The 250-600 seems to be very scarce. I wonder how many were made?
Alan C
On 25-Nov-20 10:36 PM, John Francis wrote:
On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 04:36:08PM -0500, Ken Waller wrote:
Better get a Sherpa for that 800 lens. I haven???t shot mine 600 in many moons.
Just too damm heavy.
It was just a few years ago I was traipsing all over Denali with it!
I'm holding on to my 250-600 for one last road trip, but after that
it will probably be up for sale.
But, as others have stated, I shoot Pentax because it works for me,
and switching to another brand would be expensive. I'm beginning to
wonder about switching to Olympus, though - every year it gets harder
and harder to carry a bag full of gear around (I think gravity is
getting stronger).
I've related my Pentax history before, but just in case anybody here
is interested:
With my first paycheck from my first job after graduating I took a
trip from Manchester to Leeds Camera Centre and bought myself a
Spotmatic II with the 50mm/f1.4 lens. This was the most expensive
purchase I'd ever made, but it was put into perspective by the
person ahead of me in line, who paid rather more than my setup cost
me for an accessory viewfiner for his Hasselblad ...
(This was in 1972 - a few months before the Spotmatic F came out)
In 1976 I switched to an MX as my primary camera. A couple of years
later I got a one-year assignment in New Zealand, so I stopped off
in Singapore on my outward journey and added an ME, an 80-200 zoom,
and a 28mm/f2.8 to the camera bag (plus a second 50mm/f1.4 - the sum
I'd budgeted for the upgrade went quite a bit further in Singapore!)
That MX served me well - I've still got it - but over the years I
picked up a Super Program (A lenses!), a PZ-1p (auto-focus) & an MZ-S.
I also made the mistake of comparing the results from my 80-200 zoom
and an A* 200/2.8, which opened another hole to throw money into.
By looking around on the used market I was able to replace my old
zoom with an FA* 80-200, and also added an A* 300/2.8 (which, with
the oddball F1.7X AF, gave me a very usable 500mm auto-focus lens).
Then came the digital revolution. Pentax were late to the party, but
I got one bit of good luck from that - some editors began to require
digital image submissions. Apparently one long-time Pentax pro shooter
made the switch to digital and sold off his Pentax gear. I was sitting
at my desk at work one day, and idly browsing the rec.photos.marketplace
newsgroup, when somebody made a joke posting about this 'real bargain'
to be had at Charlotte Camera - an FA* 250-600/f5.6 for 'only' about 40%
of street price (roughly 25% of list price) - still not exactly cheap!
This had always been my dream lens for motorsports photography, but
I'd never seriously thought I'd ever get one - they never came up on the
used market, and even the street price was way above my budget. But this
one was just inside the top end of what I could afford, so five minutes
later it was on its way to me.
As soon as the *istD came out I bought one. Over the years I moved to
a K10D, and later a K-5, plus the DA* 16-50, 50-135, and 60-250 lenses.
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