Choose your weapons (For doing jobs)

My photography has seriously went up a gear over the last six months. Im getting people asking me to do family shoots, model work and other promo stuff. I want to enter the fray with a good solid setup.

My work will include...

Portraits, general group photos, arty fashion stuff, some motorsports, family shoots and the odd engagement / wedding shoot.

My question is this... (I already own a K-5 and K-x)

What TWO lenses would you buy and which flash?

Im interested to hear what would be the best budget setup i.e. Tamron etc and the pro choice if money was no option etc.

THANKS GUYS!

QC

If doing real jobs I don't think a budget route is a good one. you need the best tools possible.

Two Lenses? A general zoom, lots to choose from, and a fast prime around 40/43/50/55mm. Within that, the best that could be afforded.

I would definitely recommend something like the DA*16-50 and DA*50-135, but this would leave you needing a third lens as the reach on these is not long enough for motorsports.

I'm not sure about the longer lens recommendation and I'm not knowledgeable enough about flash, except that in my limited experience I prefer manual flashguns to TTL ones and they have the added bonus of being relatively cheap!

Regards
David

can anyone comment on the DA 15 - 50 and 50 - 135 as working tools?

What about the 17-50 tamron?

For weddings the Sigma 24-70 f2.8 would be good. Wide enough for groups, long enough for back of church to front also note F2.8. On the other hand when I did wedding photos with my 645 I had one lens. The 75mm leaf shutter and a spare (Eqiv) to a 35mm on a K5. Plus a spare 35mm camera with a 50mm prime. My zoom was my 2 feet. With a good prime and good feet you get good photos.
CHEERS Vic.

The tamron 17-50 whilst good is not good enough for weddings, the focus is noisey and slow for inside churches. I would be concerned with using a 24-70 particulalry inside registry offices which can be notoriously small.

The 50-135 is a great portrait lens, particularly for model shoots.

As for motorsports i am not sure how far away you will be so would suggest a 300mm f/4.

If you are going to invest this amount in lenses i would seriously wait until the next body anouncement just in case full frame gets anounced

The Tamron 17-50 is great. Yes the screwdrive AF is noisey and although this isn't a problem normally, in low light it hunts - and in that situation the noise is majorly embarrassing when you have a model waiting for you to 'take the goddam shot'. With a couple about to take their vows in front of you, I suspect you would want to curl up and die if it started playing up! I will at some stage replace it with an HSM or SDM lens but it's such a good lens it will do me for a while yet.

I limped by with a film era AF 35-105mm for a while, and it worked pretty well! Same screwdrive issues as the Tamron though. Now I have a DA50-135mm and it's lovely. It's not lightning fast to focus but at least it doesn't advertise the fact with an embarrassing dentist's drill sound effect. And it doesn't hunt much.

Couple with the Tamron I feel I have my needs pretty much covered, with that proviso about the AF noise of the Tamron.

I don't do motorsports though. Maybe you could go for a DA60-250mm rather than the DA50-135mm?

That's tricky with two lenses to cover all of that (depending on the sorts of pics you want to take). I think I would look at sigma's 30mm and 85mm (both f1.4), and then maybe their 70-200 as well for a longer reach (sorry that's three lenses!)

I have a pentax 540 flash which I find does very well - I use it with a diffuser more often than not, and a cheapo cord to be able to get it off the hotshoe.

Cheers

Don't think I could do that lot with just 2 lenses tbh.

If I had the choice of 3 it would be the DA^ 16-50mm, 50-135mm and either the 60-250mm or Sigma 100-300mm f4.

Without a doubt the DA*50mm-135mm is a workhorse lens for a lot of photography and covers very useful focal lengths. The DA* 55mm is a very nice fast lens, I mamnaged to get mine second hand and it was in mint condition, they are rather expensive though compared to other nifty 50's.

For group shots, I would suggest anything from the 16mm to 50mm lens range, Pentax are due to release a 16mm to 70mm f/2.8 which would be ideal.

Flash wise are you intending to use the flash on or off camera? Personally manual flash works for me, (Lumopro 180 is fantastic) For run and gun stuff the new Pentax flashes look very interesting, although again price is a little steep. I would say if you want P-TTL and HSS, Metz are currently your best bang for your money.

I use the DA* 50mm -135mm as a work tool, with the K5lls is has worked very well. Its focal range is very productive and fixed f/2.8 really comes in handy. You can achieve some stunning portraits with this lens and is good for candid shots too. I would miss this lens if I was without one more than any of the others except when I need more reach.

My current work requires a lot of 100mm to the 300mm ranges. Although I do own the DA* 16mm - 50mm it does not get a lot of use these days, and personally, I think it is one of the weaker of the DA* lens, but I know Cabster likes his.

I know primes are not for every one, but that is where my cash is now spent. the DA* 200 is very, very good, I just wish I had the funds for the DA* 300.

For weddings ....Fa 50mm 1.4 ,17-70mm F4, sigma 10-20,60-250mm F4 ..
For video 60-250 at F8, perfectly clear.. K-5iis