Lens advice.

Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced wide angle, zoom or prime, roughly between 10-20mm or so to fit K5 11s. Ta v much...

I use a Sigma 12-24mm, others swear by the Pentax 12-24mm (which I have had previously). There is also a Pentax 14mm, 15mm, 21mm and Sigma 8-16mm, 10-20mm and I'm pretty sure Tamron have one or two.

Really depends on what you mean reasonably priced?

I'm currently looking at my first UWA lens as well. I found the linked reviews below to be very useful, and have narrowed it down to one of the Sigma 10-20mms. With so little in the current price at SRS I'm thinking it might be worth the extra to get the HSM, constant aperture, and quick shift of the F3.5, but then I go and read a review suggesting the 4-5.6 is sharper and less prone to CA and I'm back to square one.

Does anyone have experience with both?

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With the depth of field you can get with wide angle lenses you may find there is less need for autofocus and/or quick shift, and that manually zone focussing is easier and faster - so HSM may have less relevance.

If you take a look at depth of field tables link, you will find that:
1) at 10mm a lens at F8 focussing on a subject 2' away should have everything acceptably in focus between 1' and infinity.
2) at 20mm a lens at F8 focussing on a subject 8' away should have everything acceptably in focus between 4' and infinity.

I have the Tamron 10-24. Not a bad lens at all. Very sharp at the 24mm end, a little softer at 10mm.

I have the Sigma 10-20 F4-5.6 EX DC which I have had for about 18 months. I love it - but you do need to be careful once you get down to the extreme WA ends to avoid distortion, but I'd guess that is true of most UWA lenses.

Generally it's pretty sharp, not too prone to flare and a pleasure to use. It also feels extremely well made.

Phil

Pentax 12-24 (or the Samsung equivalent which is essentially the same lens in a different suit of clothes) is superb, can't comment on any of the others as I haven't used them. My Samsung 12-24 is most definitely a keeper.

Regards
David

What about the Pentax 16-45mm, now I know it's not a UW, but if you are just after a wide sharp lens with great IQ for little over £100, non come better.

I like my DA14, the Close Focus is a nice feature for interesting perspective shots, excellent solid metal build (as good if not better than my old FA43 Limited). Its sharp enough wide open but improves when stopped down. As mentioned, af f2.8 DOF can be an issue even with a wide angle lens.

I was going to go with the DA15 for its flare resistance and smaller/lighter build but I like to use a lot of ND filters so went with the DA14, and picked on up for a good price where as the DA15 seems to go for quite a bit more now, after the release of the HD Version.



Elizabeth and Stu's Wedding - 2014 - Lincoln by RSdesignUK, on Flickr

I went for the Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6.
The f3.5 lens was a great deal heavier and took a lot longer to focus. For two lenses which are optically so similar it made sense to go with the lighter, cheaper, faster (AF wise) lens.
Haven't had much opportunity to use it so far, but when I have it's been a very fun lens.