On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 11:48 AM, Eric Weir <[email protected]> wrote:
> So, should it be the 16-45 or is there something else I should consider. I had a used copy of the 16-45, and I found it to be a very good value, and I liked the 16mm wide end. But before too long, my copy became decentered, so the right edge of the image was very soft. I recently met up with PDMLer Zos Xavius, and he said that he had two copies of the lens that developed similar issues. So I'm not a fan of the build quality of the lens. I just replaced it with a new Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 Contemporary, which is on sale for $399. So far I like the new lens; it's a bit soft at the edges at 17mm (worse than my Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 at 17mm), but respectably close to my FA 50mm f/1.4 at 50mm, and sharper than my Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 at 70mm. The reach out to 70mm is nice. There is one thing to know about the Sigma, though: It had a firmware bug that mis-reported the focal length to the camera at the wide end, causing the shake reduction system to operate incorrectly. This bug has been fixed, but you might get a lens with the old firmware, and you would have to either send it to Sigma or buy the Sigma USB dock ($60) to update the firmware. (I just sent my copy to Sigma yesterday. I was going to buy the USB dock, but the pop-up flash button fell off my K-5 II, so I decided to send the camera to Pentax and the lens to Sigma at the same time.) http://www.pentaxforums.com/articles/pentax-related-news/sigma-addresses-17-70mm-shake-reduction-issue.html -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
