Pentax Lenses

[Canoe911]

I just got a new Pentax K10D with a DA 18-55mm lens. I know Pentax has a good list of lenses as well as the fact that they are coming out with a lot larger line this fall I believe. What I wanted to know is what are the best lenses to own out side of Pentax. And how easy are they to find. Every time I look all I seem to find is lenses for Canon and Nikon. Any info would be a great help.

Thanks,
Canoe

[mattdm]

You'll probably have to look online (B&H Photo, Adorama) for Pentax lenses. I have the DA 40mm f/2.8 Limited and really like it. It's not very expensive, is a useful all-around focal length (slightly long normal), and takes great pictures with nice bokeh. And, f/2.8 lets in a lot more light than the kit lens, which makes the viewfinder brighter and of course lets you take pictures in half the light.

What kind of lenses are you looking for?

[BestRN]

Hi,
I just read your posting...I see you are from South LA--I am orig. from South MS, but now live in the St. Louis, MO area. I, too, got a K10D but as they were out of the kit lens, I got a used-but-in-excellent-shape 67mm Pentax 16-45 DA 1:4 (22) ED-AL wide angle lens. (have NO idea what most of those numbers mean :-) !), and within days bought the DA 60-200 F4:5-5:8 ED zoom lens. (Fortunately, I had a really nice gift certificate which allowed me to get the zoom for just a little addition of $$ on my part). I probably paid WAY too much for the used lens...but it really does take nice group shots and vistas. However, the zoom quickly became my favorite...altho I really wish it were a 300 zoom, as I love to take pics of birds at my feeders, etc. These were my only two lenses until last week. (I, like most everyone else who loves photography, suffer from a bad case of 'lens lust', and always am thinking "if only" when I am shooting.)What sealed my decision to get a macro / portrait lens (which I have been wanting from the very beginning) was viewing the pictures in the premier collection at the new Pentax Photo Gallery. I was simply breathtaken at some of those images. I knew then that any blame / excuse for lackluster photos coming from my camera rested squarely with me, ha~ They are awesome. Anyway, as I looked at them, I decided that I would scroll through them slowly, reading the info about them and when one of them just blew me away I'd jot down what lens was used. When I finished, the hands-down winner was the DA 100 F2.8 Macro. I think the picture of those starfish in a tidal pool in Maine, and the grasshopper closeup just did it. I HAD to have that lens, ha~ So, I did a quick search and discovered that the list price was $899--WAY out of my budget for a lens. But, I decided to 'shop it' anyway to see how much I needed to 'save up'. To my amazement, I found it on Amazon (new) for $468 with free shipping...and, on top of that, Pentax is offering a $100 rebate until 9/30/07. I just couldn't pass it up, and although I've only had it a week or so I LOVE it. The bokeh (fancy term for the patterns in the muted background I learned from one of my books I'm studying-- Digital SLR Cameras & Photography for Dummies) is simply beautiful and I cannot wait to use it in a real 'shoot'. I am absolutely an amateur, but people seem to like my pics enough to keep calling and offering me $$ to do them. If I knew how to get photos in here (since I've not done this before) I'd show you a few examples from my first attempts with the new lens. But, when I clicked on the 'insert image' icon, it asked me for a url, and my pics are on my computer...not on a designated url. And since it is late and I am really tired, I won't try to figure it out tonight. Anyway, you may want to go to the Pentax Gallery site and look at those pics...they are awesome. BestRN

[mattdm]

Hi,
K10D but as they were out of the kit lens, I got a used-but-in-excellent-shape 67mm Pentax 16-45 DA 1:4 (22) ED-AL wide angle lens. (have NO idea what most of those numbers mean :-)


67mm is the filter size. It's usually not actually used as part of the description of the lens.

16-45 is the focal length range (i.e. zoom range) in millimeters -- one would usually say 16-45mm.

"DA" is Pentax's designation for lenses designed for digital SLRs -- they don't necessarily fill a full film frame (so they can be smaller and lighter), they have designed-for-digital optical coatings, and (unrelated to digital but a feature of all DA lenses) they have a quick-shift features where you can tweak the autofocus manually without switching the body into MF mode.

1:4 is usually the way one specifies magnification, or how good it is at being a macro lens. 1:4 isn't that exciting -- so you know macro isn't really the point of the lens if you see that. (You want 1:2 or better.) But this lens is actually 1:3.8, so either that's just rounded, or more likely, it's a typo for:

f/4 -- this is a constant-aperture zoom, which means the widest aperture of f/4 is available over the entire focal length. The kit lens, by contrast, is "f/3.5 - f/5.6", which means it starts out a fraction of a stop faster at the very wide end, but in the middle is slower and at the telephoto end is much slower. This is a huge advantage of the lens you have -- it makes autofocusing faster, the viewfinder brighter, and allows a narrower depth of field if you want to use selective focus in your composition.

The (22) is the smallest (slowest) aperture the lens can use. 22 is pretty normal. (On a point & shoot camera, by contrast, f/8 is usually the minimum.)

ED means that at least one lens element uses extra-low dispersion glass, which reduces chromatic aberration, so your picture has fewer color artifacts and is sharper.

AL means that at least one lens element is aspherical -- this generally is a part of the design used to reduce distortion, and can replace multiple normal lens elements, making the overall lens smaller and lighter.

So now you know. :) The upshot is: this is a much better lens than the kit lens.


get the zoom for just a little addition of $$ on my part). I probably paid WAY too much for the used lens...but it really does take nice group shots and vistas. However, the zoom quickly became my


Hard to say. The lens is theoretically a little over $400 and then minus a $100 rebate, but it's often hard to find in stock at all. And if it's in good condition, a used lens of this quality will retain most of its original value.

[BestRN]

Thank you SO much!!!! So often all these abbreviations are so much Greek to me. (I feel so ignorant of all the techie stuff...all I have is 'the eye' and a passion for it, but I am studying diligently to try to learn! DPS is helping so much... I just know when the shot is right, but seldom know exactly why :-)) I had a Pentax MV back in the 70's and it was pretty idiot-proof, but, I actually won a local photo contest and placed in a couple more with that camera. Then, kids -->divorce-->college-->career-->remarriage (no time for photography!). I bought my first digital P&S in 2004, then a more advanced P&S, and now my first DSLR. The guy who sold me the 16-45 lens was just rapturous about it and swore it was far superior to the kit lens...but, as I had never used the kit lens, could only take his word for it. It does take excellent "group" shots and the clarity is wonderful. But, I confess that I would not have enjoyed my camera nearly as much if I had not purchased the zoom. Now, I am all ecstatic about my new macro! I would really like to post some photos--esp in the critique forum-- as I would truly like some feedback from the photograpy community as I am learning. But, am not sure how to go about it. I did go into PS7 and make some images smaller so I could upload them, but when I read the 'instructions' on the website about how to upload photos, they were just talking about from other websites. Where to I look to find the steps to uploading from my own computer? Thanks for any help--- MBest

[BestRN]

One more question...I see beneath some of the names the words "Point & Shoot" and others "Digital SLR". I am assuming that this is the camera they use? I tried to find out how to change this in my "bio" section but couldn't find any mention of it. Am I correct in my assumption? and, how do I change It? Thanks for being patient with me-- BestRN

[jdepould]

It's related to your post count, a "rank" if you will.