"Mishka" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I would like to expand this question a bit: what's the best manual focus (not necessarily SMCA) zoom for travel (in my case this is another city)? weight and size are *very* important. i have (almost) no experience with zooms whatsoever.
Wide range, lightweight, fast--choose any two. Add "manual focus," and your choices become few indeed. Many users decide they'd rather split their needs across two zooms--say, a 28-70 and a 70-210. You can even cover 28-300 with a pair of f/4 zooms (Rikenon 28-100 and Tokina 100-300), but the Tokina is not exactly meant for leisurely strolls. After being disappointed by my first SLR lens--a Sigma 28-200 zoom--I gave up on zooms for years. I finally came back this month when I bought a Rikenon 28-100/4 as my walk-around lens. But I pay a price in weight to get that 28mm close end and constant aperture. I think it weighs about 620 g. If you don't need 28mm, 35-135 seems the best compromise. Several manual focus offerings are available, but I think that Pentax's PKA f/3.5-4.5 is as compact and light as you're likely to find. For my own style of shooting, 28mm is a "must". It becomes difficult to find a 28-135 that is reasonably small and light. The advanced designs that make this possible are all new, autofocus models, and most are fairly slow (f/5.6) at 135mm. For me, f/4.5 is as slow as I'm prepared to go. And 2/3 of a stop is the widest spread I could tolerate between the close end and the far end's maximum aperture. 1/3 stop would be better. The Vivitar Series 1 28-105 f/2.8 to 3.8 is heavy and large. So is the Kiron of similar specs. But they are fine lenses. The Vivitar Series 1 28-90 (f/3.5-4.5?) gets high marks from users. I suspect that it, too, will be heavier and larger than you like. The sweet spot seems to be 28-100 f/3.5 to 4.5 or 28-105 f/3.5-4.5. You'll find several lenses meeting this requirement in a recent posting of mine. (Search for "28-105" or "3.5-4.5".) As I mentioned this week, the Tamron 28-135 f/4-4.5 is an ambitious design in that it's about the same size and weight as the Pentax 35-105/3.5 PKA. But it's not a true 28mm; it's more like 31 or 32mm. And with a 67mm filter size, it may vignette. Still, I can buy it for you at my local store. The price said $230, but as I mentioned the salesman said "Make me an offer"' I'm sure they'd accept $200. Paul Franklin Stregevsky - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
