If you could only take one lens..

If you were stuck on the island you'd never get to see the pictures you'd taken...

But when the battery of my K20D died I couldn't even take pictures. At least with the MX I can guess the exposure...

If I could cheat as I have several bodies then the following:-

On the,

K-5 - SMC-DA* 50-135mm F2.8
K20D - SMC-DA 21mm F3.2 Limited
K10D - SMC-DA 40mm F2.8 Limited
*istDS - SMC-DA 35mm F2.4
MZ-5n - SMC-F 28mm F2.8
MZ-50 - SMC-FA 50mm F1.4
Spotmatic F - Takumar 35mm f3.5
SV - Takumar 55mm F1.8

If I can't cheat then the 50-135mm.....no, the nifty, no the 28mm, no the 21mm......

too tough to call....

Right OK, I can see where this is heading....

We have an office, solar panels.
We have an Asda photolab for the film boys here.
Extesion tubes are allowed.
Hmm one body? Ermm ok then we can have more than one body, BUT only one lens per body.
O'and a blackpool deck chair and foot spa, we need some home comforts after all

LOL
In that case I am keeping my camera bodies and lenses as is, with a plentyfull supply of film for the four film cameras

On the contrary John, I found 31 limited to be probably the best option if you don't have any other lens. It has nice colour rendering, good sharpness of corners and flare resistance hence it would make a nice landscape lens, it has also great sharpness in the center and nice bokeh so it would do fine as a portrait lens ... and suppose we find some streets on desolated island, I'm pretty sure it could be used for street photography as well. Trouble is if you have more lenses available, then you can always find one that would be tiny bit better for certain applications like f.e. 55mm for portraits, 24mm for street photo etc.
Otherwise, I guess 31 is hard to beat as an universal prime. A pity I sold minem, now I have to gather some money to afford one again.

Yep, MX is perfect mechanical camera and the batteries will last for ages, as they feed only exposimeter. Anyway you can still use sunny 16 rule for estimate. If there's a chance that at one point rescue will appear, than I'm also giving my vote to the MX.

FA 28 - 70

I agree that that is a useful general use range.

However, since I couldn't afford the FA 28-70 I find my Sigma 28-70 AF Epsilon (very low cost off ebay) is now my 'carry around' lens.

Peter

Can't remember whether I've posted in this thread yet, but I think I'd take my A50/1.2 and weld it to 1.2

I'll play...

Of the lenses I have it'd be between the FA35-f2 & the D-Xenon (D-FA) 100mm 2.8 macro...


FA35-f2 wins by a hair...

Well this desert island lens conundrum gave me a bit of a headache. I have a few lenses, but always either take the wrong one or too many when out on a trip. I really don't know a great deal about the topic anyway, haven't had the pleasure of trying out too many expensive lenses.

So I thought I would defer to you guys, totted up the tally above, and will concur with your collective judgement for the top of the lens-charts. The equal runner's up are the DA* 50-135 and the FA 43 Ltd, but by a margin on one, the leader is the smc Pentax DA 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 ED AL [IF] DC WR. (with so many letters and numbers so must be good!:wink

Actually, that will be a margin of 2 because I am just about to order one. The question is; brand new or ex-demo? Decisions decisions....::

A50 f/1.2 and 52mm K reverse ring. Nobody said nothing about not accessorising.

Whatever I wrote before I've changed my mind. The Zeiss SF2 35/2.0 I bought recently is absolutely insanely sharp but produces glorious colour rendition too.

DA 40mm LTD, no question about it