty close, some people don't like that. Depends on your style.
This was shot with a 35mm on a crop sensor and I was literally a few steps away. Luckily the old lady didn't bother:
This was shot with 77mm also on a crop sensor, I was a few good meters away so he didn't even noticed me:
So it depends on your style of shooting. But I still think your choice is excellent.
Regarding the performance of the kit lens, I guess it shouldn't be that bad, although I have never used it for street photography. For landscapes it was decent, but the DA 35mm was much better. If you get the HD 35mm macro (which should be even better) and you're still not happy with the results, probably you need to work on your technique a little bit. A few quick tips:
- do your best to nail the focus ( I use single point select AF for street shots and manually select my focus point where I want it to be);
- keep an eye on your shutter speed, in this regard I think the TaV mode works great for street shots when the light is often not enough. Don't be afraid to raise the ISO if need be. What I do is set the shutter speed to 1/250 or faster, aperture of my choice and let the camera select the ISO needed. For some subjects, 1/250 might be not fast enough; later edit: when the light is plenty like in the photo posted above, I just use the Av mode;
- shoot RAW and properly process your photos (I think this is one of the main points when getting a DSLR);
If anything goes wrong, please post an example image here and tell us why you are not happy with it, so we can better understand what the problem is.
And above anything else have fun