| Latest Review Posted | HD Pentax-DA 55-300mm F4.5-6.3 ED PLM WR RE
So here's my confession: I'm not a prime guy but also far from a superzoom lover. I feel somewhat restricted by primes (although I love my Revuenon 55mm/f1.2 and my sigma 85mm/f1.4) and I just don't get either the sharpness or the IQ I need with superzooms.
I rarely shoot above 135mm but sometimes something pops up that causes me to regret not having anything in the 200-400mm range. The DA*60-250 is awesome but a bit heavy and awkward not to talk about the newer DFA zooms. The Tamron and Sigma 70-200mm lenses are bulky and heavy as heck too.
I experimented years ago with the Pentax FA J 75-300 which was horribly soft as well as slow and inaccurate to focus. Tried a Tamron 70-300 which was even worse. I did own a nice DA55-300 (the non-WR version) and it was pretty decent but still didn't trigger any love.
So, just to feed my LBA and get back above 200mm, I now splurged on the newer PLM version of the 55-300mm. It arrived early evening and I just had a few minutes in bad light to try it out but I can tell this is going to be fun. The experiment was to shoot it straight as well as mount it on the HD DA 1.4x converter and also see how it fared at the full 420mm and I have to admit, I'm blown away. Even after a trip through NeatImage for some NR on the ISO3200 and ISO6400 files, there is so much detail in the images. Focus was spot-on and instantaneous, soundless.
I'll run the lens with and without converter through its paces tomorrow and I have high hopes. Will updat... |
