Pentax 55-300

Bought this recently, as I only had the Sigma 70-200 long range zoom. would idealy like the Sigma 100-300 F4 seem to be rarer than rocking horse poo though in pentax mount. May opt for the Sigma 120 - 400m yet not sure. Anyway shot below at 300mm F5.6 @ ISO800

Well I don't think you will get much sharper than that with the 120-400mm and the 100-300mm f4 would have quite a job as well.

Exif on Flickr says though:

Camera Pentax K-5
Exposure 0.011 sec (1/90)
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 190 mm
ISO Speed 800
Exposure Bias +1/2 EV

Cheers Mike, could have sworn I shot it at 5.6 ah well. Yes am pleased with the sharpness, was a terribly dull day. You don't happen to know if the new Sigma 120 - 300 f2.8 is available and for how much?

Can't see the 12-300mm f2.8 being available in Pentax mount until around August although hopefully I will be proved wrong.

The old version is 2k(ish) and after seeing what Sigma did with the new 70-200mm and 50-500mm I am guessing the price at launch will be around the 2.5/3k mark.

Now that would be the ultimate travel lens - if you could carry it .

Ooops, I think my aptop keyoard i on it' wy out.

Thats a very nice shot. I've pretty much decided the 55-300 is good value so I think I'll get one soon.

Vic.

The 55-300 is a superb lense for the money. An excellent performer all round however for that shot above you also have it smack bang in the sharpest area of it's range too, 100-260. It softens up a little towards 300 and I usually flick it out to 300 and then just back off slightly - which usually ends up around 260 - for sharper shots. That said it still performs better at 300 than most consumer zooms (though the Tamron 70-300 is also decent at the long end).

That's a really nice shot, perfect exposure and great contrast and well as being very sharp.