Recommend me a macro lens lens

Arrrggghhhhhhhhhh

Was just about decided on the Pentax 100mm and then stumbled upon the Tamron 90 mm review on the other site.

Now just confused

So this is what you need to do, buy one of them, chosen at random. Try it, if you don't like it, sell it, then buy another. Repeat until you are happy with what you have.

JUST BUY ONE ANY ONE

Advantages of the Pentax:

1) It is weather sealed (assuming you're going for the WR version anyway).

2) Build quality is better.

3) The lens hood attaches to the outer lens barrel, so when focussing the overall length of the whole lens (assuming the hood is attached) does not alter, as the inner tube extends in and out entirely within the confines of the lends hood. With the Tamron, on the other hand, the lens hood attaches to the end of the inner tube, so when focussing the lens extends and retracts by a considerable amount, including the hood. To see what I mean take a look at this YouTube video for the Pentax and this one for the Tamron. This means the Pentax is possibly slightly less likely to spook insects with unnecessary movement and you're almost certainly less likely to accidentally bash it on something whilst trying to focus.


Advantages of the Tamron:

1) It has an aperture ring, making it possible to use it on extension tubes for increased magnification.

2) It has a focus limiter, making extreme hunting when using autofocus less likely (though in reality this is perhaps a pretty minor point as the Pentax probably won't hunt a lot most of the time anyway).

3) It is cheaper.

...


Personally I think the advantages of the Pentax outweigh those of the Tamrom, but you may feel differently. Bear in mind if you want to use a macro lens on extension tubes, you will lose autofocus by doing so anyway.

Hope this helps.

The Tamron is also a cintilla sharper wide open, slightly better FL for portraits, and the way the hood is implemented makes more sense than the way Pentax have done it (at full lens extension, the Pentax hood will offer no real benefit surely?

I am not just saying this because I'm selling my Tamron either!

Main benefit of the Pentax for me would be the SIZE.

As with most macro lenses around 100mm, the front element of the Pentax is fairly deeply recessed anyway, so to at least some degree has the benefits of a hood before you even attach one. The video I posted the link to doesn't show this because the lens has a UV filter on it in that particular case.

And yes I agree the Pentax is smaller, which is a benefit.

I must admit I rarely use the hood on the Tamron at all, the front element is very recessed. So yep if the Pentax is the same, it is kind of a non issue.