| Review of: SMC Pentax-FA* 300mm F2.8 ED [IF] by goubejp on Sat August 23, 2014 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
Views: 99837
Reviews: 11
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Autofocus is fast, much faster than the DA*300 - and there is a focus limiter that helps.
Stopped down, the images are simply gorgeous, sharp and colorful.
A bit too much bokeh finging, and this is amplified by the TC, unfortunately.
I have 2 copies of this lens, both need +8 adjustment with the K3
Handling is good even if the lens is heavy.
Simply too bad that this lens was discontinued instead of being improved with WR, better painting, ring silent AF...
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| Review of: HD Pentax-DA 1.4x AW AF Rear Converter by goubejp on Fri April 4, 2014 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
Views: 114341
Reviews: 29
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Have bought this item mostly to work on my long lens FA* collection (FA*300, FA*600)
AF is fast and accurate with these lenses.
On the FA*300 it amplifiates too much the trend of this lens to produce fringing in high contrasted situations.
On the FA*600 it is a real joy.
I also have tried it on the FA*400 f5.6, it focuses quite well but image quality is poor. Anyway it wasn't bought to be used on this lens.
There is some underexposure - 1/3 stop - that needs compensation. This has been detected by several other owners of FA* long lenses. May be a future firmware update will fix that.
Image quality is great - contrasted, fairly sharp.
Note that focal convertion allows image stabilisation to work quite well.
All in all, highly recommanded
Test image, FA*600 + TC
http://imageshack.com/a/img835/6792/pybd.jpg
And 100 % crop
http://imageshack.com/a/img28/4329/xnp2.jpg | |
| Review of: SMC Pentax-FA* 400mm F5.6 ED [IF] by goubejp on Wed January 1, 2014 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
Views: 76782
Reviews: 12
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As I already owned a FA*600, and a DA*300 I bought this lens for a dedicated mission : an hand-holdable, lightweight lens for travel, birds in flight, and tricky approach of birds, with more reach than the DA*300 and better than a DA300 + a converter. It met 90 % of my expectations. The lens is a compact as my DA*300. It largely outperforms the DA*300 with a sigma teleconverter. Stopped down to F8, it is sharp, sharp enough to produce moiré on the birds feathers. Wide open it is not that sharp. 400 mm is already a long lens, you have to take it in account, but the K3 image stabilisation seems much more efficient on this lens than the K5's. At slow speed (1/100), handheld, I have more than 50 % of the shots sharp at the pixel level.
The autofocus sometimes failed to focus on static birds, with the K5, I'm not alone to have had issues. I still have to test it on the field with the K3. With the K5iis it is a great combo.
Of course it has not the reach and the sharpness of the 600 but it is a good workhorse when you are not in position to carry an heavy lens.
Aberrations are a bit on the high side but can be corrected in lightroom.
I have rated the value a bit low because this lens is too expensive on the second hand market now. It is a pity that Pentax discontinued it.
All in all an excellent point of entry for birding if you can't go with the big beasts.
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| Review of: HD Pentax-DA 20-40mm F2.8-4 Limited DC WR by goubejp on Mon December 16, 2013 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
Views: 282241
Reviews: 65
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For the IQ, this lens outperforms the DA21 by a large margin, and it is a f2.8 lens, not a 3.2. The border are a bit soft at 20 mm f2.8 but at F4 it is already largely homogeneous. Flare resistance is excellent.
At 40 mm it is beyond the FA43 limited on the center resolution, but the FA43 is a high performer here, and he challenges the FA43 for the border resolution.
At 30 mm the FA31 outperforms this lens in terms of sharpness, but it is the FA31. CAare very well controlled, better than on the FA31.
In every aspects this lens is a very good performer. The price is a bit steep, though, but expected to be reduced. And we have to pay for the WR and DC engine.
An ideal lighweight combo could be the DA15, this zoom and the DA70.
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-A* 1200mm F8 ED [IF] by goubejp on Sat October 12, 2013 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
Views: 63574
Reviews: 3
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Got this lens yesterday and tested it carefully all day on my K5iis
Sharpness is good wide open, slightly improves stopped down, sweet spot seems to be at f9.5 (1/2 stop from wide open).
Very few lateral CA.
Contrast at a very high level wide open, increases the impression IQ.
Some bokeh fringing wide open (magenta halo for objects before the focus plane, green halo for those beyond).
Don't think about stopping it beyond f11 (1 stop from wide open) diffraction will eat your IQ.
Relatively easy to handle for a 1200 lens, but don't think you'll be able to use it handheld
You must carefully avoid any vibration, even a high end tripod couldn't be sufficient, and this thing is sensitive to Wind. For me my main usage will be in a hide, the lens lying on a rice bag to stabilize it.
For the bokeh, typical long focal, but subjects near the focal plane doesn't render as with a FA43 for instance, they are a bit nervous.
Still have to test it on the field.
Edit as of 24 October 2013
Got quickly outstanding shots with the lens; I'm used to 600 mm lenses, used with converters sometimes, this helps. Sharpness is excellent if you are able to carefully avoid any vibration of the lens. SR doesn't help, results seem worse with SR on (SR range is limited to 800 mm anyway on the K5). Best results with lens lying on a double rice bag. Some blue fringing in contra light situation, or with pure white birds like egrets, could be annoying. In good light conditions very sharp indeed
Crop of the head
Note that it is not possible to have the whole bird in focus; depth of field is 4 cm only here at 12 m f11
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-DA* 200mm F2.8 ED [IF] SDM by goubejp on Sat March 6, 2010 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
Views: 202082
Reviews: 37
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The perfect lens to work handheld for sports, and with some restriction wildlife (a bit short for most situations but very useful if you manage to get close from your subject)
Color rendering, sharpness and bokeh excellent from f4 onward.
Have a noticeable flaw with purple fringing wide open in case of high contrasts situations (gone at f5.6) :
 
I have made a lots of excellent shots with this lens like this robin :
100 % crop
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-FA* 600mm F4 ED [IF] by goubejp on Sat March 6, 2010 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
Views: 94614
Reviews: 13
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I have bought this lens second hand on ebay one month ago. I'm still in the process of discovering its capabilities, and they are awesome. A solid tripod like Gitzo systematic and a wimberley head or somethin equivalent are still on the process. Currently I use it with a monopod or a beanbag. When you buy this lens, you have to take into account additional 1200 euros for tripod, head and bagpack. I have benchmark it on focus charts and static subject and also tried to use it in real conditions on small bird with K7 and K20D bodies and a monopod. Focus is fast and accurate on K7 and K20D, needs small adjustement. Note that the DOF is so narrow that we speak here of less than 1 cm focus accuracy required at 10 meters. Image quality is already good at f4, sharp from 5.6 onward, with very good contrast, superb at f8. At f5.6 sharpness is as good as with the DA*300 at f5.6 - at a double distance. Here you can say "why buy a f4 lens to stop it down at f8 ?" Because at small distances - here small is 10 meters which is something like a macro distance for this lens - you need depth of field and you have to stop down; here F4 is to achieve precise autofocus; f4 to f5.6 is usable for mid range distance where there is less need for DOF. As all film area design fast lenses, there is some longitudinal CA : on the focus charts the lines in front of the focus point have a slight purple halo, the lines below exhibit a green halo (like the DA*200 - which has the same optical design as the FA*200) - modern design tele lenses like DA*300 does not have this flaw. This disappear when stopped down to f8, but may have a negative aspect on the bokey wide open. There is very little or no trace of purple fringing like the DA*200 even wide open. To give a measure of sharpness, I have tried a test shot on my town church - 600 TO 700 m away. At f5.6 and full magnification on the K7 I can very clearly distinghish details that are less than 5 mm wide - to give an idea of the terrific resolution power of this lens. First shots on birds are brilliant, colors, feather structure appears very clearly... if you are able to keep the lens stable while shooting. Image stabilisation is efficient, and with a monopod I have 80 % of sharp shots at 1/125s. The lens is so heavy that I suspect that he is completely insensitive of K7 mirror induced vibrations. All in all an heavy investment - in all senses - but you have what you pay for. Highly recommanded
Edit : with the K5 makes really a killer combo; image quality is outstanding and the ability to use higher speed gives crisper images; best images are obtained with a rice bag to dampen the slights mouvements when pressing the shutter; AF speed is fast (but noisy) on the K5; for birds it is not an issue; AF works fine too with Sigma 1.4 AF converter
Edit : scores set a bit low on aberrations cause of Longitudinal CA that can affect the bokey too; handling ... the lens is really heavy; the Canon equivalent is now 3 kgs lighter
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-DA* 300mm F4 ED [IF] SDM by goubejp on Tue July 22, 2008 | Rating: 10 | View more reviews | |
Views: 363345
Reviews: 81
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The lens is so sharp that it clearly outresolves K20D sensor at 5.6.
Min focus distance appropriate for small wildlife (small birds, insects...)
Weight and weather sealed appropriate to take it for hiking
Also completely free of purple fringing; really stunning
Edit : works great on K5, does not seem to outresolve the sensor anymore
If AF miss, takes a lot of time to explore the large focus range; a focus limiter would have been appreciated
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