Boris Liberman wrote: > Malcolm, > > Sorry to join late... > > If you *absolutely* have to have WR lens, then I think that 16-85 is > preferable. The difference between 18 and 16 mm on wide end is > significant. It will give you more interesting compositional > opportunities. The difference between 85 and 135 mm on the long end is > less significant, because both are part of 55-300 range. > > However, if WR is not mandatory, then I should suggest that neither of > these lenses is interesting. At least to me they are not. I prefer > faster lenses, for these reasons: possibility to get sharper images at > wider apertures, more play with DOF, more options for low light > photography without having to raise the ISO too much. To that end I > suggest Sigma 17-70 lenses. If you can, Sigma 17-70/2.8-4.0 > Contemporary is said to be very good. If you cannot (shameless plug > here), I can easily enable you with very cheap Sigma 17-70/2.8-4.5 as I > am going to upgrade to Sigma 17-70/2.8-4.0 Contemporary anyway. > > There is another option - you could buy Tamron 28-75/2.8 or Sigma > 24-60/2.8 (another shameless plug, as I want to sell mine to finance > that upgrade, I mentioned above). They would give you widest aperture > and get you ready for incoming full frame camera, should you ever want > to upgrade. Both are inexpensive these days and having had the former > and having the latter, I should say - they are quite excellent. > > Sorry for the plugs... HTH
Thanks Boris. The WR lenses have me, so it really is a choice of those, although had this been the start of Summer I may have felt differently, but I want a lens that I will use straight away - and it's raining yet again as I type this, the sky is saying 'WR'. Most of these choice issues comes back to knowing what you like to take pictures of, and until the last year or so it would really have been landscape and 'everything else', which leads you down the road to buying what you think is good at the time. I pretty much know what I like now, and that at least leads me more in the right direction. The next issue I have is more about acquiring skills than equipment, and I'd like to do a studio lighting course so I can improve the range of abstract photography I enjoy. Malcolm -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
