Really wide angle for the Z-70 (film)

Hi. I have a Z-70 which I quite liked 15 years ago, and now I've decided I should use it more. I have 28mm and upwards covered. I'd like

to know if there are interesting wide angles significantly below that. These days I know nothing about Pentax lenses. When I see wider

specs, I'm left wondering if those can adequately cover 'full frame' or are only good for crop bodies. Of course I'd like to spend the least,

but it would be nice to know all the alternatives. I haven't even decided that it must have autofocus, for instance. Thank you.

<p>Here is tons of information<br /> http://www.pentaxforums.com/lensreviews/<br /> All the DA lenses are designed for the crop bodies.<br>

I use the <a href="http://www.pentaxforums.com/lensreviews/SMC-Pentax-M-20mm-F4-Lens.html">SMC Pentax-M 20mm F4</a> on a K5 II and like it a lot.</p>

<p>Well, that's an auto-focus camera with a viewfinder that isn't really designed for easy manual focus. In auto-focus, there are the Pentax-FA* 24mm f/2 and the Pentax-FA 20mm f/2.8. Both are great lenses, but are going to set you back $700 or more used. There is the Pentax-F 17-28mm fish-eye zoom, but that's not a general-purpose lens.<br>

If you want to use manual focus, it's cheaper, but you may have challenges with focusing. The Pentax-M 20mm f/4 is indeed a fine and compact lens. You can also consider the Pentax (K) 24mm f/2.8, or the later Pentax-A version of that lens. There's also the Pentax (K) 17mm f/4 fish-eye. These are not cheap on the used market, but more in the $250 to $400 each bracket.<br />Also the Samyang 24mm f/1.4 lens is full-frame compatible, but manual focus.</p>

The Tamron 17-35mm f2.8-4 17-35MM F/2.8-4 Di LD Alphabet Soup is a fairly low-cost way to get a wide-angle A/F lens.

It's pretty sharp but does have heavy barrel distortion close-up.

 

The widest suitable rectilinear lens I can think of is the Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6, although I don't recall any version of this

as being particularly cheap.

I should have said that the Tamron's barrel distortion is at the wide end. At 35mm it's not a problem, and

in any case may not matter depending on your subject. You wouldn't use it for architectural photography

but for wide-angle portraits and the like it's perfectly fine.

<p>Oh, yeah, the Pentax FA-J 18-35 zoom is a heck of a dirt-cheap way to get wide-angle for that camera! The lack of an aperture ring shouldn't be a problem on that camera.<br>

Common and cheap. Figure around $100.</p>

<p>Thank you all. Given the price, I think I'll give the FA-J a try before anything else. IIUC I'll have to do without Av mode?</p>

Meh. Please forget what just said. Av mode is actually with the lens in 'A' and you use the body to select the aperture. So

nothing lost.

I know I'm late to this party, but the old 15mm f3.5 is a nice lens, although large with a pain in the neck cap. I also

really like the 20mm f2.8 A. To be honest actofocus is less critical in a lens this wide. There is a tiny scewmount

something like 18mm f11. I never used one, but they sure look like fun and are tiny.

<p>FA 20-35/4 is nice and would probably be my first choice though it will cost more than the FA-J 18-35, and it's not quite as wide. </p>

<p>The F 17-28 3.5-4.5 fisheye zoom would also cost a bit more. Note that in terms of angle of view the 17-28 is considerably wider than its focal length would suggest -- it can see 180 degrees at 17mm, and 90 degrees at 28mm, though with increasing amounts of distortion as you go wider.</p>

<p>If you don't need to go quite that wide, there are numerous 24mm alternatives including the very good FA 24-90/3.5-4.5 zoom, the F 24-50/4, A 24-50/4, M 24-35/3.5. Sigma made a pretty decent 24/2.8 'super wide' autofocus prime. Pentax had manual focus A24/2.8, or you could adapt 24/3.5 M42 screwmount.</p>

<p>In general the current new lenses are designed for digital and are not designed to cover the film frame -- the Pentax-branded examples of these are prefixed with "DA" or "DA*". Lenses with F, FA, D-FA, FA-J are all full-frame-capable autofocus).</p>

<p>Some of the wide DA zooms might work OK if you avoid the wider parts of the zoom (corners will start to black out) though this strategy is perhaps more appealing if you're buying primarily for digital and only want it for film occasionally.</p>

<p>For manual focus, another alternative is it the Voigtlander 20/3.5, I'm not sure how easy these are to find.</p>