19 Year Old Pentax User!

Hello all!

As the title says I'm 19, 20 next week though, and own a Pentax K-x. Got into photography about a year and a half ago so I haven't been at it long, although I seem to have developed severe LBA already

Anyway, hope to learn a lot from this forum and benefit from the advice the members have to offer.

Cheers,

Keir.

Welcome to the forums Keir, looks like your large collection of lenses will continue growing then.

Hello and welcome to the fourm Keir.

Thanks snappychappy and AndrewA

I'm seriously trying to resist buying anymore lenses until I have sold the ones I don't need/want and made proper use of the ones I want to keep.

I bought two ME Super kits to get the Pentax M 28mm f3.5 (relatively rare I think) and a 50mm f1.7 and they happened to come bundled with some pretty nice lenses as well.

Anyway, I think I'm going to sell the two ME Supers and the unwanted lenses to fund a DA 35mm f2.4 - I've read this is a very good lens for the price and would be a good choice as a first AF prime.

Would love to hear opinions of the DA 35mm if anyone owns one on here.

Cheers,

Keir.

Welcome to the forum, and welcome to photography & Pentax.

The DAL 35mm f/2.4 is a nice lens, but lacks features, and more importantly the IQ, of the DA 35mm limited. Some will argue with that, as the f/2.4 is a lot of lens for the money.

LBA is an enjoyable past-time too, as long as you keep it under control, and as long as you use the lenses you acquire.

Welcome Keir, good to see a younger member on here! I also have the Pentax-M 28mm F3.5. It's a lovely lens, although not one of my most used. It can be a little too sharp for its own good, but is great wide open.

Hope you enjoy the site.

Regards
David

Hello and welcome

Thanks everyone!


Jonathan-Mac - Is there anything noticeably poor about the DA L 35mm IQ or is it just that it is generally inferior to the 35mm limited? The plastic mount etc doesn't really bother me but a problem with the IQ definitely would.


davidstorm - I haven't had a chance to use the 28mm f3.5 much, as I've not had it long, but in my limited experience I have to agree that it is very sharp!

Keir.

If I may. If you saw two photos of the same subject taken with each lens I suspect you wouldn't be able to say which was taken with which. The limited's extra cost is mainly due to the fact it is a macro lens and has the full metal mount, quick shift focussing and limited build quality.
Compare:
http://www.photozone.de/pentax/393-pentax_35_28
with:
http://www.photozone.de/pentax/598-pentax_35_24

From that it appears at first glance that the 2.4 even outperforms the 2.8 but that is mainly due to testing on different cameras. Optically they are both fine lenses with the cheaper one being marginally faster.

John

the DA L 35mm 2.4 is a superb lens, there is nothing wrong with the IQ from that lens & for the price is a bargain.

I use it more than my 50mm 1.4 & I love that lens too, the 2.4 is very contrasty.

If it wasn't up to scratch I would have binned long ago, the fact it is always in my bag says how good it is...

The limited is sharper, but the DAL is plenty sharp enough, so that's no problem. The ltd has better colours, contrast & micro contrast, those are the areas where it excels.

Hey and welcome.

I started with photography a few months ago now and got the DA 35mm f2.4 as my second lens, but now it almost never gets off the camera. The focal length is pretty nice and the relatively fast aperture allows to take those late night photos. The build quality is excellent, all plastic but high quality, small size and light. The AF compared to the DA 18-55 is much faster which helps to get those quick moments.

From cons for the lens I could say that, sometimes when shooting in strong light it gives a bit of purple fringing, but that is only visible when on full digital zoom looking afterwards (DA 18-55 is much worse in that sense). The price for Pentax original hood £40 is quite a lot and the cheap Chinese knock-off that I got(£, feels like it's gonna break if I drop it, but that said, it has survived many bumps and drops. The biggest problem that I find with the lens is the absence of depth of field marking, which is really annoying as I am a newbie and don't really know how to assess it properly, but I'm quietly getting a feel of that too.

I haven't tried the Limited version of 35mm, but the Limited is £300 minimum and DA 35mm f2.4 is £130, so it's up to your budget. But by no means I would say the DA 35mm f2.4 is a bad lens.

Over all, would I get it again? Yes and yes again, it is one of the best cheap prime lenses out there at the moment, in my opinion.

I hope this helps and good luck with your shooting

Thanks everybody for welcoming me to the forum and commenting on the performance of the DA L 35mm.

I have decided that I am definitely going to buy one now after hearing all of the positive comments. It's a shame Jessops recently dropped it from their range otherwise I would have made use of the Tesco deal and bought it immediately! I'll just have to list some of my unused gear in the classified forum and buy one from somewhere else. Can anyone reccomend a good online retailer, I have heard good things about SRS but I'm sure there are others?

Keir.

P.S. - Sorry about the late reply, been away from my computer for a few days.

Google shopping seems to have SRS showing the best price for one at present, apart from Jessops who, as you say, are showing it as being unavailable! You shouldn't go wrong buying it from SRS and it will have a two year guarantee whereas only one year from Jessops.

You might find someone here who purchased several before Christmas from Amazon (who were doing a really good deal on them at the time) and now wishes to part with one. I actually bought just one myself and do not wish to part with it!

John

SRS it is then! Although I might wait a while to see if Jessops get them back in stock.

Looks like I'll be busy taking photos of gear to put on the classifieds in the meantime!

Keir.