| Latest Review Posted | SMC Pentax-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED
I picked up this lens used as a companion to the 18-55WR kit lens. The ideas was that I could travel with two lenses and be able to cover almost anything. I got to test this lens extensively last month at the Chobe National Park in Botswana. Our flying club went there with four aircraft and 16 people so luggage was extremely limited. The 55-300mm range is very usable. Some other people with zooms from 70 or 80mm just couldn't go wide enough on some shots. The Bigma (50-500mm) is definitely the ultimate wildlife zoom range.
I spent about half the time on manual focus as it was often ever so slightly out of focus. Of course, trying to autofocus on something over 50m away at full zoom is often a tough call anyway. When the focus was spot-on, the sharpness was very good! Most of the shots were taken at F8 and 500/s wih the ISO varying between 100 and 1600. I would have expected F8 to give a slightly better depth of field. The autofocus was quick, but not always accurate.
I do not recommend shooting against the light, even with a hood. I got fringing on most of those shots. I will see what I can remove in post-processing. Shooting with the light gave very good results with no noticeable fringing. Lens flare was reasonably well controlled except when shooting directly into the sunset. The bokeh is weird, especially against stripy backgrounds (zebra against trees). In some cases it detracts from the photo.
For a "budget" lens it performs well, but be mindful of how y... |
