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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-07-2017, 10:42 AM
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It helps a lot if you've been there and done that, found your current line-up wanting, and are able to work out from your photographs exactly what you want out of your new you-beaut lens. Last time I took the kids overseas and we went on a museum boat, I took a lens that had a far too narrow field of view and the trip suffered for it. This time, knowing that the interiors of boats were in the offing, I packed the DA15/4.0 (which I had mostly bought for sweeping landscapes, but it works just as well for narrow spaces indoors) and the results fully justified the decision.
Would a DA14/2.8 have worked better? Arguably yes on paper, but for practical reasons (compactness in a crowded camera bag; cross-compatibility of filters with my other Limiteds and many non-Limited film lenses), one mm longer focal length and a stop slower was a worthwhile price to pay, and a similar case can be made vs. the DA12-24/4.0. And I prefer a rectilinear projection to the fisheye. And we all know that the DA15 controls your mind...
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-13-2017, 06:21 PM
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Wow. And I'm agonising over which lenses and cameras to take away with me for the better part of four WEEKS rather than a few hours.
I settled on DA15, DA18-135, FA50/1.4. Each has a specific job to do (or rather, niche to fill). Bodies are K-5 and currently the MX, though I might weaken and grab the ME and/or the 40/2.8M again at the last possible second. Thing is, I tried to pocket them in my travel vest with the FA50/1.4 on and that simply doesn't work anywhere near as well. It fits - just - on both cameras, but nowhere near as well as the 40/2.8 does on either (especially the ME).
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-13-2017, 01:30 PM
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IIRC the Staff review was hot and cold on the DA14, and it left me with the impression that the third-party competition it was tested against was (potentially) optically better.
IMO the DA21 is the true wide-angle; the DA15 is more of a sweeping-vistas lens.
The DA21's cap is pull-off, push-on; the DA15's is screw-on, so if you take the DA15, either be prepared to take your time OR leave the lens cap off OR take a cheap pinch cap with you for when you actually go about your photographic business and need to bring it into action quickly. This fact leads me to believe that the DA15 is for the photographer who is both willing and able* to take time over deciding exactly how the shot is to be taken, and of what. Let this philosophising inform you as it may.
* = as dictated by circumstances rather than personal character.
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