It's tough to say because in order to make a fair comparison one would have
to own both the Pentax and the 3rd party lenses.
I tend to buy 3rd party lenses for less used focal lengths where I don't
want to cough up the price of the Pentax lens, but want the focal length in
the bag.
The better third party lenses I've used -
Rikenon 55mm f1.2: decent sharpness wide open, excellent performer at f8 &
f11, but the SMC 50mm f1.4 and 1.7 seem to match it except at f1.2.
Kiron 105 f2.8 macro: an outstanding lens that can often be found at $100
to $150. I doubt it it is as good as the SMC 100 f2.8 macos, but at a
fraction of their cost it wins the price/quality ratio.
Tokina ATX 100 - 300 f4: Excellent all around.
Sigma 14mm f3.5: Nice lens and incredibly rectilinear, but you need to stop
down to f8 or f11 to minimize light fall off. With the introduction of the
EX 14mm f2.8, it can be had at a good price. Not a focal length that gets
much use and not one that justifies the major expense of the SMC or new
Sigma (for me.) But nice to have in the bag.
Sigma 50mm f2.8 macro: Really nice lens with excellent sharpness and flare
control. I love 50mm's and I love macros, but I'd rather have the extra
couple of stops of a 50mm f1.4 for general shooting, or the extra reach of
a 100mm or 200mm for maco shooting, so it's not a lens that I take out often.
Tokina 400mm f5.6 - great lens at f8 and 11, a bit soft wide open. I think
the FA* SMC lens would be better, but is far more costly.
And though I haven't used it, the Sigma 500mm f4.5 is the best autofocus
500mm currently made for Pentax. (OK, it's also the only 500mm f4.5
currently made for Pentax...)
As a side note - I spent a lot of time and money looking for a good manual
focus 28 - 100 ish zoom to use with the LX. I found the Vivitar Series 1
28 - 90 f2.8 - 3.5 to be dud (way too much light falloff at 28mm, even when
stopped down) and the Rikenon 28 - 100 f4, while nice and sharp, had
unacceptable distortion. I ultimately bought the SMC-A 28-135 f4 and have
not regretted it. I was rather surprised at how few third party lenses
were available in this range and how bad the ones I did get were.
- MCC
At 10:44 PM 8/12/01 -0500, Dan wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>I periodically come across shots taken with the Tamron SP 90/2.5 macro and
>get blown away by how utterly _lovely_ the images shot with that lens can
>be--to my eye as good as the FA 100/2.8 macro.
>
>Limiting it to lenses currently or formerly available in k or screwmount,
>what other 3rd party primes would you nominate as being equal to or better
>than Pentax's best prime in same focal length (or are there any)?
- - - - - - - - - -
Mark Cassino
Kalamazoo, MI
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Photos:
http://www.markcassino.com
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