Novice user lens question

I'd like to buy a ist DS but don't know if my current pentax lenses are compatible - ie. I don't know what a KAF2, KAF or KA lens is.

The lenses were bought for a PZ20 and MZ50 - they are
sigma Zoom AF 28-70
sigma DL Zoom 75-300
Tokina AF 35-300

does anyone know if they are compatible with the ist DS

thanks for any help

KA is a manual focus lens with A setting
KAF is autofocus mount
KAF2 is autofocus mount with power zoom compatibility.

All these are fully compatible with the *istDS, so all your lenses should be fine.

However, the 18-55mm Pentax lens bundled with the *istDS is a very nice lens indeed, and for the small extra price is well worth buying anyway.

Cool, I think I will get it with the kit lens as well but a large decider to buy the ist DS is that I can reuse some of these lenses

Many Thanks

If you're going for a new wide lens, try the 16-45 instead. It's more expensive, but it's a great lens!!

Other than that one lens, I'm mostly using old M and A lenses. I have one FA zoom, the automation is nice but hardly necessary!!

My dilemma is that I'm on the point of ordering the istDS kit which includes the 18-55, but then I hear that the 16-45 is much better.

But the price is much higher. For example, the kit in the US from sellers such as Adorama is about $750 USD. Buying the body separately ($639) and the 16-45 ($409) runs the price up to $1048.

I guess the question is obvious: Is the 16-45 worth the extra $300?

Ted

I guess the answer is obvious - only you can decide!

The prices you quote are presumably for the body and lens separately. It would be worth trying to get them to cut you a deal for the two together.

I've usually found that even though it can be painful to pay more than I feel I can afford at the time, in the long run I don't regret it. Looking at my collection of 30+ lenses, the ones I regret buying are the cheap ones. I don't regret the expensive ones at all.

Just tell yourself that expensive lenses are an investment, whilst cheap lenses are a waste of money. Always works on me; not guaranteed to work on wives.

G

It worked for the macro lens I just bought! But I've been given a limit.


Oh, well, at least I got the lens!

Now a poster on the Yahoo Groups Pentax Spotmatic site says the Sigma 18-50 f:3.5 is actually better than the 18-55 Pentax kit lens.

I looked it up. It is aspherical, focuses to 9.8 inches and has macro 1:3.5. Cost is $119 USD. Anyone have one of these?

Ted

Yes, but has the poster actually tested the two lenses properly (a complex and time consuming thing to do) or is it just an opinion just like you might hear "Down at the pub"?

Take advice carefully....

My point was that the 18-55 supplied with the camera costs so little that you might as well have it. It is slightly soft wide open, but crisps up nicely when stopped down and gives creditably little chromatic abberation. For what it's worth, it also has aspherical elements. It's a good performer, not as good as the more expensive options, but then we wouldn't expect it to be.

Hope that helps!

Advice well taken, John. Thank you. And yes, the opinion is pretty much a "down at the internet pub" sort of thing.

Don't even know where this person lives (one of the nicer touches to this site is that you know where most people actually live, whereas on Yahoo's Spotmatic forum you don't, unless a member mentions it. For example, Phil Barton likes to let people know he lives in Hollywood).

As for the Sigma lens, I see that you gain nothing in speed - both are f:3.5, and there's little sense making a purchase based on hearsay, so I'm ordering the istDS kit next week. Must wait 'til then as I've spent this week's money on a Plustek Optifilm 7200 35mm film/slide scanner. Which is still on its FED-X way.

I can see we're facing a brutal winter down here on the Mexican border. Temperature last night plummeted to 60 degrees fahrenheit.

Ted