Which lens ?

I have recently entered the Digital world as a fairly experianced film user.
I still have my Pentax MZ 50 35mm film camera and now i use a Pentax K100D with the smc DA 18-55 zoom lens.
I am well satisfied with the camera and am obtaining great results.
I want to extend my lens focal length to the 300mm mark which requires me to buy another lens to compliment the medum tele that i have just described.

My choices seam to be :-

Pentaxs smc DA 50-200mm Approx £120
Sigma 70mm - 300mm APO MACRO Approx £157
Tamron 70mm - 300mm F4-5.6 DI LD Macro Approx £120

I also looked at the option of Sigma 50mm-200 with a vie to buying a 2x converter.

All four of the lenses i have mentioned have differant filter thread sizes.

I favour the sigma as it can be used with both film and digi cams .
But before i go ahead and part with my money i would appreciate the views of a few other Pentax users .
You may have better ideas than mine.

Thanks

First, 300mm is a long lens on digital (equivalent to 450mm on film). You might find that 200mm is enough, unless you are photographing small forms of wild-life.

Second, although there are some exceptions, the great majority of people who get into digital never or hardly ever buy another film. Very few people use both film and digital side by side.

In other words, you probably don't need to worry about buying a lens that will work with film. And whilst you may disagree now, I bet you'll come back in a year and lament that your MZ50 has rusted away from lack of use.

Third, the 50-200 Pentax is a pretty good lens for the money, and many experienced photographers are very happy with it.

Fourth, the Tamron is not really a macro, just a close-focussing zoom. If you want to try macro, start by buying some extension rings.

Fifth, remember the Riley Rule.

G

I bought John Riley's 75-300 FAJ, and I've used it a lot. Much more at the long end than the short end (I used it at 300mm for the bee/flower shots on the other thread), and I've been very pleased with it.

The thing about having SR, digital and effectively a more telephoto angle of view (I know the focal lengths don't actually change) all in one package is that they make photographing distant objects a lot more accessible than before, so the longer lengths become more appealing.

I'd never in a million years have contemplated

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t244/chris5gd/Public/IMGP2385-1b.jpg

with film, for instance.

So I think that unless you're already a landscape specialist, the longer focal lengths might become appealing quite quickly.

If 2nd hand is acceptable, the 75-300 FAJ comes up on eBay quite often.

Strongly agree with this. I loved my ME Super, enjoyed using it, was pleased with the results. But now I can't even imagine buying a film any more.

here are my views on the matter:


1. Teleconverters and consumer grade zooms don't play well together. If you mount that 50-200 sigma or even the 50-200 Pentax on a 2x TC you will find yourself with a 100-400 F9-11 lens. To get any kind of optical quality you're going to have to stop down to F16, and that's just not going to end happily. Not to mention the AF work, at least not very well and manual focusing will be difficult because of the dark finder image.

2. Both the 70-300 lenses you mentioned are 35mm compatible as far as I know. Another possibility is a Pentax FA 80-320, although these can be hard to find since they are no longer made. ~£100 second hand. I like my 80-320 but I've never used either of the 300 zooms you mention to compare it to.


I also add my voice to what has been said above about film, I love my ME-F and could never part with it, but it gets maybe one film in 6 months for old times sake.

This is quite ironic, in that having sold that lens we then found a need for it and have bought another one....

The FAJ 75-300mm is actually a very respectable lens, and very useful for macro shots of small animals and flowers at very large working distances.

The DA 50-200mm is also excellent and much smaller. We have one of those each as well.

Even more so since mine is a Pentax family too (three of us (all on the forum here, too!!) within 200 yards with endless Pentax cameras and lenses - I probably have the fewest of the lot) - my brother has a 75-300 FAJ which I had a bit of a go with before buying yours. So now we have two between us. You need to get a second one, obviously..

Also consider the Samsung/Schneider near-copy of the same lens. Approx £70.

It's just eighty quid from Tecno. Quite a bit larger and heavier than the Pentax 50-200mm, but also a bit faster at 200mm: F4.5 versus F5.6. Actually it's not very large (and in fact lighter than the Sigma), it's just that the Pentax is very dinky.

At these prices, you could afford both!

Autofocus works with my *ist DS + Tamron 70-300mm + 1.5X converter.

This was at 300mm X 1.5, handheld, near sunset, ISO 800, 1/320, F5.6:

Thanks for your comments above your views are appreciated.
You have given me a bit to chew on and appear to have worked out quite well what sort of Photograpy i am into.
I am a keen walker of both fells and general country side.
I couple this with my other two passions ,Photography and wild life.
So as some of you noticed i have an interest in the Macro side of things ,as well as a need for long looking or pulling the image in form a distance.
I was outwalking in the Bowland area of the NW last week and was fortunate to come across one of the few nesting pairs of europian eagle owls in the country.the birds had already been discovered by the twitching fraternity so their location wasn't to difficult to spot.
However these birds and chicks are the largest birds in europe (bigger than the golden eagle).
I found it impossable to get any kind of shot of them without resorting to digiscoping on one of the twitchers scopes ( no takers unfortunatly, but a very friendly and informatave lot all the same) .
I find myself in similar circumstances quite often on my travels hence my lens and info search.
So thanks again for ur help and advice,ill let you know what i decide shortly
ATB
Graham. [/list]

Hi,

I have recently purchased the Sigma lens for my K100D and have to say I am very pleased with it so far, the image quality is great and the sharpness at the longer focal lengths is excellent.

I had looked into the Tamron lens but I had read that chromatic abberation was a problem at the longer focal lengths. There appears to be a little purple fringing on the picture from iceblinker near the top of the tower.

Your best bet, which I done is to go somewhere where you can try before you buy. I purchased mine from Calumet, and although it took a few weeks to arrive, it was good to have a chance to see how the lens performed before I parted with my hard earned cash!

Hi
Short & sweet. Sigma 70-300 for my K10D spot on.
£115 (ish) from Jessops.
Regards Rob

Is that definitely the APO version from Jessops? Seems a little cheap to me, I paid £158 for mine.

OOOPS. Sorry Gareth.
(Spot the new guy on the block. Ime not to up on all the fancy names yet)

Your right. Its not APO.
By the way what is APO :

Regards. Rob

Apochromatic: a lens that focuses all three colours of light to the same point.

Achromatic: focuses blue and green light properly, red less so.

This is especially important to prevent chromatic abberation in telephoto lenses.

Has anyone used Tamerons XR DI LD 28 - 300mm F3.5-6.3 lens ? with K100D or K10D .
http://www.warehouseexpress.com/?/photo/lenses/tamron.html&gclid=COXb1cCu5ow...
It may be an option for me as it covers all the focal lengths i need in one fairly compact lens .
The obvious advantage being i don`t need to carry so much gear around.
But is it any good ,will it give me good results ?.

Graham.