Originally posted by beachgardener A chap came into the local museum sporting a K-S2, with a sigma zoom, I think it unfortunate that the camera shops push the sigma lenses in place of the Pentax lenses. Rarely see a Pentax anything around here.
Originally posted by TheOneAndOnlyJH Pentax is great bang for buck, but sometimes Tamron and Sigma are just cheaper and still plenty good enough. No shop pushed anything on me since I buy my gear online, but after the DA 18-135 my second lens was a $30 Sigma 70-300. (I eventually upgraded to a DA 55-300, but it cost a bit more.) I also bought a broken Sigma 18-200 that I repaired for fun. Even though I prefer the 18-135 I could see the appeal of the Sigma that would sway someone to buy it for the extra range and lower price on the used market.
In particular the Tamron and Sigma 17-50 f/2.8 are both such great performers that I can't justify the extra cost for the Pentax DA* 16-50. (Especially with the worry that the SDM could fail and turn the Pentax into a manual focus lens until I could get it converted.)
That said, I've found that official Pentax lenses are the cat's pajamas if you can afford them. My DA* 50-135 is one of my favorite lenses to use. (I just had to wait a long time to score a good deal on eBay.) I do appreciate that Sigma and Tamron provide Pentax users with extra options though.
These days there are lenses from Sigma (and maybe even Tamron) which are better than the Pentax alternatives, not just cheaper. I owned the Tamron 17-50/2.8 and now have the Sigma and they've both provided great shots and superb value for money. I haven't used the Pentax but the Sigma is reputedly the best of those three.
Of course, the only company that makes anything like the limited lenses (small, metal, very high quality) is Fujifilm. Most others prefer cheap crappy zooms or massive, expensive FF primes.
Originally posted by ZombieArmy I just met a Pentax shooter at my local wildlife preserve. Was sporting a Pentax K-1 with a DA*300mm. He was mentioning that he was going to buy a Nikon for the longer lenses as he was a bird shooter and was moving to a place where the birds perch quite high into the trees, but he also mentioned that he'd never give up his K-1 and lovely assortment of glass.
Maybe the 150-450 would have been long enough for him.
Originally posted by ERNR The only Sigma lens I will ever own was a 28-70 f2.8-4 (my first autofocus lens in the mid-1990s.) Useful range, but more flare than I’m used to.
It quietly fell apart in my husband’s hand one day as he was about to place it on a camera. I replaced it with the Pentax 28-70 f4, which is still in one piece although rarely used nowadays. I haven’t considered buying a non-Pentax lens since.
I have a Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8-4 that I bought used and I have to say it's a decent performer and feels solid enough. I haven't used it a great deal though.