90mm Macro for 645D Now Shipping

New medium-format lens

By PF Staff in Product Updates on Feb 7, 2013

The new 90mm macro lens for the Pentax 645D ($5000) has just arrived at B&H.  To learn more about this lens, visit its lens database entry or check out this thread on the forum, where one of our members have posted some sample photos and comments.

Among the highlights of this lens is its built-in shake reduction, which is a first for Pentax.  Pentax's K-mount (APS-C) DSLR lineup features in-camera shake reduction, thus only making in-lens shake reduction necessary for medium format lenses.

Pentax 560mm Now Shipping in the US

$6995 USD MSRP

By PF Staff in Product Updates on Feb 5, 2013

The HD Pentax 560mm F5.6 super telephoto lens has now arrived in the US.  It was listed at in-stock at B&H photo for a brief period of time, but is now once again out of stock due to pre-orders.

To learn more about this lens, visit its entry in our lens database, and stay tuned for an in-depth review! Our evaluation copy of this lens is already on its way.

HD Pentax 560mm Lens Officially Available

In Japan and shortly also overseas

By PF Staff in Product Updates on Feb 2, 2013

Today (2/2) is the day that the HD Pentax 560mm F5.6 lens ($7000) finally went on sale in Japan meaning that we'll soon also be seeing it in the US and elsewhere.  Originally expected in the middle December, the lens was delayed by about 6 weeks total.

The 560mm is an extreme-telephoto lens designed for APS-C cameras.  It's fully weather sealed and it features a silent and fast DC autofocus system.  Pentax recently launched a firmware update for 6 of its cameras in order to get them to autofocus properly with the 560mm lens.  According to Pentax engineers at CP+, this lens's autofocus will not be fully supported in live view by older DSLRs such as the K-7 or K-x.

We expect to have a production copy of this lens in our hands soon, so stay tuned for an in-depth review!

Sigma 18-250mm Macro Shipping

New Sigma superzoom

By PF Staff in Product Updates on Dec 27, 2012

The new Sigma 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 DC Macro HSM is now shipping from B&H at a launch price of $549.  This lens is the latest superzoom from Sigma, featuring all-new optics and a macro mode which offers a reproduction ratio as large as 1:2.9, which is quite good for a zoom!  Other new features include improved build quality and more SLD elements to suppress fringing.

If you will be getting this lens, please share your thoughts about it in the user review database!  We plan on reviewing the new Sigma after completing our review of the Pentax 18-270mm lens, which was launched just over a week ago.

Pentax K to Q Adapter Now Shipping

Mount DSLR lenses on your Q

By PF Staff in Product Updates on Dec 19, 2012

The official Pentax K to Q mount adapter has finally hit the shelves and is now readily available for order from B&H.  A couple of these adapters did arrive last week, but they sold out within minutes!  This adapter allows you to mount Pentax SLR lenses on the Pentax Q, and moreover, it allows you to manually control the aperture so that digital lenses (without an aperture ring) can be used.

The adapter also has a built-in mechanical leaf shutter which goes up to 1/1000s. Using this shutter rather than the camera's electronic shutter reduces motion blur.

When you mount a DSLR lens on the Q, the corresponding crop factor is 5.5x, meaning that a 300mm lens would correspond to a 1650mm on a full-frame K-mount camera!  This gives you an easy, effective, an affordable way to get extreme telephoto (and extreme macro) images!

The only downside is that the official adapter costs $249, but it's worth every penny if you want to get the most out of your Q (which is now available for less than the adapter itself)!  No other adapter will give you the leaf shutter - not even Novoflex's overpriced $300 adapter!

With that said, if you're on a budget, you can still mount K-mount lenses on your Q.  All it takes is $19.95 to get the Fotodiox Pentax K to Q adapter pictured below.

The most basic Fotodiox adapter doesn't have the fancy features of the Pentax adapter, so the lenses you adapt had better have an aperture ring!