Kit lens replacement

I have an 18-55 (possibly mark 2 ,it's from my Samsung GX20) lens.Is there a comparison site to show how much better a more respected lens would be?I am afraid of spending money on a sharper lens only to find out the softness I seem to see is due to my lack of abilty.To a person new to DSLR it is a lttle bit intimidating learning all the new skills. I do not want to spend time learning new skills that only accommodate the failings of a lens,if indeed there are any.I am quite prepared to spend time learning to use this setup,but would really not like to spend too much time chasing rainbows.I hope this makes sense.
Many thanks

Oh by the way,I think I know what LBA is, but would someone be kind enough to tell me what the acronym stands for Lens Buyers Affliction ?

LBA - Lens Buying Addiction.
Coined by a member of DPreview, LanceB.

Various lenses available, the best are either current digital lenses in the range of 16-50, F/2.8, or older kit lenses, in the range of 24-90 (various apertures.)

My favourite lens review site is http://photozone.de, second best, http://photodo.com

Since the GX20 is weathersealed, I would suggest the 16-50 F/2.8 if you can afford it. Other good lenses are the Sigma 17-70 F/2.8-4.5, the Pentax 16-45 F/4. Other F/2.8 constant aperture lenses available are the Sigma 18-50 and the Tamron 17-50. The alternative is either a set of primes or a single prime (14, 21, 31, 35, 40, 43, 50, 70, 77 are all excellent lenses from pentax) If you can constrict yourself to a single focal length, a prime would be the sharpest option, and the 31mm LTD is one of the sharpest lenses available, and would probably suit fine as a walkabout lens.

It all depends on what focal lengths you use the most.

The up and coming 17-70 from Pentax is one to look out for as well, with SDM.


Hope I helped!

Yes, you did help.Many thanks.

I love my DA*16-50, although as soon as I got it I wished I had the 50-135 as well.

I can 2nd that, in fact, those 2 lenses on their own could be all you ever need! The only disadvantage is, with 2 of us, we could sometimes do with 2 of them!

Before spending any money you might like to post some examples of the softness that you're seeing. People with more experience of that camera / lens combination will soon be able to tell if the failing is of equipment or technique; if it's the latter then you'll have saved a few quid and hopefully picked up some suggestions on how to improve your photos - throwing money at it isn't always the best answer...

www.photobucket.com/samplessamsung

I think that should take you to some photos for reference
Feel free to point out any big mistakes

Many thanks

Hi Missmarple. I agree with above comments. Only had a quick glance at your photos, but you need to concentrate on photo composition and focus/depth of field. There is nothing wrong with kit lens for starters. Learn to take great photos with it and you will gradually realize what other lens will suit your particular interest.
good luck
bb2

Very true. I think once I had the 50-135 though I'd want something longer such as the DA*300. A Macro lens would also be nice but luckily we have one.

You can't win against LBA.

Believe me Tyr i know just how you feel.
Now when is that DA*60-250 hitting the shelves

Meanwhile back on topic.....

I agree with beachboy. Cocnetrate on learning to use the camera, learn how to get a good composition and about depth of field etc, then worry about what new lens to buy. It is too easy to rush out and buy a load of new lenses and then blame them for problems. The kit lens, and I think you have mk1 with the Samsung, is still a pretty good lens. I use it a lot, and don't find it that soft for most subjects.

Play a bit more with the camera and learn to use it, then you can decide which other lenses will best suit your needs and wallet.

Well I've had a quick scan through your photos and I can't see anything (at these resolutions) that screams out "poor equipment". I would like to offer you a suggestion though:

All the photos I looked at (the first 10) show in the EXIF data that the lenses were wide open when the shots were taken - *no* lens is at its sharpest when used in this way and all lenses benefit from stopping them down around 1EV+ from wide open. To take the kit lens as an example, at 18mm the max aperture is f3.5, at 35mm it's f4.5 and at 55mm it's f5.6 - to get optimum results you should look at using it around f4.5 @18mm, f6.7 @35mm, f8 @55mm and so on.

If the smaller aperture means that the shutter speed is too slow for you to shoot hand-held then consider upping the ISO value. Again, all your shots were at 100 ISO yet your camera is capable of taking noise-free pictures at levels well above this - don't be afraid to use higher values, you'll soon work out where the noise becomes too much for your own tastes and I'd amagine you could easily go to ISO 400 - 800 before you hit that barrier.

If you're still at the stage where you're letting the camera choose the aperture / shutter values for you then I'd suggest you go into the Custom Menu and set the program line to "MTF Priority" - the camera will then select an aperture that will give optimum performance rather than maximum light.

Other than that I'd say you'll get a lot of mileage out of your current lenses before you need to step up a level, keep practising is the key!

Excellent and succinct advice from Hefty1, I would like to add the following: the Pentax version of the lens is marked with a brown line on the barrel's focusing ring between the minimum focus distance of 0.25m and 0.35m. The manual states that lens performance will be seriously impaired if used wide open in this range. Your close ups of flowers, I'd guess, were taken within that range and hefty1 points out that you were shooting wide open!

The 18-55 in my opinion, and opinions range widely round here, is a great performer stopped down to f8 and is almost indistinguishable from the much lauded primes. Given its price it is fantastic value. Before rushing out and spending money, perhaps needlessly, make absolutely sure it isn't your technique that isn't sharp

Ken

Hello everyone,

This is my first post here. I have nevertheless been lurking for some time soaking up information, but saw your message which encouraged me to register and share my own experience since we are somewhat in the same boat.

Shortly after Christmas I bought a Pentax K10D as an upgrade to a Canon S3 I had had for a little over a year and used in fully automatic mode pretty much all the time. I bought the K10D specifically because I was very disappointed with my S3’s performance in low light over Christmas, missing no end of opportunities to snap my now 10 month old daughter (until recently the near exclusive object of my fledgling photography).

I was aware this situation would not necessarily improve with the Pentax kit lens and sure enough quickly splashed out on a faster Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 lens, armed only with a basic understanding I needed to get more light into the camera sensor. No regrets about that purchase whatsoever though.

However, except for the occasional invariably blurry experiment I continued to keep the camera in fully automatic mode, although my hit rate of acceptably focused shots did increase dramatically.

Unfortunately my understanding of the camera basics did not follow suit and, with a seemingly bewildering number of possible permutations of aperture, shutter speed and ISO, did not want to risk failing to capture precious moments by manually messing up any settings.

Fortunately, while trawling Amazon for possible equipment purchases a couple of months ago, I came across a book called “Understanding Exposure” by Bryan Peters ( http://tinyurl.com/58gvv7 ), which caught my eye coming highly recommended by a large number of people. I quickly snapped up a copy; what a stroke of good fortune and what a revelation.

I had for some time realised that aperture, shutter speed and ISO where somehow related, but did not appreciate precisely how. From my perspective the genius of this book is that it provides simple rules of thumb for correct exposure settings in different types of scene. These are so simple I could reel them off from the top of my head but I would strongly recommend you get the illustrated book to get a feel for the end product of the techniques described.

Of course there is no substitute for experience in any field, but I have no doubt that reading this book is an excellent way of drastically reducing your photographic margin of error.

Alas it will not cure you of LBA, but I am confident it will help you to more critically evaluate what you already have and make better future purchase decisions.

If you have the Schneider-Kreuznach branded lens then it's the mark 1 version... I checked the specs recently on the sammy website and the elements and groups matched the DA 18-55 mk 1...