Can you photograph a whole trip with the Pentax 28-105mm lens?

Can you use just one lens on an entire trip? A “walkabout lens” can be an excellent way to lighten the load during a trip while still getting high-quality images. I used the relatively inexpensive Pentax 28-105mm lens exclusively for several trips. This is how it went.

The realization

I’ve gone on several consecutive night photography trips. During one of the trips, I began realizing that I hadn’t switched lenses. The Pentax 28-105mm lens had been “glued” to the Pentax K-1 the entire time.

Longer star trails quicker

Since I was photographing star trails, I began using a longer focal length. This way, the star trails would appear longer, and I wouldn’t have to wait as long for them to streak by in the image. I was pleased with the images I was getting. Nice and sharp. 

Going wide

I met up with a friend for two nights of photography near Barstow. Typically, a lot of night photographers gravitate toward ultra wide-angle lenses. And with good reason. We often want to photograph much of the sky. I was finding that since the wide-angle part overlapped slightly with the 15-30mm, which I was used to, I could photograph quite a few things with a focal length that worked well. 

Taming distortion

However, if I backed up just a little and used a longer focal length, much of the keystoning (where a building looks like it’s leaning backward) and barrel distortion that was typical of ultra wide-angle lenses went away. I had to do more walking but less processing. That was a great trade-off. 

Flexibility 

For one photo would be up close. I would use the wide-angle of 28mm to jam the camera up close and get some slight wanted distortion or beautiful detail. For the next photo, I could photograph a building from the street but use some of the telephoto to bring it closer, compressing the scene.

The flexibility of having something that was 28-105mm and sharp just about all the way through its focal length was nice to use.

Variable aperture? No problem!

For much of my full moon photography, I use an aperture of f/8. The middle apertures of most lenses, typically around f/8 to f/11, are the sharpest. The Pentax 28-105mm is no exception. Since I was photographing at f/8 during a full moon, it didn’t matter if the lens had a variable aperture from f/3.5 to f/5.6. My aperture would never change anyway.

Flexibility with day photos

I used the lens during the day as well. Returning from Borrego Springs, I pulled over to the side of the road to photograph a horse. The wide-angle helped me get close. But the extra “reach” that the lens had made it so I could photograph the horse from farther away if the horse was more shy.

Five consecutive trips with the same lens!

I’ve now gone on five consecutive night photography trips over a six-month period. I have not taken the lens off for any of the trips. I have taken it off at home to clean it or to use the Pentax 50mm f/4 macro lens to create some videos of colorfully lit bubbles. 

However, on the five trips, I’ve had the 28-105mm lens on the entire time. 

During this time, I’ve used it for a wide variety of scenarios. 

I’ve photographed abandoned cars, buildings, sculptures, day hikes, product photographs, and portraits of friends. It’s performed admirably for all of the above. If you can find a good quality “walkabout” lens, you just may find yourself keeping it on the camera for long periods of time as well.