Is theis lens any good?

In my quest for a "do-it-all" lens, a year or so ago I bought a Vivitar 28-200mm f3.5 lens off Ebay. It was:

a) Cheap
b) Heavier than the LX and motor drive put together
c) Of dubious optical quality

So my search continued. Last week, again thanks to Ebay, I got hold of a Pentax FA 28-200mm f3.8/5.6 (for, I thought, a fair price). I've yet to finish the film in the camera, but wanted to know if anyone had any experience of this lens and it's quality. It certainly looks and feels good, but is that backed-up by optical performance?!?

No lens with this sort of zoom range is going to be as good as a more modest specification zoom or a prime. However, the lens is not at all bad. If you are only going to be making 6x4 prints it will be more than satisfactory - sharp and with good colour reproduction. Drawing is likely to suffer somewhat, so straight lines may not always reproduce as straight lines.

If you were going to make 20" wide exhibition prints you might choose a different lens, but this only means that different lenses are designed for different purposes.

Hopefully you will be pleased with your pictures - please let us know!

This lens is actually the multi-award winning Tamron, that first appeared around '93. I believe the latest version is still available new and only differs slightly from the original.
Obviously, Pentax were also highly impressed and struck a deal with Tamron to produce a re-badged version to their specifications.

A fine lens indeed, considering the focal length range available.