Hello Tanya, I'll do my best to give you some ideas. First let me say that I am in the process of moving away from shooting 67 mostly for weddings and portraits.
A friend of mine switched to digital from film in the Nikon camp a while back. He thought that he would use the lenses that he already had. After trying that, he has basically changed all but one of his lenses. Why? Because the 1.5 magnification factor caused him to need/want different focal lengths. So knowing this, I was prepared to work with different focal lengths than I had with 35mm. It sounds like all of your lenses will work find with the *istD. The only one I am unsure of is the Tamron Adaptall. If it has the A setting on it, then it should be just fine. As to what focal lengths you will actually end up using...you will have to decide. Just remember that your 28's (which used to be reasonably wide) are now about 45mm. So you really have: Tamron Adaptall 135/2.5 --> 200/2.5 Tamron 28-200 --> 45-300 Pentax 28-105 --> 45-150 Pentax 50/1.7 --> 75/1.7 Pentax 70-210 --> 105-315 Sigma 35-80 --> 50-120 In looking at what you have, the wide end is certainly lacking. When I got my *istD I was in the same boat. Nothing wider than a 28. So I have been exploring the offerings to get me to a 28mm perspective. Need to get around a 20mm to accomplish this. The options are to get a prime or two, or a zoom. So far I have looked at the zoom side. The FAJ 18-35 has two downsides to it. 1) slow 4-5.6 max aperture and 2) no aperture ring - makes it less compatible with film bodies that you might use as backup or even primary. Other options are Phoenix 19-35/3.5-4.5 - I have tried this lens and it is surprisingly good for it's price. It's not superb, but reasonable. Seemed a little low on saturation though. I believe the Vivitar 19-35 is the same lens. Tokina makes a new 19-35/3.5-4.5. I have been working with this lens and have overall been happy with it. I like it better than the Phoenix. In another thread I reported on a few quirks with it. They are things that can be gotten around. There is also a Sigma 17-35/2.8-4, Sigma 20-40/2.8, Tokina 20-35/2.8ATX and Pentax 20-35/4. These all cost at least 2 times what the first two I mentioned do. I suspect that you get what you pay for to some degree. That being said, I am looking at a blow-up of a horizontal crop of a vertical shot of my family (6 of us) that would be equivalent to an 11X14 shot at 1600 speed with the Tokina 19-35 on a tripod at 1/10 second at 5.6. The shot is very adequate and would be easy to sell to my customers. As TV says, the lack of grain makes a big difference. Remember that I have been shooting 67. To try to wrap things up, it seems that you are short one lens and have some overlap with some of the others. If your 28-105 is not too slow for you, that, coupled with your 50 would do the bulk of the work unless you had groups. Then the missing lens would be needed. You could get a single prime (24/2.0-->36/2.0) or one of the zooms I have mentioned. If budget is of concern, I would go for the Tokina 19-35/3.5-4.5 AF193. If you have more to spend, then quite a few more choices. I should say that I have found shooting the digital quite liberating. Previously, the cost of shooting has always been on my mind. Since the client is paying for the cost of film/developing, unless they don't care (not very often!), I do have to be cognizant of what I am shooting. With the digital, I can just shoot away and many times try things that I wouldn't have before. Especially using monolights, it has been very nice to get immediate feedback rather than just trying to rely on modeling lights. I have captured shots that I wouldn't have even taken before. Hope this rambling helps. And yes, if you are shooting people (weddings and portraits), I think digital SLR is a better way to go. Bruce Tuesday, December 2, 2003, 4:26:13 PM, you wrote: TMP> Hi all, I have just found an Aussie site where I can purchase the *istD TMP> WITHOUT a lens! It is only au$2497.00. Link is here: TMP> http://www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au/category149_1.htm TMP> Cheapest I have found it anywhere in Oz. All of their other gear is very TMP> cheap too. TMP> Question to all of you who have it already - this is my collection of TMP> lenses - TMP> - Tamron Adaptall (manual focus) 135mm f2.5 (my all time favourite lens!!), TMP> - Tamron AF 28-200mm Aspherical, TMP> - Pentax 28-105mm FA powerzoom, TMP> - Pentax 50mm f1.7 FA, TMP> - Pentax A 70-210mm macro (thanks Stan!!), TMP> - Sigma 35-80mm f4-5.6 AL (came on my MZ-6/ZX-L body). TMP> I am pretty happy with this lineup now having converted most of my older TMP> lenses over to newer stuff. I have two manual focus lenses that I love and TMP> will never part with though! Ok, so my question is - how will this TMP> collection of lenses go with the *istD? Keeping in mind that I am shooting TMP> alot of weddings, I tend to use zooms for those, and then the 135mm Tamron TMP> for individual shots. Should I purchase the *istD with the FAJ 18-35mm (an TMP> extra au$450) or without a lens? What have most of you done? TMP> MTIA, TMP> tan.
