[sterretje]

Big grin

[elliott]

read it (sort of) ... phew!
well .. I did ask.
thank you (kind of)

Now you see why people just spend the money for a real dedicated macro lens, it is the most convenient option. I have one, but use a lot of the other methods as well.

[bluestringer]

obviously 'cheap' is totally subjective .. with one mans 'that's cheap' being another mans 'how much!'
having looked at the prices of the 50 and 100mm f4 macro lenses I am the latter man.
other (cheaper) alternatives are invited/welcomed

Well I was comparing these lens to more recent macro lens. I got my 100 f4 macro for 89 dollars, compared to a newer pentax 100 AF macro that goes for 600 dollars, I would say that is cheap. I got my 50 f4 macro for 75 dollars, and that is cheap compared to newer 50mm AF macros.

If you want cheaper then get a set of tubes on ebay for 6 bucks and put a 10 dollar 50mm lens in front of them and you can take some great macro shots. Or get a reversing ring and shoot with a reversed lens. Or get a set of cheap closeup filters, you can find them on ebay for 10 bucks. Lots of ways to go cheaper.

[stevebrot]

Just a simple note here, with respect to sigma mounts.

Pentax had in the era of the KA mount licensed it to both sigma and Ricoh and gradually the other manufacturers did not follow the same migration path as Pentax, hence the Ricoh pin and the difference today in the sigma and pentax mount

But for a while, all three were compatible

Huh?

• Ricoh never made a KA mount lens
• Ricoh never made a KA mount body
• Sigma has long made lenses to fit all variants of the K-mount
• Sigma cameras were initially made in M42 (Sigma Mark-1) followed by standard K-mount (Sigma SA-1, based on the Ricoh XR7 and released about a year after the Ricoh product)
• The original K-mount was an open standard used by multiple camera makers and standard K-mount bodies and lenses from those makers are freely cross-compatible.
• Sigma never made a KA mount body
• Sigma SA mount debuted on their auto-focus cameras and is only superficially similar to the K-mount (no cross compatibility to cameras or bodies). Both the bayonet lug pattern and flange distance are different. Electrical contacts and flange distance are derived from Canon EOS. Mount diameter is the same as Pentax.

As noted on this thread, the confusion is due to Sigma's use of a hybrid rear cap that is compatible with both mounts. This is accomplished by using small lugs in the cap and two index points for attachment, one for SA and the other for K, offset about 50 degrees from each other. The cap will not attach to a K-mount lens using the SA index point.


Steve