Shots with the new Pentax 55-300mm PLM lems.

Lovely bright and mild day so here are three shots taken a little earlier with the K50 and the new 55-300mm PLM lens.








Not too shabby for only the second go after five months off methinks. Hopefully I'll improve as the weather and light does the same.

Already they look much better than those taken with the older Tamron 70-300. Better focus and no purple fringing. I can only assume that the new focussing technology in that lens is making a difference, so it looks like it was a good choice.

I still rate the Tamron AF70-300 Di LD highly, but not for backlit subjects or AF speed.

Keep up the good work with the bird shots .... I would just add that if you find you need to keep using fairly high ISOs then I would recommend you look into your noise reduction processing skills, as this will give the photos more polish.

Yeah these are great 👍

I'll go along with that!

Thanks for the noise reduction tips. I shall look into it a bit more. At present I am trying to make sense of the Elements13 noise filter.

I thought the received wisdom was that the Pentax 55-300 original version was superior to the Tamron, so that is not a very exciting claim.

I'm not really understanding that point there. I think this is all relative, and the Tamron is a super-budget option, and it certainly punches above it's price point in sharpness' and contrast terms. I accept the points that were made about the better IQ overall of the older Pentax 55-300, but I don't think anyone was claiming that was a superior lens for BIF, due again to the AF limitations.

I am wondering if the new AF technology plus improved coatings on this new PLM version are what's making the difference .... ?

Hi, I'd posted elsewhere in this forum that I have examples on the gallery here of the new PLM motored 55 - 300mm. I found in the Caribbean it is silent, quick to focus and does NOT hunt like the old screw drive zoom (only thing that spoilt it for me). I bought it to replace my 300mm DA F4 on travels even though it is a cheaper consumer product. I like it but I don't think it overcomes the bird in flight issue on my K3 at least. Slow gulls are not to my mind a real test. The new motors are promising if extended to the rest of the lens range. No idea about the cheap Tamron.

Weather mostly and health a little has prevented me from getting out. However, this a.m. I managed to get to the local park with the K50 and PLM lens. Below should be just a few with the K50.







I'm quite pleased with the results of this mornings efforts, about fifty in all, of which, around fifteen are pretty good.