Macro Lenses Advice Urgently Needed Please

I am after a Macro Lens for my K100D Camera Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I have a budget of around £250 give or take £50 any suggestion on what make. And also the cheapest place to buy either on the net or in a shop.

I just love the macro shots on the forum and want to have a go myself.

Any thoughts and advice.

I an thinking of either the Tamron AF 90mm f/2.8 SP LD Macro or the Sigma EX 105/2.8 Macro DG.

Has anyone used either of these.

The best focal length for macro, assuming you want to take pictures of bugs, is 200mm, but these lenses are not cheap. The Pentax A* and FA* 200mm macros are especially fine and stratospherically expensive.

More affordable are the 100mm lenses. Pentax's new D-FA 1:2.8 100mm is very good, as is the older FA version. The latter goes for around £200 on Ebay, and this would be my preferred choice for a general purpose macro of high quality.

In the same sort of range, Tamron do a 90mm which is highly regarded, and probably cheaper.

For more like £50.00, you can get an older Pentax-A 50mm 2.8, which is especially good for copying documents.

G

Thanks for the info, I have been looking around myself and was wondering about the Sigma 105mm EX DG Macro. But just wonderwd if anyone had used it. And their oppinions on that.

I have the Sigma 105mm EX f/2.8 Macro (non DG model) which I use on MZ6 and K100D. Excellent results and absolutely no problems.

Mike

Thanks Mike thats good news to me. Any Idea the best price for this on the net or a shop.

I've got the Sigma 105mm 2.8 too and love it. Various pics posted here with it, do a search or there's a few here.

I was lucky - got mine at Jessops when they were selling off their secondhand stuff, only £90. I would think going rate is around £150, if you can find one.

Dan

...or £275 new.

Dan

I'll put in a good word for the Tamron 90mm SP. They have a newer version specific to digital cameras, but mine is an older one which I picked up for £80 on evilbay.

I had a bit of a windfall at about 3:00pm on Thursday, found myself with a
£250 handfull of cash. At about 3:05pm I had phoned SRS, and less than
24 hours later I had a Sigma EX 105mm 2.8 DG Macro lens in my hands.
Love the look, love the feel, the quality seems 1st class, and everything
just works.

Some of you may have seen my "Tattie" pics with the old Takumar 100mm
f4 Macro, ( the setup with extension tubes and bellows was about 2ft long ),
I'll cultivate another tattie and post a pic from the Sigma !!

I'll soon be posting pictures like Daniel's. Well, I have the equipment, which
is 1/3 of what I need, the other 1/3's I need are "talent' and 'technique"

Where can I buy these ???

Here is a few 'Tattie' pics, with the new Sigma 105mm'














Didn't set up any lighting, it's just from the window. I was just desperate
to get a pic or two. All shots at f32 @ about 0.7 - 1 sec, on a tripod. Next
time I would use a white card for fill-in light.

It's so sharp, I can even see the dust on the sensor !!!!

Took a picture of my daughter, she ran off screaming when she saw the pic,
it showed the 'blackheads' on her nose !!!

Fantastic lens, but use with caution !!!

Try opening up the aperture a stop or three from f32. I think you'll find that your images will be even sharper. Most lenses are not at the best at max or min aperture. Try f16 or even f11 if you have enough light.

Yes, I'll try that.

Rain forecast for the next few days here in Scotland, so I'll be
"Macro-ing" over the weekend

Further to this, I am using an old Tamron 90mm SP with 2x flat field converter to give me 180mm F5. It's great for bug shots in the wild and the pair set me back about £60 on evilbay. If you can get the KA version of the mount then it should be fully operational on all Pentax DSLRs. I am using the KM version with my K10D with pretty good success dispite the metering issues (discussed repeatedly in other threads).

I'll probably be posting a few butterflys from my holiday soon, so keep an eye out if you're interested in what this lens combo can do.

I was going to mention that, but you beat me to it.

Looks like I'll have to up my game a bit. Butterflies about - must get a couple of pics.

Congratulations on your windfall!

Dan

I must admit that most of my butterflys this holiday were taken in a tropical butterfly house, so I've been cheating a bit in that respect