18-250mm

Sorry Duncan, but if I booked a professional photographer for a wedding and he turned up with a consumer zoom I should be most unhappy.

I do accept that by buying a wide range zoom you are avoiding the hassle of changing lenses, and that is sensible, but the reduced image quality and the small aperture (necessitating more use of flash, and unnecessary DOF for portraits) would massively offset the convenience angle, for me.

I was writing my last response as you posted yours, so I didn't see it. Had I done so, I would have been more diplomatic, but your question did suggest (and not just to me) that you were a novice.

It may be nice to have all sorts of candid pictures of the hangers-on, but surely most people primarily want really good pictures of the bride and groom.

And that means, as Don said, using the best glass you can afford.

G

Thanks George.....may be I should have explained better in my OP....
As for the use of flash....I use it for 90% of my Wedding work (fill in)....but I know what ya mean.
And I only do my candid work when I know all the B&G work has been done.

I would like to know the IQ of this lens...I've heard,..and seen mixed reports,...the images on the link given to me on this thread, show good quality....but I'm concerned about how well the IQ is towards the edges, especially with group portraits...

D

DA* 60-250mm 1:4 ED (IF) SDM and weather sealed. Should be ideal for UK summer weddings, it'll keep the rain out

See Lens Roadmap

To be honest, I sold mine after the wedding shoot because of getting used to the quality in the DA*'s and the Limiteds.

It's great at what it does, but once you get used to SDM focussing, weather sealing, faster glass and superior quality, I cannot see why you would want a lens thats a lot slower, louder, and inferior quality, especially for weddings!

I would make a presumption here that you have at least 2 bodies in use at a wedding, so a far better option would be to have say a DA*200 2.8 if you NEED the length, with a DA* 16-50 on the other body. I personally found the DA*50-135 plenty long enough for the speeches.

Having owned one, I would never consider it to shoot a wedding, not fit for purpose in my book, especially when there is all that great glass out there! Holiday snaps, yes, the range is great, weddings, no.

I think that the good reports on this lens relate to the fact that it is a very wide-range zoom. For a VWRZ, it's pretty good.

But it's not going to compare with a more serious lens.

G

I have given the exact answer to your repeated question in my first post of this thread, many words ago. So here I repeat it, perhaps this time you'll read


"If you want to think of something as 'your prime wedding lens' then buy a PRIME LENS to suit your wedding needs.

The 18-250 is a great zoom lens, very good image quality for a zoom, absolutely incredible versatility.

It is not comparable to a DA* (N.B. 16-50mm - 50-135mm future 60-250mm) lens in IQ, and even further away from a Prime lens IQ. (Be it the 31,35,43,50,70,77,100,200,300mm)

If you want a walkabout/travel lens, because you wish to not change lenses and travel light, than this might be for you. In my opinion it is better than the kit lens, if this is what you are updating from. "


So... this is the answer regarding IQ. I have the tamron, and I love it. When i first bought it i was coming from a 18-55, and a 75-300, and it was actually a quite impressive improvement in IQ. I used the lens for many purposes, mainly landscape, 1 photoshoot (on a budget!) and a many many shots as a walkabout lens. It never failed, aparts from indoors, and in low light, where speeds are so slow that you'd need a tripod with any shot.

What else can be said? I think that if you are thinking of long range, you should buy either the 50-135mm DA* - or a sigma 70-200, or tamron 70-200, both f2.8.

Hope this helps

Nathan

as an early adopter of the pentax 28-200 when it first arrived, I had this same debate many times.
The image quality is fine for general purpose. same for the 18-250.
You buy it you'll love it. goto the store and try one on. fire a few shots, swap out for a 50 1.4, and any ltd, or 100mm macro 2.8.... take your card out of your camera and order some 12x18 or larger prints and compare them.

if you take the 18-250 out on a wedding job, as your main lens...you're banking your reputation on the chance that one of the brides friends, that has a nice camera isn't packing a couple decent primes, because if his/her prints turn out better than yours...good luck getting any referrals from the 70-300 people she had at her wedding.

I'm done. Good luck.

Thank you....this is what I've been waiting to hear....someone who has used it for a Wedding shoot..
and can tell me what they think.

All in all...I thank everyone on this thread...I've come to the conclusion that its a good lens for general work etc,....but keep with the other ones for Wedding work...

Thats all I needed to know....thank you all once again, you've just helped me save £350.... ...
Take care.

Duncan

Just to clarify, I did not use it for the wedding shoot! It didn't even get in the bag, which is not surprising when you see what other lenses I have available!

We sold it after the wedding shoot when we realised just exactly what lenses we wanted to keep, it was never under consideration for the wedding!

Thanks for clarifying that.....but I'm still coming to the same conclussion.....its a good lens for what it is, but NOT for Weddings..

From www.photozone.de/pentax/367-pentax-smc-da-18-250mm-f35-63?start=1 :

"Generally the Pentax 18-250mm produced comparatively decent resolution figures in the MTF lab. The sweet range of the lens is clearly below 100mm. At 18mm up to 70mm the results are very good and even comparable to conventional standard zoom lenses which is fairly amazing for such a lens. At 18mm and 35mm you should avoid the max. aperture setting in order to overcome some border softness here but from f/5.6 onwards there isn't really much to complain in terms of resolution. The situation changes when looking at longer focal lengths. At 135mm and more so at 250mm there's a quite a drop in quality. The center performance remains fairly intact with good to very good results but the border quality is soft at max. aperture - the contrast level is also generally reduced here. Stopping down to f/8 or better f/11 boosts the border quality. The 250mm remains the weakest setting though but this can't really come as a surprise."

Thank you....thats a huge help....

Thats a no sale for me then...

Hi Gang....

Just to say thank you all for an interesting feed back..
Thought I'd let ya all know, I've just bought the DA* 16-50 lens.....
Love it...

Thanks

Duncan

Excellent choice

Much better!

Now go get his big brother too! (DA* 50-135)