New User

Hello everybody, a good friend has persuaded me to put away my Canon and purchase a PENTAX.
I have a wide angle lens but would like to learn more about prime lenses and would appreciate any help or advice.

Karl Weaver

Hi Karl

Welcome to the forum and Pentax. In relation to prime lenses, what are you wanting to know? Below are a few things you may want to think about, you can then post questions which i am sure many users will reply to.

What focal lengths are you looking at?
Are you wanting to use primes for? portraits, wildlife, sport/action, landscapes, macro.

Hi Karl, welcome to the site, I am sure that you will enjoy your Pentax camera, lots of lovely folk here willing to help. You just need to ask on the forum and I am sure that you will get help. I have looked at your latest photos really impressive, love the light that you have caught.

Best wishes and hope that you will stay and enjoy the site.

Trixie

Hello and Welcome to the Forum!

I would like to know more about everyday walkabouts, such as the 28-105 lenses, what make to look out for, how much to pay etc

Thank you!

Thank you Andrew

Thank you Trixie, you seem a friendly bunch! Time will tell I guess!

There is a vast catalogue going back decades to choose from. Are you more interested in new or old lenses, does auto focus matter, does auto metering matter? To what extent is budget a factor? And hi.

Budget is a factor, but not the ruling one. I get the impression old glass can be good glass so age is not a barrier.
I don't mind manual focus, are quite happy with auto metering at this early stage of my pentax 'career'.
I really am walking into this blind, there seem to be a vast choice of focal lengths, makes and compatibility issues to juggle and frankly it is making my head spin!
Sorry if my lack of knowledge is frustrating, I am committed to this PENTAX move, but tentative steps are required.

Thank you guys in advice

Karl, as you and others have stated,lots of different primes which can be used with Pentax. However, of the modern choices the limiteds are great in terms of size and quality.

I have owned the 70mm Ltd, 35mm Macro Ltd and the 15mm Ltd. They were all great lenses but as I mainly now shoot in the 100mm to 300mm range due to the type of photography I shoot.

The DA* 200 prime is a gem of a lens and my main go to lens for equine events.

Hello and Welcome

Compatibility is quite straightforward really. You can use any lens for Pentax you like just with various degrees of manual intervention.

In K mount then the 'K' and 'M' series are fully manual - camera metering can be obtained in manual mode through the 'green button' stop down metering. The A series allows camera metering in the usual way. The F series onwards add autofocus.

The earlier screwmount lenses can be used with an adaptor. They are manual but as you can manually stop down the aperture on camera then camera's metering can be used.

This database will give you the family tree of Pentax lenses and users' opinions of them. There is of course a world of third party lenses too. Understanding the evolution of Pentax lenses first will help you with the compatibility of non-Pentax lenses.

If I were to recommend a lens just to introduce you to the world of old lenses then it would be the K series 55mm f1.8. It is an excellent lens, easily available and cheap. You can sell it on if you don't like it so it would only cost you postage. The M series 50mm f1.7 would be an alternative for the same reasons.

A recent prime would be more expensive so it would depend upon your preferences and budget. That database will give you a good idea. My favourite recent catalogue lens is the FA43mmLtd.