A 3 Lens System

Afternoon everyone,

hope you are all away taking wonderful photographs over the bank holiday weekend. Ive got a couple of holidays coming up in the near future, and I would like to pack as light as possible.
I currently have K20D with Pentax 12-24 lens, tokina 28-70 2,8 lens, Pentax F50 1.7 & Sigma 105 2.8 macro.

I would prefer to stick with primes, as I feel they will give me better results versus weight. I'm not particularly interested in a super zoom lens.

My plan so far is to perhaps purchase a KR body as it is lighter than the K20D, and purchase another prime lens to go along with the F50 1.7 and Sigma 105mm. I am considering swapping out the Sigma for a Pentax 100mm macro to keep the filter size consistent.


What I would like from the 3 lenses, are a wider angle, standard, and tele lens with one of them having macro capabilities.

With this in mind, which of the Pentax primes would you buy? Or indeed, which 3 lenses would you choose?

Over to you


Matt

My personal favorite when I head out with a small prime kit is 15/43/77 (if i need macro, i bring a DCR-150 which goes onto the 77). Small light and stunning glass.

Maybe if you do a lot of macro work, then I'd use a dedicated macro lens and go 15, 35ltd & 77. That would be a pretty sweet combo and tiny to boot. In fact if i didn't need the speed of the 43, i'd probably have a 35ltd.

Don't leap straight for the 35 Ltd unless you need the macro function. The DA 35/2.4 is a rather astonishing lens and costs an awful lot less than the Ltd.

Like you I favour primes for their small size, light weight but most of all image quality. I have a 35mm Limited macro and a 77mm limited. I'm thinking of a 15mm limited, but currently managing with the two primes and stitched panos (i'm currently making my own pano head). Both my current lenses (and the 15mm) take 49mm filters.

Food for thought.

Paul

I would take the 12-24, the 50 1.7, and 105 sigma and spend a few extra bucks an a k5....

I think you'll find the IQ and versatility of the 12-24mm hard to beat, even with a prime. It's not a heavy lens either, so why spend more money on a prime in that range?

Have to agree I was about to buy a DA 15 Ltd for "wide" but the 12-24 is about the same price, that said I'm still tempted by another Sigma 10-20.

Similar here, except I use the DA12-24 in the wide end. It is simply far too versatile for me to replace it with any three primes.

Matt, I think you are sorted with what you have. Moving from the K20D to the K-r would be a downgrade in my opinion, but you can do instead what Don suggested and save for the K-5.

I couldn't understand why 200g would determine which camera to buy. It's like 7oz.

When I'm out shooting I'm so engrossed in snapping I never even think about how much anything weighs.

My 3 lens kit is a DA15, Adaptall 24mm and 50-200 zoom.

Light and covers almost everything.

MZ

Hmmm difficult one! As some others have said you have a pretty good line up with the 12-24, 50 and 105. The classic combo would have been 28/50/135 which translates into approximately 18/32/85. That would make the 15/35/100 or 15/35/70 a pretty close match. I'd think long and hard about how much you really want to save weight/size compared to what else you could spend your money on, however. I really doubt that in anything other than the most extreme pixel peeping you'd be able to tell the difference between the 15 and the 12-24. Also, a 35mm macro is a bit more limiting than a 100/105 macro. As a single lens set-up it would be great but the distance between it and your subject will often be very small.

K.

You have many choices I think.
15ltd + 35ltd + 77ltd: 3 limited lenses with 35mm doing macro.
14 f2.8 + 35 f2.4 + 100 macro: 3 non-limited with good IQ, fast wide and 100mm doing macro
21 ltd + FA 50 f1.4 + 100 macro: A less-wide version of the 1st option but with 100mm doing macro and FA 50 doing portrait.
Sigma 24mm f1.8 + Sigma 50mm f2.8 macro + Sigma 70mm / 105mm macro: if you dont't want to buy Pentax lenses.

Yesterday I went out with two lenses and a brace of MZ-5n, one each, colour and bw film. Some lens swapping took place over the two rolls. Some filter swapping too, as the haze inclined me towards using a polariser and/or yellow filter.

At no time did it occur to me that I might have wanted to use a different lens, the 31mm and 77mm were just fine.

True enough. The difference is that the DA15 gives you this quality at 15mm. The DA12-24mm also gives you this quality at 12mm, 13mm, 14mm, 16mm, 17mm, 18mm, 19mm, 20mm, 21mm, 22mm, 23mm, and 24mm.

I do not normally argue for zoom lenses, but in this case every mm makes a distinct difference in the image captured. Some use the same argument in favour of the Sigma 10-20mm, but I prefer the availability of 24mm and the IQ. It makes even more sense given that the OP already owns it!

not bad choices..
my three lens kit next time I'm out will simply be the 35 2.4, 50 1.4 and 100mm.macro and maybe the 1.7 af converter, since it will easily fit in the lens pouch on my hip pack if attached to one of the smaller primes...