First time here....

I've just bought a K7 with 18-55, I've owned a Canon 5D for about 4 years with a selection of lenses but have been leaving it in the house and taking a Sony Nex out instead. This made me think about the use I get out of my dslr and decided I'd be happier with something smaller.

Any advice on lenses would be appreciated, my main subjects are my kids, landscape and macro.

Welcome

You'll get plenty of help and advice here - oh and we are a friendly bunch

Wait till you meet Cyril

Welcome friend, as for the lenses, you can use the likes of the Sigma 105 for macro as well as a portrait lens, also the Tamron 90mm for both genres also. As for landscapes the ever popular Sigma 10-20mm should suit your needs.

G'day and welcome.

As to lenses, we all need just one more...

Look back on your existing shots and analyse those for the focal lengths most in use. That might give you some clearer indication of which lens/es to consider. There is a small programme called 'Exposure Plot' click here available for free download, that will assist you with that analysis - quite useful actually.

Two useful resources:

http://www.bdimitrov.de/kmp/ For everything about the Pentax K-mount (which is what the K7 has).

http://stans-photography.info/ For advice on older lenses.

Pentax has raised the prices of its lenses in the last year or two, and you may decide to buy second-hand. If so, the following is a BRIEF summary of lens nomenclature.

Pentax lenses are described like this: SMC Pentax-F 1:4 - 5.6 70-210mm

The SMC bit means Super-Multi-Coating, Pentax's excellent coating system, which reduces lens flare. There were a few non-SMC lenses issued; if tempted to buy one, don't pay too much.

The "F" refers to the series. The very first K mount lenses did not have a series letter, but by convention are known as the K series. They are all manual focus, manual aperture, superbly well-built, and basically still good lenses. They (and the later Ms) will work on modern cameras, but exposure is manual.

Then came the M series (for miniature). Smaller versions of the Ks, sometimes identical optically, sometimes not. When not, they were generally not better.

Then came the A series (for automatic). These were manual focus, but the aperture could be set from the camera body. They are therefore fully compatible with modern DSLR's, such as the K7.

The F series were (for all practical purposes) the first autofocus lenses. Well made, and often a good buy.

Then came the FA series, which is still going, theoretically, though not many are still available. A subset, the FAJ lenses, did not permit aperture to be set manually, so only work with relatively modern cameras.

Digital ushered in two varieties, the DA and the D-FA. The former are smaller lenses (designed for the APS-C sensor), and will work with older (film) bodies, but will usually not fill the frame.

D-FA lenses, however, are digital-era lenses which WILL fill a 35mm frame.

Some lenses have a star or asterisk after the series designator. This means they are expensive. And very good.

The finest lenses are the three FA Limited lenses, which are without equal. Pentax, which likes to confuse people, also introduced a Limited line for the DA series, but whilst these are pretty good, they have a rather modest maximum aperture, and are extremely petite.

That's most of what you need to know when buying Pentax lenses! But a posting to this forum will usually elicit several replies if you have questions.

Good luck.

G

Thanks for the welcome and information, just bought a Pentax - A 50/1.7 as a portrait lens and offered on A28/2.8 as my 'normal' lens. Currys have a d-fa 100/2.8 macro for £250 so may pick that up as well.what are peoples views on those 3 lenses?

A 50 1.7 is excellent and very sharp. However, it is one of very few older Pentax lenses that sometimes has a problem. Keep it on the A setting and you will be fine.

The 28/2.8 is OK, but no better than that. A 28/3.5 will gnerally be superior.

The macro has, I believe, been superseded by a water-resistant version, which is why they are going cheap. Nothing wrong with them, however, and a good buy at £250.

G

Welcome to the forum.

Cheers,

Stephen

Welcome to the forum.

Hi and Welcome to the forum. What more is there to say after G's definitive response

Thanks guys for the welcome.

What ultra wide is recommended around here and also what is the consensus of opinion on the 50-200 WR? I don't use the longer end much but the idea of a lightweight 75-300 equivalent in my bag is quite appealing...

A good discussion for the lenses forum here - Are you considering a prime or a zoom? The the Pentax DA 12-24 seems to work well for those that have it, as does the DA 15. The DA 21 is also a good choice, although clearly not as wide. It really depends on your own needs most of all.

Hi and welcome to the forum.