Lenses for the pentax k-x

[more head than shampoo]

the other day i was trying to take pictures but i realized that the lenses on my pentax k-x were too short and couldn't zoom in that fast when i had the right light but i couldn't get the view i pictured...what lenses should i get? i have the stock lenses with the pentax k-x. i was taking landscape scenery

[Mr Guy]

Wow, that's a much bigger question than you may think. What kind of lens do you have now? Cameras come bundled with different lens packages. The most common for Pentax currently is the 18-55mm zooms. If you only have one lens, and it seems to be mostly wide angle with a little bit of zoom, that's probably what you have.

However, the other common package has both an 18-55mm lens and a 50-200 mm lens. Also, some cameras came with superzooms, like the Tamron 18-250mm.

What you want to do next depends on a lot of things. Lenses can be big investments, or you can just view them as cheap tools. It kinda depends on what you're trying to achieve. If you buy less expensive lenses, and become very serious about photography, you will likely end up needing to buy similar but higher quality lenses again. However, if your current lenses can't accomplish what you want, then you'll never be able to get good enough to care so much about the quality of your lenses.

What you probably need is a decent all around zoom lens until you develop some more specific requirements for your lenses. The important thing to remember is that you can only pick three from this list:

High quality
Flexibility
Inexpensive


You can get telephoto prime lenses that are gorgeous and relatively inexpensive, but they are only one focal length.

You can get extremely flexible and relatively cheap superzooms, but they aren't as a high quality.

You can get extremely expensive high quality zooms, as well.

What doesn't exist is any very cheap, very high quality, very flexible zoom lenses.

As a basic "second lens", these are going to be your more popular options:

Pentax 50-200mm f/3.5-5.6 ~ $200
This'll give you a lot more reach, not a lot more low light performance. However, the K-x has very good high ISO performance.

Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.4 ~$300
Main benefit to this is that it has the whole range and you won't have to switch. It'll have the same low light issue, a tendency to creep on the zoom when hanging from it's own weight, but should be reasonably good quality in both image and build.


If you want low light zoom lenses though, you'll need to be prepared to spend some cash.


What I don't understand is that you're talking about zooming in that fast. You mean focus that fast? Zooming is done by hand...

[more head than shampoo]

Originally Posted by Mr Guy

Wow, that's a much bigger question than you may think. What kind of lens do you have now? Cameras come bundled with different lens packages. The most common for Pentax currently is the 18-55mm zooms. If you only have one lens, and it seems to be mostly wide angle with a little bit of zoom, that's probably what you have.

However, the other common package has both an 18-55mm lens and a 50-200 mm lens. Also, some cameras came with superzooms, like the Tamron 18-250mm.

What you want to do next depends on a lot of things. Lenses can be big investments, or you can just view them as cheap tools. It kinda depends on what you're trying to achieve. If you buy less expensive lenses, and become very serious about photography, you will likely end up needing to buy similar but higher quality lenses again. However, if your current lenses can't accomplish what you want, then you'll never be able to get good enough to care so much about the quality of your lenses.

What you probably need is a decent all around zoom lens until you develop some more specific requirements for your lenses. The important thing to remember is that you can only pick three from this list:

High quality
Flexibility
Inexpensive


You can get telephoto prime lenses that are gorgeous and relatively inexpensive, but they are only one focal length.

You can get extremely flexible and relatively cheap superzooms, but they aren't as a high quality.

You can get extremely expensive high quality zooms, as well.

What doesn't exist is any very cheap, very high quality, very flexible zoom lenses.

As a basic "second lens", these are going to be your more popular options:

Pentax 50-200mm f/3.5-5.6 ~ $200
This'll give you a lot more reach, not a lot more low light performance. However, the K-x has very good high ISO performance.

Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.4 ~$300
Main benefit to this is that it has the whole range and you won't have to switch. It'll have the same low light issue, a tendency to creep on the zoom when hanging from it's own weight, but should be reasonably good quality in both image and build.


If you want low light zoom lenses though, you'll need to be prepared to spend some cash.


What I don't understand is that you're talking about zooming in that fast. You mean focus that fast? Zooming is done by hand...

sorry i ddidn't mean zooming in "fast" i meant zooming in far..thats what an allnighter will do to ya!

[more head than shampoo]

i also do not know if having a "low light lens" is any goood

[mattdm]

Originally Posted by more head than shampoo

i also do not know if having a "low light lens" is any goood

It's definitely any good if you need to shoot in low light.