| Author: | | New Member Registered: March, 2012 Posts: 2 | | Review Date: April 27, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $250.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp, light great colors | | Cons: | Cheap build, plastic mount | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 8
Value: 10
New or Used: New
Camera Used: Pentax k5
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Cheap, light. Quite sharp at f8. A lot of fun and a lot of bang for the buck. If you want a telephoto but don't want to spend much money, this lens is for you
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: February, 2012 Posts: 14 | | Review Date: October 31, 2012 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | lightweight, useful range | | Cons: | no hood available, plastic mount | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K-x/K5
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Useful lens, need to know about it to enjoy its potential. Some occasional CA. Stopped down produces very crisps images. Not to heavy to carry along.
 | | | | | Senior Member Registered: January, 2012 Posts: 103 | | Review Date: October 17, 2012 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | IQ, price | | Cons: | plastic mount, jerky zoom | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 8
Value: 9
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K-r
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You can find numerous reviews of this lens, both by lab geeks and experienced shooters, which will paint a picture of this lens: Great value, excellent sharpness and color, manageable CA, slow-ish focus... what I'm here to tell you is that when you boil all this down, the one measure that is most important is the keeper rate. In other words, how many shots are good enough to keep instead of delete? For me, the keeper rate on this lens is pretty high.
I got my copy with my K-r kit, which also included the DA-L 18-55. While I have mixed feelings about the 18-55, I quite like the DA-L 55-300. It's a great lens for wildlife photography as well as sporting events. Honestly, much of the time this lens is mounted to my K-r, the camera is simply set to sport mode. There's usually no need to complicate things beyond this and the results are great. This frees me up to concentrate on the action. I think when people state that the lens' AF performance is slow, they might be referring to initial focus lock. If you use continuous AF, then it will quickly and easily adjust focus as needed while the subject is in motion. Kind of like a heat seeking missile that takes a moment to find its target, but then locks on and won't let go. Again, this is great for wildlife and sporting events.
If I had one nit to pick, it would be that the zoom is a little bit stiff. Not unacceptably so, but you may notice it, particularly if you are zooming in and out frequently to keep a moving subject in-frame. Other than that, it's hard to go wrong with this baby. Inexpensive, good lenses like this can really help make photography fun.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/wTeG4YlfiMW430GfC5F40NMTjNZETYmyPJy0li...eat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/4EakoYEuAGY7Q3VRIV_PKtMTjNZETYmyPJy0li...eat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/DL-CI17xYqdMWJmeJg1-NtMTjNZETYmyPJy0li...eat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/oVayo4jpmWtjf32LyuenZNMTjNZETYmyPJy0li...eat=directlink | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: June, 2011 Location: Near Sydney, NSW Posts: 331 | | Review Date: August 11, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $300.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | My favourite thing would be the 55-300 range | | Cons: | The speed, but anything 300mm faster than this is $$$$$ | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-x, K-r and K-5
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Hard to say what I paid, since I bought it in a kit with TWO other lenses, and a body - but eventually those things were sold off and I was left with this, having paid around $300 for it (but the other things got 18 months old while I used them).
It's a very surprising lens really - it doesn't give "pro" results, but you're expecting fairly amatuer ones and it blows those expectations out of the water. At 55mm it's makes for beautiful portraits and indoor use, and then you go outdoors and snap birds from 30 metres away, all in a package the same of your whole hand - what a great piece of glass.
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: June, 2012 Posts: 8
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 11, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $350.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Small & light, amazing range (5.5x!), cheap, accurate AF... did I mention small & light? | | Cons: | No WR, maybe? | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: Pentax K-5
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If I could give the handling on this a 20 out of 10, I would.
You see, the handling of a telephoto is just as important as the sharpness wide open, if not more so. A heavy lens that take 9/10 rated pics wide open, is not as good as a light one that takes 10/10 pics when stopped down.
Generally, I use heavier lenses. So when I use this - handheld at 300mm is an absolute breeze - I'm talking standing up with no support, taking handhelds at 1/50 at 300mm. Normally, that just isn't on - but it balances so nicely on the K-5 (and my K-x and K-r actually) that it feels like you've got an invisible tripod.
I picked up a copy of this second hand, when I was impressed by the 50-200 (for the same reasons) and this didn't disappoint.
The fact that some people here have got it for 50% less than I paid, astounds me. It is worth at least $500, given what other lenses cost.
So, all in all, if you're considering a long range telephoto (like this or the Tamron 70-300) this is a good choice.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: July, 2012 Location: Perth, Australia Posts: 42 | | Review Date: July 24, 2012 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sharp, light, great colors | | Cons: | Hunting AF is slow and noisy | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 5
Handling: 6
Value: 10
New or Used: New
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What a gift from the Pentax Gods of lens making............a nice little stocking filler, because its very cheap. Yes its noisy, it hunts pretty badly for focus (Kx issue ?) but the centre sharpness all the way through the 55-300 and the color rendition for wildlife photography is pretty outstanding for the $$.
Forgive the plastic mount, if your careful with it, wont bother you.
At $250 on Ebay in Aussie, this thing is a steal and brings people into Wildlife photography at very little cost.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Its a stark contrast to my 18-55, which disappoints me.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: November, 2009 Location: Iowa Posts: 2,275 | | Review Date: July 16, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $160.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Very sharp all the way to 300mm, great color, not IF, good build quality, lightweight, no zoom creep. | | Cons: | AF hunts sometimes, loud AF, minor PF | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 9
Value: 10
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-x
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I bought this lens from another member here on the forum to give me an AF alternative to my manual-everything Tamron 23A 60-300. I was extremely happy with the performance of the Tamron, but missed the occasional shot because of it's all-manual operation. Rather than buy an expensive PK-A adapter and still be without AF, I opted for the Pentax 55-300 when it came up for sale.
Optically, the Pentax & the Tamron are very similar in performance. The Pentax 55-300 is extremely sharp all the way out to 300mm (as is the Tamron 23A) and the Pentax has a less PF than the Tamron. PF still rares it's purple head once in awhile, but the fringing is minor, and it can be photoshopped out. As far as the image quality is concerned, it's all-around superb. I use mine mostly at the long end, and I'm very satisfied with the IQ. It's quickly become my "go to" tele lens. While it's respectably sharp from 100-300mm wide open, stopped down to f:8 it's truly razor sharp indeed, even at 300mm. From 55-100mm, it's a bit soft wide open, but sharpens up nicely if you stop it down to f8.
With it's crisp sharpness and nice bokeh, this lens also makes a terrific portrait lens. A few examples:
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/59402_464279463614969_1985346861_n.jpg
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/302890_464279336948315_683247329_n.jpg
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/548410_455318281177754_2071525643_n.jpg
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/603389_443287629047486_960643530_n.jpg
My hunch is that those who complain of poor sharpness with this lens might just have a bad copy.
Though it's body is built from plastic, it still feels like a quality lens while still being very light weight. The zoom & focus rings operate smoothly, and there's no zoom creep. It's true that this lens does focus hunt. That's a common complaint with this particular lens. Since this is best affordable option that goes to 300mm, I can live with it. Usually it focuses fine, and it locks on accurately. AF is fast if you're already in the ballpark, and slow if you're not. The AF is a bit loud, so if you're shooting wildlife, you may want to manually focus.
Another big plus (in my book) is that this lens is NOT an internal focus lens. That means that when you zoom out to 300mm, you actually get 300mm at any distance from your subject. With internal focus lenses, maximum focal length is reduced at distances less than infinity.
The mount on this "L" version is plastic, but it doesn't give me cause for concern. Also, this version lacks the focus scale printed on the focus ring, and the "quick shift" focus feature found on the "DA" version. Also, no hood is included. Fortunately, a couple of these things are easily rectified:
1) You can pseudo "quick-shift" focus by pressing the lens lock button & turning the focus ring. Just be careful you don't dismount the lens if you do this. It's never been a problem for me, though.
2) You can get the exact replacement PH-RBG hood, minus the "Pentax" logo for $3 on eBay. It's identical to the $50 genuine Pentax hood, right down to the removable filter ring access panel. My suspicion is that they're made in the same factory as the genuine Pentax hood, they just don't have the logo. To me, a logo isn't worth the extra $47.
In summary, If you're looking for a great all-around tele zoom, you won't go wrong with this one.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2010 Location: Somewhere in the Southern US Posts: 12,285 | | Review Date: July 15, 2012 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, light, small, NOT SDM | | Cons: | No hood, no quickshift, plastic mount | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K-5 and K-x
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Absolutely an excellent lens. Yes, it's a kit lens but what a kit lens. Again, as with the DAL 18-55, I had the opportunity to compare it to my sisters D60 super-zoom and there is no comparison - this is a far superior lens. Sharp, good handling of stray light, good colors, and easy to use. Is it a bit slow, yes but its a kit zoom and priced accordingly. Is it a f2.8 constant sports zoom? No, but I've used it for U12 soccer with very good results. It's also nice that its got a 58mm filter thread, less expensive than larger ones. It's compact, easy to maneuver, and light which makes carrying it for hours pretty easy too. It would be nice if it came with a hood (they really aren't very expensive to manufacture at all) because it benefits a great deal from a good long hood. Definitely worth the extra cost on the K-x kit and I am VERY glad that I went ahead and got the 2 lens kit when I jumped into dSLRs a couple of years ago.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2010 Location: New York Posts: 1,071 | | Review Date: April 27, 2012 | Recommended
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Good zoom range for telephoto use, including wildlife | | Cons: | Soft with high chromatic aberration and vignetting at long end, slow autofocus with long minimum focus distance | | Sharpness: 6
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 6
Handling: 7
Value: 8
New or Used: New
Camera Used: Pentax K-5, Pentax K-r
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Part of K-r kit. This lens has a versatile zoom range for a variety of subjects, especially wildlife, but I find that the AF speed is relatively slow (and noisy) and that the lens shows significant optical problems including softness, chromatic aberration, and vignetting at the long end of the zoom range. The optical performance is reasonable at less than about 200mm, however. Flare resistance is very good. I would recommend this lens as part of kits, but there is considerable room for improvement. Perhaps another sample would be better?
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: March, 2011 Location: Virginia Posts: 2,846
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 11, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $200.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp even wide open, lightweight, cost, excellent focal range | | Cons: | no lens hood included, slow autofocus, minimum focus distance | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 10
New or Used: New
Camera Used: Pentax K-r
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The DA L 55-300 was the first lens I bought for my K-r after purchasing it in March of 2011. I wanted the extra length beyond the 18-55 kit lens. This lens was a no-brainer purchase since the cost is so relatively low.
I primarily use the 55-300 for birding and wildlife shots, but it is good at other things as well. For instance, if you stick a Raynox 150 macro adapter on the end of it, it can take some very nice close-up macro shots. Also, because of the long focal lengths, you can get some nice subject isolation even at smaller apertures. I think the bokeh this lens produces can be very nice and creamy, given the right background.
The lens is very sharp, even "wide open". Unfortunately, wide open is at best F4, but I haven't found that to be much of a hindrance for my uses as this is really primarily an outdoors lens. Once you purchase a lens hood for it, contrast is very good and flare is well controlled. It produces typical warm Pentax colors, which I enjoy very much.
The autofocus on this lens is quite accurate, however it is slow. It can take a full second go from one end to the other while it hunts for the subject. You can miss shots waiting for it to focus. For this reason, you might consider the DA version of the lens, which comes with Quick Shift, allowing you to make quick manual focus adjustments if necessary. I haven't personally missed very many shots because of this, but it has happened.
Chromatic aberrations are problematic in high contrast areas. They are fairly easy to correct but I have seen them even at f6.3.
Overall, I am very pleased with this lens. It's a lens I often wonder why I don't use it more often! For the price you pay and the versatility you get as well as the long focal range, it's really an excellent value.
Some samples follow.
rainshower leaf by loco's photos, on Flickr
egret in flight over lake by loco's photos, on Flickr
cardinal - Explored by loco's photos, on Flickr
Snickers in tree b&w by loco's photos, on Flickr
With Raynox DCR-150 macro adapter attachment
praying mantis head by loco's photos, on Flickr
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: April, 2010 Location: California Posts: 484
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 11, 2012 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp, color rendering, relatively small and lightweight, price | | Cons: | a little slow, AF hunts sometimes | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 9
Value: 10
New or Used: New
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When I bought my K-x kit, it was just 80$ more with the 55-300, which made getting it a complete no-brainer, but even for three times as much, it would still be an unbelievable bargain with zero competition anywhere near this price range. This baby is going to be considered a kit lens classic. Well done, Pentax!
Here's Looking at You by Ludger Solbach, on Flickr
Lakeside by Ludger Solbach, on Flickr
| | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: February, 2011 Location: San Francisco Posts: 128 | | Review Date: September 29, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $199.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp, lightweight, cheap, excellent zoom range | | Cons: | SLOW! | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
New or Used: New
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I echo the other opinions about this lens. I realized soon after I acquired my K-r with the 18-55mm lens that I should have gotten the kit with both lenses. So I had to buy this separately (gray market - it's not supposed to be sold separately, from what I understand).
My most severe, and really inappropriate use, of this lens was at a Roger Waters concert earlier this summer. Severe, because I had to be very quick to compose and focus, and inappropriate because it's so damned slow for indoor use in general. Oh, and I'd never used the K-r before this time to shoot a concert indoors - I was in learning mode and made major mistakes (i.e. I left it in Av mode! Bad move). The K-r, of course, let me shoot at ISO 1600 or ISO 3200 so that helped (then Lightroom to smooth out the noise helped too). But this lens - under these conditions - turned out some spectacular shots (if I do say so myself ). Under more typical outdoor, well-lit conditions it's great as well.
Again, sharpness is not comparable to primes in the range between 55 and 300mm but that's to be expected, at this level anyway.
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: April, 2010 Location: Wellington Posts: 969 | | Review Date: September 29, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $290.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Range, colour, price, size | | Cons: | minimum focus distance, no hood. | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 10
New or Used: New
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Firstly price for this image quality! Yet still relatively small and light!
One of the bargins on the pentax lens range and pretty much any K mount owner should have this lens.
Range is great for portrait on APSC , will do F4 right up to 100mm so often go out with just this and my FA31
-ves, I got the DAL for the cheaper $$$ (grey import) and have to admit if you want to Bird with this lens you do need the quickshift of the DA model, it makes all the difference in the world. Also due to the excellent FL range often take this lens on naturewalks but get frustrated with the minimum focus distance. This isn't really a big fault of the lense as it is a Tele but I think could be rectified with a future closeup filter.
GET IT! | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: May, 2010 Location: now 1 hour north of PDX Posts: 3,897 | | Review Date: September 3, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $160.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | range, IQ, price | | Cons: | it's a DAL so lacks DA features | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 10
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I confess up front: this is my 3rd copy of the 55-300 design  and the 2nd DAL. I've retrenched a time or two, most notably to go WR with the K-7 body. The price and quality of this 'used' copy renders my 50-200WR and Quantaray 100-300 both obsolete! 
This is a lens that can take amazingly good images for its price. The fact that is has the 55-70 range makes it far more versatile to me than the 3rd-party 70-300 models (although if close focus is big for you those lenses make sense). The DAL is optically a match for the DA, so only a few extras are lacking, most notably the quick-shift feature.
If you're torn between the 50-200 and 55-300 just recall that this lens gives you a faster 55-200 lens plus more range if you need it! I prefer the tiny size of the 50-200 and its use of 52mm filters, which matches most of my lens set.
On past 55-300s, shots occasionally showed bokeh where the background became a distraction. Because of this I've marked the lens down a notch for bokeh. Since I picked up this copy very recently I will reconsider in a month - perhaps my other copies were less talented than this one, since many owners find its bokeh to be quite nice.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: December, 2007 Location: Prague Posts: 1,199 | | Review Date: September 1, 2011 | Recommended
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | very sharp, light weight | | Cons: | AF speed, noisy | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 3
Handling: 6
Value: 9
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I had this lens borrowed for testing for few weeks from a friend. I was very surprised by the sharpness. I expected it to exceed my 50-200 but I didn't expect it to outperform the "Bigma", which it did as well. It even has wider aperture than bigma for some zoom ranges. Astonishing. All that with quarter of its weigth.
The cheap construction is notable by lack of QSF. I do not use QSF system a lot since most of my lenses are very accurate and quick to focus. This one is not fast at AF at all. It is even slower than the F70-210, and extremely noisy on top of that. I quickly learned that I need to push lens relese button to disengage the screw drive and refocus manually. I can't remenber slower and noisier lens than this. Not even the horrible Canon EF 75-300 was so noisy and slow.
I also dislike the plastic mount, but thats a minor compared to AF.
The bokeh could be fine with more aperture blades, but at least there are not too many aberrations spoiling it.
Why doesn't the lens hood from FAJ75-300 fit this lens? I could have used a lens hood if it did.
Overall a good value if you are not going to shoot sports or impatient people.
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