Pentax F-AF 100-300mm 4.5-5.6

Hi,

I just picked this up on ebay this morning for £55 including postage. Mint condition according to the page, and hardly used. Good feedback supports the claims made by the seller as being true. As it's going on a DL, the effective AoV is going to be around 150-450, I needed an AF zoom of that sort of range and decided to go with the RileyRule after being outbid on a couple of 3rd party lenses.

From what I have found, it's a good price.. hence buying it. Does anyone here use one at all, and if so what do you think of it? It hasn't really been mentioned in dispatches here much!! I read a couple of reviews that criticised the lack of close focussing and it's feel.

Feel is obviously subjective, and if I could get close enough to wildlife that sub 1m focussing was an issue, I would use my 70-210 macro. I have seen a couple of people state that out past 280 there's a noticable drop in quality, but using it on the DL (where I don't use the outer 15% or so of the lens) is this still a consideration?

Have you noticed that I'm looking for a comfort vote..

Cheers

Liam

Is that the powerzoom or normal zoom version?

Hi niblue,

It says nothing about it being a power zoom.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=48558&item=7585...

That's the one.

Cheers

Liam

Looks similar to the powerzoom one I had, but it's been a while since I owned it so I can't be sure.

The one I had was ok, certainly a better performer than the FA 28-80 powerzoom it was partnered with. It should given decent results with on digital although I'd expect the viewfinder image to be quite dim at the long end. It's quite light and compact so should be good for carrying about. With digital being able to bump the ISO to get a decent shutter speed handheld should be a big help as conditions used to have to be pretty bright for it to be useable handheld with the ISO 100 slide film I preferred back in those days.

Regards
Steve

I have this lens (F100-300) and it's not fantastic, but okay. Just don't use it wide open as it's really poor in this area.
I compared it to my A70-210 and the quality is really close at f8 - 16, but the quality at f4.5 was way worse than the 70-210 at f4.

Hi, and thanks for the info.

So (with certain limitations) it's not that bad a buy then..

Hopefully I'll get it in the next day or two and have a play. Apart from the kit lens that came with the DL (18-55), it'll be only the second genuine Pentax lens I own. The rest, although good to my untrained eye, are a hotchpotch of third party lenses.. the makes of which aren't often, if ever mentioned here.

Travanar 300
Soligor 70-210
Exactar 135
Promura 28-80

And a 28mm that I seem to have mislaid : , but probably named in a similar vain.

I'll fire off a test gallery and put it on my site, so you can see the results. I may even get adventurous and try a RAW shoot.

Cheers

Liam

i started with this lens, but after buying the 300 4.5 ED i did a test between these two and fell of my chair about the poor quality.
For that price it's a good deal, but don't expect to much of this lens.

See http://www.photodo.com/nav/prodindex.html for a test result.

Liam,

I'm sure you'll get enjoyment out of the lens. I used mine quite happily for a couple of years before it's limitations started to bother me. I mainly used it handheld and that meant using it wide open pretty much all the time and, like pretty much every lens, it's not at it's best wide open. On digital you can boost the ISO to enable a smaller aperture to be used and that should help a lot.

Regards
Steve

Hi all,

it turned up this morning.. 24 hours after I clicked the button. wow. Even had a skylight attached. It feels nice and solid, and balances well with the DL body.

I'm just going to go and point it at something. Back in a mo. I'm on my dinner break, so it'll just be at any passing magpies out front.

Cheers

Liam