DA* 50-135 as a walkaround lens

Went to Savannah GA for a short vacation for food and fun. First time out in 8 months because of Covid.

Now Savannah is a great city to walk around and take images, but which lens? I settled on the DA* 50-135mm (with a polarizing filter) and the DA 15mm Limited. While the Limited is useful with its small size and very wide FOV, the vast majority of shots were taken with the * lens. I found the focal range to generally be sufficient, but I did find that I would have liked a little bit wider FOV several times. Perhaps the DA 20-40mm Limited?

Still if you only were going to take one lens, the DA* 50-135mm is an excellent choice. While the lens hood is a bit long and garish (I only used it when required), the overall weight and size paired with the K3ii was quite comfortable for a several hour walk around. I'm not sure I could say the same thing with my K1 and D FA* 70-200mm.

The lens is very sharp stopped down a couple of stops but still sharp enough wide open where you either want to separate the subject from the background or just want some nice bokeh. That all said, Pentax needs to at a minimum update the lens with a better AF motor. Finally, I would not want to add much additional weight and/or size to the existing lens.

Enjoy!

The Historic District with it's old (1800s) homes is very photogenic and worth the visit.

Shot at f11 to have as much DOF as reasonably possible while still keeping everything sharp. I thought it worked.

You could do a study of just front doors. Most homes have a placard giving the date the house was built. Yes, that's a real gas lamp.

The windows in the city are worthy also. Lots of old wrought and cast iron.

A semi-tropical climate, the courtyard plantings are lush. I tried shooting at f2.8 but settled on F8 for the best overall look and feel.

For this shot I settled on f2.8. Sharp for the in-focus part with a nice bokeh and smooth OOF in the background.

The iconic Forsyth Park Fountain. Notice that even the street musician is wearing a mask. The whole vacation experience seemed low risk as regards COVID. Everyone including the city was doing their part.

I believe I could get the image sharper if I spent the time and calibrated the lens to the K3ii.

Nice pictures, except possibly for placement of that tree in the last one.

The 50-135 is great, but for a "walkaround," the 55-300 RE is smaller, lighter, easier to handle, faster to focus, and fully sharp enough for "walkaround" photography.  My 50-135 is now a special occasions tool.
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"Elegance of operation" -- Pentax
"Heavy for its size" -- DPR

Very nice shots!  I live in Savannah; it would have been great to see another Pentax shooter out and about!  I agree with your comments about the weight of the 50-135 vs the K1 plus DFA*70-200.  I actually had to decide between the K5iis + DA*50-135 vs K1 + DFA*70-200 yesterday for a kid’s soccer game.  They played in the rain so either would have been fine, but I chose the heavier kit because I figured autofocus would be better.  After 2 hours of shooting (in the rain no less) my arm and hand was feeling very fatigued!  I’m looking forward to the K3iii and may look into the PLM 55-300 for speed and weight savings.

Thanks for posting and perpetuating Savannah’s reputation for being such a beautiful city!

m-f, All photos are very good...nice series.

Tom W

Nice work!

”it’s not the size of the lens that counts, but how you use it”

MrB1 wrote:

A pleasing set of interesting and varied city images.

If the extra stops at the wide aperture end are not essential, I would certainly agree with others who suggest the 55-300 PLM for a longer focal range walkabout zoom. And for the most compact, light-weight and versatile walkabout zoom, the DA 18-135 is still hard to beat. Both of these lenses have fast, accurate and reliable focusing.

Philip

Agree. But I personally prefer my DA 18-270.