[psychdoc]

I picked up a Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 the other day. I have taken many photos both indoors and outside. I am really disappointed with focus issues.

You may just have a bad copy.

However for the longest time I debated between the pentax 16-50 vs sigma 17-50 vs tamron 17-50 [to complement the 50-135 which is my fav lens].

In the end I got something else instead: the tamron 28-75 and the DA 15. Works for me!

Pentax 16-50: beautiful lens, but shooting at 16mm does not give good IQ. Plus its really HEAVY. I have the 50-135 lens; would have made a good pair. In the end, I did not want 2 SDM lenses in my bag...

Tamron 17-50: there are complaints that it underexposes. I also have a K2000 in addition to the K5 which I still use a lot. The K2000 often underexposes on its own. That ruled out this lens for me.

Sigma 17-50: this is a new lens, supposed to have HSM motor, has some nice reviews but not a lot of people own it.

In the end, I looked at my shooting style. I shoot people more than 'scapes. So the 28-75 paired with the DA 15 for walking around worked for me.

[Rocky Lotar]

I called the camera store [Henry's in Toronto] and spoke to the salesman I bought my gear from. He told me to check the metering and to make sure that the K5 is set on center metering. I did this and took a few shots of my bookshelf to make sure that the book titles are focused. So far so good, but I've taken well over a hundred shots with this lens and many are clear but too many are out of focus. I need to get outside and take several more photos to see how the lens performs. Having said this, why then have the multi-segment metering?

Thoughts?