Pentax lens pricing

Goggle, those two questions and you will have reading material for a week.

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Mike

I have done that the last two days and I am very skilled at using google - but it really depends on the keywords. Additionally this is a more personal question, I am not asking to compare specs or for people to tell me what to do, I simply wonder how the people of this forum consider these issues...

Try "pentax lens price increase" you will find many opinions on the matter.

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Mike

Perhaps you should start with your expectations form your next camera/glass with some ideas why you are so unhappy with Canon.  Whatever the reason is, you may want to be sure that you are not getting the same.

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Cheers,
Alex

good point, I dont shoot terrible pictures. Long time ago before the days of my 30D, I had a Nikon D70. My body broke and that was all on the verge to Nikon dropping the screwdrive in their "affordable" bodies. I could simply not shell out the money for D80 but the 30D I got a good deal on. To be honest I always liked my Nikon lenses, their build, the ergonomics better and I grave to get some old lens and slap it on my body and use it. For Nikon and Pentax that seems easily possible. Also and that speaks for Pentax, the K5 with in body SR, presumably great ergonomics, great sensor, good low light performance really tease me. Canon on the other hand seems to be stuck on its 60D, releasing more Rebels and refreshing their pro stuff. The 50 1.8 they sell is a joke.

Pentax K5 is a superb camera, with unbeatable IQ. You may want to buy the K5II to avoid risks of getting an AF which is unusable indoor/low light. D7000 is great too.

There is plenty of glass to chose from, with Tamron and Sigma providing a good alternatives without compromising IQ too much.

What's your budget? What focal ranges you want to cover? Do you really need WR?

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Cheers,

Alex

I do not need WR, but it is nice to have. The K-30 I dont like because it lacks the top display and I plan to have this body for a few years (4+).

As per lenses, in the long term I would shoot for:

35

85

50-200

16-45

I would probably start with a K5 and a 35/2.4 (plus maybe the kit) so I guess budget is around a 1200ish, but I dont need to buy everything at once - I believe it using the lens one has and taking the pictures with its limitations is a good thing, hence the preference for primes. Do you think that s a "good" plan?

I would say you put a little too much in.  Rather than making up a bunch of stuff about Pentax, you could have compared Pentax lens prices with comparable Nikon & Cannon lenses.  If you did you'd notice, as I have, that top of the line branded lenses are very expensive indeed for all brands.  Pentax doesn't seem out of line to me in that context.  This seemed what the OP was about anyway.  (If it wasn't just troll bait all along that is)

Not sure why you think the Canon 50/1.8 is a joke (admittedly I have the 50/1.8 II). Try pricing anybody's 50/1.4 including Pentax abd you will see prices in the $300-400 range for used ones many times. Plus none of those older lenses have digital coatings so they tend to have more internal reflections that digital era ones. All of them are sharp by F2 anyway. As someone who has both Pentax and Canon systems I find them both comparable and complimentary as each is better than the other at certain activity. With Canon I went the 20D, 30D, 40D, and now the 60D route. With Pentax I went the *ist D, K10D, and currently K20D, which will likely get replaced soon. The key thing is not the cameras, which can do pretty much the same results as long as the person behind knows what they want to get out of it, but the lenses. In 40 years I have changed systems 8 times. In all that time I never changed it for the camera, but instead for the lenses. Many times I ended up with great cameras because they came out for a system I had. Some of those times I had a chance to get a lens I always coveted, but did not own a camera for. In those cases the lens was one that cost way more than any of that maker's cameras, so I bought one to use it with. Many times I ended up expanding the system and selling off my old one. Usually in the case of Pentax I kept a few items because I knew I would be back sooner or later.

Key things are:

Canon: Most extensive list of pro lenses there are (if you can afford them), and also top 3rd party lens support.

Pentax: Ability to use any lens from any era if you want to (adapter needed for screwmount lenses) and full integration electronically back to the "A" lens era of manual focus lenses. Not as good 3rd party support in the pro lens area but some older ones are around. Current digital primes are excellent but nodigital era telephotos over 300mm until the new 560/5.6 that just came out.

Canon: Image stabilization only on the lenses themselves.

Pentax: In-body stabilization for all lenses no matter how far back.

Almost every other difference between them can be overcome with skill.

Kent Gittings

Why do you copy and paste this for both Canon and Nikon users who want to switch to Pentax? If you are so unhappy with Pentax, just get another brand.

(1) I cannot answer, I can only say that the K-5 is fairly heavy, that may help with bigger lenses.

(2) When buying the K-100D in 2006 the lens prices were still fair but the 16-50 and 17-70 did not yet exist so I took the sigma 17-70 as a standard lens. Never regretted it. Still then I looked forward to buy the 50-135 and 12-24, but when I was about to do so the prices had risen dramatically. So now I have the Sigma 70-300 and Tamron 10-24 instead.

So for lenses there are the options Sigma/Tamron and, not to be overlooked, the 'old glass' that enabled me to find a 100/4 macro lens for little money as well as 300 mm vivitar, 400 mm sigma, 500 mm mirror objective and 1000 mm mirror objective, all in the EU 100 range.

A pity is that some raw converters can automatically correct lens errors, but mostly only for the pentax lenses.

Hi.

Based on your suggested lenses, I'd alter it just a bit:

-16-45 seems like a good zoom.

-55-300 will give you better range and IQ.

-Skip both the 35 and 85 and pick up a used 43 1.9. It can double as a long normal/short portrait. It's an incredible lens. Unique.

-Get a Raynox 150 for your 55-300 so you can have macro fun, and you're set!

To be honest at first it seemed like their lens prices are steep compared to other brands out there but once you get to use the Limited primes (DA/FA you pick), you'll understand that it is really of good value since it actually trolls Zeiss when it comes to IQ for a lower price.

Looking at your plans a K5 + DA 35 f2.4 is a pretty good start since it is such a good all around prime even if it has no WR, has a plastic feel yet the IQ is superb.

You can get a K5 + DA 35 f2.4 + FA 77 f1.8 Limited (or a DA 70 f2.4 Limited) and call it a day.

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It's not about the tool, its how you use it

Who says I'm unhappy with Pentax?  Mine is just a list of issues any prospective newcomer to the Pentax brand should be aware of (it's not a copy and paste - it's an edited list of gotcha's).

I leave it to the fanboys to shout how smart they are for choosing to shoot a less popular, less successful brand.  To me it's a tool, not a love affair.  Those offended by facts should get a life (or alternatively dispute the facts rather than resorting to ad hominem vitriol).

Sigma 30/1.4 is a cheap but very sharp with a pleasant Bokeh

Plenty of manual glass. Samyang or Jupiter-9 are good and cheap ones

I recommend getting the 55-300 instead of 50-200. It has more range and slightly sharper than 50-200 in the 50-200 range.

There is a reasonably sharp DA 16-45/4, @ $400

Definitely.

I started with Sigma 17-70 and DA 50-200 which I used for 3-4 years before replacing with Tamron 70-200. I still have a few German/Russian made copies of Carl Zeiss primes for @85, 135 and 200mm, but I rarely use them.

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Cheers,
Alex

Really your such an obvious Troll you no longer know the difference between facts and bxllxx

2 months ago

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3271871#forum-post-42574847

a few hours ago

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3335017#forum-post-50272193

I have no intention of rising to your childish rants.

Just a quick google will show how wrong your 'gotchas' are but as you seem to think your stating some facts let me give you a starter for 10

Find Authorized
Repair Stations

You were left looking foolish then , So what do you think has changed 2 months later.?

You had all these 'facts' debunked in that thread so why as was asked cut and paste such twaddle again?

I had a question that he answered perfectly - "Should I 'ignore' this user or not?"

As the OP of the other thread you copied this from said

Only Canon use their own staff and even there only for DLSR's.

In the UK both Nikon and Pentax share the same 3rd party repair centre so much for that 'fact'.

These independent businesses offer Nikon Authorized Repair Service for certain products.

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http://1x.com/artist/awaldram/wall

If you have no desire to use Pentax limited lenses, which are expensive, Go ahead with D7000. Nikon has a great range of cameras up to FF bodies and they surpass Pentax in both flash system and auto focus. Pentax has two advantage: weather sealing and in body SR. Look at what your priorities are. The last point I'd to point is the ergonomic. I have the K5 and love it in my hands. I like to use this camera more and and more. But, as you know, this a matter of personal choice so only you can find the right body for yourself. Perhaps a battery grip gives the necessary balance for longer lenses but I have not tried it myself. I have the battery grip for the K10D (bigger than K5) and it gives good balance.

good luck

Moji

Not sure what region you are in.

Prices were starting to come down in the UK just before Ricoh took over Pentax (Hoya had previous put prices up quite a bit before then) but they were coming down to more respectable levels again.

I just think it's how they want to work it sell the K-30 (for example) at a great price (and it is really well priced) and charge more on the lenses.

I can't say I find it a good way to expand the business myself but hey I don't own the company

The Canon 50mm f1.8 is indeed a joke build wise (cheap nasty plastic) but the optics are actually not bad at all (quite good really) AND it's dirt cheap, £75 last I looked so hard to complain for bang per buck on that one.

On the other hand I see a well known Pentax dealer selling the new Pentax 50mm f1.8 for a staggeringly inappropriate price:

http://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/7768/Pentax-smc-DA-50mm-f1-8-Lens-.html

Nikon have some nice prices and some good affordable ones, but I can't recommend the D7000 as the ones I had were pretty awful for autofocus accuracy. Your choice really