received it today from prodigital2000. ordered it August 15 and received it on September 2. probably they ran out of stock or something and took a while longer than normal to ship. however great price (for canadians at $380) and came with a Tamron UV filter (not sure if this is good or not maybe i'll use it if it rains)
very impressed by the overall package. some nice features included are:
i. circular hood (not petal type) with a rubberized lining inside to prevent reflections and a removable polarizer window
ii. a proper rear lens cap (believe it or not the A50 1.2 came with the plug style)
iii. a nice soft case
iv. nice center pinch cap front lens cap
lens build quality
i. although the lens is made of plastic, it's very solid plastic like the kit lens
ii. focus ring is a bit gritty but i like that
iii. zoom ring is smooth, makes a bit of a zipper noise when rotated
iv. no zoom creep
as for autofocus, i thought it was fast outdoors where the lens is most likely to be used. if you are always focusing on the same subject that is at relatively constant distance, AF is not a worry. if for some reason you need to go from minimum to infinity constantly in the dark, then yes i can see how the lens could be slow, but a quick spin of the quick-shift af will help a lot.
initially this should have been a 77mm "faceoff" but then i botched my FA77 photos. i had initially wanted to use this lens as a backup event lens when i needed to deviate around 77mm and it is f4 around between 55mm to about 105mm. from these simple test shots at almost minimum focus distance, the results are quite good.
70mm Av at f4, f5.6, f8 for your pixel peeping pleasure. i was quite satisfied by this test and am willing to use the lens wide open.
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm317/pf_k100d/IMGP6764.jpg http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm317/pf_k100d/IMGP6765.jpg http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm317/pf_k100d/IMGP6766.jpg
popphoto fwiw thought this lens was great wide open too
Pentax DA 55-300mm f/4-5.8 - - PopPhotoSeptember 2008
overall i think this lens will be fun, should be a good lens when i need the flexibility of the zoom
Last edited by k100d; 09-02-2008 at 06:46 PM.