I'm looking to upgrade my partners current gear with a particular emphasis on a macro lens (1:1 or better). Her current kit is a Kx and cheap Tammy 70-300 + 18-55 kit lens

In my head I'm thinking second hand K30 + either Pentax 100 (I have this and am most happy) / Sigma 105 or something along those lines - This option would be relatively costly and I'd consider it an expensive birthday treat!

On the lower end of the spectrum I'd consider an old, considerably cheaper but optically good manual lens - I've no idea what this could be.

There's quite a few variables in there so all opinions appreciated

Thanks
John

Cliche or not, I like it. You even got the clouds to mae a channel 4 logo

Be interested to know the filters as it is one of the things I'm looking to upgrade (I only have some cheap kood filters)

The perils of being out all day without internet access. Congratulations to Lenny

PM sent

Sorry for the delay in responding and thank you all for your comments. There's a lot of love for the 55-300!

The weather wasn't that great last weekend and I only had a little time to put the borrowed 55-300 through it's paces. As David surmised (loved your photos) the subject isolation from distance is what I'm after so think I will see what the guy wants price wise.

There really does seem to be a big leap in price to get the next level of quality

A bit of Necro here as someone has lent me their 55-300 to try out over the weekend. Having seen a link to the Tamron 70-200 2.8 in the 'leads to deals' forum it has made me wonder about what other offers there may be out there (again!) and how they rate optically and optically for price paid. i.e. 55-300 might be optically 7/10 but for the price paid it might be 9/10. Appreciate there might be other factors for people like weight.

I imagine using this lens primarily more for landscapes at sunrise / sunset so would guess low light capabilities to be more useful to me than say AF speed.

I thought it might help to post a shot of the sort of picture I would like to take

First picture of trees and winter sun

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/samplesearch.php?do=photos&lens=67&sort=likes...

Thanks again

Picked this up from Jakobn after work this evening. Nice quick process and a pleasure to do deal with

Hi - You have a PM

Hi PentaFan, have sent you a PM

Hi

My longest focal length is 100mm so I'm looking for some suggestions for something with nice reach. My expenditure has been astronomical recently so something like a DA300 is off limits I'm thinking of something like a second hand 55-300. I want cheaper but I don't want to sacrifice too much IQ. I'm not familiar with any older lenses.

Thanks in Advance