> I have one. I've very happy with it on digital, I wasn't very happy with > it on film. It's maximum focal length is closer to 180 or 190mm. I > haven't shot with it on film for some time but on the *ist-d I find it > to be a bit soft wide open at all focal lengths, but very sharp stopped > down one or two stops from maximum. I think it's very under rated, on > digital.
I've had one of these for some time. Actually, my wife had it, and used it on her ZX-5n, but I never actually used it myself on a film body. However, a few weeks ago I used it on my new *ist DS for shooting a bunch of "candid portraits" of kids at a birthday party. Just for the heck of it, I set my DS up as a "point-n-shoot" - I set it on "Auto Pict" (I have never used any program mode in my life), set the DS to use autofocus on the 28-200/3.8-5.6 (I have hardly ever used af in my life, either), and mounted an AF280T flash unit on the top, set to TTL (which is something I ~have~ done a lot of previously, on LX's and Super A's). The lens really worked out pretty well, considering that each shot was a "p&s" shot. I've put some JPEG shots taken with this lens at the URL below - these are not just to illustrate the optical qualities of the lens (for better or worse), but also to show the variety of shots that I was able to get with a minimum of effort (and a minimum of thinking - <g>) with this lens. (I have no record of the exposure details for these shots - focal lengths and apertures are probably all over the place - <sheepish_grin>.) http://www.cetussoft.com/pentax/birthday/ Fred
