12 June 2014

four ways to seal a Pentax body

Now that the pressure of moving is almost over, I can consider the single missing item in my bag: a WR lens to let me play in any weather.  I currently see four options in the range I am seeking, plus one more long option.  Several of these have been tried, and they moved on for one good reason or another.

So here's my 4½ choices:
  • DA 18-55wr - owned at least three times, both nice and cheap
  • DA 18-135wr - owned at least twice, never satisfied with results
  • DA* 16-50 - never tried, heavy & spendy but f/2.8; SDM is good and bad news.
  • DA 20-40 Limited - a curious new choice, wr and DC motor.  Most expensive choice.
  • DA 55-300wr - tried and liked all previous non-wr versions
The first two should just be removed from this list, as I keep selling them.  The 18-250 zoom covers both their ranges anyway and it can handle a little moisture now and then.  Thing is it also covers the 55-300's range pretty well!

So that leaves the big two: DA* and Limited.  
The 16-50 could crowd the 17 fisheye a bit, which would be sad, but for hiking it's a solid though heavy choice along with the 105mm Takumar or perhaps an 85mm lens to be found later.  For hiking light the 20-40 is a very good choice, does not crowd the fisheye and opens up space for
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primes like the 50/2.8 macro.  The DC motor of the 20-40 has shown itself to be durable, though the SDM on the 16-50 can be overridden with the screw drive inside the camera (farewell silence, but hello certainty).

And of course, Pentax is bound to seal a prime lens one of these days... right?
I live in interesting times :^)