Ouch. Sorry to hear that. Hope you can get it repaired or replaced for a minimal amount. A bit of whining might motivate Pentax to replace it! It has worked for me in the past, although that was in the pre-Ricoh days, and I recited three magic words: New York Times.
I was ready to buy the 70-200s at one point, but then I discovered that my 60-250/4 doesn’t vignette noticeably on the K-1, at least not at the stops I generally use — f4 to f8 max. I would like that extra stop of aperture, but I haven’t found a pressing need. And the 60-250/4 is built like a tank. The 150-450 is sturdier still. I just checked both to make sure I wasn’t working with ticking time bombs.. The mounts are solidly screwed in to the thick metal lens body. Best, Paul > On Sep 9, 2016, at 3:04 PM, Stanley Halpin <[email protected]> > wrote: > > In my recent listing of items soon to be up for sale, I made a passing > comment about the 70-200. > > The (Tamron?) Pentax DFA HD 70-200/2.8 is a big hefty lens that balances well > on the K-1 body + grip. It has a detachable tripod mount. It produces > wonderful mages. But… > > The metal bit on the back end of the lens that mates with the K-mount on the > body is a thin plate about 1-1.5mm thick. That plate attaches to the back end > of the lens via four small screws (just a little larger than the screws that > hold the sidepieces on your eyeglasses). Those screws go into a hard plastic > (not metal) portion of the lens construction. When one or more of those > screws is loose or otherwise weakened, then the lens body will detach from > the K-mount plate. Leaving the plate attached to the camera, the other 99% of > the lens on the table or floor or ground. You needn’t ask how I know this. > > I like this lens and the images it produces, I like the versatility of this > zoom range, I am not ready to give up on it. We’ll see what the verdict of > the repair technician is. But I must say that I am a bit miffed that a > 2-month-old $1800 lens should fall apart in the wilds of Alaska with no > possible replacement. ( Off the grid, no way to order another or find a > rental. Too close to the end off the trip, the timing was off, even if I had > somehow smoke-signaled an emergency shout-out to B&H for a replacement with > next day delivery, it would still have taken 3-4 days to get to me…) > > So anyway, for those of you with this lens, be careful. Don’t put undue > pressure on the lens. Do use the lens tripod mount in lieu of mounting the > body and letting the lens hang off. And watch for symptoms of impending > disaster. Reflecting later, I realized that there were signs which I didn’t > pay attention to. Specifically, there were times when the in-camera > viewfinder display of F-stop etc. behaved as though I had an M-series lens > mounted. I.e., no F-stop was displayed. Wiggling the lens a bit would correct > the problem, and to the extent that I gave it any thought I figured I had > dirty contacts. In retrospect, the mounting plate was probably coming loose > and that was causing the display issue. Or maybe I had dirty contacts and > this wasn’t symptomatic of an impending failure. I don’t know. > > I don’t abuse my camera equipment, but I also don’t treat my gear as though > it were egg-shell delicate jewelry. It bugs me that I may not be able to > trust this lens after it is repaired and I will probably trade up if/when > Pentax offers a 70-200 in lieu of what is said to be a rebranded Tamron. > > stan > -- > 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.
