Belgarchi
Senior Member
I forgot to tell you: I am using all of these for a while, don't want to sale any of them - a good sign, I have a tendency to change equipment too often.
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Considering a KP... start with 20-40 or something else?
bkpix
Senior Member
You've got it right. The 15 and 70 make up my favorite travel combo with the K-5IIs; adding the 20-40 makes great sense, at least for me, as it's weather sealed -- and I live in Oregon.
I think you make good selection of lens, especially DA ltd 20-40 was made for camera like Pentax KP. If I may suggest, include DFA 50 macro, so you will have almost everything for daily shooting.
R
AviPro
Senior Member
Get the DA 18-135, covers everything + great image quality. Proven and liked by many, few dont.
Your starting kit sounds nice for an experienced photograph entering Pentax world.
I have Pentax K3, which is a very capable camera, with outstanding ergonomy and very nice handling and IQ, excellent AF-S and good AF-C in the Z axis.
I hope the KP, which shares the same AF hardware but with more processing power, and is supposed to have better tracking software, will be closer to the competition as regards AF-C tracking, but I dont expect its 3D AF tracking ability to be as good as Nikon state of the art systems.
As you never used Pentax, I think the best starting kit for artistic and travel shooting would be the DA 18-135, which is very compact (not much bigger than DA20-40), fast focusing and rugged and has a very nice rendering for a jack of all trade lens, with very good center sharpness, lots of contrast and good microcontrast, and thus can handle almost all kind of scenes (but there is a trade-off in border sharpness, which doesnt show when viewing the pictures as a whole but will disappoint you if you are a pixel peeper or print huge).
As it is not an expensive lens and you might get a bundle price with the KP, you might later add the DA 20-40 for a different more rewarding shooting experience.
As a better IQ general purpose zoom, there is also the DA 16-85, I dont have it (I have the older DA 17-70) but all I read from people who use it is that it is sharp across the frame. Starting at 16 is very nice and could allow you to wait before buying the DA15.
I think DA 16-85 is rugged and handles and AF like the DA 18-135, but is bigger and heavier and you loose the 85-135 focal range.
I have the DA15, it is a very nice lens, with outstanding contrast and flare resistance, you only need to be careful about field curvature.
I never tried DA20-40, but all that I read is that it is a high grade love or hate lens, designed with the limited mood. I believe it is an excellent choice as regards artistic rendering and shooting experience but, IMO, it has a too narrow focal range to be your main travel lens.
I have DA 70, which is also very nice, very sharp and fast enough for subject separation.
As DA 20-40, DA 18-135 or DA 16-85 are around f4 in the 35-50 range, you may also need some larger aperture prime for low light or subject separation.
For instance DA40 f2.8 limited or DA 40XS f2.8, which are the smallest limited primes and have outstanding contrast and rendering (same optical formula, XS is cheaper, smaller but no hood and no quick shift MF)
Or DA 35 f2.8 limited macro, which has the same kind of rendering, is sharper across the frame but bigger.
There are also the cheap all plastic DA 35 f2.4 (I have it) and DA 50 f 1.8 (I use an older film era FA50 f1.7), which have very good optics, even fully open, and are lightweight.
I think that would be great kit based upon my experience with those lenses. You will have great image quality from all three, they hold up well on my 20mp K-S2. I do have the 18-135 that some others have mentioned and it was great for a 16 mp sensor but I find that on the 20 mp with the K-S2 it's resolution is a bit lacking for other than web sized images. I'm in the love it camp for the 20-40, because of the images I make with it, its lightness and weatherproofing. If you are like me when you travel most of my shots are in the 20 to 30/35mm range so it can be a good fit for you.
jackie semple
Leading Member
I use DA 18-135 on 24 MP K3 and I am quite happy with its resolution. Imo it does better than it dit on 16MP K30.
A few samples fully open at f4.5 during the Lemons Parade in Menton last february:
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Tatouzou,
I dont think so, as the center resolution on DA 18-135 is sharp even at the long end, and cropping a picture shot at 85 to get a 135 framing is a lot of cropping. In my experience, for instance, there are not more details on a 70mm shot with the razor sharp DA70 or FA77 and a 135mm shot with DA 18-135.
IMO the decision between DA 18-135 and DA 16-85 is more about the focal range one likes to shoot, size, weight, the other lenses one plans to buy to complement on both the wide angle and the tele side, and last the importance one attributes to edge sharpness at current focal lengths.
I understand the appeal of the bright out of camera Fuji JPEGs and the brand's very efficient marketing, and also the smaller size and weight from wide angle to short telephoto lenses. This drove me to invest recently in M43 besides my Pentax gear.
But high end glass in mirrorless world is big and more expensive than in DSLR world, and the Pentax limited lenses the OP plans to buy are designed for artistic rendering in a very compact size, offering, at a comparable price tag, a unique shooting experience, surpassed only IMO by Leica glass and some Zeiss lenses.
The K70 is a good camera but closer to entry level, like previous K30-K50-KS-II. Cost cuttings are sensible in the AF engine, the shutter and the aperture lever (which tells the lens to close aperture to the selected value). Its AF is the same as K5, which means only 11 AF captors, out of which only 9 are cross type, and only one f2.8, no scene analysis ability as it meters the light in an old fashioned 72 areas luminance sensor, whereas KP uses the same AF engine as K3, with 86000 dots colour scene analysis and 27 AF captors, out of which 25 are cross type and 3 f2.8. Using side by side K5/K30 and K3, the everyday improvement in AF is obvious.
As regards the aperture lever, a rather higher than average failure rate has been reported on K30 and K50, and there is no information whether this has been solved in K-S2 or K70. Whereas the K5/K3 flagships reliabilty seems excellent even in intensive use.
Thus if someone intends to invest in top end glass like the 3 limiteds the OP is considering, it makes more senses IMO to choose a high end body, KP or K3 (not that much difference in size and weight, the main difference are, IMO, in ergonomy, built-in features and processing power)
The poor X-Trans support by RAW software manufacturers is an important issue for any advanced photographer: as Fuji X-trans market share is small, there is little hope that Adobe, DXO or C1 will invest a lot of money in developing specific demosaîcing algorythms for X-Trans.
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Tatouzou,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/70066783@N06/
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Retzius
Leading Member
Thank you everyone for all your responses. Pentax owners seem like a great group!
I have decided to start with the 20-40 and add the 15 and 70 in the coming months. The 20-40 is an intriguing lens that I really want to try. I will update my post once I receive the KP, 20-40, and have given it a bit of a workout.
Cheers!
I have decided to start with the 20-40 and add the 15 and 70 in the coming months. The 20-40 is an intriguing lens that I really want to try. I will update my post once I receive the KP, 20-40, and have given it a bit of a workout.
Cheers!
Sounds like agood choice.
Welcome in Pentax land with thevery special limited lenses; hope you will enjoy it!.
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