K10D wide angle lenses

I'm looking for a wide angle lens to complement my 18-55mm and 50-200mm Pentax lenses. A zoom would be nice but not essential.

I assume I could go for the System KB DA 10-17mm but I see there is also a System 67 series of lenses. What are they for?

Alternatively, are there other manufacturers I should consider?

Thanks for any info.

The system 67 lenses are for medium format cameras.

The higher-end of the Sigma range give good results (they have a 10-20mm Zoom), but the Pentax 10-17 is a fisheye lens, so have a look at the 12-24mm DA.

Thanks for the info.

Wow! I'm staggered at the price of these lenses.

The 10-17 is over £300 and the 12-24 over £520.

Has the world gone mad?

I went coo-coo for the 10-17 fisheye and have beens nutz about it ever since!

If it were not for new manufacturing techniques and co-operation between companies on optical designs the price would probably be more in the £2000 area.

I think the lenses are very fairly priced for such high quality.

If you want mad prices... go and check out the prices of Canon L-series lenses

You'll be glad you've got a Pentax then

Matt

I have the Sigma EX 10-20 mm and I am very happy with it.

Search the http://www.ephotozine.com/forum/ and you will see I am not the only one, it is a very popular lens and the EX series are very high quality.

...and you really do get what you pay for The SMC-DA 12-24 is extremely compact, and very sharp. The prices were cheaper in Germany (even with shipping to the UK) at around £450.

And yes, the Sigma 10-20 is well respected too (but quite a lot "chunkier" than the Pentax).

Matt

the only thing with the Sigma is I hear the sample variation is quite bad. There are a lot of people who are REALLY pleased with their sigma 10-20, and a lot of people who got Friday afternoon models.

If I was looking at that sigma I'd want to try the exact lens I was buying on my camera first.

Is the Sigma compatible with all the Pentax shooting modes?

I'm quite tempted by the Pentax lens but, as I've only recently bought the K10D, I should let my bank balance recover a bit.

Mongoose, I think you need to quantify how many is 'a lot' in your comment on people who received friday afternoon models'.

I am struggling to find a negative comment on it so I think it is far from the 50/50 your wording would suggest.

There was a magazine article a few months back where they went into the sigma warehouse and picked out several copies of the same lens at random (the 105 macro I think) and ran comparison tests because of this reported issue of poor standards, the results were very good.

Just to add another little twist...

The 12-24 is a very, very fine lens.

But, dare I say it, the 16-45 is probably more usable. Compared to the 18-55 it is certainly better, if only fractionally wide. However, it has a certain "quality" that I can't get from the 12-24 - it may be because it has such a close focus point and will allow some crazy angles and shots. The 16-45 would be one lens I couldn't give up, and if travelling light it's usually the one I'll pick for general landscapes.

In addition, if you ever need ND grads, the 16-45 will be far cheaper - using the Cokin P size! The 12-24 does better with X-Pro and a Lee filter kit - but you'll be severely shocked by the price

The 16-45 with a couple of ND-grads have produced some of the best landscape shots I've taken, IMHO (And that was on the *ist-D)

It really depends what you want to do with the extra width. You may find that stitching shots may provide an immediate answer to your problem. If you want zany shots, then the fisheye 10-17 is worth checking out

Matt

Got to say that I've been a big Sigma EX user for the last 6 or 7 years (as I couldn't afford the FA* lenses) and have 12-24 EX, 24-70 f2.8 EX, 17-35 f2.8 EX, 28-70 f2.8 EX, 105 Macro EX and 70-200 f2.8 EX.

The only issue that I have had is with the 24-70 which had a problem with the focussing getting stuck at the close end last year. It's only fair to say that this lens has had a LOT of use being 5 years old and as it's my main carry around lens it's a bit battered and bruised. Returned it to Sigma UK for an out of warranty service (£75 ish) and had it back within 10 days.

It's due for replacement as soon as the nice new shiny 16-50 DA* is available...

Will

possibly my wording is a little unfair, I should stress that I have not actually used the sigma 10-20 myself. My comment is based on the comments of people on Phototakers.com. Since I have a reputation for being able to find 1 dud piece of equipment in a pile of working ones I am possibly more paranoid about quality control issues than most people.

I also get the impression that the perceived QC issues may (I stress may) be the result of differing opinions on what makes a good lens. The Sigma is said to have more barrel distortion than the Tokina 12-24 (and by extension the Pentax, which has the same optical design)

edit, I found a thread from a while back on Phototakers discussing the relative merits of the Sigma 10-20 and Tokina 12-24 http://www.phototakers.com/forum/ftopic46989.html?highlight=angle

Fair enough, we can only go on what we read and there are quite clearly a few people who have reported problems there.

I still feel that is an unusual occurrence rather than a common one though.

To put the cat amongst the proverbial pigeons, the only lens I have bought which had any problems on delivery was a 31mm limited!