Pentax *ist DS 6.1 LENSES recomendations

padster81 · Nov 3, 2006

I have recently bought a Pentax *ist DS 6.1 and am looking for some advice about a fairly universal lens I can buy. It is my first venture into the digital world and am looking to do wildlife/scenic/close-up images. I realise this is a fairly wide topic base and in the future I realise I will have to invest in more lenses, but could someone recommend a good starter compatible with this camera for a price in the region of £300?? Thankyou, much appreciated!!
Richard

Don Simon · Nov 3, 2006

Hi there, welcome to the forum! There are many good lenses you could go for, too many in fact... so I'll just ask a couple of questions to help narrow the options down a bit...

Did you buy the camera with the standard kit lens? If so which focal lengths on it do you use the most? Are you happy with it, and if not then in what way do you find it is lacking or disappointing?

Also you said it was your first venture into the digital world... so presumably you used film cameras before? If so what sort of lenses did you use for that?

Finally, when you say scenic, do you mean landscapes of the kind that might require a wide angle lens? And when you say close-up, just how close-up are we talking?

Sorry for all the questions! Just trying to get an idea of what sort of thing you're looking for.

padster81 · Nov 3, 2006

Hi and thanks for replying so quick!
Just bought the body with no lens. Previously I have used film cameras - an old pentax with 70mm, not sure of the exact spec I'm afraid. In saying scenic I was referring to wide angle and close up i.e. flowers etc.. Basically it is a multi purpose lens if you can still get them! I would regard myself as a beginner and am just learning all the terminology, but I enjoy photographing widlife and wildlife in their habitat which I guess would include wide angle. Not looking to spend a vast sum, inthe region of £300 would be ideal and obviously the compatibility with the Pentax *ist DS 6.1 is necessary. Much appreciated and thanks for your time!

Don Simon · Nov 4, 2006

Well here's a couple of thoughts...
For a general purpose lens for everyday shooting, you can probably get the standard Pentax 'kit lens' (the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6) for well under £100. This is rougly equivalent in 35mm terms to 28mm-80mm, so it's good for moderate wide-angle, portraits or anything in between... minimum focusing distance is given as 25cm, but I'm fairly sure I've got closer than that... anyway you can get close; you should have no problem filling the frame with a flower. However for really close-up stuff you might want to consider a macro lens - like the Sigma 50mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro... focal length equivalent to 75mm, and a magnification of 1:1... can be had for under £200, and maybe well worth it if you do want to get really close-up. If not then you might want to consider a Pentax 50mm f/1.7 or f/1.4... you could either go for autofocus or for an older manual focus one (which would be cheaper)... either way the advantage of this is that it has a significantly wider maximum aperture, which lets you get away with using higher shutter speeds with lower available light... also means the viewfinder is brighter to look through, and the quality of the images in general is likely to be very good.

Those are just some ideas... to be honest I recommend starting off with the Pentax 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6, simply because it's so cheap at the moment. Use that for a while, then when you find out what it's not so good for or what you wish it could do, then you'll have a better idea of what to look for in the next lens.

xfloggingkylex · Nov 4, 2006

it's great to see other pentax users, I currently have the *ist DL with kit lense. For christmas I am setting my sights on the Pentax made 50mm 1.4. It is an insanely bright lense and only costs 200 dollars. That of course is an autofocus lense. The other lense I am looking for (since I already have the kit lense for wider angle shots) is the Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO DG Macro telephoto lense. I have seen some shots taken on a D50 at the full 300mm and they are very crisp for the length. I wouldn't mind picking up a pentax fisheye, but that will be down the road.

for first lense I strongly recommend you look for the Pentax 50mm 1.4 though, you wont get a better (image) quality lense for the price.

http://www.adorama.com/PX5014AFA.html

http://www.adorama.com/SG70300DAPX.html