My most used travel setup on Pentax DSLRs is composed of the Pentax DA 15/4, Pentax DA 35/2.8 Ltd, Voigtländer 58/1.4 and Voigtländer 90/3.5.
I consider the 15-90 range to be ideal for 99% of my shooting needs. The focal lengths are almost ideally spread across the range (15 - 35 - 58 - 90).
These four lenses are able to deliver top notch image quality in almost every possible shooting situation.
Obviously, the DA 15 is king for those wide American vistas, but also for most of my work in the narrow city streets of Europa and the crowded marketplaces of Asia. It's also great for interiors, churches, etc.
The DA 35 is my walk about lens. It offers "normal" field of view, great for street shooting, casual "contextual" portraits, museum shooting, with the added bonus of 1:1 macro for all these tiny details. Ideally, it should be a bit shorter in focal length, but there are no other lenses in that focal range that are so versatile...
The 58/1.4 is a great portrait lens, offering the same angle of view as a 85mm lens on full frame 35mm. It's also very fast, making it suitable for concerts and performances, as well as available light shooting for all kind of social occasions in dimly lit settings.
The 90/3.5 is one of my most used lenses, equivalent to a 135mm telephoto on full frame 35mm. I use it for shooting distant people, architectural details, landscapes with perspective compression, wildlife, etc. As a bonus, it focuses down to 0.5m (1:3.6 magnification) and to 0.32m (1:1.8 mag.) with the close-up add-on lens, allowing me to shoot flowers, sea shells or insects without having to knee on the ground.
A few years ago, I was using the FA 20/2.8 as my wide lens. It's easily as sharp as the DA, but has a few issues (purple fringing) that made me prefer the Limited lens. The 15mm is also obviously wider, but not too wide either (unlike a 8-12mm lens, which is much more a specialist lens).
I also have the Sigma 24/1.8, the FA 35/2 and the DA 40/2.8 Ltd. The Sigma is a very good lens optically speaking, has an ideal focal length and an useful close-up feature, but it's really huge, especially with its giant lens shade (which is mandatory since the lens flares badly when the sun is next to the frame). I am not too fond of the FA 35, because I find its rendering to be a bit "dull". The DA 40, although excellent on all accounts, is a bit too long as a "normal" lens for my taste.
I have tried to replace the Voigtländer 58 with the FA 77 Ltd, but I didnt't like it much. IMHO, 58mm is a more usefull focal length for portraiture on a crop format camera. The 58 is also more versatile, as the 77 has much more purple fringing and longitudinal chromatic aberration, making it more difficult to use, especially for concert and performances with high contrast lighting. On the contrary, the FA 50/1.4 is a bit short for a portrait lens and I prefer the rendering of the 58/1.4.
Of course, if I have some spare room in the bag, I may add the F*300/4.5 or the DA 10-17/3.5-5.6, depending of the subjects I expect to encounter. But the four above lenses go with me everywhere I go. I usually have the DA 35 mounted on the camera in my right hand, with the strap around my wirst; the three other lenses are in a small waist pouch. The whole kit is about 1kg (212g for the DA 15, 215g for the DA 35, 320g for the 58/1.4 and 320g for the 90/3.5), making it quite lightweight, even when I have to carry it to the top of some remote Indonesian volcano...
Cheers!
Abbazz
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