Low light lens for Pentax k10d?

Button

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Hello everyone,

This is my first post, and I really need some help. My wife and I are new parents, and we would love to improve our indoor photography of our new baby girl. I think I'm going to get the new k10d (upgrade from a canon powershot s40) and I want a lens that will offer the best low light pics of our baby, as I don't want to blind her with flash. I can spend up to about $500 or so. I was thinking about something in the f 1.2 range, but I'm open to suggestion. Thanks in advance.

John
 
Hi there and welcome!

I don't know very much about the K10D except that it a competitor for Nikon D80 and such, however, a quick search on google shows that it has a 1.5X crop factor. This means that (and I only learned this recently) if you were to use a 50mm focal length lens, then on your K10D, that lens will actually act like a 75mm lens. You'll need to to take this into effect when purchasing. But seeing as your needs are mainly relating to portraits, this shouldn't be a large problem.

A f/1.2 lens will certainly be very fast and would not need much light. If you are taking portrait shots, a 50mm f/1.4 (I haven't a clue how much the f/1.2 costs) would cost you 169$ after rebate at Adorama. Which is well within your price range.

HOWEVER, you need to make sure that the lens is compatible with your digital SLR, I have no Pentax experience, so maybe someone else can help you there.

Personally, for portraits of your daughter, I think a 50mm prime lens at 1:1.4 would be a very good choice. But there are plenty of other options out there.
 
Hi there. Any Pentax lens with the K mount will be compatible. IMO an f/1.4 would be fine, and the one on Adorama is a good choice. If you have trouble getting one of them you could always go for an older manual focus f/1.4 (go for ones with "A" instead of "M" on the lens; A-lenses will allow full metering while M lenses are a little more fiddly to meter with. Or an even cheaper way of doing it is to buy an M42 screw-mount lens and an M42-to-K adapter (get the Pentax adapter, the quality of Ebay ones vary) - something like the Super Takumar f1.4 then gives you a good fast lens for very little cash (and they're widely available).

If 50mm ("equivalent" to 75mm) is too long you could get a Sigma 30mm f/1.4 for quite a bit more, but although Sigma do make some very good lenses I think the image quality from a 50mm is likely to be better especially wide open.
 
First off, I am very envious of the k10d. I think it would be a great camera, and I am thinking of upgrading eventually when the prices come down a bit. Second, I have been using the f/1.4 pentax lens for a while now and am very happy with it. I use it for most all of the portraits I shoot. I think it's a great buy at $169.
http://www.adorama.com/PX5014AFA.html?searchinfo=pentax 50mm&item_no=9
 
Thanks, guys. The f/1.4 looks like a fine choice. Unfortunately, it's either backordered or unavailable from every internet merchant that I can find. Do you have any other recommendations or do you have any idea how long something like this is typically backordered? I'd really like to get my setup before Christmas so I can get all of those special pictures.

John
 
i would go for a pentax lens such as the f1.2, 1.4, or the 1.7 (if they still make it)
i use the old manual focus 1.7 and its deffinatly my best lens and works pretty well in low light.
 
I don't know anything about Pentax digitals but their film cameras are excellent and their lenses are very good as well. There should not be great difficulties in finding manual focus lenses in good condition. I recently got a 85mm f1.4 AF for the D80 especially for available light candid portraits of the family. I find the 85mm lenght just right for the way I use it. It's equivalent to 127mm on the film bodies. I have an older 50mm 1.2 manual focus which I will not part with ever. You will likely find a similar response from other owners of such glass. The 1.4 will work fine. Just my two cents worth.
 
Look at this page before deciding on focal length (don't forget to convert numbers for the digital sensor). If you want to do more shot with a lot of background, go for something like a 35mm lens, but if you want to do more portrait-like shots, I'd go for the 50mm. You just have to take into account that you can't stand right next to them.
 
Button said:
Hello everyone,

This is my first post, and I really need some help. My wife and I are new parents, and we would love to improve our indoor photography of our new baby girl. I think I'm going to get the new k10d (upgrade from a canon powershot s40) and I want a lens that will offer the best low light pics of our baby, as I don't want to blind her with flash. I can spend up to about $500 or so. I was thinking about something in the f 1.2 range, but I'm open to suggestion. Thanks in advance.

John

The FA limited lenses have fast apertures (43mm 1.9, 31mm 1.8, 77mm 1.8), and so does the FA 50 1.4. I'd go for a slightly more wide-angle lens, though, for 50 on a K10D actually ends up more in the tele area.

Because of the K10D's SR and noise reduction, any lens with up to F2.8 will do...

Try asking this on PentaxForums.com, too.
 
yeah, the SR system on the K10D is phenominal, allowing between 2 and 4 extra stops to work with. a 1.4 combined with the SR and you'll be golden with normal house lighting.
 

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