Reccomendations

LeftBehind · Aug 25, 2007

I'm having a lot of fun with my new entry level Pentax K110D, I've purchased a tripod and a 50-200mm lens to go with my 18-55. These lenses are great, the zoom lens a little slow, but a steal at 165$. I'm enjoying both these lenses and am greatly satisfied. I am mostly interested in picking up a lens, maybe even two to dedicate to street photography. Something that operates well under low(er) light conditions, preferably a Prime lens, as i've never used one before and would love to test it out. Would could you recommend for a Pentax owner like myself?

http://blacksphoto.com/
http://donsphoto.com/
Unfortionatily these are the only two photography stores in my city. Which have left me with a bit of buyers remorse, due to the very little selection of lenses available. When purchasing the camera i looked at all the online stores and saw that there was as great deal of lenses available for Pentax, but little did i know i'd have no selection once inside my city. A recommendations from one of those stores would be great, but really, I could always just purchase one online.

Don Simon · Aug 26, 2007

If you are after a prime lens for low light work, or indeed just a great prime lens for the money, I would recommend either the Pentax FA 50mm f/1.4, or the FA 35mm f/2. Both are optically excellent. The 50mm with it's very wide max aperture is obviously a good choice for low light work. However since the 50mm is a mild telephoto lens, the 35mm may be better for general use. It's max aperture is not as impressive at f/2, but it focuses very fast, and is fantastic to use even wide-open at f/2. The advantage of the 35mm is that it performs as a "standard" lens, being neither telephoto nor wide-angle.

I have both of those lenses and although you could argue it does not make much sense to own both, I would not give up either. There are of course other prime lenses... the new "pancake" lenses, especially the wide ones, would be ideal for street photography but do not have as large max apertures and because of the design are more expensive... for best value for money I would definitely recommend the 35mm or the 50mm.

I would recommend buying from B&H. They currently have both of the above lenses in stock. But if you have trouble finding the 35mm elsewhere, look for the Samsung Schneider 35mm f/2... it's exactly the same Pentax lens just relabelled for Samsung.

LeftBehind · Aug 26, 2007

Thank you for your advice, I've looked at both lenses and both are in my price range ,and a great deal. B&H does not ship to Canada "Please not that we only ship to us residential addresses" so I will be looking for a Canadian retailer who can ship, if anyone has a recommendation, I'm all ears.

Don Simon · Aug 26, 2007

They actually say "we will ship only to your home address, or to a USA residential address" on the part about international delivery. So unless you need to have it sent to a business address instead of your home, you can buy from B&H no problem. They sell to your fellow Canadians as well as to Europe and elsewhere

I don't know much about stores in Canada; all I could find was Henry's and they seem to be really expensive compared to the US price (for example the 50mm lens costs $300 instead of $200)... It looks like Canadian prices are more in line with our prices here in the UK, in other words getting robbed

LeftBehind · Aug 30, 2007

ZaphodB, The stores in my city of Winnipeg have pretty good deals on what they have, 160$ for my 50-200mm Pentax lens felt like a steal, around 150$ USD, where as it says 250$ on their website. Upon further inspection, the 50mm lens looks plastic, is this correct? If so, does it feel cheap, and break quickly?

Don Simon · Aug 30, 2007

The lens is metal where it matters (for example in the mount)... elsewhere it is plastic but solid plastic well put together. In other words "Good plastic". The same is true for most standard primes these days; apart from the German companies no one really makes them all-metal (with rare exceptions like the Limiteds), and in practice it doesn't really make much difference beyond not feeling quite as nice as metal; on the good side it makes the lens more affordable.

As for break quickly, so far it breaks never :wink:

IMO it is one of the best value lenses out there - and almost certainly the best value 50mm f/1.4. And another good thing about good glass like this, is that if you buy it and then decide a prime isn't for you, you will be able to resell it for not much less than you paid.