old versus new

I'm overwhelmed by the response. Thanks to you all. I've been trying to digest as much information as I can from thevarious websites about Pentax and the various lenses and its great to have my hand held when I get stuck. I bought a set of cheap macro tubes from ebay and they have gone into the bin. I had problems fitting them on my lens and also the camera body and I had to dismantle them to get them off. I decided they weren't worth risking in the end.

I picked up an F70-210 a few years ago, basically bought it by accident with something else I wanted.

I compared it to my 50-200 and as someone above said I couldn't detect a lot of difference. The 70-210 is perhaps a hair sharper, while the 50-200 gives brighter colours and more contrast but there isn't much in it at all. I kept the 50-200 because it's smaller and lighter.

The 70-210 then passed to my Dad, who decided the other way around, he prefered the rendition of the 70-210 and didn't mind that it was a little heavier and larger.

We did effectively get the 70-210 for almost nothing though, I don't think I'd bother to buy one to replace a 50-200.