Considering the price and the image quality it delivers, I'd not hesitate to go for the DA 55~300.
So many times, when voting for images offered for the PPG, I see a quality long lens image and upon checking, it turns out to be this lens. It may be a bit sharper at 250mm, but the difference I find generally insignificant. I do find it so light weight that when racked out to 300mm, it can be tricky to hold steady. If necessary, I'd replace mine without hesitation. Jack ----- Original Message ----- From: Zos Xavius <[email protected]> To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List <[email protected]> Cc: Sent: Tuesday, June 4, 2013 9:07 PM Subject: 55-300? I'm looking at getting a 55-300 for birding. On the flipside I'm looking at a K 300mm f4 for a bit less money. My primary use would be birding and portraits and the occasional landscape where the 55-100 end of the range would get used mostly. I hear the the 55-300 is f4 up to 135mm or so, which makes it actually kind of ok for portrait use. I have a fairly beat up copy of a Takumar 70-200 f4 from the 80s that I'm finding quite useful since I long ago retired my dust-pump Tamron 60-300 SP. The Takumar lacks SMC but is multicoated, and is surprisingly sharp stopped down to F8 and seems to be optimized for the long end. I'm actually liking this lens and for portraits its kind of a sleeper. Not bad for a $30 kit consisting of that lens, a K1000, an M50 f2, and a Tamron 2x teleconverter (in KR mount) as well as an old mini flash and crap wide angle lens adapter. The tamron was junk (rebranded chinese crap), so I knocked the elements out and have a nice 25mm extension tube with contacts. I'm getting off topic from my post though here.... I guess I'm looking to see what you all think of the 55-300. I would like to get a couple of long primes eventually like a 135mm and a 300mm, but to me such lenses are only to serve specific purposes. A zoom would be somewhat more convenient and would give me a kit that stretches from 12-300mm. I know that the 300mm end isn't the sharpest, but would it be ok for birding? I'm half tempted to just get another 70-200 that's better and maybe pick up a decent 300mm prime later on. I'd love an FA* 300, but that's certainly a bit out of my price range right now. One day though..... any thoughts? -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
