I'm looking to get a good, and reasonably fast lens for my K200d. I'm mostly looking at zooms because I only have the kit (which I find just too slow for most of my shooting) and a nice Sigma 70-300 telephoto (which I absolutely love). I want something decent for portrait, candid, and other common situations where the telephoto is inappropriate. I've considered Prime lenses but Sigma and Tamron do seem to have some good prices on a couple of their zooms.
I'm on a budget here (under $500cdn), which makes this harder as most of the recommended lenses I see out there kick my budget to the curb.
I just don't have enough experience to know one lens from another aside from focal length and aperture. I'm hoping someone here can help me fish out the best value in my price range considering that for some time I'll only have this lens plus the kit and 70-300mm to work with.
Here is what I'm looking at right now:
- Sigma 28-70 2.8 which someone is offering used for $300(cdn)
- Sigma 24-70 2.8 new (
- Tamron 17-50 2.8 used ($340)
Alternatively I could go with a prime lens. The "limted" ones seem pretty pricey though but this one seems pretty inexpensive and as I understand it also hits that sweet spot for "normal" on my digital camera.
- Pentax smc P-DA 35mm f2.4 AL ($176)
Update:
I'm leaning towards the Tamron, the reviews on the Pentax Forums are really quite good and it seems versatile. It can serve both as a somewhat wide-angle lens as well as a good portrait lens. It's used and I should have some room in my budget to also get the FA 50mm prime later if one comes available on Craigslist.
Thank you everyone for your advice. It was most helpful.