Walkabout Lens on a Budget

Anybody care to make some suggestions for a walkabout lens on a budget (say less than £150). Would need approx. 18-200ish with AF. Its for a K-r body. Thanks.

I'd go for the Petax 18-55mm and 50-200mm WR lenses, they are compact enough to carry 2 lenses and stopped down offer very good image quality for the money, with bonus of being able to stand the English weather.

good advice!

or the sigma 18-200

here used srs

Thanks Roy, that's a useful link. Is the Sigma a good lens? Already have both the Pentax 18-55mm and 50-200mm lenses but neither on their own are what I would call a walkabout lens. Any other suggestions?

i have used that lens and found it very good,there is now the 18-250 but will cost more of course.

£150 will buy the new DA 35mm f2.4, great walkabout lens as it'd make your K-r little bigger than a bridge camera.

If you want even cheaper and can deal with manual lenses then the old Pentax-M 28mm f3.5 would suit, target price for those would be between £50-£70.

Edit, I notice you say 18-200mm but at least consider a prime, the image quality is much better!

I recently picked up a used Tamron 18-250 for £180 off Ebay which is only slightly above your budget - it's regularly quoted as the best "walkabout" available and my initial impressions certainly are positive

Simon

The Tamron 18-250 I have was bought as a holiday lens - a do-it-all .

I find it's fairly heavy in use - compared with my old 40mm LTD and the Pentax DA-L 18-55 and the new Pentax 35mm . I always have to remember about the lens lock and I do find putting the Hood back on in the reverse position is a real PITA .

Having said that - it really makes taking camera, lens/es and all the necessary stuff much easier - it covers everything I need to use . It was in use for everything I took in Dublin recently and it's going with me to France at the beginning of next month . I really would not be without it

Thanks for your suggestions. Im leaning towards the Tamron simply because of the extra range.

Another vote for the ease / quality combination of the Tamron / Pentax (basically the same lens) 18-250 secondhand.

Image quality from either lens 18-200 or 18-250 is very acceptable.

A 17-70 is surely a good walk about lens, you can do almost everything with that, you're only missing the longer lengths you might want to use with wildlife but for landscapes, architecture, indoor, portraits can all be done with a 17-70.
Also these lenses are faster and have a better quality, with a superzoom you will have problems shooting indoors most likely because of the limited light.