Which Lens, Pentax or Sigma?

So I'm looking at a new lens, however I'm not sure if I should stick to Sigma, or whether the Pentax Lenses would take a better picture due to the SMC coating they have?

Does anyone stick to Pentax lenses or do they swap between Sigma and Tamron?

Cheers,
Dan

I would go with Pentax glass every time, subject to your budget. Sigma and Tamron are fine, but they aren't as good as Pentax lenses (not counting the kit lenses). Pentax lenses are, however, more expensive. I suppose it depends on how much use you will make of it - for instance, if it were only an occasional use lens, I might go for the cheaper option.

Cheers
Mike

Sigma and Tamron make great lenses also. And the new Tamron 18-250 Di DL II I just got came with a 6 year warranty. You will never see Pentax give you more than a year on anything. I compared the Pentax version and there isn't any difference in IQ.

Sometimes, it's not the image quality that is better or worse but you may lose some features that Pentax built into the camera/lens system that another brand lens maynot have. My experience has been that "off brands" of lenses can produce some really sharp images but can't always exploit the ability of the camera, lets say like a "power zoom" feature or something.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dstrickland

Sometimes, it's not the image quality that is better or worse but you may lose some features that Pentax built into the camera/lens system that another brand lens maynot have. My experience has been that "off brands" of lenses can produce some really sharp images but can't always exploit the ability of the camera, lets say like a "power zoom" feature or something.

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...please explain "power zoom"...I would love to buy Pentax glass, but the price and the fact Tamron offers a 6 year warranty vs Pentax's 1 year is very attractive to my budget.

I'll try. Some manufacturers build in features that are specific to their lens/camera set up. I think Minolta had something they called "power zoom" (I may be speaking out of school here) and what it would do is remember zoom settings and by touching a button or switch it would zoom automatically to the settings. But what I was driving at is that sometimes the camera has a capability that can only be exploited by their lenses. So aftermarket lenses may or maynot be able to use these capabilities. Not all of the camera companies give up patented features to these lense companies.

Something to keep in mind...Both Sigma, Tamron and even Tokina make and have made lenses for Pentax.