Sylwester Pietrzyk > on 13.01.03 20:16, Gregory L. Hansen at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > I'm looking for a zoom lens that goes to 300mm or so. I can't afford a > > good one, but I don't want to scrape the $100 bottom of the barrel. I > > want the second from the bottom of the barrel. Some lenses, which seem > > about what I'm looking for, from B&H's web site are > > > > Tamron 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 $189 > > Sigma 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 $209 > > Pheonix 100-400mm f/4.5-6.7 $200 > > Pentax 80-320mm f/4.5-5.6 $200 > > > Pentax is not that bad as far as you use it in 80-200 range. Ont the long > end it is quite soft, especially wide open. You can think about SMC-FA > 100-300/4.7-5.8 (new silver) - it seems to be better at 300, and as far as I > remember it got good review in German Color Foto magazin and in fact it was > better than FA 80-320 (sharper and more contrasty at long end). Plus you get > portability - it weights only 390 g and is quite compact. I saw it new on > eBay for about 120$
That's kind of interesting. The 100-300 goes for $159.95 on B&H. I didn't notice it because I was looking for something above $200, which I assumed would be the step above the bottom in quality. Oddly enough, there seems to be a long zoom shortage between the $200 and $2000 range. I could live with 100-300mm. I'd probably be using it more at the long range, but for a sharper and contrastier picture I can take the 0.7% reduction in focal length. If it gives a better picture even with a lower price tag, perhaps that's related to the warning I'd been given that the longer ranges have more distortion and other problems; this is a x3 zoom compared to a x4. Thanks for the info.
