[baldrick]

Does anyone have any experience of the Pentax 50mm f1.4? It's not priced as nicely as the Canon and Nikon versions (£160ish), but 2nd hand they can be picked up for sub £100.....

[Siamese Cat]

I have an old - pre autofocus - f1.4 50mm lens and it is quite superb. How that compares to the autofocus version I'm afraid I don't know.

As a generalisation Pentax lenses are very good indeed; Pentax used to be considered one of the top camera makes back in the 60's and although it has faded from its past level of prominence its lenses remain very good.

If you're looking for a lens of around 50mm Pentax produced a very special lens a few years ago, it was 43mm F1.9 (autofocus) and was a truly superb lens. Difficult to find and it might well be expensive but but well worth buying if you can afford it.

[baldrick]

Originally Posted by Siamese Cat

If you're looking for a lens of around 50mm Pentax produced a very special lens a few years ago, it was 43mm F1.7 (autofocus) and was a truly superb lens. Difficult to find but well worth buying if you do

The Pentax FA Limited lenses have been rated as 3 of the best lenses available from any brand.....

They're in slightly strange lengths and hefty prices:

31mm f1.8 - £800
43mm f1.9 - £400
77mm f1.8 - £700

They also do a range of DA (for digital) limited lenses:

21mm f3.2 - £400
35mm f2.8 (Macro?) - £330
40mm f2.8 - £220
70mm f2.4 - £450

I've also noticed that the 200mm f2.8 DA* is now available for £800.

[Mike.P®]

I have just bought a K10D body off a forum and its currently winging its way to me from the USA (hopefully).

Would be interested to know about this lens as well.

To be honest, as a complete novice I really don't know which lenses to buy, I found the Samsung GX-1L brand new with the 18-55mm and 50-200mm lenses brand new for £230 so I have bought that as well, the idea being take the larger lens out and resell the rest on Ebay .. should hopefully make my money back and get a free lens.
I have also been told the Pentax 18-55mm MKII is much better than the MKI that comes with the kit?
Im really looking for a decent "walkabout" lens for reasonable outlay.. any suggestions?

Also been told to wait for the new Pentax 55-300mm lens coming out in May?

[baldrick]

Originally Posted by sockpuppetuk

I have just bought a K10D body off a forum and its currently winging its way to me from the USA (hopefully).

Would be interested to know about this lens as well.

To be honest, as a complete novice I really don't know which lenses to buy, I found the Samsung GX-1L brand new with the 18-55mm and 50-200mm lenses brand new for £230 so I have bought that as well, the idea being take the larger lens out and resell the rest on Ebay .. should hopefully make my money back and get a free lens.
I have also been told the Pentax 18-55mm MKII is much better than the MKI that comes with the kit?
Im really looking for a decent "walkabout" lens for reasonable outlay.. any suggestions?

Also been told to wait for the new Pentax 55-300mm lens coming out in May?

The 18-55mm isn't a bad lens and, quite unique in a cheap lens, it doesn't rotate the front element during focussing.....

I don't know what the 55-200mm is like, personally I've got the Sigma 70-300mm APO which is a nice lens for the money (£115ish from OneStopDirect).

The DA* range are Pentax's premium optics featuring super-sonic motor focussing, weather sealing to match the K10D etc... Currently they have 16-50 and a 50-135 both f2.8, but the pair will cost over £1000.

Sigma are also starting to release their HSM lenses in a Pentax fit. You could buy the non-HSM versions, but I don't see the point. I'll be particularly tempted when they release the 135-300mm f2.8!!!!!

What is missing are the likes of the Canon 24-105mm...

[Mike.P®]

Originally Posted by baldrick

I don't know what the 55-200mm is like, personally I've got the Sigma 70-300mm APO which is a nice lens for the money (£115ish from OneStopDirect).

The DA* range are Pentax's premium optics featuring super-sonic motor focussing, weather sealing to match the K10D etc... Currently they have 16-50 and a 50-135 both f2.8, but the pair will cost over £1000.

There was a Sigma 70-300mm APO on the sales forum here at the weekend for £60 delivered, at the time I still wasnt sure which camera I was getting so made an offer of £50 .. obviously someone took it at the asking price :-)
The Pentax lens coming in may is PENTAX DA 55-300mm, which with a retail of £259.99 could be a decent enough bit of kit for the asking price... although it will cost more than what I paid for the camera itself