Originally posted by biz-engineer yes, I know :-) ; long lenses are a never ending story, the end of story lies on the bank account. I've been looking for cheap good long lenses for years, and I failed to find one. The only thing where I succeeded was to understand that beautiful pictures were made from short distances and that the condition of success was the technique to get close. Longer lenses help, but they cost money. On the other hand, improving the approach technique takes time but it is free.
I agree with the above comments. In my photo days, I never had anything longer than 200mm. which sounds pathetic now.
I'm a photographer than can be described as "desperate." I would go out with my bigma with a full size flash on top for many hours. The flash gave the lens a big edge and I was able to get many great shots. However I did need full manual control of everthing including the flash.
Many people have gone with the pentax 300 and then added the pentax 1.4 converter. I don't have the 300mm. The converter is crap on my 60-250, but sensational on my 100mm macro.
In summary
1. Expect the zoom on the bigma to extend/creep by its own weight, but it has a zoom lock
2. manual flash blast adds to the detail big time
3. Infinity at 500 is a waste of time - rule of thumb at 500 - if a flash can't light it, you would be better off with a pentax 300.
4 very versatile lens
5. Must be tolerant or desperate when it comes to weight
6. You are much better having the bigma than not have anything.
Most of these were taken with the bigma and some with flash - even on the beach
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