Although this lens received rave reviews when it first came out it seems to have attracted little attention since then. I picked it up a while ago and figured I'd revive some thoughts on this lens.
Size wise this is a very manageable lens - it is almost identical in size to the 50-135 zoom lens. Compared to a Canon 70-200 zoom it is significantly smaller although it is slightly heavier than the 200mm prime by Canon. For those of us who do not enjoy lugging massive lenses around the compact size of the Pentax APS-C designed lenses is a joy.
DA* 50-135 F2.8 = 136mm, 765g
DA* 200 F2.8 = 134mm, 825g
Canon 70-200 F2.8 (non-IS) = 194mm 1310g
Canon 200mm F2.8 = 136mm, 765g
For me this lens fills its purpose perfectly. It is small, fast (f2.8) and produces amazing images. When I look at my metadata for my photographs from the past 4 months (24,000 images) the vast majority of them (18,000) were taken at apertures wider than F4. This lens is exceptional from F2.8-F4 (I actually have not shot it above F4 yet).
F4
F2.8 - This is why I shoot wide apertures so often. This is a much cleaner picture than the F4 shot because of the blurred background
DA*200mm + Tamron 1.4x (= F5.6 even though EXIF says F4)
100%Crop
Last edited by cwood; 04-29-2009 at 08:08 AM.