Not a very highly rated lens, especially at the long end, quite soft with
low
contrast. But, if you want one, B&H Photo, www.bhphotovideo, has one listed
in
this month's Popular Photography, brand new, for $199.95. The aperture is
f/4.5-6.7, so it is on the slow side as well.......
Personally, I'd pass on this lens. For the same money, ($200 from B&h), you
can
get the Sigma 70-300/4-5.6 DL Super Macro, also brand new. This lens has
got
very good reviews and I believe some list members own it and are happy with
the
overall performance versus its price. Throw on a 1.4x teleconverter and
you'll
get to 420mm at f/8.
I've used the Tamron 100-300/5-6.3 before and was generally pleased with the
results there. That lens is currently selling at around $175, but has a $20
rebate from Tamron, so your net cost is about $155.
John
Thanks for the reply to my thread, John. My interest in this zoom range is
as a gift to my girlfriend whom I introduce to the wonderful world of Pentax
photography when I got her a ZX-30 w/ a Sigma 28-105 for her birthday last
year. I bought this brand new as an outfit from Samy's Camera in L.A.
in one of their periodic "door buster" sale promotion for $199.00 plus tax.
But since then she's been eyeing some of my Pentax optics (especially the
much beloved FA 400/5.6) to use with her camera. Needless to say I'm less
than enthused about this recent turn of event. So far I've managed to ward
off this unwanted advances by authoritively pronouncing that the plastic
mount on her camera, unlike the metal mount on my PZ-1p, would not be able
to support the weight of the monster super telephoto. This has worked so
far but for how long, I have no idea. Her interest in photography has grown
each day to the point that she even started to take some classes at the
local college. I may have unwittingly created a monster here. I think I'll
just give her an old Pentax A 70-210 zoom I haven't used for a long time.
Hopefully this would get her off my back and off the rest my optics for
awhile.
Paulo Ernest
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