| Author: | | Site Supporter Registered: October, 2008 Location: Vancouver, Canada Posts: 8,092
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 22, 2022 | Recommended | Price: $3,450.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Very sharp and great handling. | | Cons: | Terrible tripod mount. | | Camera Used: Pentax film bodies.
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The A*600/5.6 ED [IF] was released in 1984, it was Pentax’s first 600mm prime lens for the 35mm format. The manual-focus A*600/5.6 was still available alongside the auto-focus F/FA* 600/4 versions up to 2000, when the A*600/5.6 was finally discontinued.
Sometime near the end of the A*600/5.6 production run, Pentax released a black version of this lens reportedly for a Japanese Police force. The black version also has a removable lens hood, where the regular version had a built-in hood. There appears to be around 10 black versions produced, in the s/n range of 5964961 to 5964967 and 5962761.
There is more info on the black version of this lens, in this forum thread:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/10-pentax-slr-lens-discussion/362468-pro...5-6-ed-if.html
One thing to note is that the black version is NOT a prototype as sometimes mentioned.
Optics:
Excellent optics! The A*600/5.6 has eight elements in six groups and features extra-low dispersion “ED” elements that help in controlling aberrations.
Focal Length:
For me 600mm is a perfect focal length on film for shooting waterfront subjects, like boats, landscapes and sometimes people. I’m minutes from the water, so do most of my shooting with long telephoto lenses near there. I’m not really into wildlife shooting, unless a seagull happens to land near where I’m shooting.
Atmospheric haze is an issue when shooting distant subjects, over water or from higher elevations. Depending on the film I’m using, I will need to use an appropriate filter to reduce the haze effect. (See shot number five below)
Build:
The build of the A*600/5.6 is superb, on par with any K Series super telephoto lens that I own and light years better than any FA* lens I have. The black finish on my copy is also much more durable that the off-white version.
Handling:
For a 600mm prime the A*600/5.6 is remarkably small and light weight, considering it is a *STAR lens with many glass elements. It only weights 3280 grams, which is less than half what the F/FA 600/4 lenses weigh. It’s also shorter and weighs less than my K500/4.5! For such a long focal length the A*600/5.6 is easy to transport. The A*600/5.6 comes with a dedicated metal trunk. The trunk measures 57cm (W) x 20cm (H) x 21.5cm (D) The truck is also lockable and comes with a set of two keys. I only use the trunk for storing the lens and don’t use it for transport. The lens also comes with a strap to assist in handling.
Usage:
The big issue with the A*600/5.6 is the tripod mount. It’s too far back towards the rear of the lens and all the glass elements are toward the front of the lens. The tripod mount is also too small, with only one thread hole for a lens plate. As a result, the lens is very front heavy when mounted on a tripod and dangerous to use without modification. I had to purchase a long lens support tripod kit from Hejnar Photo to fix this issue.
The lens has an adjusting screw to change the cameras orientation to vertical shooting.
FOCUSING:
The A*600/5.6 has butter smooth focusing and also uses internal “IF” focusing, so the length does not change. The minimum focusing distance is 5.5 meters, which is not bad for a 600mm lens. The distance scale is also excellent and has distances in feet/meters.
REAR CONVERTERS: The A*600/5.6 can use the A Series 1.4x-L, 2x-S or the 2x-L rear converters. The only one it can’t use is the 1.4x-S. I have not tried any of these on my A*600/5.6, so can’t comment on the results.
FILTERS: The A*600/5.6 uses 49mm screw in filters. There is a removable filter holder near the rear of the lens, that also locks into place, so if you turn the lens upside down the holder will not fall out. Not sure if Pentax made a dedicated CPL filter holder for the 35mm A* super telephoto lenses, but it looks like the Pentax medium format CPL 645* version will also fit this lens. Pentax also made an optional 112mm protective filter for the front of the lens, using one is highly recommended.
HOOD: The A*600/5.6 has a built-in hood that extends. My black version has a detached hood that screws into place and can be reversed for storage in the trunk. The A*600/5.6 came with a padded leather bag that fits over the front of the lens & hood, this bag has a draw-string to keep it nice and snug.
Speed:
F/5.6 is a bit slow as there are faster F/4 600mm lenses that Pentax made. However, the slower speed keeps the size of the lens down, so it’s a trade-off. For me the smaller size and slower speed are preferred over the bigger and more expensive F/4 600mm lenses.
The A*600/5.6 vs my other 500mm to 600mm super telephoto primes:
I also own the K500/4.5 and the 6x7 Takumar 600/4, this is how I rate them against each other:
Speed: The 6x7 Takumar 600/4 is the fastest.
Minimum focusing: The A*600/5.6 minimum focusing distance is way better than the other two lenses.
Build: I rate all three the same, excellent!
Optics: The updated ED optics of the A*600/5.6 lens are better than the two older lenses.
Handling: The A*600/5.6 is the clear winner and smallest of the three.
Usage: The A*600/5.6 has a poor tripod mount, but once that’s fixed it’s way easier to use than the other two older lenses as they require stop-down metering.
Value: The A*600/5.6 is on the pricey side and will cost you more that the older K500/4.5 & 6x7 600/4 lenses combined, but for me it’s worth it.
Overall the A*600/5.6 is my favorite of the three. I rated the K500/4.5 & 6x7 Takumar 600/4 as an 8 and will give the A*600/5.6 a 9. I would have given it a perfect 10 if the tripod mount were a better design.
Summary:
If you are looking for a good 600mm lens and can live without auto-focus & the slower speed, I can highly recommend the A*600/5.6. It’s the best handling of any Pentax 600mm lens and its optics will be similar to the other *STAR lenses.
Price:
I bought my A*600/5.6 online from a Tokyo camera store and paid 300,000 yen. It was in like new condition and came with the trunk, hood, lens front cover, strap, keys and all the original paper work. I used the services of the Japan Camera Hunter to check out, purchase and ship the lens to me in Canada, as the camera store in Tokyo does not ship overseas nor take PayPal. Bellamy Hunt from JCH is a great guy and the services he offers is highly recommended.
Sample shots taken with the A*600/5.6. Photos are medium resolution scans from original slides or negatives. All shots were taken in Vancouver.
Camera: LX2000 Film: Kodak Ektachrome 100 ISO: 100
.jpg)
Camera: LX2000 Film: Kodak Ektachrome 100 ISO: 100
Camera: MZ-S Film: Kodak T-Max 400 ISO: 400
Camera: MZ-S Film: Kodak T-Max 400 ISO: 400
Camera: LX Film: Kodak Portra 400 ISO: 400
Freighter is over 3km away.
Camera: LX Film: Kodak Portra 400 ISO: 400
 | | | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: July, 2011 Posts: 2,388
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 27, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $1,300.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | old and used, but one of the only Pentax solutions | | Cons: | no AF, no optical stabilization, age | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 7
Value: 9
Camera Used: K1
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This lens is fun! Pentax cameras provide image stabilization and you can improve your technique a lot as well as fine tune your gear for best perfromance. Get 1.4xL or 2xL converter or the AF1.7x to have even more fun. KP or the follow up may be the best TC overall over optical TCs.
If you want to go long in Pentax land, this is one of the obvious lenses to start with. Really long focal length, not super large, not super expensive. In today's world manual focus is a Con, but very good to experience really long lenses. 3+ kg makes it handholdable if you have to and shake reduction of K1 works great.
Tripod collar for fixation is not from this world or age. You cannot do a worse job. A long Arca compatible plate is required for any type of gimbal or even ball head. I am using an Arca monoball with Wimberley sidekick. For manual focus on the Sidekick you would prefer to move the tripod collar to the right, so that the left hand can grab the focus ring - but the tripod collar is so close to the camera grip that there is not sufficient space. Therefore, you have to mount from the left and put your hand over the fixation for focussing - you get used to it quickly.
Chromatic abberations are very signiificant at f/5.6 and get slightly less from f/8 to f/11 in high contarst areas - black and white test targets. The abberations can be corrected in Lightroom. It is possible that the lens got misaligned over time, I assume my copy to be 20+ years old. I am not using a filter in the drawer. The manual does not state that a filter has to be in place. Top sharpness in the center is reached stopping down to f/7.1.
Be careful using this lens. Atmospheric diffraction can cause blurry images and in difficult light conditions you will get reflections from the sensor to the rear lens element - at least this is what i think also causes blurry reflections sometimes. This ens for optimized for film not digital sensors.
Manual focus in live view is working fine, SR helps to support shutter times longer than 1/1000s. Handholding without optical stablization and manual focus is possible but no fun. A beanbag helps a lot here. For K3 and K5 I always shimmed my focusing screen with Katzeye screen. With K1 there is no shimming or replacing of the screen, it takes a little longer to nail focus. When focus is spot on, results are amazing! Typially heavy cropping is required and K1 with A*600 deliver.
This 3kg class tele lens is something you want to carry around (with tripod/beanbag). A 2.8/400 or 4/600 is in a differtent size/weight league.
This is an onoging review of a lens that is probably 20 years old! Currently I would say that this lens will make me learn and suffer a lot. It will be a perfect prepartation for a 3kg class AF lens in the future.
Accessories: OP/Tech XXL neoprene hood works as soft front cover. Pentax cover is more stable with a more rigid front for better protection. The Pentax cover should be used for long term storage/transport. OP/Tech comes on and off rather quickly.
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: February, 2009 Location: Indianapolis Posts: 527
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 29, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $2,700.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Very Sharp, Lightweight for 600mm, easy to use | | Cons: | filter holder | |
I've used this lens for about a year and a half. It is a joy to use. For a 600mm lens that is not a mirror lens it is light weight at something a bit over 3200g. It is easy to focus, and wonderfully sharp, much more than my Sigma 150-500 f6.3.
As others have noted you want to use a long quick release plate with it otherwise it tends not to balance well. I also added a battery pack at one point to balance, but found with the longer plate it wasn't necessary
I used it with a Jobu Gimble head for a while. Personally I didn't like the combination. While it balanced well I had trouble getting really steep shots of birds. Also as this is a manual focus lens I need one hand to focus and one to move the lens to my subject, the Gimble, IMHO is better for autofocus lenses. I have been using an older Markins head, like the Q10 (their smaller ballhead) and it has worked beautifully. I do use a larger Carbon fiber Gitzo legs (can't recall the actual name)
I use the lens occasionally with a 1.4X-L teleconvertor and I find the combination acceptable but not as sharp as without the TC.
It comes in its own case. I either transport it in the case or a Lowepro Pro Nature Trekker AWII. You cannot fit the camera on the lens while you travel, but that's not a big deal. A very nice comfortable combo.
I did have an element come loose inside. It was an easy fix for my local camera guy.
One great lens.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: April, 2011 Location: Velbert, a small town near Düsseldorf, Germany Posts: 37
5 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 23, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $2,300.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | sharpness, colour rendering, built quality | | Cons: | badly positionned tripod-collar | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K5
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Because most of the time i take pictures of nature (birds, etc...), I was looking for more focal length than the DA* 300 4.0 - that incidentally is really excellent and very sharp!
So after a long time searching I found an A * 600 5.6 in this forum. It was a little bit damaged: it once dropped from the tripod and the lens-tube was loose. Maybe some screws were broken. I looked for a good optician and he fixed it for round about 200€. He also cleaned the lenses and put some special grease on the moving parts. Now it's like new and it is really enjoyable to learn how to handle this old glass. 
But it' not so difficult to get excellent shots with this heavy lens. Yes - the lens is heavy, but it isn't a "walkaround-lens" of course! And all it's perfectly built - maybe to last forever! You have to rest it carefully on a bean-bag or on a good tripod. The lens itself weighs over 3200g and with the camera it's round about by over 4000g - so be careful by choosing the right tripod!
I use a berlebach-tripod which can hold about 12kg and a replica of a wimberley head. Or just a beanbag!
And try to make a lens-plate to bring this old stuff into a better balance when placed on a tripod.
I've made one out of a aluminium-plate with 6mm thickness and a dimension of 50x160mm.
I think the large arca-swiss-compatible plates are too expensive...
Focussing with this lens is a special kind of fun: the object jumps almost into the focus area
You have problems with manual focus? Get the Pentax AF-converter and you get a 1000mm lens!
Because this lens is sharp even wide open, you need only to push the ISO a little to compensate the aperture of round about 9.5 with the AF-converter. This package works very fine and i can't see any lost of IQ. But maybe it depends also on other circumstances like light, distance to the object and the kind of object you like to shot.
You have to pre-focus and the adapter will do the rest - and really fast!
The lens is very sharp already wide open! But therefore you get a very narrow DOF!
So i think, i will never ever give it away! 
I'm just happy with this beautiful lens and i highly recommend it!
Here are two example-shots - taken out of the car with the lens rested only on a beanbag:
First one with manual focus...
...and this one is taken with the Pentax 1.7x AF-Adapter! It seems to be a touch softener...
 | | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: February, 2011 Posts: 4,873
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 16, 2012 | Not Recommended
| Rating: 5 |
| Pros: | Focal Length | | Cons: | Chromatic Aberration, (and difficult to handhold and focus) | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 1
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 7
Value: 2
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I was disappointed by this lens, but perhaps I got a bad copy.
The chromatic aberrations of this lens exceeded anything I have ever seen from any lens. Easy to see blue fluorescent imaging in the viewfinder that was beyond the ability of correct in post-processing with Lightroom.
Taking pictures of a hummingbird against the sky, for example, made the entire beak fluorescent blue, so there wasn't any non-blue data for lightroom to 'shift' back into the blue to correct it.
The Sigma 500mm f/4.5 is superior in every respect (except cost, and maybe even availability). Even the humble and cheap Sigma 150-500 is better in every respect (except speed), and as for speed I would much rather have the Sigma 150-500 with twice the iso than this lens.
I used this lens exclusively with a tripod (except for the one note below). I used a gimbal head, and FYI I would say the gimbal head is highly recommended... almost required; so if you don't have one, you probably need to purchase one. A lens plate of some sort is recommended as the tripod mount is not aligned with the center of gravity. For test shots I used mirror lock up and an IR remote; I'd suggest doing so whenever possible, but of course that's often not possible with wildlife.
Once, as an experiment, I tried it hand-held. It's difficult to hand-hold, not because it's heavy (it is) but because the weight is distributed quite far forward and the focus ring is relatively far back. Of course this is a manual-focus only lens so it's quite a left-arm workout. I gave it a '7' instead of a '1' for handling because I expect most would consider this a tripod lens; Again, I'd recommend considering it as tripod-only. I include this paragraph because I have read posts considering using the lens hand-held while only looking at the weight specs, that did not consider the weight distribution of the lens and/or the location of the focus ring (and thus the location of your hand).
Edit: I'm a bit surprised about the response from some when reading my review; some are upset about it. I think my rating - 5, considered 'good' in the rating scheme, is a bit charitable from the technical problems with that the lens demonstrated - namely the CA, several pixels wide (actually I've seen 10 in some high contrast situations).
Nevertheless, I've been told that my review is wrong because:
- I was using the lens handheld (I wasn't),
- I didn't know how to use the lens (which end does the camera go on, again?)
- I don't know how to use Lightroom (I can slide the CA correction bar to 100%, but that's as far as it goes)
- I don't know how to use Lighthouse (to be fair, I've never tried to use a lighthouse, but I think you turn the lights on before the ships crash into the rocks?)
I don't know. It's quite possible I had a bad copy; I've never even seen another copy. I don't know how likely it would be to GET a bad copy, either, because there's not a large sample size of reviews. I purchased this largely on the recommendations on this forum and feel it would be remiss to hide my experience.
Caveat emptor, and please, try before you buy.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: February, 2007 Location: Prevost, Quebec, Canada Posts: 508
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 4, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $2,650.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp,sharp, sharp, colour rendering, easy focus | | Cons: | Heavy, tripod collar badly positionned. | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K3 and K5
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This is quite a lens, extremely sharp and with A Serie colour rendering with a nice bokeh. It is heavy but one would expect this of a 600mm lens. It is a lens that is hard to balance because it is front heavy and the tripod collar is badly positionned. I manage to get perfect balance with a Quick release plate of 169mm attached to a Wimberley Sidekick, a Photoclam Ballhead (Rated at 110 Lbs) and a Feisol tripod ( CT3371 rated at 26.5 Lbs). CA visible only when shooting streight in the sun.
It has a sun hood with a screw to hold it in place, I use the screw as a 'line of sight" to quickly isolate the bird. It has a mecanism to freeze the focus to a certain distance. It is a A lens so it will be used at Av, TAv and full manual modes. Personnally I love the TAv mode as I can adjust the speed. I use it with a 1.4 XL TC and it delivers the same quality of sharpness. I use it with a K5 and a K20D, the K5 has the high ISO often required if you want a longer DOF ( F:11 or 13 seems to deliver optimum DOF), at F:5.6 it delivers very sharp photos but with a Tiny DOF.
This lens is perfect for birding but BIF's will have lower ratio of keeps because of the manual focus. I would not use this lens handheld because of its weight ( + 7 Lbs) and the difficulty to focus while holding the lens.
I'm very happy with this purchase as I saw the same lens for sale at $3,500.
I highly recommand this lens if you can find one.
PS: I have noticed that ElJamoquio posted a negative (5) review on Jan 15th, 2012, Please note that his review is not representative of what owners and experts sincerely think of the A*600mm. He must have had a very bad copy with CA problems or does not understand the basic usage of this lens. In my opinion, that evaluation should be discarted as you review this lens.
Web site photos with the A*600mm : https://picasaweb.google.com/104543922083693015547/OiseauxAuA600mm#
Some photos without a TC :
By ramiot at 2012-01-15
By ramiot at 2011-12-14
By ramiot at 2011-09-05
By ramiot at 2011-12-12
By ramiot at 2011-12-11
By ramiot at 2011-12-12
And with a 1.4XL Teleconverter : The best TC I know of, It just does not get sharper then this.
By ramiot at 2012-01-17
 | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2007 Location: Hong Kong Posts: 431
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 22, 2010 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sharp even wide open, fast damping of the focus ring, focus limiter, build and image quality. | | Cons: | Weight inbalance on tripod. Does suffer from CAs & purple fringing at near wide open and at very high contrast edges. | |
This is a rather rare and expensive lens in the second hand market. As it is a manual focus lens with an aperture of f5.6, this A* is much more cheaper in price and also lighter in weight than the FA*600mm f4. Therefore, I decided to get this one from the second hand market despite it has no AF.
Build quality is very good. The focus mechanism of this lens is actually designed for taking action and motion pics, therefore damping of the focus ring is silky smooth and turning is also very fast. Unlike many Pentax A series manual focus lens I used before such as the A-400mm f5.6, A*300mm f4 and even the K series 500mm f4.5, the focussing in term of speed and damp is absolutely different. Tracking of quick moving object is much more easier on this A*600mm lens.
In term of weight, it cannot be counted as very heavy for a 600mm lens. However, this lens has an inbalance of weight when placing on a tripod. I am using a Wimberley Gimbal head, the front glasses are just too heavy, thus forcing and pulling the front side to face down always. You really need to DIY plates to balance the weight for any tripod set up in order to maintain flexibility and stability for this lens.
Image quality is good, very sharp even wide open, colors is attractive and bokeh is beautiful. However, this lens does suffer from CAs & purple fringing at near wide open and at very high contrast edges, if you do cropping or enlarging the photos you can see.
I do not try this lens with any 1.4x or 2x tele-converter due to its small aperture f5.6. Not to menton that, due to its weight, adding a tele-converter will be much more harder for me to handle this lens properly.
Overall, I am very impressed with this lens. Highly recommended if you want a Pentax 600mm lens and no AF is not an issue to you.
My sample pics with this lens:
 | | | | | Senior Member Registered: July, 2008 Location: Annapolis MD (USA) Posts: 247
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 2, 2009 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, bokeh, build quality, impressive appearance | | Cons: | Takes a while to learn how to use a beast like this. | |
If you are considering this lens, or one similar, be sure to also budget for a monster tripod, a gimbal head (or the mother of all ball heads) a remote release and, most of all, the time to practice and develop your skills.
Focusing, for example, takes a surgeon's touch since the DOF is so limited. Carrying it in the field, even with only a K10-D body, spare battery and memory card and the release is labor intensive. I generally use a backpack gadget bag and carry this lens in its trunk case in one hand and the tripod-gimbal case in the other. It's a load! On the other hand, after soldiering along with a Sigma 400 and any of several 2x TCs, the IQ of this lens was a revelation.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: December, 2006 Location: Albareto, Italy Posts: 819
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 20, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $2,300.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Very sharp even wide open | | Cons: | For best results needs a very sturdy tripod | |
I got one from a sport photographer very used but still in perfect optical conditions.
The lens perform greatly on my 6Mp *istD, giving very detailed images. Even more, it is as much as good with the 1,4xL multiplier from Pentax.
Sadly, the lens, while not excedingly heavy, is nearly impossible to hand hold for the position of the focus ring. So, it needs always atripod, and a heavy one.
For best results, shot whenever is possible with the 2 seconds delay MLU.
It has a sliding, non removable hood, a feature to block the focus, a sliding in slot for internal filters.
All in all, a recommended buy, if AF is not a need.
(Non working link removed)
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