[JinDesu]

Shot at F2.8 and 70mm on my k-x. A bit of CA is noticeable, but the sharpness seems comparable to your DA70. This is a completely unsharpened shot processed from RAW.

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[hps3]

I'm selling a good copy of this lens. It's for sale in the marketplace forum. I posted photos tonight that I took this evening and mine are sharp at f2.8. Here is a cropped shot at 2.8 also. I'm not a pixel peeper but these shots look really good wide open.

[hps3]

Here's my add with photos.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/photographic-equipment-sale/232240-sale-t...00-f2-8-a.html

[TopherTheME]

I went and retested the lens but this time under white LED light instead of CFL. Its strange, but the results are much better. I'm not sure if its because its a stronger light source or what. Both shots were taken at F2.8, ISO 100, on my desk, and both MF using LV. Even wide open at 2.8 the images look very very comparable with maybe a slight edge to the DA 70. I'll definitely have to try the thing in sunlight so see if its worth keeping or needs to be returned.

Tamron @ 2.8


Pentax DA70 @2.8


100% Crops @ F2.8
Tamron


Pentax

[JinDesu]

That looks much more normal. I would say the original shots - even though they were manually focused, were just slightly front focused.

[stormtech]

Also remember that when you buy something from Amazon Warehouse, you are buying a lens that was returned from someone else. Quite likely the original purchaser found the lens to not be up to standards of IQ and returned it.

[TopherTheME]

So I may have been wrong about this lens. Now that I've actually had time to try it out I think its a keeper. A couple things I've noticed is that its really hard to nail the focus when shooting hand held with a lens this size and weight. The poor reputation for autofocus is well deserved as it seems rather hit and miss and usually front focuses. But as for the image quality, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. All the pictures below were shot as jpegs and taken strait from the camera with no editing.

First one was shot at f2.8 ISO 400, 200mm, handheld with manual focus

100% Crop



The duck was shot at F4, ISO 400, 200mm, handheld with manual focus

100% Crop



This one was shot at F2.8, ISO400, 135mm, handheld with autofocus

[JinDesu]

To be fair, it has quicky AF, not necessarily BAD AF.

It took me quite a few months to get used to my Tamron 70-200. I hit my focus most of the time now, even handheld and in dim conditions. It's just not very speedy (and can take a little time being indecisive until it locks properly).