Latest Review Posted | SMC Pentax-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED My quick take. The lens is light, small with great range. It is very well made with two exceptions; the cheap thin hood and the loose focus ring. Some purple fringing and aberrations, but not a big deal. Focus can be fast, but sometimes it can go through the whole range causing you to miss moving objects like birds ( oh if only it had a shorter focus throw and a DC motor!). Manual focus is fine despite the loose ring. Manual override after focus lock is a great feature. Pretty sharp in the center, but not sharp edge to edge unless sopped down. It is fast up to 200 so that is a huge plus. However, optically the most outstanding feature is that it is very sharp at 300mm. Just go to DXOMark and look at the sharpness especially the field map at 300 on a K50, K5IIs or K3! Holy smokes! I lost mine on a trip (dang-it), so I just got a used DAL to replace it. I am saving up for the new big zoom, but I still need this little guy for zoo, hikes, ballparks or the like. Just get it or a used DAL or the new WR they are all impressive. |