[Shanti]

Mine is under repair; the shop advised me not to expect it back for one to two months at least.

was that fotolooman.nl ?? here the Pentax service in Sweden is very fast, 1 week when I sent my DA*300 in for AF adjusting,but then it didn't need to be disassembled

my 150-450 still works perfect..fingers crossed!!

[OJGoreng]

No, it's a chain of photography stores.They're sending it off to whomever does the Pentax warranty repairs, I guess the importer.

Reading back this thread, it seems like I jinxed it the day I bought it

Has anyone heard of any delay issues with the Pentax FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6ED? Everyone has been saying a launch in March and here it is almost May. Thoughts on if they are having any problems with build, etc? After pre-ordering I am getting a little worried that the first batch may have issues.

I'll be able to tell you tomorrow when mine will be delivered (provided I'm home, otherwise it's going to be a looooooong weekend) .

[Shanti]

No, it's a chain of photography stores.They're sending it off to whomever does the Pentax warranty repairs, I guess the importer.

Reading back this thread, it seems like I jinxed it the day I bought it

You can't ask them for a new copy? as only a few months old..a lot of birds fly by in 3 months

[OJGoreng]

As far as I can tell, they only ever had the one, and they had it for less than a day. Also, that's not how the warranty thing works in general. Then again, Exapro in Slovakia were very quick to give me a new DA* 300mm after the motor failed in the first one, but they no longer are a Pentax dealer, unfortunately.

At least most birds look horrible in summer due to the molt, and it's generally too hot to take any interesting shots anyway.... any shot taken further away than ten meters will suffer from vibrating air. With a bit of luck, the lens should be back in time for the start of autumn migration, mid August. Which is just after my summer vacation ends. Typical.

Ah well, I'm rapidly getting re-aquainted with the 300 + 1.4x converter...

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Last edited by OJGoreng; 06-23-2015 at 03:30 PM.

[GlassJunkie]

As far as I can tell, they only ever had the one, and they had it for less than a day. Also, that's not how the warranty thing works in general. Then again, Exapro in Slovakia were very quick to give me a new DA* 300mm after the motor failed in the first one, but they no longer are a Pentax dealer, unfortunately.

At least most birds look horrible in summer due to the molt, and it's generally too hot to take any interesting shots anyway.... any shot taken further away than ten meters will suffer from vibrating air. With a bit of luck, the lens should be back in time for the start of autumn migration, mid August. Which is just after my summer vacation ends. Typical.

Ah well, I'm rapidly getting re-acquainted with the 300 + 1.4x converter...

Sorry to read of your issue. My sense is that one of two things happened... One: a piece of WR or production "flashing" has jammed in the helocoid area of the zoom tube. The point you made before about how it feels (when it stopped sliding) leads me to believe (Two that one of the zoom levers (most smaller lenses have two, some lenses have more) has jammed. If such, they will likely replace the levers and the tube, depending on whether any force used to try and move the ring was sufficient to "dent" or cause a "detent" in the groove that interacts with the levers.

I had a similar issue with a 16-50 zoom ring lately and these two scenarios were reviewed with me by the repair shop... The latter was what happened. Since the lens had the "classic" (I use that term loosely) front tube "wobble" the new tube and levers corrected it as well as the jam.

Best Wishes on the repair journey... It may turn out OK. Pentax may ask the shop to return it for study and simply issue a new piece as well. If I was the production manager in Vietnam, I surely would....

[GlassJunkie]

Saying that, my favourite squirrel shot I have taken was with the 55-300mm so the lens means little really.

On the prior listed squirrel hunt... The squirrels in mention apparently have peppermint breath, and showered with Irish spring after they got a facial with the shavings...

I have decided to make a solar power contraption with the 150-450 and conduct "star wars- missle" experiments out back.

[Rupert]

Saying that, my favourite squirrel shot I have taken was with the 55-300mm so the lens means little really.

I can see why! That's a great shot! ....but...we must be careful here or the damn squirrels will hijack this thread...you know how they are! They will go out on a limb to get their way...even at ISO 6400, they fear not!


Best Regards!

[gaweidert]

B&H and Adorama are now showing this lens in stock. Tracking my order on the Adorama website showed that I should get it on Monday. This is too bad as I am on vacation that day and will be home to play with it as soon as it arrives. I'll just have to deal with it. My neighbor across the street has a picket fence that I use as as a resolution target. I think that it is going to come in handy on Monday.

[rawr]

Just checking prices, I notice that the new Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (which Lenstip recently reviewed and praise highly) is now available at US $2199 (B&H).

In comparison (B&H prices):

- Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR Lens: US$2,696.95
- Pentax 150-450: US$2,496.95

The Pentax is assembed in Vietnam, the Nikon and Canon are assembled in Japan. Perhaps that gives Pentax some leeway on the lens price in future.

[Cannikin]

Just as a test of this lens at high magnification with the DA 1.4x teleconverter, I decided to look at something particularly small and far away with recognizable detail: Saturn

Single exposure, K-3, 630mm, f/8.0, ISO 100, 1/13s, pushed 1 stop exposure in Lightroom, 100% crop:



If I'm not mistaken, Saturn's current angular diameter is ~18 arcseconds (0.005 degrees), rings are ~41 arcseconds (0.011 degrees). For reference, the full moon is about 30 arcminutes (0.5 degrees), so Saturn is about 1/100 that.

While it's no substitute for a high magnification telescope setup for planetary photography, I think it's decent considering I shot this off a regular tripod from my backyard in the greater L.A. metro, with its hazy, light polluted skies (Venus and Jupiter were distinctly hazy, being near the horizon)

[RobG]

While it's no substitute for a high magnification telescope setup for planetary photography, I think it's decent considering I shot this off a regular tripod from my backyard in the greater L.A. metro, with its hazy, light polluted skies (Venus and Jupiter were distinctly hazy, being near the horizon)

Wow! And I was impressed getting Jupiter's moons!

[Shanti]

Full moon last week with 1.4TC ISO 640 & 800

[rawr]

Just as a test of this lens at high magnification with the DA 1.4x teleconverter

Do you have a Q?
It looks like the 150-450 has decent enough optical quality to work OK with it.

[Cannikin]

Do you have a Q?
It looks like the 150-450 has decent enough optical quality to work OK with it.

No Q at the moment, though that might be a good idea to pick up an older Q model for cheap just to experiment. I have some m4/3 cameras, but at 16MP their pixel density is barely higher than that of the 24MP K-3, so not really gaining much magnification potential.

[VladimirYo]

Any chance to see interesting photos of people? Maiby street candid? Too much birds IMHO.