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Tamron 17-35 Di vs 20-35 pentax FA for Pentax DSLR


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I hate these questions, but here goes. Has anyone compared these two

directly or inderectly? The Tamron gives you a little more width and

1 stop faster at the short end, while the Pentax is a little smaller,

most likely a slightly better overall performer, and uses 67 filters

instead of 77. Price is a pick'em.

 

Any thoughts?

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Jeff - I have the 20-35 and the *ist D and I believe the filter thread is even smaller at 58 mm. What I like is the quality and the size/weight. Very inobtrusive small and convenient. The extra angle you get from the Tamron might not be worth the pennies because you're basically talking 30mm versus 28mm - not a great visible difference. The extra stop also might not be such a strong point as the lowest ISO you get is 200 anyway which effectively puts the Pentax at f 2.8 for 100 ISO equivalent. I picked up the Sigma 18-50 Digital for a song second hand and if I use it it is more for the effective 75 end than the slightly wider 18 - though I thought differently beforehand. The quality from the Pentax is very high in my opinion and for a really neat walkabout kit I would highly recommend it as a standard lens on the *ist D.

 

Adam

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Hi! First of all, I haven't got the Pentax DSLR, but due to some comments I have read in this thread I would like to add something. Many people is stating that faster lenses are not important anymore with digital SLR's as their high ISO performance is very good, well, a faster lens will always be an advantage as you will be able to take cleaner (using lower ISO setting) and/or sharper (using higher shutter speed) images in low light conditions, and this is true for both film and digital. And the coverage difference between an 17 and 20 lens in a 1.5x crop factor DSRL will be quite obvius (25.5mm vs 30 mm). I'm sorry but my english is not very good. Have a nice day!
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  • 5 months later...

The Tamron@17mm is equal to 25.5 in 35mm terms. Goetz, I think you made a mistake with the calculator. That 4.5mm difference would turn my head. If you plan to do landscape and architecture shots, the Tamron has a definite wide advantage. As for image quality, best checking through some sites such as www.photographyreview.com or www.photozone.de.

 

Good luck with your selection.

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