At the end of my previous post I spoke of my dream Pentax lens set: 14 or 15mm prime, 20-40wr Limited, DA* 50-135, and 55-300. I recently bought the 55-300 and hoped to stop for a while and buy the rest later - starting no sooner than Christmas 2015.
Well, today I bought one of the big ones. Ooops!
Dreams run on their own schedule.
My sanity would be less in question from my reader were I to simply erase the entire "simplify" blog entry! In truth though, the price I just paid a working DA* 50-135 may never go lower (it might of course, but not by much). I can sell or return a few recent acquisitions for nearly an even swap, so it's not a financial pain.
It's quite embarrassing that I allowed this deal to catch my attention though, right after saying "Time Out! Simplify!" to the world - but I'll forgive myself this once. It makes me wonder, though - how long before I sheepishly announce that I've acquired an HD 20-40 or DA 14/15 prime••, and forgive myself again?
I owned its cousin (Sigma's 50-150) for a brief time and quickly learned to tolerate the extra bulk in return for hi-IQ results, so I expect I to like this lens a lot! It may even be the One Lens to Rule the kit, which would diminish any efforts to tweak what's in the bag. That would be quite excellent since my efforts truly need to diminish!
The one concern for DA* lenses is the SDM motor, which has been deemed unreliable by many - especially if the lens isn't exercised regularly. The seller pointed out that this copy had been sluggish recently, an ominous sign; given the discounted price I shall cross my fingers and I expect that we'll get along fine. Pentax claims its repair rate is comparable to other brands, so it could be the owners of malfunctioning DA*s are just really good at spreading the word.
This definitely changes plans for my collection of classic teleprimes and also the 18-200 for kit simplification. It was a great idea but trumped by poor timing.
My Updated updated set will be:
- K24, A50 and M135 primes
- 18-55wr, 50-135 and 55-300 zooms
- 400mm prime and manual 80-200/3.5 (in the closet)
The new macro plan is to rummage around for my old 49mm diopter set and attach it to the 50 or 135.. for now, that'll do. The mini kit is now the NX300, 16+30 pancakes and the K adapter.
•• It's possible that I have acquired three of the dream foursome already; I will hear from Adorama soon about whether they have set aside their used, slightly-damaged DA14 that I sought to acquire in trade! I never heard back from them but it vanished from their website. Again an amazing deal - yet again, why am I looking in places where these deals can snare me?!?
