DA* 200mm ED (IF), any good?

How good is it? any example shots?
Davex.

It's not too shabby

[IMG]http://i884.photobucket.com/albums/ac49/johnwhit24/DA200/TheFalconerl.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i884.photobucket.com/albums/ac49/johnwhit24/DA200/Owl.jpg[/IMG]

Both shot at f/4 BTW

It's sharp wide open, but watch out for purple fringing in extreme conditions.

John

I have just acquired one a couple of weeks ago so not yet put it through it's paces to the extent I have with some other lenses but it is looking like it will live up to the (very complimentary) reviews which can be found on the web.

Here's a shot at f4 in pretty poor early morning light a couple of weeks ago:



It is a very well put together lens - feels like a quality product. Very solid and a good weight to it, although I don't think it's excessively bulky. It has very quiet SDM focussing which is actually pretty quick (IMO) and it focusses pretty close (although not macro close). Seems very sharp and overall very similar (as you would expect) to the DA* 300, which is similarly stellar. I use the DA* 300 a lot but do sometimes find it almost gets me too close, so the 200mm lens is a good alternative to my mind. Not a cheap lens though - the cheapest I found new at the time was the London Camera Exchange website - ordered online and it arrived the next day

Hope this helps

Regards

I have one and just went to my Flickr page to grab an example shot.
guess what .. not one picture taken with it.

Therefore I can only surmise that I never use the thing.

Mike, you've too many lenses.

look it up in popular photography...
they something about superb all across the board and something about the best distortion control they've seen on any lens since they adopted the testing standards they use... for ANY lens....any brand.

I'd say not too shabby...

Nearly as good as the DA300!...........SO THAT CANT BE BAD!

Here is a nice review link

He was less optimistic about the DA*300 though, maybe he had a bad day? link

The DA* 200mm is actually an FA* 200mm lens in a DA* body. It's a full frame 35mm lens and will work with film cameras without vignetting

Different reviewer, but I can't help thinking they got a bad copy of the 300mm - doesn't sound like the same lens as mine. "...some visible softness across the frame at f/4..."?!? Not a chance!

Dan

Indeed it just sounded like the one doing the DA*300 also did the DA*200
Maybe the focus might have been slightly off with the one that they reviewed, that might explain why it's soft at f/4?

Probably the most critical of reviews:

http://www.photozone.de/pentax/370-pentax-smc-da-200mm-f28-ed-if-sdm

The DA*300 is awesome BTW, never had any problems at f/4

John

Thanks for the info guys, am thinking about this as my wildlife lens, and maybe a 2x AF telecnvertor of i need the longer reach. Although am sure some people would be horified at that idea
I think the 300 would probably be a bit too long most of time, so have discounted that one.


Davex.

As it's SDM you will have a very hard time finding a 2x AF teleconverter that will work properly.

The Pentax AF 1.7x works well with it though.

Have you thought about a Sigma 100-300mm f4 ?

Hi Mike,

I though it also had a screw drive? have no experience with SDM, given it has both presumably it would "fail" to screw drive if a teleconverter was in place?

It is only a matter of time before I get one, been tempted quite often this year.

Actually I havn`t, mainly thinking about the prime because of the 2.8. Thinking this wil work better with a teleconverter.

Davex.