Zooms or Primes

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Pentaxophile

Member

6,794 posts

11 years
Nottingham

Link Posted 30/03/2011 - 13:42

I thought that my DA55-300mm slightly worsened in IQ after about 250mm. To be honest I hated it, the focussing was atrociously laboured on my K200D, but I think it's still probably better than any of the alternatives in it's price bracket, and if I really needed 300mm, I would have put up with it's foibles.

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Last Edited by Pentaxophile on 30/03/2011 - 13:52

rparmar

Member

1,088 posts

12 years
Ireland

Link Posted 30/03/2011 - 13:54

A useful summary! Few notes follow.

smudge wrote:
FA 31mm - nice natural perspective and very sharp with good strong colours. No focus clutch and prone to purple fringing. I'm supposed to mention glorious bokeh but I can't actually see that it's any better than the FA 50 or DA 100.

Longer focal lengths will always have an intrinsic advantage! The trick is to compare the FA31 to other lenses in its focal range. And then it is noticeably better.

smudge wrote:
DA 16-45 - nice general purpose lens. Fair bit of distortion at 16mm.

But less distortion even than the DA*16-50 and sharper too.

smudge wrote:
DA 55-300 - useful range but soft at 300 (though that could be poor technique on my part).

Distinctly better than the alternatives, completely blowing away the off-brand zooms.

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DrOrloff

Member

2,628 posts

11 years
Brighton, England

Link Posted 03/04/2011 - 23:49

Bit of both. The 16-45mm was my walkabout lens, but hasn't been used much since I purchased the 12-24. The K 35mm f3.5 has now become the walkabout lens and a great lens it is too. The 50-135 is excellent but reserved for planned shoots as otherwise the K35, M50 and DFA 100 macro go in tha bag. I have the 55-300 for the long end. If budget wasn't a consideration I'd go for the DA*200 and DA*300, but the 55-300 is very good and I'd have to have a lot of spare money to justify replacing it. I prefer using prime, but zooms will do until I win the lottery. Actually I've had a lot of wine and I don't really know what I'm talking about. I need every single lens, they are all necessary.

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