| Latest Review Posted | HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6 ED DC AW
Long hesitated to upgrade my (red) 55-300 ed wr to a ’better’ zoom for wildlife. I wanted to improve reach and low light/focus performance.... price was a question mark, how much do you spend on a hobby? A 70-200/210mm, a 60-250mm or the 150-450mm? improve on aperture or reach, with tele convertor or not?
When a local shop offered a 300€ extra reduction on the normal street price for the 150-450mm, I decided to go for this lens yielding 450mm at f5.6.
Performance is excellent, sharp images, good autofocus. At f5.6 450mm, the lens outperforms my f5.8 300mm in focus accuracy and sharpness. Hence not cheap, but good value.
Handling is good , including handheld, but it is a heavy lens, not really a walkaround or long hike lens, more one that you consider in the right circumstances to take with you. So the 55-300 remains when I need a more compact lightweight solution.
Another point , it works well with TC 1,4x on my aps-c camera, no real degradation of image quality (if both were made for each other) and still reliable autofocus (which is amazing, because the aperture is on the limit of acceptable light for focusing in this combination). The TC has also no problem to support the lens on the body (unless below ext. tubes)
The zoom lock is indeed only on 150mm, so for transport and storage. There is no creep of zoom unless you point down or up vertical (which is not so common use).
The focus range limiter proves usefull in challenging focus situations.
I sometimes us... |
