On 1/19/2014 8:33 AM, David J Brooks wrote:
I take it you are satisfied with your 17-70
Dave
The 17-70 looks like a keeper to me. I did not have a chance to take it
out for a test drive till yesterday and this morning.
One of my main motivations for getting this was for the additional zoom
range, and the 26mm - 105mm FF equivalent range is very useful. Also it
focuses very close and provides a good degree of magnification.
Sharpness and detail appear to be excellent at f 5.6 - f11. It is good
wide open (f4) but shows visible improvement stopped down just one stop
to f5.6. I don't see much further improvement at f8 and beyond, but
that's OK because the quality is great at f5.6. Edges and corners don't
soften up or distort much at all, which is better than the DA 16-45 that
I have been using where there is visible loss of IQ at the extreme
edges. However, the 17-70 is probably not quite as sharp in the center
as the 16-45.
I tried to provoke some purple fringing or other chromatic aberrations
by shooting back lit tree branches against a bright sky, and I am happy
to report that virtually non was evident. Again, and improvement over
the 16-45. However, I *do* have lens correction enabled on the K-3 (that
just occured to me) - so maybe that affects the results.
The AF is also interesting. This is my first SDM lens and I am amazed at
how fast and silent it is. I want to use the lens a bit more before
rendering an opinion regarding focusing accuracy - I had a good number
of not quite in focus shots, but I disabled the audible in-focus
confirmation and am not in the habit of looking at the visible in focus
confirmation indicator. So - the missed AF shots may have just been me
pulling the trigger too early.
This will definitely be my new #1 walking around lens.
Mark
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