Originally posted by lapeen I am not sure where anyone got the idea that I was comparing my 18-250 with her 30mm 1.4 -that would be nutty!! I never said that at all, I said...
The part that threw us off was the part I quoted in my reply to you "I definitely am pondering trying to start by getting a 2.8 zoom lens. I know my 18-250 is not optimal for the cheerleading events"
Sorry about my part (b) too...a 30/1.4 will have more DOF so even if you use AF-C and fire the shutter when it's not precisely focused, you'll likely get decent shots. I keep thinking DOF = background fuzziness for some reason
One other thing is your camera will run AF w/ the lens wide open. The 50/1.4 doesn't have much contrast wide open (I have one as well and it's actually pretty soft looking to me wide open, even for portraits).
I'd again suggest borrowing a 2.8 lens if you can, or asking a fellow Maine Pentaxian to attend an event w/ you so you can see how fast a K20D w/ a 2.8 lens can be and whether this is fast enough or whether you'd rather have a D90 w/ a 30/1.4 (which is actually quite good, but I'm surprised you don't think it's too short for the cheerleading photos)...