help please: alternative to kit lens

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jvee

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Hi there,

I'm looking to get my first DSLR. I really like the look and feel of the pentax K20d, and I have a couple of (25 year) old pentax lenses which I could use with it.

The thing is reading on these forums people say that the kit lenses are not too good. What would people recommend as an alternative?

I'm off to Africa for a holiday in December so I'll be looking to photograph wildlife, probably from a bit of a distance, and landscapes too. Want to get equipment soon so I can practise!

I had a look at the tamron range as I think they are supposed to be an improvement, and the sigmas although they are probably out of my price range. Despite trying to understand I can't work out what the real differences are that equate to such large differences in price.

Any help much appreciated.

I was looking mostly at these:

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-tamron-17-50mm-f2-8-xr-di-ii-ld-asp-if-lens-pentax-fit/p1027541

Seems like a similar range to the kit lens.

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-tamron-18-200mm-f3-5-6-3-af-xr-di-ii-lens-pentax-fit/p1009920

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-tamron-18-250mm-f3-5-6-3-di-ii-lens-pentax-fit/p1026171

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-sigma-18-200mm-f3-5-6-3-dc-lens-pentax-fit/p1008254

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-sigma-18-250mm-f3-5-6-3-dc-os-hsm-pentax-fit/p1030319


These all seem to do what the kit lens does and more.

thanks
 
Personally I dont like having a massive range in one lens, its tends to sacrifice quality for mixed length. I prefer a wide to short tele lens for walking about (16-85) and then I would consider something like with a range of 300-400mm for wildlife. That would be my choice... whats your budget?
 
Amazing quick reply, sorry I didn't put budget. I suppose £350 max (If I fib to my g/f about the cost).
 
If you want Pentax K20d I'd move quickly. The prices seem to be creeping up.

Tamron 18 - 250 (Pentax 18 - 250 is the same lens with a different badge) is a bit soft.
I had one and got rid of it.
Pentax 55 - 300 is excellent (about £300).
So is the Sigma 17 - 70.
That gets you quite a good coverage with only 2 lenses.
 
I recently upgraded to the K20D & I'm very impressed...the level of detail it captures still suprises me sometimes !!

Regarding lenses the Tamron F2.8 looks a good choice if you need the slightly faster lens. Personally I used a Sigma 17-70 for a good while and found it excellent, I've now changed to the pentax 17-70 F4 SDM and am equally impressed. There's definitely something to be said about the colour/contrast rendition of Pentax lenses, I find them to be better than non-Pentax makes although obviously you pay for it !!

Simon
 
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