da 300 prime f4

Right guys after buying my first dslr 6 months ago i have found that i love this hobby and gonna invest in some better glass , i want the reach of this lens , read the reviews seems great, just wanted anybody who owns this lens and has used it there opinion. Oh and why does my car insurance go up every year even though i've never claimed and got 9 years no claims :::::::

Very nice pics Oggy looks the dogs

wow i'm sold , great shots John especially number one has i'm into wildlife

Hi Philip, most of the wildlife shots on my profile are with the DA*300, the Kinfisher is with a 1.5x rear converter on the rear of the DA*300, it's one of my most used lenses and a favourite. The 3rd image above is 100% crop of the 2nd image. BTW it's not for sale:wink

John

Some wonderful shots there John love em , only prob everybody seems to be out of stock of it at the mo, because of the unfortunate problems in Japan but soon has, you've definitely sold me on it best regards

Hi Philip, hope it helps, the SDM is a positive advantage at close quarters as well being virtually silent and of course it's eviromentally sealed with great build.

John

Of course there are the older cheaper F*/FA* 300mm lenses.

I use a F* 300mm f4.5 .. because it was half the price of the DA*, IQ is just as good and I have a DA* 60-250mm so didn't see the point of a SDM 300mm.



Swan by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr



Seagull In Flight by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr



IMGP1225 by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr

Absolutely, the old Sigma 300/4 APO TELE MACRO is another fine lens if you can find one s/h, personally I'd like something a little longer for wildlife a 400mm f/5.6 perhaps.

John

I think I've mentioned it before on here but when deciding on the DA*300 I tried it head to head against the FA 300.

The FA 300 has slightly faster, but noisier, AF but in the DA's corner, and the reasons I chose it in the end, are slightly superior IQ, the silent SDM and WR. The guy selling the FA agreed with me on my assessment - even though he didn't have a DA*300 in stock.

I also tried the *300 against the 60-250. The *300 has superior resolution and AF speed in comparison.

It has amazing resolution as you can see from John's cropped shot above.

All the Pentax 300mm's are good..... but only 300mm and not zooms which is very restricting. I'm currently trying an 80-400mm Tokina which is a very small lens and nice to use. The shots I've put in the gallery were the F*300mm which I sold on here last year.

The DA*300mm which I now have is slightly better wide open, nothing in it at f/5.6 and beyond. It's a bit messy for MF. AF is OK.

I still have the A*300mm which is slightly longer and gives an 11% bigger picture, but needs a 6mm extension tube to focus closer than 4M. Nice MF lens though and very small.

For motorsport I would have thought a fixed 300/400mm would be very restricting and a zoom more useful. The 55-300mm is a good lens, but a pig to MF (for me anyway). The 80-320mm was better for MF but I wouldn't trust a SH one, the barrels become wobbly. Shame really because it was great in bad light and probably the only zoom that is excellent at both ends and in the middle. The famous Bejersey Zoom of a few years back. Fabulous bokeh.

There's a 135-400mm Sigma in Classified at present, not a great lens, but can be good in good light. Then there's the more expensive Sigmas.

I found MF perfectly acceptable, especially since you have Quick shift for when the AF gets lost and can't lock, just needs a quick tweak manually and jobs done.

John

It was probably just because it was different after using the F*300. It's not as re-assuring and spins right round. I can use it OK and from what I remember from the F*300 it's a lot easier to switch between AF and MF. Not an important point really you wouldn't notice it if you hadn't just switched from F* to DA* ....possibly I shouldn't have mentioned it

Ah, understood, you tend to get used to the "feel" of certain equipment, I always find it a little disconcerting using 2 things very similar but not identical

John