I have the great fortune to have both (running a K10D and ME-super) and they art both just about my best lenses. The 105mm is excellent on the ME! The answer is simple to me - if you want macro, get hold of the Sigma. For serious magnifications with the DA* you need extension tubes (or, what I really have my eye on, proper 2-dimensionally adjusting bellows), and, with no manual aperture ring on the Pentax lens, this causes complications.
HAVE YOU CONSIDERED getting reversing rings for a reasonable prime lens you already have (SRB-Griturn is a name that springs to mind for such cleverly-crafted things, but Kood have a huge page advert in most magazines) - you can get great results, and the budget is, clearly, much lower. Better still, get a step-ring that enables you to join one lens to the camera normally, and another in reverse - more control, more magnification. If the former is a zoom lens, more controllable, too. Or find some bellows - on EBay you see these from timeto time, often with the M42 scre mount, but adaptors M42-PK are easily available (although you'd need two, unless you got an M42 lens. These can be excellent quality - Zeiss, naturally, but also Pentax - and go for a song. The bellows give the agjustable magnification. (A bit off topic, but I was trying to be helpful financially )
Now, my question. I have wanted a ring-flash for so long, but simply can't justify £400 on Pentax's offering, or even Metz. Sunpak is not a name I am familiar with (and, for some reason, the image it gives is of cheap'n'cheerful stuff from PRC), but they are selling a GN16, with 4 LEDs for focussing/modelling, that looks perfectly good quality, and is half the Pentax. Should I take the plunge?
HAVE YOU CONSIDERED getting reversing rings for a reasonable prime lens you already have (SRB-Griturn is a name that springs to mind for such cleverly-crafted things, but Kood have a huge page advert in most magazines) - you can get great results, and the budget is, clearly, much lower. Better still, get a step-ring that enables you to join one lens to the camera normally, and another in reverse - more control, more magnification. If the former is a zoom lens, more controllable, too. Or find some bellows - on EBay you see these from timeto time, often with the M42 scre mount, but adaptors M42-PK are easily available (although you'd need two, unless you got an M42 lens. These can be excellent quality - Zeiss, naturally, but also Pentax - and go for a song. The bellows give the agjustable magnification. (A bit off topic, but I was trying to be helpful financially )
Now, my question. I have wanted a ring-flash for so long, but simply can't justify £400 on Pentax's offering, or even Metz. Sunpak is not a name I am familiar with (and, for some reason, the image it gives is of cheap'n'cheerful stuff from PRC), but they are selling a GN16, with 4 LEDs for focussing/modelling, that looks perfectly good quality, and is half the Pentax. Should I take the plunge?