55-300mm lens

does the PLM version warrant the extra cost over the standard WR version in terms of image quality and how good are either of them at 300?

Yes, it is very compact in your bag, very quiet, doesn't hunt for focus, very quick locking AF. I use mine on my K3II and K3 before that. Love it. See loads on my gallery on here.

Cons: No focus scale for manual and only F5.6 to around 250mm then loses third of a stop due to retracting construction I guess.

This week (heavily cropped)...

Bought the WR version a few weeks ago...tried out at the airport a few hours ago.

These few images are all at 300mm largest image size, highest JPEG quality, downsized to 800 pix...no PP.

Overall i'm very pleased with it and i'd rate IQ slightly better than the Tamron 70-300 Di LD which i've used for the past 6 years.

Can't comment on the PLM version.



















Regards

Karlo

I love the PLM and use it in preference to the standard 55-300. I didn't like it at first until I realised it was forward focusing. A good dollop of adjustment and it's been right as rain since. You won't get DA* out of it but does a good job for the price.

The power has to be the fast and silent focusing.

There hasn't been a lot of development in a better image quality lens in that bracket for a while now, but the other capabilities of that new PLM are really impressive.

You have to spend quite a bit more to improve IQ at 300mm.

So when was this launched? I had the previous version which was slow and noisy to focus but produced good results.

thanks for all the replies.