Sadness in the rain

At last, it started to rain. Passing through the city today, I met this sad beauty. Maybe she didn’t like to be left alone in the rain, maybe she was suffering from a major headache? I really wouldn’t know, since she resisted all my efforts to communicate…

By the way: this picture is taken with a new lens of mine: a Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 EX DC. Even though I’m a bit of a snob for primes, I wouldn’t like to be without a good zoom. Zooms are handy, especially when you travel or just want to carry a minimum of gear. My old “normal zoom” was a Sigma 18-125mm F3.5-5.6 DC. Not exactly an optical wonder – but on the other hand not that bad either, and definitely better than most “kit-zooms”. It’s also relative well build and relatively compact.

But it is not exactly fast. And after getting my K10D, I felt it was time for an upgrade. At first I had the Pentax DA* 16-50 mm F2.8 ED AL on my wish list. Its fast (for a zoom), optically good and as something new for Pentax, it has a build in focus motor. It really only has one drawback: the price tag.

So, when I got the opportunity to buy a used Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 EX DC in good condition for a fair price, I went for it. So far, it looks like a good deal. EX is the “pro”-series from Sigma, and the first impression is a well build and solid lens. Sharpness is good, even wide open. As with any zoom there is some distortion at both ends, but it’s not very much. So far, flaring and ghosting haven’t been an issue. The only drawback seems to be some chromatic aberration (purple fringing) in certain, special situations – but that I can live with…

Combined with the image stabilizer build into the K10D F2.8 gives a lot of new opportunities, compared to my old combination of F3,5-5,6 on an un-stabilized body. On the other hand, my new zoom is considerably shorter than the old one. Time will tell how much I will miss the part from 50 to 125mm.