Walk around lens

Marc Sabatella wrote:

JeffAHayes wrote:

Sort of depends on what your requirements/preferences for a good "walk-around lens" are. Currently, as I've posted probably five times already this week, if I had to choose only ONE lens to keep with me all the time, it'd be my Pentax DA 55-300 F4-5.8

I can't imagine most people being happy with a telephoto lens as a basic walkaround, though, except maybe for walking around wildlife preserves. Certainly not for a city vacation. Most people would take the vast majority of their shots at 55mm and wider.

So for me, the starting point would be to ask, what's wrong with the DA18-55? Are you concerned you won't be able to get good shots of distant pigeons? Seriously, what makes a vacation, and vacation photos, are the images of things and places you are able to see first hand and up close - not the things you only see in the distance.

Ummm, Markjo, while I'd LOVE to have a zoom that goes from wide-angle to good telephoto (like the 18-250 Sentro mentions), I also know there are often some severe compromises involved in such lenses in terms of image quality at the zoom extremes, pincushion and barrel distortion, etc.

Furthermore, IF you really READ my first post you'd have noticed that I STARTED by saying that a BIG part of what he should get depends on just WHAT his preferences and requirements ARE for "a walkaround lens." IF he has a NEED for a lens that will shoot a lot of wide-angle shots, then certainly the 55-300 is NOT his lens. HOWEVER, even at its 83-mm equivalent widest zoom, I've found this lens capable of including a fairly decent field of view, so long as I'm not RIGHT ON TOP of the subject matter. In a big city, that's a VERY EASY thing to do. And also, with the paranoia, etc., some folks in big cities (and everywhere, really, these days) have about having their pictures taken, standing back a bit further and shooting the "wide angle" from a distance can certainly have its ADVANTAGES, as well.

Obviously, the 55-300 isn't going to allow someone to stand in front of a large building and get something like a wide, sweeping shot. But then again, it's easy, these days, to simply shoot several verticals in a row, side by side, and stitch them together into a panorama in Photoshop, or whatever.

The 55-300 may not be "the ideal walkaround" lens, but I certainly wouldn't put it on the "DO NOT CONSIDER" list. Also consider that if one has THAT lens, and a wide-angle zoom that stops around 50mm, in a bag, strapped to his or her belt, then, although they're carrying TWO lenses, they have just about everything they need for any situation (short of VERY LOW LIGHT) in "walkaround lenses."
Jeff
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May the Blessings Be.