Correct - when I got the lens it came with a generic plastic cap and when I looked for a 58mm Pentax one, this metal one was too nice to resist!

Hmmm - if I do that now, do I get to up the price?!

Hi Doug - good to see that you've got some decent weather to give it a whirl now!

May be worth a bit of exposure compensation.... I found that my K-7 tended to under-expose a little with the Sigma 10-20 (it's worn more than one of them in its time). And it consistently over-exposed with the Tamron 10-24 (of which I've tried two, but not mine)! I have no idea why, but it chooses exposure values that are about 1 EV apart when comparing the two lenses at the same time with the same scene!

Have you tested at other apertures as f5.6 doesn't show the lens at its best?

From memory the lens shines at around f8-f11. Don't venture beyond f16. The biggest difference when you stop down is around the borders, which really do sharpen up quite a lot when you go beyond f5.6. There's quite a difference between 10mm shots taken at f5.6 and those taken at f11. You also reduce vignetting a little, although it's never all that bad.

Will be interesting to see how things go - give it a whirl in portrait format too, as UWA does really interesting things to skies with fluffy white clouds in!

The further you get from 18mm the better it gets. With a decent copy, you might be hard pressed to tell the difference between the two, but the 18-55's weakest spot is at its widest angle - still acceptable though.

Tell us a bit more about why you want to upgrade, and we could probably help some more.

The best all in one lenses are pretty good, but won't perform notably better than your existing kit lens, and won't outperform the Pentax 50-200 (which is not very much bigger than your kit lens, so a compact twin lens solution might be preferable to a bulky one lens one).

From what I remember, the Sigma 18-200 was not considered to be one of the better superzooms, and the Pentax/Tamron 18-250 is rather better - if you can find one secondhand. Try SRS and you'll also often find them in places like London Camera Exchange secondhand (LCEgroup dot com) and they'll post to you.

If what you are after is more telephoto reach, the best quality option that is still affordable is probably to stick with your 18-55 lens and add the 55-300 to your collection.

For people interested, there is a good detailed comparison test of circ polarisers on the LensTip website. I suspect that Kenko are identical to Hoya - Kenko Pro 1 filters in the States are rebadged Hoya's. I wouldn't hesitate at the SRS price unless I knew I wanted a Pro filter.

Bump: still available at £50 incl UK P&P. Superb lens offering quick shift manual focus and full control of apertures via a proper aperture ring for all those who are lusting after the new Fuji!

It's a very good price but almost certainly a "standard" filter in that it won't be ultra-thin profile (to avoid vignetting on UWA lenses) and the coatings are likely to be the equivalent of a standard "Hoya" (in fact, it may well be a rebadged standard Hoya) rather than the "Pro" ranges.

Rare opportunity to buy a rather sought-after lens. This is the 135mm f2.5 SMC-K, not to be confused with the inferior K mount Takumar version. A legendary lens that sometimes goes for frankly silly money, but having succombed to SRS's bargain Sigma 50-150 today, I need to follow my rule that if I buy a lens, then something has to go....

Optically, this one is superb and there are no signs of fungus or other nasties. Hardly even any dust. The aperture ring is nice and snappy and the blades free from oil.

Cosmetically, it is in very good shape given its age, but there are some minor signs of wear with a bit of brassing on the aperture ring. The results are every bit as good as people say, with nice natural colours and contrast, wonderfully smooth bokeh and sharp images as soon as you stop down even just a tad. It's not shabby even wide open.

The lens comes with a couple of rare additions. First is an original hood - Pentax clip on plastic variety. This functions fine but one of the spring-loaded clips doesn't really spring anymore so it needs a quick nudge when you use it. These hoods are hard to come by though, and on their own can go for £15-£20 on Ebay.

Both the lens and hood fit in the included original Pentax case, which is in reasonable shape but some way from "as new"! It's fine for storing the lens when it's off the camera, but I haven't used it when going out of the house.

The lens comes with front and rear caps, the front one being a nice metal Asahi Pentax cap, which adds a certain elegance when you're out and about!

There's one of these without the hood and case on Ebay at the moment for $299 - see what I mean about "silly money"? But I think that price is madness, and suggest a price of £135 (only £1 per mm!) plus postage and PayPal fees unless you pay by bank transfer.

Some photos:





















This could be almost as big a bargain as those SRS Sigma's! You won't often find the lens, hood and case together, and certainly not at this kind of price.

Thanks for looking,

Jon

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Sworn to secrecy but not Greytop

Maybe RiceHigh has finally seen the light