A lil advice please

[pauluk]

Hi, thanks for reading...

Ive just bought the Pentax K10D.

However i've only enough money for one top lens. Ideally i'd like a good allrounder for street/city/night/portrait/landscape photography.

I quite like the Pentax SMC-FA 31mm f/1.8 AL Limited as it's wide angled and very good optically. Will I be able to do portrait with this as its only 31mm?

see review:
http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/lenses/pentax_31_18/index.htm

or would I be better getting the Pentax SMCP-FA 77mm f/1.8 Limited
http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/lenses/pentax_77_18/index.htm

Thanks
Paul

 

[Mike_E]

Sorry, I wouldn't do portraits with the 31mm, people wouldn't like you after.

I also wouldn't do street with a 77mm- way too ling I think, but that's me. Go ahead and look into the short-ish zooms (high teens to mid 50's) surely Pentax makes one with good optics that you could afford. Optics are more important to you than build just now. Quality build will last longer but if you have the wrong lens for what you want to shoot, what good is it?

You do not have to have everything all at once. You do have to have a camera body so what ever you can stick on it will do until you get to where you can afford to trade up.

Have fun and name it what ever you like!

mike

 

[Steph]

A 31mm is NOT a wide angle lens on a crop sensor camera such as the K10D. It is a standard lens (like a 50mm lens in old 35mm terms). Before zooms were invented or when they were still of poor quality, it was very common for photographers to take all their pictures (including portraits) with a 50mm on their film SLRs. I think the 31mm would be an excellent choice as a good quality, fast prime lens. You would be much more limited with the 77mm particularly for landscape and street photography.

 

[Don Simon]

I'm with Steph on this... there is no reason why you can't use a 31mm lens for portraits. Sure, go longer and it is easier to create a flattering portrait, but that doesn't mean a 'normal' focal length is inherently bad for portraits (and this is a 'normal' lens; it won't be much of a wide-angle on the K10d).

There is one problem though... the 31mm Limited is a fantastic lens, with a fantastically high price tag to match... I can't help thinking that if you went for a 50mm f/1.4 or 35mm f/2 (which are both great lenses at a much much lower price) you would have a lot of cash left over for other glass and would not need to try covering all needs with one lens.

 

[Mike_E]

Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that you couldn't do any portraits with the 31mm but you would find that focal length limited. A head and shoulders shot for instance.

Crop factor or not (crop factor is just taking the part of the image out of the middle of what you would normally have and stretching it to fill up the rest of the space of a normal [full] frame. It does nothing to the physical characteristics of any lens- the law of conservation of matter and all of that. lol), 31mm is still 31mm and a big nose will still get people mad at you.

If you are set on a 31mm then a 50mm for portraits (the rest of them ) would be an inexpensive option. But as Zaphod says, you might look into other options- having a boat is great but if you can't get it to the lake...

 

[pauluk]

Thanks,

I think i might of found a lens which is also weatherproof:

PENTAX-DA* 16-50mm F2.8 ED AL[IF]SDM wide angle zoom

http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4165342

 

[Mike_E]

That look like it will work!

Enjoy the gear!!

mike