Wide angle zoom for Pentax -recommendations/comments please.

[DaveR06]

I’ve recently upgraded most of my lenses except for my wide angle zoom.
I currently have;
Tamron XR Di 28-75mm f2.8,
Sigma EX 70-200 f2.8 (and EX 1.4 & 2x teleconverters),
Pentax FA 50mm f1.4 and
Pentax FA 100mm 2.8 Macro.

All constant aperture lenses and they all seem pretty good so far and I’m happy with them.

My current wide angle zoom is a Tokina 19-35mm f3.5-4.5 which isn’t great.

I’m using an MZ-S that I’m happy with and do all my shooting with, usually in aperture priority or manual mode.

I was after some thoughts on which wide angle zoom I could replace the Tokina with. I haven’t used any other wide angle zooms.

A constant aperture would be nice but seems to be limited to the Sigma EX 20-40mm f2.8 which doesn’t seem real wide and doesn’t rate well in the comments/reviews that I’ve come across (there’s a new one listed on Ebay here in Australia at the moment).

The Tamron Di 17-35mm f2.8-4 seems to attract good comments but the ones I’ve read pertain to it’s use on non-full frame sensors. Any thoughts/comments on these or other lenses would be appreciated.

P.S. I mainly shoot landscape, nature and macro stuff with the odd wedding thrown in. I'm not in a hurry to get a wide angle zoom but I'd like to be able to keep my eyes out for one (it might also help to settle my LBA!)

Thanks,

Dave.

 

[Dag]

The Pentax FA20-35 1:4.0 has got some good reviews. According to Pentax in Norway it is still available some places.

http://www.bdimitrov.de/kmp/lenses/zooms/short/FA20-35f4.html

 

[srs5694]

FWIW, the widest-angle zoom I've used is a Russian-made Telezenitar 24-45mm f/2.8-4, which AFAIK is sold only in K-mount. I've found this lens to be admirably sharp, but it's fairly low in contrast and suffers badly from flare -- it's pretty much useless unless the sun's behind you. It's also not as wide as the other lenses you're considering. Overall, it's probably one to avoid unless you're a collector or find one for an extremely good price.

 

[DaveR06]

Thanks for the input. I wasn’t in a hurry for a lens but a new Tamron SP 17-35 2.8-4 came up on ebay last night at what I thought was a good price - $170 Canadian (Buy it now) from ‘prodigital2000’ in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. So I bought it. I’d had a bit of a look for the Pentax but not a lot around and much, much more expensive so I didn’t think I’d go wrong at that price.

Thanks again,

Dave.