Originally posted by bdery Buying new nowadays, the risk is gone, Pentax fixed the problem many years ago.
I completely disagree with that assertion. I rate it optically about as good as the FA77.
So does the 70-210, and almost all internal focus zooms.
Documentation please about Pentax fixing a design flaw issue that seemed unfixable.
The 77, for all it's cult status isn't exactly an optically stellar lens. Its kind of soft wide open, undercorrected spherical aberrations, and some fairly serious fringing issues aren't exactly ooh woo this is great.
Of course, as I have a D FA* 85/1.4, I have a great lens to compare it to.
The 70-210 has the advantage of more reliable AF, as they have done away entirely with the overtorqued watch battery sized motor, and IIRC, doesn't have anywhere near the level of focus breathing that the 60-250 has, though this is just my recollection from what I've read here.
Either way, I wouldn't recommend a 60-250 to anyone based on my experience with it and the myriad reports of failure I've read about from other users.
Decent glass just doesn't make up for its well earned reputation for terrible reliability.
---------- Post added May 28th, 2021 at 10:53 AM ----------
Originally posted by HoundFrog Yes, I checked some of the threads mentioned, but not all of them. Thanks for putting them all together!
The lens range seems to be ideal for my purposes (landscapes/cityscapes) and, honestly, I don't care much about AF. When I need precision I use manual anyway. So I'd gladly buy an optically good copy with a dead SDM for a good price and won't even bother fixing it.
Originally posted by RICHARD L. Same here. If the AF died, I would use it simply as a manual focus lens. I took pictures with manual focus equipment most of my life anyway. This lens is so awesomely performant optically I would never part with it.
Regards
The cost to fix a dead 60-250 was over Can$600.00 when I paid to fix the one that was bought from me. SDM worked when I boxed it and was DOA on arrival.
That should make a used lens worth about Can$200.00 if the SDM is dead. I wouldn't pay more for a used one, as there is no guarantee that one with working SDM won't require an expensive repair, probably over and over again.