Reviews for Pentax 75-300

I'm going on safari and need a longer and faster lens.

I have a MZ-5n. I've seen a white Pentax 75 (70?)-300 AF film lens (KA-F? mount) but I can't find any reviews for it. Does anyone know where I can find one or whether it's any good? Or, could someone recommend a good fast prime 300mm?

My current lens is an old Sigma 28-200, which when opened right up is very soft

I'm not sure which lens you've seen as Pentax have made several over the years with a similar focal range and slightly different features; none of them were white as far as I know, but two of them were available in silver so I'm guessing it's one of those you saw. They are:

Pentax FAJ 75-300mm f/4.5-5.8 AL
Pentax FA 80-320mm f/4.5-5.6

The latter is the more recent design and (although not in production) may still be available new from some places if you search for it. Neither will give you the same quality as a good prime of course!

It would also be worth looking at the Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 LD Di Macro. Although it's got "designed-for-digital" coatings it is a full frame lens with a proper aperture ring. You can find these new from most stockists at below £100 and they offer good (not spectacular) results for the money. Reasonably sharp anyway.

As for a good fast 300mm prime then you leave the "bargain basement" and move into a much higher price bracket. Something like the Pentax M*300mm f/4 (manual focus, no camera communication for aperture) will probably cost you around £400 for a 30 year old example - you then move up to something like the Pentax FA*300mm f/2.8 (still available new to special order) which will probably cost nearer £4,000. The other fast 300mm primes fall between the two extremes.

If you give us an idea of how much you want to spend then we could probably make some more useful suggestions.

I cant help you with the zoom, but the Pentax DA*300mm f4.0 is an excellent prime.

Here is a picture I took on safari near Winchester

Whoops, just realised you are talking about a film camera.

I dont know if the DA* 300 will work at full frame.

WOW Awesome shot anyway Peter

Thanks Hefty1.

The lens was definitely 75-300 so looks like it's the FAJ Wwe're talking about. Do you know where I can find any reviews of it?

The M* 300 prime sounds fine as well. I've got about £500 to spend - is there an AF for that price around?

Full technical specs here: Link

User reviews here: Link

Photo gallery here: Link

Short answer: No.

For £500 you could probably get a Pentax A*300/4 which has the all-important "A" setting on the aperture ring to let you use all modes on the camera. It's still manual focus though, for AF you're probably looking more in the region of £750 and upwards.

If you're comfortable with manual focussing then the A* is a very good lens optically and at f/4 is a lot faster than any of the zooms mentioned above (not to mention much sharper, even wide open).