sandyl Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 I have a 18-50mm kit lense that came with my dslr but am looking to upgrade. I'll be doing quite a bit of travel photography next year in Europe so want to get something half decent which i could also use for doggy pictures when i get back. What focal range do you thing I'd need? I'm very new to this so wouldnt have a clue! Any suggestions? I have a pentax dslr, and my budget is about $400-$500. Thankyou! Ooh, another quick question. I have two older slr lenses. They're both yashica prime lenses. Could I use them on my pentax k100? They have a different connection to my pentax body, could i buy an adapter of some sought? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubiton Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 (edited) Answer to the older lens with different mount - probably not. Unless it fits straight on the camera then you cannot use it (they dont have adaptors). Apparently the newer pentaxs are better than the early pentax digitals as the early ones were not compatible with the older lenses. Personally I'd go for a slightly bigger zoom lens like 50-70 to say 200 or 300mm (eg I have a canon and use a 70-210mm lens and it is great for most things). It just gives you a little more rnage and less of the 'big head syndrome' that the wide angle/fish eye type lenses can give you (eg I have a 35-85mm or something lens how ever if I use anything less than about teh 50mm mark on a horse the horse ends up with 'big head' syndrome as you end up being too close to get the right angle on the subject) Edited August 2, 2008 by rubiton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripley Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 (edited) I have a 18-50mm kit lense that came with my dslr but am looking to upgrade. I'll be doing quite a bit of travel photography next year in Europe so want to get something half decent which i could also use for doggy pictures when i get back. What focal range do you thing I'd need? I'm very new to this so wouldnt have a clue! Any suggestions? I have a pentax dslr, and my budget is about $400-$500. Thankyou! Depends what type of travel photography you are looking to do - mainly landscapes or architecture/people? I upgraded my kit 18-55mm lens and the 70-300mm. Bought a sigma 17-70 and a Canon L 70-200mm and am off to Europe in 5 weeks (which is why I upgraded). I'm not sure about Pentax lenses, sorry but ashanali on this forum knows about Pentax. Edited August 3, 2008 by Ripley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandyl Posted August 3, 2008 Author Share Posted August 3, 2008 Depends what type of travel photography you are looking to do - mainly landscapes or architecture/people? I upgraded my kit 18-55mm lens and the 70-300mm. Bought a sigma 17-70 and a Canon L 70-200mm and am off to Europe in 5 weeks (which is why I upgraded). I'm not sure about Pentax lenses, sorry but ashanali on this forum knows about Pentax. Thanks for the replies! I would say more people and building photography than lanscapes. I'm looking at the sigma 17-70mm and the pentax 18-250mm atm. I like the larger range on the 18-250mm but wonder if it would lack quality compared to the 17-70mm. I'd rather a better quality lens with average range than a larger range with less quality iykwim? I'd only want to take 2 lenses at the most. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piper Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 Thanks for the replies!I would say more people and building photography than lanscapes. I'm looking at the sigma 17-70mm and the pentax 18-250mm atm. I like the larger range on the 18-250mm but wonder if it would lack quality compared to the 17-70mm. I'd rather a better quality lens with average range than a larger range with less quality iykwim? I'd only want to take 2 lenses at the most. I just bought a sigma 24 - 135 f2.8 lens from sigma4less and am loving it. It was so much cheaper buying from overseas, I got it for less than $300 including postage. I chose that lens as it was in my price range and comments on photography forums from users of my camera found it to be an good all round genreal purpose lens. The kind that you leave on the camera for most things, so far I am really happy with it. The pictures are much charper than on my old kit lenses. I started by looking at some of the webpages that had been suggested on here, such as www.sigma4less.com and www.bhphotovideo.com and finding lenses that were in my price range anf focal length range then hunting around on the web for reviews of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripley Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 The Sigma 17-70 is a real improvement on the Canon kit lens (not sure about the one you have). However, I wish I'd now bought the sigma 10-20mm as I enjoy taking shots of landscapes more than anything so a wide angle would have been great. It's a lot cheaper than the 10-20 though, which is why I bought it (well, got OH to buy it for me for Christmas). It's under AUD$500. Shop around though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kja Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 A trip through Europe sounds awesome! If I could only have a single lens and was doing what you were doing, I would take a serious look at the Sigma 18-200 OS. It is one sweet lens and the focal range it covers is extremely handy as an all-rounder. This lens will be making the trek with me to South America/Antartica next year as it's a perfect size, great range and very nice IQ. I adore my Sigma 17-70 macro, too, and it's almost always just the ticket as a walk around...until I want more reach! This would be my second choice if I positively knew that I would not want the reach. But sometimes I'll be shooting something, say in the city, and want to zoom in on a detail without moving - for whatever reason. This is where the shortness of the reach is frustrating. It's not a deal breaker, but the 18-200 is just such a good solution. You'll need to double check that the lenses you are looking at are suitable for Pentax mounts, as I don't know off the top of my head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripley Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 Dumb question alert: how do you use the macro facility on the 17-70? Do you use it at 70mm? I can get mine to work. OK I'm blonde. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kja Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 You don't have to do anything, it just works as is. This lens does not do 1:1 macro which may be the cause of your confusion. I think it's ratio is 1:2.3 or something like that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripley Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 (edited) Oh, ok. I tried it out on my african violet at home near the window with lots of natural light and ... nothing. No difference. I must be doing something wrong. I used M focus and then tried AV and then even damn Auto and then P (!) No difference that I saw. Edited August 7, 2008 by Ripley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kja Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 (edited) It's not a difference, it's just how the lens works. The "macro" allows you to shoot up close and get a good magnification ratio. You'd only see a difference using a different lens with the same focal length that didn't have the magnification (this one is 1:2.3, the Canon 60 macro is 1:1 or Canon's 28-105 has a ratio of 1:5.2, for instance). Does that make sense? If it will help, I can take some example shots and put them up... Edited August 7, 2008 by kja Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripley Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 Got you. There is no bit that pops out the bottom like with a 50mm macro lens when you focus so I didn't notice any magnification. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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