Just to add to the confusion (after desperately trying to enable a new lens for the guy), I have seen work from the Tamron 90mm macro and the matched multiplier, and was very impressed. A friend had this rig and did some comparisons between the lens with and without the converter, doubling the distance with the converter to keep the reproduction ratio the same, and the results were nearly indistinguishable from one another at an 8x10 print size. This was on film mind you, but if the lens is good on digital, I expect the lens and matched multiplier should be good on digital as well. I recall at one time I saw a set of extension tubes for Pentax that had A contacts which would make things much more usable on the current cameras. I don't for the life of me recall the brand, other than that they weren't Pentax. Neither of these solutions will be as good as a real macro lens, but they will be a lot cheaper, and may be just fine for your wife's purposes too. I remember years ago I had just bought myself a 300mm f/5.6 Tamron lens, one of the old stove pipes. We were being swarmed by Monarchs, so I stuck an entire extension tube set onto the LX and put the 300 on the front and proceded to chase butterflies around the yard for a roll of film. The working distance was around 10 feet, perhaps a bit more, and this was almost filling the frame with butterfly. I got some lovely pictures that blew up nicely to 11x14
William Robb ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Sawyer" Subject: RE: Long macro lens > Barry, > > I thought I'd offer my 2 cents' worth here. I've had the Sigma for about > 2 1/2 years now, and am quite pleased with it's performance. It has become > my most used lens for both macro and general nature shooting. I wanted to > mention, though, that after about a year and a half, the diaphragm jammed in > the stopped down position. Nothing I could think of in the field would > restore it, and it went off to Sigma. They repaired it under warranty, of > course. > > I don't know if this was a fluke (it's been trouble free since) but you > should be aware of it. > > Good luck whatever you decide to do. > > Thanks for the suggestions. I'm thinking that the Sigma 180mm F/3.5 sounds > interesting. It is a bit pricey, but so is gas.... > > 1)My current macro of choice is the Tamron 90mm, which is usually the lens > that lives on my camera. I'd really be looking for a longer lens than just a > 100mm. I think something in the 200mm range would be ideal. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
