[Sailor]

When not shooting with my DA Limiteds or DA 16-45, I often use my DA 18-250. However, based on some of the very fine images from Heinrich, Gary and others with a DA 55-300, I often feel tempted to get the new zoom - in spite of the focal length redundancy.

Anybody have both the 18-250 and 55-300 and could comment on differences?

Thanks,

Jer

[k100d]

i never had the 18-250 but here are some thoughts on the 55-300

not the best resolution but good colour and contrast
the 18-250 is not actually 250 unless at infinity whereas the 55-300 does not have this issue
relatively fast, at 200mm it's around f4.5 or so
does not focus as close as the tamron and sigma 70-300s

sloooooow autofocus. it really helps to quickshift first. it's hard to believe these days lenses that focus this slow are being produced but the overall quality of the lens kind of makes up for this fault.

[aerodave]

I got rid of my 18-250 in favor of the 55-300. They're not night-and-day diffrent in their common ranges, but the 55-300 is better enough to justify its own price whatever lenses you might have.

I ditched the 18-250 because it's slower than the 55-300 throughout their common range, because the 55-300 has slightly better sharpness and noticeably better contrast and color rendering, and because I was never all that pleased with the really wide end. Too much vignetting and distortion at 18mm for my tastes....i'd always want a better normal-to-wide zoom on hand anyway, negating the reason for having a superzoom. Oh, and the zoom creep and lack of quick-shift focus were tough to deal with.

[aerodave]

By the way, here's a thread from a few months ago where I debated the same question you have:

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/70498-da-55-30...-18-250mm.html

[Sailor]

Thanks, guys, for the very helpful replies. Something to think about.

Jer

[EsBee]

I have both but never really compared them side-by-side. I got the 18-250 a couple of months ago for short trips and convenience.

For my ows self, I think I see a little project coming ahead now that I've seen this thread.

[Sailor]

Thanks again, folks, for the comments, I think I'll tell my wife that she wants to give the 55-300 for Christmas . I'll keep my DA 18-250 for those "one lens" occasions.

Jer